Terrific 10 Months

Can you believe our lil peanut is 10 months old!? Time is flying by but we're enjoying every second of our amazing journey with our princess Stella. She truly is amazing and growing and discovering new things every day.

She crawls and tries to stand up on anything that will stand still. We've had a few falls, bumps and bruises but I guess that's to be expected. She's a tough lil cookie though and gets right back up and keeps on going.

She loves waving "bye-bye" now and it's the only way I can walk out of the door to go to work on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Seeing her do that on those mornings seriously makes my heart melt and I smile the entire way to work...simply adorable!

We think she's finally said "ma ma" but she doesn't say it often - her fave words are still "da da". However, when I say "Say ma ma" she says "da da da da" so I'm wondering if in her mind da da = ma ma! LOL That's what I'm going to claim anyway! :)

She LOVES puffs and yogurt melts and can feed herself like a big girl. We have to watch now to make sure she doesn't shovel more than a couple in her mouth at a time. She gets so excited when she sees the container of puffs - it's too funny! We're starting to give her more "real" food and she seems to really like it. I guess 'cause she sees mommy and daddy devouring their food, she must think "I must be missin' out on something!" LOL

We've tried a sippy cup but she's not ready for it just yet. She is still in a love/hate relationship with her bottle. One day she drinks every bottle (5/day) and totals about 25 ounces/day and then the next day she'll skip one or two bottles and only have about 17 ounces/day. It's been super frustrating but she's growing and has more rolls than the Pillsbury Dough-boy so I'm not too concerned.

I'm just simply amazed and in awe of our precious lil peanut. What a true joy she is in our lives. Every day we smile and think about all that she's accomplished in her 10 months and it's so awesome. She's such a smart, happy and sweet little girl and we are truly blessed! Happy 10 Month Birthday Stella Lou!

Lions, and Tigers, and Ostriches...OH MY!

Yesterday Kyle, Stella and I headed to Columbia for Stella's first trip to Riverbanks Zoo. Kyle and I were so excited and couldn't wait to see the expression on her face when she saw real animals moving around, eating and making noises.

Our first stop were the flamingos. She was definitely loving them but I could tell they weren't her favorite.

She loved looking at the big elephants stomp around!

I had my pic taken on this tortoise several years ago when I was a teenager so I thought it would be cute to have some pics of our family on it now.

Our next stop - the giraffes!

Stella has a stuffed animal giraffe {Jeffery, the giraffe} that she LOVES so we thought for sure the giraffes would be her favorite.

Nope, these weren't her favorite either.

"Daddy, what's that?! That animal is AWESOME!"

Yep, she loved the ostrich! She squealed with delight and laughed as she watched this crazy bird peck at the sticks and eat leaves. She giggled every time this big bird even MOVED!!

It was so funny to watch, but anything that makes my sweet girl smile and giggle, makes me happy!

Kyle loved these guys - YUCK!! Stella and I were NOT interested in viewing any of the reptiles. We loved the cute, furry creatures like these sweet monkeys! They were snuggling!

We had the BEST day at the zoo!

But of course, we had to stop by the gift shop on our way out. I wanted to see if they had any stuffed animal ostriches, since that was Stella's FAVE animal. And whatta ya know they had one....and she giggled and squealed with delight when she saw it!

Perfect ending to a perfect day at the zoo!

Winna Winna Chicken Dinna

Stella and I had an awesome day together today. We did a lil shopping and ate at the most delicious restaurant ever. I have a new fave - bye, bye Charanda's - HELLO DON PEDRO'S!!! Seriously it was so delicious I almost licked my plate but I saw the look in Stella's eyes saying "Mom, DON'T embarrass me!!" So I refrained...however, I will be back...SOON!!!

Stella is taking a MUCH needed nap {since she missed her afternoon nap} and dinner is in the oven. A very delicious dinner, I might add, that we haven't had in a while but is always a favorite. So, I thought I'd share this awesome recipe with my blogging friends and family. Ours looks prettier than this, but this is something similar.

CHICKEN & SPINACH PASTA BAKE

Ingredients

• 8 ounces uncooked rigatoni
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup finely chopped onion (about 1 medium)
• 1 (10-oz.) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
• 3 cups cubed cooked chicken breasts
• 1 (14.5-oz.) can Italian-style diced tomatoes
• 1 (8-oz.) container chive-and-onion cream cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 1/2 cups (6 oz.) shredded mozzarella cheese

Preparation

1. Prepare rigatoni according to package directions.

2. Meanwhile, spread oil on bottom of an 11- x 7-inch baking dish; add onion in a single layer.

3. Bake at 375° for 15 minutes or just until tender. Transfer onion to a large bowl, and set aside.

4. Drain chopped spinach well, pressing between layers of paper towels.

5. Stir rigatoni, spinach, chicken, and next 4 ingredients into onion in bowl. Spoon mixture into baking dish, and sprinkle evenly with shredded mozzarella cheese.

6. Bake, covered, at 375° for 30 minutes; uncover and bake 15 more minutes or until bubbly.

Sausage 'n' Spinach Pasta Bake: Substitute 3 cups cooked, crumbled hot Italian sausage for 3 cups cubed cooked chicken breasts. Reduce salt to 1/4 tsp., and omit 1/2 tsp. pepper. Proceed with recipe as directed.

My hubby just said "It's a little time-consuming to make, but I LOVE it!" So that sums it up!

Tomorrow we're heading to Riverbanks Zoo in Colatown. Stella's first trip to the zoo - so exciting! I'll be sure to post pics! Have a great weekend!

Movin' and Groovin'

The day has come....Stella is crawling!!! I seriously can't believe our baby girl is finally crawling. I thought this day would never come, but then at the same time I feel like she is still a tiny baby and we should be holding her 24/7. However, our doc told us it was time for her to start exploring on her own so we've been leaving her on the floor and letting her play all the time. Sure enough, she started crawling (well, kinda "inching") on Thursday, July 1st and then Saturday, July 3rd - this happened....

We are so proud of our big girl!

Our First Family Vaca

This past weekend, we went on our first family vacation with some great friends, The Lackores. After hours of organizing and packing, we loaded up the Envoy and realized we pretty much packed our entire house for three (that's right, I said 3!!) days!

After loading the car we began our trek to Folly Beach, but first we had to drop Bella off at Grandma and Grandpa Stromans. We were sad to leave our sweet lil Boo but luckily it was only for a short weekend getaway.

I was a little nervous about this trip as this was Stella's first overnight visit away from home. However, she did great! She's getting to be such a big girl!! She did great sleeping {and playing} in her pack n' play. [Don't mind the scratch on her face...I did that. :( Bella and I were playing and she was getting too close to Stella. So I went to grab Bella and ended up scratching Stella's sweet lil face. Needless to say we both cried!!]

The beach was so much fun though and Stella really loved it.

She even had watermelon on the beach in her new teethie snack thing - greatest invention ever!

My friend, Duncan made the girls adorable sand buckets to play with. Chappell + Stella = BFF's!

Stella loved playing in the sand, but didn't like it so much when she was ready to suck her thumb. She LOVED playing in the water and was soakin' up the rays!

{not sure why, but I can't delete the duplicate pic below - sorry!}

Anywho, we had an awesome first family vacation with our friends and are looking forward to many summer vaca's to come!

Nine Months Already?!

Seriously, where has the time gone?! I can't believe that our sweet Princess Stella is already nine months old. Seems like just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital and introduced her to Bella. Now she and Bella are playmates and BF's. ;)

What sweet, precious girls we are blessed with. Stella's sweet all the time and well, Bella, she tries to be sweet but I think she really enjoys playing with (and taking!!) her sisters toys to get our attention. I can only imagine how fat Bella's going to be (our vet said she's already overweight!!) when Stella starts dropping food from her high chair!! Guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there! Which, is actually going to be any day now because at her 9-month well check up today, the doc mentioned that we can start giving her finger foods. What?...Finger Foods?...At first I didn't think I heard her right but in fact, she mentioned we definitely need to get started on that right away in order to transition her by the time she turns 1. I can't believe we're going to start giving her REAL food - like, big people food! My sweet baby girl is growing up too fast!

They did all of her measurements and the princess weighs 16 lbs. 3 oz., is 26 inches tall and her head circumference is 43.1 cm. She is about in the 10th percentile for her weight, 5th percentile for her height (guess she's not going to be a model on the catwalk! lol) and 10th percentile for her noggin'. So overall she's very proportionate - and very petite! I've always said she's "tiny but mighty" and I guess I'll be saying that for a long time unless she has a major growth spurt.

She never ceases to amaze me though. Each day she learns something new or explores a toy a different way. It's truly amazing to watch her progress and grow - she's so smart - guess she gets that from her daddy! ;) She's definitely a daddy's girl...look at them snuggling together...simply precious!

Speaking of "daddy", she is constantly saying "da da da da" and it's the cutest thing ever. She's been doing that for a little while now and saying "ba ba ba ba". I'm waiting for the day that she says "ma ma ma ma"...hopefully that day will be soon!!

If you ask her where the light is she will look up at the ceiling and look at the light. Sometimes she'll even point to it! Uncle John thought this was SO awesome! ;)

Stella can also play peek-a-boo. If you put a burp cloth on her face and say "Where's Stella?!" she'll pull it off by herself and giggle.

She can go from sitting to gracefully laying down on her belly and then can scoot back up to the sitting position. And she LOVES to stand up!! That's all she wants to do is stand up. She's so proud of herself after she's up and it's so cute to watch...and of course clap for her and scream with excitement when she does it! :)

So as you can see, Stella is exploring, moving and groovin' and getting to be a big girl!! We're so proud of her and can't wait to see all the new things she'll learn each day.

This weekend we're going on our first vaca as a family and Stella's first trip away from home. We're heading to Folly Beach with our friends, Ashely, Brian and Chappell Lackore and we can't wait! Stay tuned for pics and an update from our trip!

Buy Me Some Peanuts and Crackerjacks

On Friday, May 28th, Kyle coached his last game of college baseball.

What an amazing journey this has been...and a wild and crazy (but fun) ride to say the least! ;) When Kyle and I met in 2003, he had just moved to Rock Hill to begin coaching at Winthrop University. Baseball season begins in February and goes until the end of May (unless you're lucky enough to make it to the College World Series), then recruiting begins immediately after the season and usually goes until October/November. But don't think that's when they'd have "down time" because then "fall practice" starts. We're lucky to have the Christmas Holidays together. It's a constant job and you definitely have to love doing it...and Kyle certainly did! He quickly moved up the "coaching ladder" at WU and went from "Volunteer Assistant Coach" to "Assistant Coach" to "Pitching Coach". He really is a determined and hard worker and his hard work paid off. They sure will miss him after he's gone. Don't know if they'll know what to do w/out him to be honest. ;)

Baseball has been a part of our life since the day we met. We even had baseball accents in our wedding for goodness sakes. ;) I thought our whole lives would revolve around baseball and it has until something else came into our lives...

...our precious Stella Lou! She certainly has her daddy (and everyone else!!) wrapped around her little finger.

Kyle has decided to switch career paths and become a financial advisor with Edward Jones. This is an awesome opportunity for him and will allow him to use his talents and love for finances, stocks, etc. on a daily basis and make a living out of it. AND this will allow him to be home on the weekends and not have to travel! YAY! We're SO excited about this opportunity and I just know that Kyle will be very successful! He is so driven and so dedicated that I know nothing but success is in his future!