Stella is a 7 month old

We can't believe that Stella has already lived more than half of her first year of life.  Mike is depressed and feels that he has to start teaching her how to drive soon. haha.

At her 6 month check-up (Jan 5), these were her stats:

• Height: 2ft 2in (49th percentile)
• Weight: 17 lbs, 10 oz (78th percentile)

Stella is definitely coming in to her own.  She's developed a fun little personality.

Her favorite things are:

• Baths
• Swimming Class
• Playing with as many toys as possible at one time.  Her favorite toys are non-toys.  (Paper, pens, markers, phones, remotes, and mom's jewelry)
• She loves to look at herself in the mirror, especially when we hold her and run towards it.
• "Flying" with daddy (when he tosses her in the air - don't worry she barely leaves his hands)
• Copying mom and dad (sounds effects mostly)
• Other babies
• Morris - she laughs at him and reaches for him all of the time

Her biggest acheivements this month are:

• Rolling from her back to her stomach and eventually, by accident from place to place.
• Sitting up from laying down.  We were shocked the first time we walked in to her room one morning and she was sitting in her crib.  Now she does it ALL of the time.
• She's mastered her M's.  She says mamamama a lot (not related to mom though)
• New foods - mum mum's, butternut squash, Apple and orange compote, pears, apples, bananas, wheat cereal.  Oddly, her favorite food at this point is peas and sweet potatoes. Ewwwww.

Her face lights up and gets a huge grin every time daddy comes home from work. She laughs all of the time and she laughs really hard, it's so funny.  We love making her laugh.

She's really close to crawling, she gets on all fours and reaches with her hands, but falls flat on her face.

We can't wait to see what next month brings.

Love to you all!
Mike, Kenz, Stella and Mo

Make a Smilebox photobook

Starting the year off right.

We've gotten this year off to a busy start. We've been really working to get settled into our new place (finally finished unpacking all of the boxes, put the Christmas decor away and finished decorating all of the rooms - even the office upstairs). It finally feels like a place we can call home... well, at least for now:)

We've also been working to get settled into life in the new area. We joined a gym - it's great! They have daycare there as well, so we get to go for 1.5 hours everyday and Stella gets to go play with other kids and she just loves it there.

We also started swimming classes which Stella thinks is the best thing ever. She gets in and splashes like crazy the ENTIRE 30 min class. My eyes are all red and bloodshot from the chlorine by the end. She also laughs hysterically when I blow bubbles in the water. It's so fun. There are 8 other moms and kids in it too.

Stella also starts music class this week. I know, we're starting to sound like "those people", but what else are we supposed to do out here?

Here's a quick collection of pictures of our 2010 thus far...

 

Happy New Year!  Our first New Year's Eve with Stella.  We stayed home, ate fondue, made some goals and watched the ball drop on TV.  It was actually so fun to have a date with just Mike and I.

 

Stella playing in her new exersaucer from Santa.

Every morning Stella comes in our bed at around 7am, eats, babbles and falls back asleep for her early morning nap until about 9 or 10.  This is her in bed with Mike, displaying her new sleeping position. 

Daddy tossing Stella around - she LOVES it.

Playing with her best bud, Mo.

 

Stella is 6 months old!

We can't believe it's been one half of a year already! Stella is so much fun, we love watching her grow and change from day to day.

This month she's been saying "dadadada" a lot - Mike swears she means to say dada just for him. She also sprouted 2 teeth - They are on the bottom and literally sprouted overnight. I noticed them on the morning of the 5th as we were on our way to pick out our Christmas tree.

She has expanded her solid foods to now include oatmeal, peas, sweet potatoes and mum mums. She seems to like them all enough, nothing really gets her too excited still. She sits on her own and rolls over to try and grab toys. She loves her new toys that she got for Christmas. They light up and make sounds and

Her hair has grown in and gotten a lot longer, she was looking pretty bald there for a few weeks.

She's much more active now and alert. She splashes around in the tub (she's too big for her little mesh seat she used to sit in and now just sits in the tub with all of her rubber tub animals - she likes the duckie and the seal the most.

She loves to smile at strangers. She flirts with everyone, it's so cute!

She loves it and laughs out loud when Mike throws her in the air (Don't worry, she doesn't get chucked... he hardly lets her leave his hands.)

Make a Smilebox photobook

Christmas in Utah

This year's trip home for the holidays flew by.  It was like a whirlwind!  We were so concerned about how we were going to see everyone and make everyone happy and still have fun ourselves and finally on our way out on the plane, Mike and I decided to just sit back, enjoy and let whatever happens, happen.  It was the best thing we could have done.  We got to spend such memorable time with each family and even got some time to see a few friends here and there.

We started our 6 day trip with Mike's dad and his wife.  It was a great place to start... mellow, relaxing and so fun.  We sat back, watched the BYU and Utah football games, enjoyed appetizers and adjusted back to life in Utah.

 

 

We spent the next 2 days with Mike's mom, Sheridan (with a stop on Christmas Eve/Christmas morning at my sister's.)  This year was a little different for Sheridan because she just bought a house and is in the middle of renovations, so she's staying at a friends house for the time being.  Although we weren't able to stay with her for our 2 days, we made sure we spent all the days and stayed late nights with her.  We had a great time shopping around, eating at Thai Siam and enjoying Christmas Eve at the Grand America.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We surprised my sister on Christmas Eve and stayed at her house and surprised her kids on Christmas morning.  It was so fun to see them and there's nothing we love in our family more than surprises!  My mom and dad were staying there too and made Christmas morning breakfast, it was so fun... Oh yah, and of course, my brother, Ryan surprised us and made it for Christmas breakfast.

 

 

  

The last 2 days we spent with my family.  It was a blast.  The family has grown so much, it's crazy how quickly the house fills up now.  We started as a family of 6 and now we are 16!  It was complete chaos and madness, but we loved it and just soaked up the time we could get.  The last time we all were together like this was at our wedding (4 years ago!) and of course, a few kids have been added since then.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Thanks to everyone for making our trip home such a great experience.  Stella is so lucky to have such amazing families that love her so much and so are we.  We love you all!

Christmas in Philly

We had such a great Christmas this year.  It was so fun to celebrate Stella's first Christmas together.  Since we were going to be traveling for Christmas this year, we decided to celebrate our Christmas early so we could keep our traditions going and make sure Stella starts her life off with some of our own Christmas traditions.

For Christmas Eve every year, we get each other a pair of new pj's and an ornament.  We try to make sure the ornament represents something from that year.  So, with Stella being born, you can guess what our ornaments were...

 

Our Pj's...

 

(Stella unwrapping hers, you'll see them revealed below for Christmas morning!)

Also, typically on Christmas Eve we make fondue.  This is a tradition passed on from Mike's family and we absolutely love  it.  It's easy, quick clean up and so fun to sit around the fondue pot together.  This year, we opted for appetizers instead and are going to do fondue for New Year's Eve (since we're now parents with no other plans :))

Our spread of appetizers...

Christmas morning!

We slept in and Stella took her morning nap with us.  We got up around 10, I have a feeling next year will be different...

Santa came!

 

Christmas morning breakfast... mimosas, morning buns, bacon, eggs and lattes... yummy!

  

Not only did Santa come early for us, but he brought us a beautiful, white Christmas!  It was the biggest storm in Philly in years - the mall even closed (the weekend before Christmas.)

Stella of course immediately loved the wrapping paper.  It was her favorite present of all.

 

 

Stella's big present from Santa... the fancy, shmancy exersaucer.  She LOVES it.

 

 

We had a great Christmas together this year and are so excited to head to Utah and see our families for some more holiday celebrations.