THANKSGIVING 2006

It was great.

Last Tuesday night, I cooked. Yes - ME! Stephanie Creekie cooked. I'm actually enjoying cooking in my new kitchen! It inspires me. So anyway, I cooked some items to take to various Thanksgiving events. For Tappahannock, I fixed spinach dip in a bread bowl which was insanely easy. Then I got crazy and fixed FUDGE!!! It came out really good, I was very proud of myself. Even if the kitchen looked like that old Rice Krispie Treats commercial where the woman has powdered sugar all over herself and the kitchen. It's a secret EASY recipe that involves Velveeta "cheese" and 4 pounds of sugar (!!!) - so it's *very healthy* MmmHmm. Then I fixed a Potato Casserole to take to Zana's Thanksgiving on Friday.

Wednesday was really gross weather - COLD and rainy. I left work early around 1pm (usually everyone leaves early the day before a holiday; ESPECIALLY if your (my) boss is off that whole week anyway...) I got Stella, took us home, put on my flannel pajamas and we both layed around and napped and just stayed cozy inside. Lovely!!

On Thursday, we slept in (8am) and then just took our time getting ready. Matt came over for a few minutes to visit and say goodbye. He could not come to our Thanksgiving because he needed to be with Kristen's family since her Grandmother passed away a couple days before and his flight was leaving that night at 6:30pm. We took a few pictures of Stella in her FIRST Thanksgiving Day outfit.



And then we headed to Tappahannock! It was different without Matt and Preston but it was wonderful just the same. It's always so good to see everyone.

Stella started out in her cute red sweater vest outfit but when she puked on that one...we changed to her cute velor leopard print.....(here with cousin Aaron)



But then she got hot and when I took off her shirt, I noticed a little bit of a rash....so she just want nekkid for awhile which made her very happy! (with cousin Jacob and Mimi)



Thank goodness I had a THIRD outfit packed in her diaper bag (that was lucky because most of the time I don't even carry one extra outfit!) We stayed until around 5pm and then headed home.

We stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home and bought a slim, pre-lit Christmas tree for the living room.

On Friday, Stella and I rode out to New Kent to visit Cece and her Mom. Carol Bock looked the BEST I have seen her in probably five years. She looked beautiful and her hair was back and she had make-up on and dangly earrings and she just seemed stronger. It made my heart happy. She had to leave around noon that day for another round of chemo - but whatever kind of chemo they have her on this time seems to be working better. She deserves this so much.

At 5pm, we headed to Zana's house for Thanksgiving with Toby's sister Kim, neice Kendall, Kim's boyfriend, and his daughter - 6 year old McKayla. She has not seen Toby since LAST Thanksgiving but she immediately yelled TOBY! when we walked in the door and hugged him. They played and rough-housed and I think he showed her more attention in 2 hours than her Dad shows her in 2 months. Sad. I looked over once and she had her head in Toby's lap. Makes me want to cry....



It was a nice night and dinner was wonderful... After dinner I looked over and caught Kendall trying to sit in Stella's infamous Bumbo Seat. She kept getting stuck in it... It was cute!



On Saturday, we just did stuff around the house until the afternoon. Toby put together Stella's big girl stroller and we watched the movie "Click" with Adam Sandler. That is the BEST MOVIE!!! I don't know what I was expecting but it was wonderful!! I laughed and cried.... And Stella checked out her new stroller and liked it so much, she feel asleep in it and we left her there.





At 2pm, we went to JJ and Erica's Baby Shower and that was so nice! They are such a wonderful couple with such big hearts - I can't wait to share this parenting experience with them! We often joke about how JJ and Toby look alike with their bald heads (one time Erica nearly kissed the back of Toby's head because she thought he was JJ. I knew it was going to happen, I watched the whole thing. haha!!) Here's Stella checking out Uncle JJ - I'm sure she was thinking "Who's this guy that looks like my Daddy?"



JJ and Erica got a lot of great things for Baby Molly. Including a brown spider crickett! (Little joke there, JJ.)

On the way home we stopped by Costco and joined....and now I'm a member of the cult. And I LOVE it! We spent over an hour just strolling around LOOKING. I'll be going back very shortly... Now that we have a house with storage, we can buy in bulk! Weeeeee!!!!

On Sunday, we just piddled all day and it was great. Those are the best. Stella took about 4 naps - she's such a cat napper. I put up the Christmas Tree and the few decorations we have. (MORE things I can start buying because now I have storage!) And can I just say that PRE-LIT TREES ROCK!!! I've never had one before and I'll never NOT have one again.



And that was the end of the long weekend. Boo hoo!!

Back to work on Monday where the snarky blogs started spewing forth from me. And will continue to spew, I'm sure.

Just a few things I'm wondering about today.

Why doesn't the "remember me" option ever work for this dang blogger site?

and

Why does the cleaning lady have to say "Today I'm following the ____ brick road" everytime she passes me - which is approximately A LOT of times a day. That blank is filled with green or purple or yellow or whatever color she feels like saying at any given time and whichever color she chooses to say, it doesn't make sense. It will never make sense. So STOP IT!!

and

Why do people engage in Escalator Peer Pressure. Yes, it exists. If you have never heard of it, it's when you get on an escalator to go to your 2nd floor cube and you step on with your venti hot coffee that you just purchased at the Starbucks....and some asshole in a suit gets on behind you and RUNS up the moving staircase and stops on the step RIGHT behind you and sighs. Because you are blocking him from running up the rest of the escalator. To which I want to turn around and scream in their face: "If you don't want to stand on the escalator and leisurely ride it up, then take the f*cking stairs you moron!" But I don't. I just sip my coffee and pretend I have no idea what's happening. Because I am pretty sure I will NEVER run up the escalator. Unless a snake (a real one, not a corporate one - haha!) is chasing me.

and

Why do people call you immediately after they e-mail to ask "did you get my e-mail?" and then take 5 minutes telling you what the e-mail is about. Do they not understand that e-mail can REPLACE some phone calls - not be an ADDITION to them?

That's all for right now. I really will update about Thanksgiving and I promise not to be so snarky.

I Love/Hate Holidays...

...because the first day you come back after a holiday is such a beast. Everybody runs around panicked and have to have whatever it is RIGHT NOW.

So I'll update about our Thanksgiving tomorrow.

Turkey Lurkey Do, Turkey Durkey Dap. I eat my turkey then I take a nap.

I have really fallen behind. I am constantly thinking "I need to put that in my blog" but then the thought slips away as quickly as it comes. I think I need to invent a Post-It Necklace for easy access to paper and pen like I have at work. I swear if I don't write it down, it's like you never told me and it never happenend. Maybe some cute Post-It Earrings and a Pen Necklace? Do you think anyone would buy it? Could it be my ticket out of my 9-5 job?

Anyway...I'm getting looney.

It's the day before a holiday and the office is dead. I'm leaving today at 12:30 to go pick up Stella and I will meet Cece (my best friend) and her Mom (Carol Bock) at Ukrops for a quick lunch. Carol is in Richmond for medical treatment every day so I will only be seeing them at Ukrops for a few minutes since Carol will need to get home since she'll be pooped...but I'm thankful for the few minutes. I'll see them again on Friday.

After lunch, I'll come back home and take Matt to his 4:15 Eye Doctor appointment. Poor thing doesn't have a car when he comes home and is at the mercy of others. I know that sucks. I don't mind taking him AT ALL - infact, I'm glad I can because that means I get to spend some time with him...especially this week because there was an unexpected, sad event that has come into play. Kristen's grandmother died on Monday morning so Kristen is flying home from Mexico today and the viewing and funeral will be this week... What was going to be a leisurely week of "no plans" for Matt is now packed. He will now not be able to go to Tappahannock for Thanksgiving because he will be with Kristen and her family. What a sad time to lose a family member. I know Kristen is glad he is here. He leaves tomorrow night so he will not be here for the funeral on Friday. So our Eye Doctor visit will be the only time I get to spend with him. He'll be back for Christmas and that is right around the corner.

Later, I will go home and start cooking. I'm not going anything extravagent but just a few different dips and then I am going to attempt some fudge...and I'll make the Oreo Truffles again. God, those are so GOOD!

Tomorrow is our little jaunt to Tappahannock for the big Thanksgiving gathering of Mom's side of the family. Dad's side really has not done anything for Thanksgiving - atleast we have never been involved. I think his brothers and sisters and their families just kind of do their own thing - we have our big gathering with that side on Christmas.

There will be no Creekmore Family Thanksgiving this year. That's all I'm going to say about that. (But I can't contain myself with this: wooooo hooooooo! )

On Friday, I will visit with Cece again - either she will come to my house or I'll go to Carol Bock's out in New Kent. We discussed going shopping but we'll see if I feel like being an idiot that day or not. Or if I feel like DEALING with idiots or not. The answer will most likely be NO and I'll sit my ass at home in my flannel pajamas. But, I'm looking at the sale papers just incase.

Friday evening will be Thanksgiving at my Mother-In-Law's which will be nice - with just a tad of drama with my SIL's worthless boyfriend....and all the issues surrounding that situation.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love and appreciate my family and how quiet and boring they are?

On Saturday, we have JJ and Erica's Baby Shower at Capital Ale House. Can I just say how excited my husband is that the shower is at a BEER PLACE. That was a genius move. We are very excited to go to the shower and to give Baby Molly her gifts. Stella has a lot of cool stuff to give to her little friend. :)

Sunday? It's Matt's 28th Birthday!! But he will already be on the All American Rejects Tour so no plans for us here in Richmond. I'll probably sit on my butt in my flannel pajamas. (Anyone notice a recurring theme?) Maybe we'll attempt another photo shoot for possible Christmas pictures. (I'm trying my damndest to NOT go to a professional photo studio....) Don't ask me why - it's my own little "stand" I am taking for no apparent reason.

I need to go get Stella's picture with Santa at some point in the next few weeks too....

Miss Stella is growing like a weed - it's crazy!!!! She's getting to be a chunk with her rolley thighs and arms. How come thigh rolls and arm rolls look good on her and not me?? ha!

In the last 2 weeks she has:

*Become a champ at rolling over back to front - and is ALMOST able to roll back over.


*Has starting to push herself out of things/catapault herself out of things so you can't leave her anywhere not monitored every second. Here she is trying to push herself off the couch.


*Has started sleeping on her belly - I have caught her asleep on the floor twice.


*Has started sitting in her Exersaucer and loves it! She hits the buttons with the animal sounds and laughs at the music it plays.


She is such a joy in our lives!!! We are truly blessed this Thanksgiving.

Happy Turkey Day, Everyone!!

It's Finally Happening for MCS!!

Check out the cover of Alternative Press Magazine. Anyone recognize the kid in the black and red striped sweater?

IT'S MY BROTHER!!

I'm so dang excited I could bust wide open. I'm so proud of the boys and SO ready for them to get the recognition they deserve. I want them all over MTV, radio stations world wide - and mostly - and I want them to kick Panic at the Stupid Disco right off the airwaves. Did I say that?

Here is the original Trainspotting movie poster.


And here it is; MCS Style.

Good Friends

I'll start with a recap from the weekend - it was great!! Ashley, Larry, and Clara arrived around 3:30 on Friday and went to Mom's house to hang out until I could scoot out of work a bit early. I got there around 4 or so and Ashley was holding Stella and Clara was not sure what to do about that!! She was SO GOOD with the baby - she was not crazy jealous and she loved holding Stella herself (we would set them up and pretend like she was holding Stella) and "feeding" her with her baby bottles. Too cute. She'll be a great big sister someday.

Here they are on Friday night:


And on Saturday morning - Clara "feeding" Stella:


We all left Mom's and made the LOOOONG trek next door to my house. The boys immediately went to Toby's Doghouse (the garage) and started drinking beer and playing darts...and that is where they remained until only God-Knows-When because I was most certainly asleep by that time. We ordered pizza online (I love that!) and ate dinner.

After dinner, all the girls bundled up and headed around the corner to some little shops on Lakeside Avenue for a Christmas Open House they were having...it was nice and there were some very cute things I saw that I will be going back for... After the Open House, we just ended up driving around because the girls were asleep and we had the bright idea that if we kept driving and got them REAL good and asleep, all we'd have to do when we got home was plop them in their beds. HAHAHA! We're funny.

BOTH girls were wide awake when we got in the house so Clara and Ashley went upstairs to get Clara down...and Stella and I stayed downstairs and did our usual routine of pajamas and some snuggle time. After both girls were down, we went out to the Doghouse for a few. I smoked ONE cigarette and had about 6 sips of beer and all of a sudden felt like ASS. I had to come inside and gag in the bathroom for a minute. LOL! My how things have changed. Ashley and I used to party down! When she would visit Richmond, we were up in the clubs, dancing and drinking. Now I'm gagging in the bathroom after 1/4 a can of Miller Lite and a cig. But you know what? I totally love it this way.

Moving on.... The girls were all in bed by 11 at the latest. The boys? No clue. Toby slept on the couch and the Lanes ALL slept in the double bed in the guest room which made for a rough night for Ashley. I told her she should have come downstairs and got in the bed with me but she didn't think about it in the frustration of the moment. We had a portable crib for Clara but she was having no parts of it. New place, new house, new crib. No way!

On Saturday, we fixed a big breakfast and then the boys did their thing all day (rootin' in the jeep, eating at Bullets, going to some sports store...) and the girls did their thing (shopping at Babies R Us, Kohl's, Short Pump Towne Center) and eating (Cheesecake Factory. Ever had the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Cheesecake? That needs to be illegal.)

All shopped out!!


Clara liked her cheesecake!


We got home around 5:30 PM and it may as well have been 1AM. We were dog tired. And the boys were hung over. So, the ENTIRE house was in bed by 9:30pm. Wooo hoooo! PARTY PEOPLE!

On Sunday, the Lanes had to leave. :( They had a crappy drive home in the rain all day. Our yard was like a LAKE by noon. It continued to rain all day long...and my dear Toby let me take a nap that afternoon which was so nice. (It was a nice return of investments for all the hours he has spent in the Doghouse.) The rest of the afternoon was the usual: dishwasher, laundry, cleaning, picking up, computer time, etc... Getting myself ready to go back to the Real World.

Monday was a Monday. I did some presentation work which was cool...I always like working with Powerpoint. But that was about it for the excitement from 8:30 - 5pm. I live for 5 so I can get home to my girl. My Mom had her cousin and her boyfriend over for dinner so after we ate dinner at our house, I took Stella next door to meet everyone. She was a dollbaby there! Just smiling and laughing up a storm. I'm sure it had something to do with Grandpa Wayne playing with her. He wouldn't even put her down long enough to eat his Pumpkin Pie - now THAT is saying something!

We got home and Stella and I layed on the waterbed and watched some of my DVRed programs from the day. (DAMN! I just remembered I forgot to set it for today and Will Farrel is suppoed to be on Ellen. CRAP! Oh well....) Anyway, did anyone catch Oprah and the lady who has figured out a secret baby language?? It was AMAZING and from my experience, seemed to be true. Here's the link for The Secret Language of Babies. Check it out - esp you new parents and about-to-be new parents. Stella fell asleep watching these babies and slept until 7:30 am this morning. WOO HOO!

Today is Tuesday and I'm at work now. I look like dog shit. For real. My outfit is HORRIBLE. My hair is disgusting. I'm wearing glasses because my contacts were killing me yesterday. My clothes are ill-fitting on top of being too casual for work. I just feel YUCK. I need an intervention.

EVERYTHING in my life has fallen into place and it's all wonderful. My marriage. My Family. My child. My house. My job. My car. Our finances (well not as wonderful as I would like but better!)

But I need to gain control over my weight and my health again. This one aspect is really dragging me down mentally and it's not fair to the other aspects of my life that deserve my full, undivided, and positive attention! Lately, I can't think about the good stuff without the thought being interrupted with how tight my pants are. Absurd!

Suggestions/Support welcome! I've got to get it together. I've done it before! I can do it again! I'm just having a horrible time getting started.........

And with that - here's a new picture of Miss Stella O'Dell perfecting the art of rolling over back to front.

Friday Schmiday - Ready to go HOME!

I SO do not want to be at work today. I am bored to tears. Boss is out of town - but I think he's coming back around 3:30. GREAT. Just when I wanted to leave early.

Ashley, Larry, and Clara are coming to visit for the weekend!!! They should be on the road by now so they should be here around 4 or so... I might have to tell them to just go next door to Mom's until I can come home. Blah. I would pay somebody to let me go home today and just do things around the house and be with Stella.

We got Dish Network installed yesterday. And DVR!!! I set it up to record Ellen and Dr. Phil today - we'll see if I did it right.

My contacts are killing me. I need to order more today because these are my last pair and I think I've been wearing them for 2 months (they are supposed to be for 2 weeks.) SMART.

I just called Toby and asked him to make an appt for Stella to get her 3 month pictures taken...now that she is almost 4 months old. Whoops. His friend Ian has a friend that works at the portrait studio at JC Penney's. She has told Ian to tell Toby to get Stella in there ASAP and she'll give us a deal. So that's why I am having him make the appt. We'll see if it actually gets done today as I am his personal secretary who takes care of all things resembling administrative in our lives.

Tonight we are just going to order pizza for dinner. We may stroll a few blocks to Lakeside Avenue to some of the cute little shops...One of the shops, Feathernesters, is hosting a Christmas Open House with hot cider, coffee, cookies, candles, etc.... And you can stroll between all the shops. I thought it would be nice and get me in the holiday spirit - not so sure of that now that it is damn 80 degrees!! I have yet to go to Feathernesters...but it's a cute little coffee/gift shop that serves breakfast and dinner on Fridays - you have to sign up for those. Mom and Dad have had breakfast there once. The owners were there and talked to them.... Dad said he felt like he was in the movie "Birdcage" if you know what I mean.... I can't wait to go check it out because "Birdcage" is one of my favorite movies of all time!! :)

Tomorrow, the GIRLS (Me, Ashley, Stella, and Clara) are just going to piddle around, do some shopping, have lunch, stroll Short Pump, etc.... Not sure what the boys will be doing but I'm sure it will take place in Toby's DogHouse (the pimped out garage) and will involve beer.

They will leave Sunday morning and I know I'll be sad to see them go. I want Ashley to live here!!! I don't have many friends here...I have a lot of work friends who I ADORE but I don't really do "outside" things with them. I guess that it my fault - I should make more of an effort. Esp those who have kids because we could take them places like Maymont, etc. I guess that will be more fun when Stella can actually realize where she is!! And the friends I do have I love to pieces, but I don't think they want to be around a baby all the time so I don't get to see them much. That's another blog for another day.... But, anyways....

It's 11:07. I can go get lunch at 11:30... I think I'll go out somewhere to kill some time. It's nice to be paid for days when I really don't have anything to do - but I'd much rather just be able to go home.

Have a WONDERFUL Weekend, kids!

A Poop Story

It's been awhile since I talked about poop.

I would like to share an e-mail I received from my Mother soon after arriving at work:

My Dearest Steph,

Be glad you're at work today. Be very glad. I just had a horrific
experience with a massive amount of poop. Stella was sitting in the
bumbo seat & got a little fussy, so I picked her up to see what was
the matter. (Sounds a bit like the "Night Before Christmas", but in
reality it was the "Nightmare Before Christmas"). I smelled
something. When I got to the bed & started to pull her pants off,
there was $#!@ everywhere! It had squeezed out the side of the
diaper, down her leg, all over the onesie. I thought I was going to
cry because I didn't know how to handle this poop situation alone! I
kept asking Stella, "What are we going to do?" She just kept waving
her arms & legs which was no help at all in this situation. Whew!
My room smells like West Point. Anyway, we made it & she's all
cleaned up. I have a load of poopy laundry. I am so glad I wasn't
out somewhere because I would have wailed! The precious baby is
content now -- wonder why......

Have a good day!

Your loving mother!
xxoo

I can't even describe how hard I laughed at this. And then I realized I would rather be at home dealing with Stella's shit (literal) than shit (figurative) at work.

I need to go now and do some actual work since it is 2:40 pm and so far I have:

**Called Cavalier to cancel our Broadband TV because it BLOWS.
**Called Cavalier to get them to check our phone which has not had a dial tone in 2 days.
**Called our insurance agent to change our car insurance.
**Called Dish Network and ordered their stuff - I joined the modern world and got a DVR!
**Went to Target for a new curling iron and came out with a new curling iron, socks for Stella, ziploc bags, magazines, some lotion, a couple hair accessories, and some F&^%*&&^ Dark Chocolate Covered Almonds of which I ate the whole bag and now my stomach hurts.

Pictures Galore!

I've always been a fan of food. That is no secret. I've also been overweight my entire life. Well, maybe I wasn't overweight up until age 4 or so....but I saw some kindergarten pictures of me the other day and I was already chubbier than the other kids. It caused me great strife for most of my life....I guess I can say that I was upset by it until Toby. He taught me to love myself - we never had sit-down discussions about it....just through his love and his actions, he taught me that it wasn't life's "end all/be all." And he's right.

However.

I do still think about dieting and getting in shape. Or rather my LACK of dieting and getting in shape. I was pretty dedicated to a healthy lifestyle before I got pregnant. But when you get pregnant, you CAN'T diet. I ate pretty healthy but I also didn't WORRY about it...... and that was so FREE-ING.

So I'm not pregnant anymore and the food issues are coming back. But I'm not doing anything about it. My mind is so not THERE. In order to succeed in this weight loss game, your mind has to be in the right place....and mine is not. I don't want to count points or calories or fat grams. I don't want to write anything down. I don't necessarily want to go out and eat 3 pints of Ben and Jerry's...but I also don't want to WORRY about it.

The point of my ramblings is this.... I'd like to lose some pounds so I can fit into my old clothes. And those clothes were NOT small, people. I only need to lose about 20 lbs to get to pre-preg weight. Not that big of a deal....

But the damn SWEETS keep haunting me. It used to be that carbs were my thing - give me a bag of chips and some dip and watch it disappear. Nowadays, I can't get enough cookies. Infact, what made me blog about any of this is that I just went to the cafeteria and bought lunch:

A Turkey Burger on a Wheat Bun with tomatoes

A bag of Baked Lays

Water

...and 3 cookies in a little cellophane bag.

Why? When my mind was completely in Weight Watcher or Body for Life zone, I NEVER would have caved. Lately? Who gives a shit. And that's not good.

AND, in addition to the 3 cookies in the little cellophane bag, there is also a cinnamon bun the size of my head sitting on my desk. Leftover from a meeting. And I'm probably going to eat it.

So, I guess the point of this rant about food and sweets is that

1. My mind is not THERE yet.

2. I'm not going to beat myself up over it.

3. I will get there eventually.

4. Cookies are good.

5. Giant cinnamon buns are good too. And I'm going to eat it. After I eat my cookies.


So, on to other important topics......

I finally finished mailing those SHITS I blogged about in the last entry. What a rip. I realized the other day that work makes me say "I hate people" a lot.

Last week, the entire HR department was off-site for Wed, Thurs, and Fri. On Wednesday we had an all-day meeting at the Downtown Convention Center. A month ago, we were all asked to complete the Clifton's StrengthFinder test (kind of like a Myers Briggs type thing...) and we spent the day learning about the different strengths and about our individual strengths and how it affects our work lives and personal lives... and all this was pretty interesting and insightful. BUT (and here comes the pessimist in me) when are we ever going to do something like this and have it STICK. When are we actually going to USE these insights back in the office? Never! For a day, we are all touchy feely and we think things like "Oh, I have this quality so that is why I work this way - and that person has THAT quality so that's why they are the way they are..." Whatever! All of this stuff flies out the window as soon as the day is over. If any of the management actually cared, they would request that everyone e-mail their strengths to them so they could see what all of their people are. That's what I would do if I was a manager and I wanted to learn more about my people and to keep this "StrengthFinder" stuff going...But, I doubt anyone has done that. Sad, but true.

On Thursday, we all went to Camp Baker for "Community Day." 200+ of us took over the camp and did whatever needed to be done to fix it up. Paint picnic tables (that was me!), paint outside, paint inside, rake, plant trees, powerwash, clean up, organize the offices, rebuild things, etc... We truly are powerful when all of us chip in some man-power to get things done.

On Friday, we were back at the convention center for another presenter to speak to us about "Innovation." MAN, WAS HE CUTE!! :) Seriously, he was not bad to look at and that was refreshing - but he was also a great speaker and an amazing artist. He did a couple paintings there...and his topics around innovation were eye-opening to me. Especially what he had to say about children and how their minds are so free until we SQUASH them with our rigid rules. For real. It made me think.

Check him out! ERIC WAHL

The meeting ended at 12:30 on Friday which was WONDERFUL. I picked Stella up early and we just hung around the house. She's having spells of crying lately and I really think it's her teeth. She's a trooper and doesn't make a fuss for too long. I give her some Baby Oragel and that usually helps. So we just layed on the waterbed and watched Baby Stories all Friday afternoon.

She's starting to flip over as soon as you lay her flat on the floor. She just can't flip BACK over yet - and that is funny to watch (and listen to - she grunts!)



She's "talking" a lot and she's starting to belly laugh. She's also starting to manipulate things - if you hand her something, she'll hold onto it and move it around and look at it. For example, here she is with a death grip on Daddy's beard.



It's so interesting to watch her grow. It's nothing I'm doing!!! It's amazing to watch nature happen.

On Saturday, Stella and I went to the Fan and visited with Denny for a bit! She made sure to do a big ol poop at his house which was nice. Then we went to Target and strolled around for a couple hours. I loved it. We were in no rush. No place we had to be. Stella napped on and off in the cart and I spent too much money. PERFECT.

We came home and we all just piddled around the house. Stella had a lot of "Daddy Time" on Saturday afternoon because it was officially "HIS NIGHT TO WATCH THE BABY SO I COULD DO WHAT I WANT IN PEACE." I don't get many times like that these days...which is 100% a-ok with me - but some peaceful cleaning time and peaceful computer time was nice.

During "Daddy Time," he figured out a way for Stella to get 2 of her favorite things at once: To sit in the Bumbo and Rock at the same time. He's a GENIUS!


On Sunday, Dee and Sarah Ellett came to Mom and Dad's house for lunch and met Stella for the first time. Stella fell in love with Dee - all babies do. Shoot, all adults do. And all animals. She is just the kindest human being I have ever known....



On Sunday night, Sunah, Nancy, Mimi, and Jacob came by to get Sunah's b-day present and to check out our new living room furniture:


Mimi was holding Stella and I realized how dang big she has gotten. Check out the comparison:

In August:


In November:


It's going by too fast, kids. WAY too fast. And that's what is important. Life. My daughter. Family. Enjoying every moment. NOT worrying about 3 cookies and a cinnamon roll (Although they were damn good. :)