Energetic at 11 Months

Our sweet lil princess is already 11 months old!!  What a fun month this has been!  She's learning so much every day and is so energetic and happy.  Her energy is contagious.  She always has a smile on her face and is always giggling, dancing and exploring.

Stella loves to mimic anything that you do.  This month she's been a big copycat...

• she's learned to cluck like a chicken
• she knows how to clap her hands really good now
• she's still dancing away but getting so much better - she's actually got rhythm! {she must get that from her mom! ;)}
• she now shakes her head from side to side like she's doing the old school "snake" move - it's hysterical
• she's trying to snap her fingers when she sees us doing it

Like I said, she's a copycat and is constantly watching us to learn a new "trick".

She still has a love/hate relationship with her bottle and boy is that frustrating.  Some days she'll eat for me and no one else and other days she'll eat for Kyle and no one else.  Ya just never know!  Even though she doesn't love her bottle 24/7, she sure does love table food.  She's eating so many new things and really enjoys pretty much all of it.  She eats Yo Baby Yogurt in the morning with cheerios and lately she's been eating the whole container.  She loves diced fruit - mainly watermelon, pears and apples.  She loves peas, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes and green beans.  She's even tried pasta!!  Guess she better get used to that since she's got Italian in her blood.  Those D's sure do make some yummy pasta so I don't think we'll have a problem getting her to eat that.  Stella still loves her puffs and yogurt melts and gets SO excited when she sees the container.

While she loves eating table food, she's still a tiny lil peanut.  The last time we went to the doctor {a few weeks ago} she weighed 17 lbs. 2 oz.  She's probably still in the 5th percentile for weight and height but once again, our princess is tiny but mighty.  I have a feeling she's always going to be small but I've always been told "Good things come in small packages!"  And actually I must say "WONDERFUL, PERFECT, AMAZING, INTELLIGENT, PRECIOUS and ENERGETIC things come in small packages!"

I can't believe how fast the months fly by and to think in only one short month she will be a 1 year old!  We can't wait to enjoy this month and get ready for the big 1st ever Royal Birthday Party!  

Four Years & A Day of Fun

Four years ago today, Kyle and I became husband and wife.  We've had an amazing life together so far and have enjoyed our new addition.  Actually we can't remember what our life was like before her.  I know this sounds cliche, but she completes us.  

The D's gave us an attic fan for our anni which we were SO excited about b/c  A) we're hoping it will cool the house off to lower than 80 degrees during the day and B) it will help lower our electric bill!!  Many thanks to the D's - we love our attic fan!

My mom and Steve bought us this beautiful bedding set for our master bedroom.  I've had my eyes on it for a while now but never wanted to fork up the money to buy it, however Mimi surprised us this week and we were SO excited!  It also came with this adorable lil accessory - oh wait, that's Stella!  My goodness she's so cute!

Today we had another reason to celebrate - Kyle had his Series 7 Exam and he passed with flying colors!!  YAY!  So after Kyle came home we thought it would be fun to go to Winthrop Lake as a family and feed the ducks.  I think I had more fun than they did.

What a great day August 12, 2010 has been!  I love my hubby and I love our sweet family!

All She Wants to Do is DANCE DANCE DANCE!

The other day Stella started "dancing"! It is seriously the cutest thing ever! She started bending her knees and bouncing repeatedly and every time we would say "DANCE DANCE DANCE" she would do this...

and this...

Do we have a future So You Think You Can Dance star on our hands?! Of course we think so!! We also think she's going to be a cheerleader, ballerina, valedictorian, soccer player...and the list goes on. But for right now, she's our adorable, precious, sweet lil peanut that likes to dance, dance, dance!

Sweet Baby

I heard this song on a fellow bloggers page a while back and fell in love with it. It's so sweet and peaceful. For the past few days I've captured precious pics of our sweet Stella sleeping and this song is perfect for this post.

Sweet Baby By Michelle Featherstone

Sweet, sweet Baby

I said maybe

Maybe you should stay with me

Sweet, sweet Baby

I think maybe

Maybe you shouldn't leave

Sweet, sweet Baby

I go crazy

Crazy when I think of you

Sweet, sweet Baby

I go crazy

If I come cuddle up to you

So Baby, oh Baby, please don't go

Yeah Baby, oh sweet Baby, please don't go

You're the only one (for me)

You're the only one

You're the only one for me

You're the only one (for me)

You're the only one

You're the only one for me

Sweet, sweet Baby

Can you save me

Save me from a night without you

Sweet, sweet Baby

Can you save me

The way that I am going to save you

So Baby, oh Baby, please don't go

Yeah Baby, oh sweet Baby

You're the only one (for me)

You're the only one

You're the only one for me

You're the only one (for me)

You're the only one

You're the only one for me

**I finally got the playlist to work at the bottom of our blog so you can listen to the song while you read all about the D's!**

JuRaSsiC PaRk!!

My FAV and my BF {her son, Christopher} came to stay w/ us this past weekend {and I'm a slacker and am just now blogging about it!} and oh boy, did we have fun!! I had heard about a place called Lazy 5 Ranch and I thought it would be a perfect outing for us to do while they were here.

The front gate said "Enter at Your Own Risk"!! Uh oh - what were we about to get into?!

Of course, Kelly and I had to wear our cutest outfits for the animals!! LOL

We thought since Stella loved the ostriches so much at the zoo that she'd love seeing the ostriches at the Lazy 5 Ranch up close and personal. And she did! She loved all of the animals!

They had over 750 animals at the ranch and you can purchase a bucket of "feed" and actually feed the animlas. It was wild but so neat! They came right up to our car and ate from the bucket - so cool!! However, when you see an animal like this - you don't necessarily want to stick your arm out and offer "feed" to it because your arm might actually be what he wants to eat instead!

Hence these signs they had throughout our journey!

Even though it was a little scary at times, we had the best time feeding the animals, laughing, screaming and giggling all the way around the 3.5 mile safari ride through the Lazy 5 Ranch!

After we got home, we went to Christopher's favorite restaurant, CHILI'S, and then headed home for some relaxation!

What a great weekend w/ my FAV and BF! Can't wait for them to visit again soon! Love ya'll!

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!