The Days in Philly

NEW BLOG ADDRESS!

2011-01-07T18:22:00.000-05:00

Well, since we're no longer The Days in Philly, it seemed fitting to change our blog address. The entire blog has been exported to our new blog...

daysincali.blogspot.com

... we know, original. Anyways, be sure to update your records with our new address.

Love,
The Days (no longer in Philly)

Christmas in DC, bye bye Baltz's

2010-12-28T22:40:00.000-05:00

After our perfect Christmas Eve/morning, we headed to DC to visit my brother and his family one last time before we head to California. It was so fun to just relax and hang out with them and let Stella run around with her cousins. They have so much fun together, we're going to miss them so much. I hate to even think about it. I of course was bawling as we pulled away and headed back to Philly during a snowstorm. (So happy we're leaving just in time for the bad weather, yet we still got some snow for the holidays!) CJ, Kari, Hannah, Haydin and Brooklyn: We love you so much and honestly, we miss you already.

Christmas

2010-12-28T20:55:00.000-05:00

This year Christmas seemed to really fly by. Stella sort of actually, almost got it - which made it about 10 times the amount of fun Christmas typically is. She doesn't really understand Santa yet, but she does know that he says "ho, ho, ho". So if you ask her what he says, she'll say it. So cute.

We did our traditional Christmas Eve which consists of listening to Christmas music, eating fondue, opening our Xmas Eve gifts (ornaments and pjs), watching A Christmas Story and we added to it this year, by reading Stella 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Stella trying once again to see if it's okay to open a present before Christmas.

Preparing the fondue dinner.

Stella in awe of her tree while hanging out in her laundry hamper.

YUM.

Group photo.

Stella trying on her new pjs.

And her new mukluks.

Pointing to Santa while saying "ho, ho, ho"

My new pjs.

Stella and mommy in our new gear.

Mike's new slippers.


Mike and Stella with her new ornament and her new book.

Watching Stella's face as she walked into the living room was priceless. She's obsessed with Minnie Mouse and Goofy (and really any character on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse). Her favorite gift of all was a Mickey Mouse Santa balloon that she still to this day will not let go of. It goes everywhere with her. But, she LOVED opening her presents this year. She got some great gifts from her grandparents, cousins/aunts/uncles, and Santa brought her a tricycle. Mike and I loved watching her and enjoyed Mimosas and sweet rolls while we went through our stockings from Santa and our gifts to each other and from family. It was an amazing Christmas morning... and shortly after we headed off to DC for dinner with my brother and his family.

Christmas morning - Santa came!


Her favorite gift, the Mickey Mouse balloon.

Morris likes his gift.

Cool mags for a new house!

yummy breakfast.

Riding her new trike.

We printed our blog into a hardcover book.

The artist hard at work.

Giving Mickey kisses while modeling her new tutu.

Last Trip to NYC as East Coasters

2010-12-28T20:23:00.000-05:00

We felt like we needed to get one final trip to NYC in, since it has been one of our favorite things about living in Philly, especially during the holidays. We had to stop at a few clothing stores for Mike in the Village, a few for me in Chelsea and had to make our way to Levain, for one final delicious cookie and of course, we had to end it with a visit to Rockefeller to see the tree (Stella was fast asleep by this point). It was a great day, we're really going to miss NYC.

Picking out the perfect tree

2010-12-24T09:55:00.000-05:00

This Christmas is going to be a little different for us, we're not going home to Utah, we're mid-move (across the country) and so, we thought we at least needed to make it feel as much like Christmas as we could. Of course, it all starts with the perfect Christmas tree. We typically go to Home Depot to get our tree, it's a good price and they always have great selection. But, this year we decided to support a local tree farm just a mile from our house. It was really cold, but we ended up finding a beautiful little tree.

Once we got home and set it on the tree stand, Stella couldn't wait to tear into the ornaments and hang them on the tree. Of course, now her favorite thing to do is take the ornaments off, carry them around, put them in her purse/suitcase...etc. We quickly learned to put the "special" ornaments at the top.

And Stella got her very own Christmas tree to decorate in her room.

Mike meets Norah

2010-12-24T09:32:00.000-05:00

Since we found out we were moving and since we missed the birth of our little niece, Norah, we decided that we needed to at least go and meet her before she was no longer a newborn. Stella and I really wanted to go, but with the upcoming move and buying a home...etc, we could only send Mike to represent all of us. He purchased a ticket with miles and left two days later. He was only there Saturday morning - Sunday afternoon, but he got some good, quality time in with his sis, Dave and little Norah.

17 Months = Mayhem

2010-12-05T22:08:00.000-05:00

Holy Moly. Words, moves and hurricanes, that's what this month was all about.

Her understanding of everything that we say and everything going on around her is unbelievable. Just the other day, I asked her where her jacket was and then got distracted with a phone call, a few minutes later... there she was with her jacket. We are working on watching everything we say now.

Halloween was so fun this year because she actually sort of got it. She loved her costume, she had to wear it the whole week leading up to the event. She picked up trick-or-treating very quickly and took more than one handful on a few occasions - and we only went to 5 houses, but her basket was full.

Her favorite words at the moment:
Hi, and bye (constantly)
Boris (Morris, also constantly)
Mama's
Dada's
Cheers
Bless (Bless you)
Ma (More or milk)
No No
Mouse (mickey mouse)
Minnie (her stuffed animal minnie mouse)
Goofs (her stuffed animal goofy)
Blanks (blanket)
Whoooa (like a surfer would)
Ear, Nose, Eyes, Hair
Gooz (Shoes)
Brace (Bracelet)

We take Morris on a walk every morning and now she has to grab a plastic bag too (just like mommy) and we walk him around. I pick up his biz and she collects leaves in her bag. Then she has to walk up the stairs, of course by herself, and open the closet and give him a treat. It used to take me 5 min, now it's at least 20 min every morning.

She's always trying to help. She sorts the fridge, unloads the dishwasher (while I'm loading it), and helps unfold her clean laundry.

She gives high 5's and bones, which has a sound effect... chhhh. She blows kisses and gives the real thing too. She puckers up her big lips and it's the best thing in the world. She also beatboxes, she still dances like crazy, loves music more than any kid we know and loves being chased/playing tag. If you just say the words "I'm gonna get you..." she takes off screaming.

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Bring it on thirties!

2010-12-04T21:48:00.004-05:00

This is a long post, more for me and my recollection of the monumental event, so feel free to skim on down to the pictures...

It's official. I'm 30 years old. I can't believe how amazing I feel and how happy I am to be welcoming in another decade. My 20's were great...

College, skating, dancing, parties, friends, roommates, meeting a boy in a band, falling in love, being a groupie, buying my own dog, turning 21, getting my first "real job", getting engaged, focusing on my career, moving to Seattle for my career, getting married to the love of my life, starting our own traditions, cooking Thanksgiving all by myself, traveling with my soulmate, taking chances, leaving everything we know, moving to Philadelphia for my husband's career, starting a whole new life, new job, new friends, our first purchased home, my first pregnancy, my adorable baby girl, leaving my career behind, my new life as a mommy and now moving back west. It's been an amazing 10 years and I am so grateful for all that life has given me. I feel like I've lived my 20's and I'm so ready to take on the next decade beginning with our big move to California.

My 21st Birthday with Mike in Vegas.

I have to say the best thing about my 20's was meeting my husband. Mike is hands down the most incredible person I know. He worked really hard to make my 30th the most memorable birthday of my life without having all of our friends and family near us. Here's a recollection of the events... and warning, it's not quick.

Friday I went out with my girlfriends here in Philly. We went to this amazing new restaurant on the top floor of one of the largest buildings in the city, R2L. The view was amazing, the food was great and the company was delightful. Thanks to Lauren, Meghann and Leslie for kicking my 30th of right.

Mike had originally planned to do a small something on my actual bday (the day before Thanksgiving this year) and do a bigger celebration over the weekend. But, we were fortunate enough to have my brother and his family come for Thanksgiving and they arrived on my birthday. He had an entire theme thought out. 30 years over 3 days, 30 gifts at 10 per day and each of the 3 days signifying a moment. The past, the present and the future. So, Mike and I did his mini celebration on Tuesday, focusing on the past.

1. Flowers were delivered
2. A card from Mike
3. A card from Stella and
4. A pair of Toms from Stella too.
5. Nerd Ropes (my fave in college)
6. A coconut (which we cracked, baked and made chips out of, like the chips we ate on our 5 year anniversary along the road to Hana)
7. A box of Bisquick (which we made crepes with, like Mike did the first time he cooked for me)
8. A box of Macaroons (our favorite Parisian treat)
9. A bottle of wine (the first "nice" bottle we ever bought)
10. A beautiful Chocolate cake

On Wednesday, my actual birthday I enjoyed phone calls and surprise packages from friends and family throughout the day and celebrated that evening with my brother and his family. They sang to me and we ate my chocolate cake, it was AMAZING!

Saturday, was the second day of Mike's celebration focusing on the present.
1. At 11:30 am, Mike and I went to run a few errands, but instead he dropped me off at a spa and said, "I'll be here to pick you up at 4:30." I was in shock, so excited and so unaware. I have never had a "spa day", although I must say I've always wanted one and imagined what it might be like. It was everything I had imagined and maybe even more... Facial, Massage, Lunch, Manicure, and Pedicure.
2. When Mike picked me up, he had a hot Eggnog Latte from Starbucks, mmmm. My favorite.
3. I got home and was told to quickly shower and get ready for the evening, when I walked into the bathroom there were more flowers.
4. and a card.
5. As I was reading the card, Mike walked in with 2 glasses and a bottle of champagne. The card talked about enjoying the present and I was thinking about that day, how amazingly lucky I was, when Mike closed the door behind him and there was...
6. A bottle of new perfume and...
7. A beautiful black dress from my favorite designer that Mike had picked out and bought for me to wear along with...
8. A pair of charcoal booties. I was stunned, amazed and started crying at how incredibly thoughtful, creative and romantic my husband was.
9. Once I was dressed and ready, the babysitter arrived (all set up by Mike, unbeknownst to me) and we drove to the city and enjoyed a lovely dinner at Buddakan.
10. Once we got home, we cozied up and rented a movie (Grown Ups) one of our absolute favorite things to do.

I couldn't believe it could continue, but it did. And on Sunday, we celebrated the future...
1. Flowers
2. A card
3. A new pair of flip flops (moving to Cali and all)
4. New sunscreen
5. A pair of sunglasses
6. Dwell - A design magazine, to inspire design ideas for our future home in Cali
7. A new sweater/dress
8. New Running Shoes
9. Registration for the 2 of us to run in the Huntington Beach 1/2 Marathon in February.
10. A day of shopping at King of Prussia Mall.

It was truly the best and most memorable birthday of my life. I'm so happy, so lucky and so grateful to have the amazing family and friends that I have. Thanks to everyone for remembering me on my special day and most of all, thank you Mike for being... well, you. I love you.

Thanksgiving, The Baltz's come to Philly

2010-11-28T20:32:00.000-05:00

One of the things that we'll miss most about being in Philly is the fact that my brother, CJ lives in DC (about 2.5 hours away) and we've been able to spend a lot of time with them over the past few years. So, the Baltz's decided to come and visit Philly one final time and I LOVE cooking and hosting Thanksgiving dinner - so we were thrilled and so excited for them to come.

They arrived on Wednesday evening (which also happened to be my 30th birthday!), so we had a mini birthday celebration, gave the girls a bath, put them to bed and spent the evening catching up and enjoying family. On Thursday morning, the girls woke up early with me and watched cartoons while I began preparing not only breakfast, but the feast of the evening.

Once the turkey was in the oven, we felt the kids needed to get out and spend some energy so we headed to the ice rink and did some Turkey Day skating. It was Hannah's first time and she was great. She was comfortable on her feet and enjoyed it so much she wants to take lessons now - Sorry CJ! It was Stella's first time too and it was so much fun to have her on the ice. She wasn't too sure about gliding or standing on the ice, but she loved when mommy skated while holding her in her arms. Whenever I'd pick up speed or spin, she would yell "mo, mo!"(which means "more, more!")

The dinner turned out delicious and it was such a great holiday. I loved having CJ and his family with us, we're going to miss them like crazy.

Looking for a home...

2010-11-28T19:59:00.000-05:00

Well, the past few weeks have flown by. We finally got approvals on our move and then decided to jump into action - no reason to delay! So within a week, we researched the area, found a Realtor, found a mortgage broker, hopped on a plane and headed to Orange County.

Stella was great on the first flight to Phoenix, which was amazing because we were stuck out on the runway for 1.5 hours before we could even take off. She was a a champ, but it all came to a head when we were in the airport in Phoenix waiting for our second flight. She was hysterically screaming, it was so bad that we had 2 different women come up and offer to help us. Yikes. Luckily she fell asleep once we were on the plane and slept the whole flight to Orange County.

The first day, Mike and I drove around South County and the different areas we were considering... Aliso Viejo, San Clemente, Ladera Ranch, Costa Mesa, Laguna Hills and Laguna Niguel. That afternoon we met with our realtor and walked through 15+ homes. It was so overwhelming and honestly a little disheartening. We knew OC was expensive, but we were pretty disappointed in the types of properties we could afford.

But, after our first day, we decided we definitely wanted to live in Aliso Viejo, our Realtor got a better sense of who we were and what we were looking for and day 2 was a complete 180. We saw great homes, great neighborhoods and at the end of the day, we had found at least 3 homes we were considering putting an offer on.

We decided to take Tuesday off from house hunting and just enjoyed the day, got to know the neighborhood, hung out at the beach and went to our friends' daughter's 4th Birthday party at a petting zoo. Stella loved it, and it was so fun to spend time with Sierra and Chase - I can't wait to be close to them!

Laguna Beach

Petting Zoo

On our final day there, we moved forward and put an offer on a house! We LOVE the house, but it's a short sale, so it's very likely we won't get it and even if we do, it could be 6-8 months before it's ours. We are still amazed that we were able to accomplish so much with such a quick trip across the entire country. But, we're so happy with what we found and fingers crossed we actually get it!

Our home (hopefully!)

At the Realtor's office, signing the offer!

Stella - 16 Months

2010-11-07T21:16:00.000-05:00

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California... get ready for the Days!

2010-11-03T16:15:00.000-04:00

Yep, that's right. We're outta here, so long Philly... hello California! We are so excited to be moving back West, closer to family, friends and well, a place we'll be so happy to call home. More details to come...

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-02T20:48:00.000-04:00

Wow. Trick-or-treating is so much more fun with a kid!

This year we decided to make it a family affair and stick with a theme. It began this summer when Stella was stung by not 1, but 2 bees. The first... in the mouth, after she picked it up and put it in there and the second, on her finger when she tried yet again to pick up a bee. Our house was bee haven, I must have killed dozens, they were everywhere. Finally, an exterminator came by and found a GIANT bee's nest in our ceiling. Ewwwwww. I always have hated the little buggers, but after this experience it seemed appropriate to dress up as them to make up for killing them all and destroying their home. Oh, and well... it's a great homage to our homeland, Utah... the Beehive State.

It began on Saturday with Mall-o-ween at the King of Prussia Mall.

Then a costume party for the adults (Stella and her friend, Tyler went to bed shortly after we arrived.)

And, ending with the real deal. The family of dressed-up trick-or-treaters. We went around our little "community" and we were the only ones! I was shocked. I miss the days of Utah and the bazillions of kids running around on Halloween. But of course, Stella could have cared less. She LOVED it. She enjoyed ringing the doorbells, and standing there with her bag while it was filled with candy. And, we found out this weekend, she loves candy.

The holiday ended with Stella's Halloween PJ's. The skeleton glows in the dark and totally freaks us out when we put her to bed and go check on her at night.

Minneapolis for a Quealy Visit

2010-10-30T16:33:00.001-04:00

Last week Mike, Stella and I flew to Minneapolis to visit Audrey and Dave and to be there for the birth of their 1st baby! Mike had business meetings Wednesday and Thursday, so Stella and I got a lot of time with Aunt Audrey and Grandma. We had so much fun seeing them and their new, adorable house. It was so fun to see Audrey pregnant and to see them all prepared for new baby, they're going to make the best parents. The baby was due on Friday, Oct. 22, but when we had to leave on Monday morning, there was still no baby. So, unfortunately we missed it but we had a great time just hanging with family anyway.

We spent lots of our time walking and playing at the park.

The weather was awesome and in the fall it's so beautiful there.

Taking a break from playing soccer in the backyard.

Kisses for Aunt Audrey.

Helping Uncle Dave with yard work.

Carving pumpkins.

Hanging out, waiting for baby to arrive.

Oh and of course, little Norah Jane Quealy was born the following day, Tues. Oct. 26th. She's healthy and adorable, we can't wait to meet her! Here's a pic. We're so happy to be an aunt and uncle again!

Pumpkins!

2010-10-27T13:44:00.000-04:00

Two weekends ago, we hosted our 3rd Annual Pumpkin Carving Party. A few of our good friends from my old office get together every year and have a serious carving contest. This year, was once again awesome, except that my pumpkin's whole face fell in, so I at last minute tried to salvage it and turn it into Minnie Mouse. It's a mess, I know. I lost. Haha, but Mike saved the Day family name with his bunny pumpkin (right next to mine).

Last week Stella and I met up with our friends to hit up the pumpkin patch. The kids had a blast, it was such a cute little farm. In addition to pumpkins, they had goats and a donkey... Stella loved them so much she didn't want to leave. There was also an old playground area and the kids were obsessed with the teeter totter.

Goats.

Stella on the teeter totter, one handed!

Stella, Tyler and Emily

Do I really have to share this pumpkin chair?

Meeting Baby Brooklyn

2010-10-16T12:07:00.000-04:00

My brother and his family welcomed a new little baby girl on Thursday, Oct. 7. She is so adorable, nice and chunky with a full head of hair. She was born at 9.5 lbs! My mom and dad were in DC visiting for the birth so on Friday morning, Stella and I headed down to DC to meet the baby and spend time with family. Mike took the train down on Friday after work to join us and we spent the whole weekend there.

Stella absolutely LOVES her cousins, Hannah and Haydin. She was also really interested in Brooklyn, but we made sure she kept her distance, especially with her runny nose she was sporting.

On Sunday, Mike and I headed up to Baltimore to meet our friends Lauren and Mike for the Ravens/Broncos game (Mike is a huge Broncos fan and so is Lauren.) My brother and his wife and my mom were so above and beyond sweet to keep Stella for the day even with the newborn just home. We can't thank them enough - it's rare we get opportunities to do something like this, so THANK YOU!

15 Months have come and gone.

2010-10-04T21:35:00.000-04:00

I know we say this every month, but this literally has been the most amazing month with Stella. She has such a fun personality, we just can't get enough of her.

Dancing is still big with her - she will walk over to the ipod docking station, point and grunt until we turn music on. She appreciates all music, but when she's in the mood to dance, only hiphop will do.

She adores accessories. Hats, purses, bracelets, necklaces, hairbows, headbands, shoes...etc. And when she's in the right mood, she will wear them all and just continue to cover herself in accessories.

Stella is a talker. She babbles nonstop. Sometimes it's English, but typically it's her own language.
She's a crazy runner. She likes to turn up the speed, but it often results in a serious crash. She has had more bumps and bruises this month than any other. Literally one day, she had two big bumps on both sides of her forehead and one giant bruise in the center.

She likes puzzles and books and loves to play ball. She kicks it, throws it and if it's the soccer ball, she'll even sit on it.

She and Morris have a "special" relationship. She terrorizes him now and chases him in circles around the house, but he's always so good with her. She's only trying to get a kiss, but it's definitely the wrong way to go about it. One of her favorite things to do is take Morris on walks. She has to put on her shoes and walk around and of course, climb up each and every stair. Our walks went from 10 minutes to 20 or 30. She likes to hold Morris' leash and loves to give him his treat after.

It's crazy how much she understands now too. If you ask her to do something or get something, she will.

Words at this point...Ball, Hi, Bye, Hat, Hot, Up, Dada, More (Mo), Milk, Shoes (Gooz), No, no, no (she always repeats it, never says a solid no), This, That, Horse, Dog, Belly Button (belly button)

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Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-14T22:55:00.000-04:00

This Labor Day, Stella and I took off to Utah for baby showers and birthday celebrations. I felt so bad leaving Mike home alone for the holiday weekend especially with all of the travel he has going on this month for business. But, our sister is having a baby and well, Stella and I wanted to be there to celebrate.
We had an amazing time with Audrey and Sheridan. It was so nice to just have time with each other, we watched movies, ate lots of food and enjoyed Audrey's baby showers.

Stella enjoying Grandma's blow-up pool

Since I don't live in Utah, I decided to throw Audrey's shower at Market Street during Sunday brunch (my favorite!).

The beautiful mother-to-be!

We also got to spend time with Grandpa Vic. He's such a fun grandpa, always playing around with Stella...

The last few days we were there, we spent at my parents' house in Park City with my sister and her kids. We celebrated Kayley and Connor's birthday.

Me and the kiddos.

We even got a moment to stop by and say hi to our friends, Andrea and Alex and their adorable little girl, Ellie.

And thanks to Audrey and Sheridan, I got a night out with some of my girlfriends.

It was so much fun, but the time always goes by too fast. We miss you all already, but hopefully we'll be living much closer to you all soon!

DC to visit the Baltz's

2010-09-10T17:32:00.000-04:00

The weekend before Labor Day we went to DC again to visit my brother and his family. We had a great time as usual just hanging out around their house and on Saturday we braved the insane Glenn Beck crowd and went to see the Botanical Gardens.

Stella and her cousins LOVED the children's garden. They were digging, watering plants (aka getting soaked) and playing in the garden's house.

Picnic in the center of the National Mall.

The Children's Garden

Cleaning the dirt off from the garden...

Stella's new favorite thing... the pink chair at her cousins' house.

Braving the slide... woohoo!

Stella, 14 Months

2010-09-01T22:05:00.001-04:00

This month we traveled to LA for my cousin's wedding. Stella enjoyed the beach and she really loved dancing at the wedding. From LA, Stella hopped on a flight to Utah with my sister and my dad, while Mike and I took off to celebrate our 5 year anniversary in Hawaii. She had a great time with grandma and grandpa and all of her cousins. I'm so happy she had the opportunity to bond with them.

Over the past month, Stella has really jumped leaps and bounds in her development. We are having so much fun with her, she's like a mini person now:)

She says a lot of words now including: hot, up, hat, dog, more, mama, dada, min (her minnie stuffed animal), goof (her goofy stuffed animal), mil (milk)...etc. She is very good at communicating even when she doesn't know how to say something, she points and yells, she goes to the kitchen, sits below the cupboard and cries as loud as she can until you open the cupboard and give her craisins.

She understands so much. I'm always amazed. If you tell her to get something or ask her where it is, she'll go and get it.

Foodwise, she's starting to get a little more picky but she still will eat a lot of unique foods and she has no problem eating spicy foods. Her favorites now are craisins and grapes. She hates chocolate and really all treats unless they are frozen (she'll eat any sort of ice cream/yogurt/Popsicle/smoothie treat.

Other funny things she does now...

She loves to sit on the couch like a big girl now, so she whines until we pick her up and she'll sit there with us.
Lines up all of her toys in the bath along the edge of the bathtub and then knocks them down and does it again.
lays on her tummy in the bath, blows bubbles and kicks.
she loves to shut doors. She'll shut the door (not all the way) to her bedroom and if you knock, she'll open it up. But, when it's really shut, you'd think she'd freak out, but she just goes and plays with her books, when she's done she'll knock on the door for you to let her out.
She is obsessed with hats right now. If she sees one, she'll say "hat" and run to it, try to put it on, get frustrated and come to mommy or daddy to put it on. To that point, she also loves bracelets. She will get out her bracelets and bring them to us to put on. She also wears mommy's all of the time, often she'll walk around with 6+ bracelets on, it's so cute!
Loves getting on our bed and flopping forward and backward (really scary, because she has no awareness of where she is)

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Circus in a tent

2010-08-30T10:16:00.000-04:00

Last week we went to Stella's 1st circus. Mike was traveling for business, so my friend, Sarah and I decided to take Stella and her best friend, Tyler. They loved it - it's so much fun that they're getting old enough to actually enjoy activities like this. This circus was really fun for this age because it was a lot less expensive than Ringling Bros, far less crowded and much more casual. They could run around and play, yell and no one cared. They let the kids ride the elephants, camels and they even had pony rides. Next time, hopefully they will be big enough to ride the animals. After the circus, Stella learned what a tiger says and now when you ask her, she says "roaaar". So cute.

5 Years!!!

2010-08-25T13:25:00.001-04:00

Mike planned this year's anniversary event and since it was 5 years and sort of a milestone, he decided to do something big. We had Stella fly back to Utah with my sister and my dad while Mike and I took a short, little flight to Maui for a few days. It was really hard to say goodbye to Stella at the airport, but we knew she would be in good hands and would have a wonderful adventure in Utah visiting with grandma and grandpa and all of her cousins.

Mike and I really enjoyed our time in Maui, it was so fun to just be together and enjoy each other without having to worry about our little one and what she was doing, getting in to...etc. We stayed at Wailea Beach and filled our days with beach, pool, activities and really whatever we wanted to do.

The view from our private lanai.

The road to Hana

Mike and I rented a Jeep for the day and drove to Hana. It was so amazing and beautiful and such a fun adventure. Although it was a lot of driving and a long day, I'm so happy we did it...

We stopped in at this beach along the way, apparently there had been a shark siting, but people were still swimming and enjoying the beach, so we figured we should too.

Some beautiful waterfalls along the way...

Hiking through the rainforest...

Stopping to enjoy the beaches, blacksand...etc

Cave swimming. So amazing and beautiful... but, I have to say it was a little scary! The water was freezing, but look how crystal clear.

Our day of surfing lessons. It was so much fun, we can't wait to surf again.

We of course had to attend a Luau. It was really fun and we were able to get last minute VIP seats right at the very front, center table.

Haleakala for sunrise...

We were told that this is a must-do. We debated for awhile because, we had to get up at 3:30am, drive to the top of the volcano (10,000ft) and then hike for the sunrise. Oh, and also it's about 50 degrees up there with A LOT of wind and of course, we packed for a tropical vacation and had no warm clothes. We packed up hotel blankets and headed out at 3:45am. It really was worth it, it was incredible. But, I did get knocked down by the wind and cut my knee pretty bad, other than that - amazing! You can see in the pics how windy it was, oh yeah and those are clouds that we're looking down on!

Finally, we were back with Stella and headed back home on the plane. We had such an amazing time and we thank my parents and Lexi, Connor and Elle so much for all of their help with Stella and allowing Mike and I to have this special time together. We love you guys and Stella misses you already!

And, my cute mom put some scrapbook pages together for us so we could see what Stella did with her time as well. It was so cute, it looks like she had a great time and really, didn't seem to miss us too much:)

Long Beach, CA

2010-08-19T20:53:00.000-04:00

We went to Long Beach, CA a few weekends ago for my cousin, Annie's wedding. We had so much fun, Stella was a dream on the flights.

Since we were using a companion ticket, we had a layover in Minneapolis for 3 hours on the way there. Audrey and Dave came to the airport to meet us for breakfast. It was so great to see them and spend time with them even if only for a quick bite. Oh, and pregnant Audrey is soooooo cute - I love it! I wish we lived closer so that Mike and I could be there every step of the way, it sucks.

Breakfast with Jed

A day at Huntington Beach with my family

Someone discovered licorice...

Mike and I celebrating our anniversary in Santa Monica

Visiting my family's old neighbors in La Canada

Me and my cousin (the bride!)

The wedding was gorgeous and Stella had so much fun on the dance floor. She kept wandering out there every chance she got.

Beautiful bride and groom

With Kayley and CJ

Stella hittin' the dance floor...

Too much dancing = sleepy baby

Summertime in Philly

2010-08-16T22:03:00.001-04:00

Ugh. It's been hot and muggy this summer. But, we've traveled a lot and had some great weekends home as well.

CJ and Kari came to visit for Stella's 1st Birthday party, which turned out to be quite an experience. We only invited a few kids since she already had her official party in PC. So, we kept it low key and had it at the park behind our house. An hour and a half before, we went to grab a few key elements (ice, balloons, favors...etc), came home to drop Morris off, shower and feed Stella lunch. When we were walking toward the house, we realized we left the keys in the car... and it was locked. So, we had to bolt to the store on foot with a dog, a starving toddler, a really mad mom and an incredibly calm husband trying to make it all better in about a bazillion degree heat. In the end, it all worked out but you'll notice we don't have any photos (my phone and the camera were locked in the car too). Haha - an experience we'll never forget!

But, the morning hike prior to the birthday fiasco was a blast.

Stella and her cousins

Speaking of the park behind our house, every week they have a fun outdoor concert. We decided to stop by one random night and let Stella rock out... dance video coming soon!

And a few others...

Stella's 13 Month update

2010-08-16T21:15:00.001-04:00

Again, a little late...

This month was monumental as Stella finally took her first steps, and hasn't stopped ever since. She had her first birthday parties (Utah and Philly) and decided that she hates cake. But, ice cream and water ice are her favorites.

She says hi and waves to everyone, points at everything and says "dis?" and "dat?" and unfortunately loves to say "no, no, no" while shaking her head, no (even when she means yes!). As she's practicing her walking, she is adding to her injury count with new bumps and bruises daily.

Her other big milestone this month is dancing. She LOVES music and every time it comes on, she begins headbanging or swinging her arms. It's so cute!

Photo album created with Smilebox

Stella's 1 Year Smilebox... a little late.

2010-07-25T21:13:00.001-04:00

But, better late than never...

On June 28th, our little Stella Ryan turned 1. WHAT!!??!

During her 12th month, she was so close to walking. She would stand all of the time and get up from sitting to a stand by herself, but when it came time to go somewhere, she would always dive and crawl.

We went home to Utah at the end of June and we thought for sure she'd be walking by then, but she decided to continue crawling... apparently that worked just fine for her.

This month we had our dear friend, Nicole come and visit and we headed to NYC for a day.

Stella and Kenz went to the Jersey Shore again this year and this time was much different than last year. She was all over the place and sand got everywhere. She ate more sand than she did food that day.

It's been an amazing year and we are so happy to have little Stella in our family and we literally can't imagine life without her.

Another photo album by Smilebox

Here and there and everywhere

2010-07-21T13:33:00.000-04:00

Life as we know it will never be the same:)

Home Sweet Home! (Stella's 1st Birthday and 4th of July)

2010-07-19T14:01:00.001-04:00

We are so lucky that we had the opportunity to leave Philly and head back home to Utah for nearly 2 weeks!

It was another whirlwind of a trip, staying a couple of nights with each parent on both sides and it always seems to go by way to fast. We wish we could spend more time with both families and of course, our friends. We really do have the best families and the most amazing friends anyone could ever have. We've been all over the country and no one compares to our friends in Utah. We miss you all so much, thanks for dealing with our tight schedules while we were there. We're thrilled we got to see most all of you, even if only for a few minutes.

At Grandma and Grandpa's in Park City...

Hanging out with Grandpa Day

Stella's Official Birthday and spending time with Grandma Sheridan

Oakley Rodeo

Stella's 1st Birthday Party

4th of July!

Happy 1st Father's Day to Mike

2010-07-05T23:27:00.000-04:00

Mike is the most incredible person I have ever known and I feel so lucky to have met him and that he actually chose to marry me. I never knew it was possible to love him more, but the moment he became a dad, it happened. I somehow fell deeper in love. He is the most amazing dad to Stella and I can't wait to watch them over the years to come.

For his first Father's Day, Stella and I got him something every dad should have... a grill.

Beach Day - NJ

2010-07-05T23:20:00.001-04:00

We headed to "the shore" for the Saturday of Father's Day weekend. Our friend, Michael's uncles' had a huge party "down the shore", including a pig roast, a DJ and fully catered dinner for over 500 guests. We headed down early on Saturday so Mike could go play golf with Michael. Stella and I joined our friend, Meghann at her house in Ocean City and spent the day at the beach. It was so nice! Her dad's house is literally a block away for the beach, which made it really nice with Stella. We could bring lots of stuff and giving her a bath at the house afterward was a necessity. She literally had sand EVERYWHERE.

Mike's 30th Birthday

2010-07-05T23:09:00.001-04:00

Mike turned 31 on June 14 (aka, Flag Day.) This year, I had to continue the tradition of surprising him with some fun and exciting experience. Just because he's a daddy doesn't mean we have to sit at home and watch TV, right? And of course, with me birthdays are never just a one day event. So...
On Saturday morning, we had a babysitter come to watch Stella for the day and we headed down to Lewes, DE with our friends, Bryan and Meghann to experience Pints and Paddles at Dogfish Head Brewery. The kayaking was amazing, we saw lots of turtles and birds and for a minute, it almost felt like we were close to home. After a long day of kayaking, we headed the brewery for a tour and of course to sample a few beers. We ended up buying a bunch of random beers including a peach beer and a beer made with red and white wines.

On Sunday, we met up with Lauren and Mike and went to brunch at one of Mike's faves in the city, Jones.

The actual birthday was on Monday. That evening we enjoyed guacamole and hint of lime chips, opened presents and ate Mike's favorite cake, Marzipan. I couldn't find this kind of cake anywhere, so I made it, and promised to make it look prettier next year. Although I have to say, it tasted pretty good.

NYC

2010-06-15T23:07:00.000-04:00

While Nicole was in town, we decided to get out of Philly and headed to NYC for the day. It was a beautiful day and we spent our time hanging out in the village, ate lunch in Chelsea and shopped around. It was so much fun. We love living so close to NYC, we always think we really need to go there more often...

Devon Horse Show

2010-06-13T10:22:00.000-04:00

We finally got the opportunity to attend the Devon Horse Show and County Fair. Ever since we've moved here, I've wanted to go. But for the past 3 years during Memorial Day and the week after, Mike has been busy cramming for his CFA exam and we haven't been able to go. But, now that Mike passed his last test and finally received his CFA charter, we were able to enjoy Memorial Day and the beginning of summer once again.

Also, this year we were lucky enough to have our dear friend, Nicole come and visit us. She is always so much fun and we were so happy to have her here.

The horse show was amazing. It reminded me of the days when I used to go and watch my friend, Molly compete. The horses were beautiful and they did much more than the standard equestrian. They had horse and buggy competitions, they even had the Budweiser Clydesdales make an appearance... and the fair, well it was everything a county fair should be.

Stella - 11 Months!

2010-06-01T21:44:00.000-04:00

Stella has really developed her personality and this month more than any other, we're seeing her personality shine. She is so much fun now... Of course, every month we say this but this truly has been the most fun.

She's still not walking, but she will hold our hands and walk (even one handed). She walks around the furniture and is brave enough to walk from each piece. She's getting into EVERYTHING. Mike always says if you put three things in front of her, a toy, a cup and a knife, she would race to the knife! Ha, but seriously she has a way of finding anything and everything that could possibly be dangerous.

She has said her first words this month. Her first was dog (which she pronounces "da"), but she definitely knows what she's saying. She calls Morris over while she's eating and feeds him most of her food from her high chair. She LOVES him and he's not too disappointed in all of the delicious food she gives either. She also says "hi", "daddy" and "gosh".

She dances by bouncing up and down and nods her head to music.

Her favorite foods are bread, tomatoes and cheese. She is still a great eater though, eating almost anything and everything we put in front of her.

She also has become attached to her two stuffed animals- Minnie Mouse and Goofy. She has to sleep with them every night and as soon as she gets out of her crib, she reaches for them. So, they've been making their way around with her.

This scrapbook design personalized with Smilebox

Camping in PA

2010-05-31T01:31:00.000-04:00

The weather was gorgeous this weekend and we finally had the chance to take Stella on her first camping trip. It was a little different from the camping we're used to... we had to reserve a camp spot over a month ago and the campgrounds had restrooms with heated water for showers, parks with slides and swings and even a swimming pool. Luckily, all of these "amenities" were a little ways away from our campsite so we tried to imagine we were really camping.

Stella was great. She was so good at just sitting in our laps and being held even though I know she wanted nothing more than to get on her hands and knees and crawl all over the place. She slept pretty well too... with the exception of waking up at 3am scared and confused. We woke up the next morning, made breakfast, packed up our camp and went on a beautiful 3 hour hike. Morris was in heaven - and to be honest, so were the rest of us.

Pardon the blur, we forgot our camera and all we had was the iphone.

Our Campsite

Cooking up our dogs

Hiking

So comfortable, I guess I'll just sleep right here.

Take a hike

2010-05-18T12:20:00.001-04:00

Well, we finally are getting back into the great outdoors. We're so happy that the weather has warmed up and we're now living in the burbs only minutes away from Valley Forge Historic Park. There are hundreds of trails from flat river trails to advanced hikes. This weekend we went on a nice little river trail with Morris. He was so happy to be able to jump into the water and swim around. Because it was so flat we were able to take Stella in the jogging stroller, since our hiking backpack we ordered wasn't here yet.

Neat Freak?

2010-05-11T14:22:00.000-04:00

Stella working her organizing skills at the park yesterday... This was all her, no help from anyone else.

Ugh, what is this mess of red and yellow balls?

Serious concentration.

All done!

Home to surprise Grandma Sheridan for her 60th Birthday!

2010-05-05T22:42:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, Mike, Stella and I flew to SLC to surprise Sheridan for her 60th Birthday. Mike's sister, Audrey also flew in from Minneapolis. It was so great to see Audrey, she's pregnant with her first and we haven't seen her since the big news. She looked great and we can't wait to see her continue along the incredible journey of having a baby.

We all met up prior at the airport and drove to Sheridan's friends house where she was enjoying her dinner club for the evening. We walked in and she had her back turned to us... all of her friends were coming up and saying hi and she hadn't even noticed we were there. Finally, Mike decided to drop Stella in her lap to surprise her and wow, was she surprised. She looked at Stella with a really confused face, a look of disbelief and then noticed Mike, then Audrey and then me. She started screaming and tears immediately began pouring from her eyes. And then of course, Audrey and I joined in the tears (we cry at everything together.) It was so special and so fun to be able to truly surprise her.

We spent the weekend shopping doing whatever Sheridan wanted to do. We shopped at consignment stores (she has some great spots!), we ate great food and for the bulk of the time, just hung out and talked. It was so good to see you Sheridan, and we hope you had an amazing birthday!

Stella playing with the birthday girl.

Stella and Buddy.

Of course, while we were there we absolutely had to visit the rest of the families and were even lucky enough to have a few friends stop by Sheridan's house to say "Hi".

Stella and Grandpa Vic

Mike, Stella, Alex and Ellie (His new baby that we finally got to meet at 5 weeks old- she's sooo cute!)

Andrea, Ellie, Stella and Me (I felt like we were playing with our Cabbage Patch Kids - except they were real)

Grandma Baltz and Stella playing phone.

Cousin Elle reading to Stella

10 months already, really?

2010-05-05T21:32:00.001-04:00

It's true, we just finished the 10 month update for Stella. Time really flies!
This month, we had Mike's mom come visit, Stella and Mike had their first weekend alone while Mackenzie traveled to Chicago, and we went on a quick trip to D.C. to hang out with our friend, Stacey Brewster.
Stella is now eating real food which is so strange to us. She's a very adventurous eater for a 10 month old and seems to like just about everything we put in front of her. For example, tonight she had Falafel, mandarin orange, beans, cheese and broccoli. She is also getting much more comfortable with standing and walking while holding on to furniture. Who knows... maybe by next month's update she'll be walking - yikes! She also loves to copy everything we do... she and Mike scream back and forth at each other the whole time we're in the car. It's hilarious. She's very familiar with the word "No" and shakes her head "no" whenever she hears us say it. It doesn't mean that she actually stops what she's doing though. Haha.

Photo album personalized with Smilebox

DC with Stacey

2010-05-04T22:59:00.001-04:00

Last weekend my friend Stacey and I did a girls trip to DC. Stace and I have been friends forever and it was so nice to just hang out with one of my best friends. We miss our friends and family so much living here and sometimes it takes time with one of them to realize how much we truly miss them. Stace and I had a blast. We did a bike tour of DC on Friday, went out to eat, shopped in Georgetown and had fun just being girls together. Mike and Stella came to DC to join us on Sunday and we were so happy they did. It was such a great trip, thanks Stace for coming out to visit with me again. We miss you!!

Out on the town

Lincoln Memorial steps

Biking the sites.

Stace and I giving Albert Einstein an eskimo kiss. Apparently if you rub his nose, you get smarter. We figured if you rub your nose with his nose it's got to at least double your smarts.

Iwo Jima Memorial

Monkey faces at the Natural History Museum

Washington Memorial (Not sure why I look like I have dreads...?)

The fam at the WWII Memorial

Proud Utahns.

Daddy Daughter Weekend

2010-04-18T11:54:00.000-04:00

While I was off in Chicago, Stella and Mike had a great time on their own.

Stella attended a birthday party at Gymboree, for her friend Tyler. He was turning 1.

Chicago with the Girls

2010-04-18T11:44:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, I left Stella for the first time. My girlfriends from McCann (my old company in SLC/Seattle) do a girls trip every year and this year we decided to head to Chicago to visit Katerina. I was so sad to leave Stella. I felt like a was leaving a huge piece of me behind, but at least she would be home with Mike and I knew she'd be just fine. I cried when she and Mike dropped me off and I cried when my plane was taking off, I wanted so badly to run up and yell "Stop the plane!!" When I first left her, I kept feeling like I was forgetting something. You don't realize how much your baby rules your life until you leave them. I even stood at the jetway, waiting for her carseat and stroller when I got off the plane. And as I was walking to the cab, I couldn't help but think that I was forgetting something or missing something. Once I met up with the girls, I was able to enjoy the trip and relax. We had a great time, eating at great restaurants, seeing live music, going to watch a comedy show at second city and shopping.

Shopping - my friend Kara is really into biking, so we had to make a stop at this fabulous bike store, Dutch Bike Co. We actually ran into "Dottie"(she's on the left) from Let's Go Ride a Bike (a blog that Kara is obsessed with). So random!

Second City

An incredible comedy club where so many got their start, including: Tina Fey, Mike Meyers, Bill Murray...etc.

Sunday Brunch at Orange

yummy!

Always thinking of her...

More eating...

Shopping

Easter Sunday

2010-04-04T22:06:00.001-04:00

What a beautiful day it was for Stella's first Easter. The sun was out, the temperature was in the mid 70's and there was not a cloud in the sky. We celebrated by eating breakfast, diving into our Easter baskets, opening a package from Grandma and Grandpa Baltz, dying eggs, and enjoying dinner at our friends house in the city.

Stella was a big fan of her Easter basket, specifically the bubbles and her very own set of golf clubs.

Even with Easter baskets out for her to see, her first stop on Easter morning was to her drawer full of tupperware for some morning play time.

The Easter Bunny made it!

Dinner at Mike and Lauren's (Our old neighbors in the city)

Easter photos

Grandma Sheridan's Visit

2010-04-04T21:47:00.001-04:00

We are so lucky that with Grandma's new job as a teacher, she gets time off for Spring Break and was able to come out for a quick visit. There's nothing that reminds you more of how much you miss family until you have family close by. We enjoyed having Mike's mom in our home so much and she and Stella were inseparable. (With the exception of the fact that Stella decided to go through her mommy's girl phase during the week grandma was visiting!)

We had a great time hanging out at home, walking to the park, making meals, visiting Amish country and going to Stella's 9 month check up together.

Thanks for coming to visit us Sheridan, it means so much to us!

Stella is 3/4 of a year

2010-03-30T20:50:00.000-04:00

Now that Stella is 9 months old, she is able to clap, wave, stand holding on to furniture (even 1 handed). Her crawl speed has increased exponentially. She also likes to babble "Mamamama" and "Dadadada", we like to pretend she knows that she's identifying us.

This month, she got a taste of the zoo for the first time and of course, her first trip to Disney. She really loves Mickey Mouse. It's the only TV show that we turn on and she immediately starts watching. She loves the music too. We bought her a Minnie Mouse stuffed animal at Disney World and she sleeps with it every night - so cute!

Make your own digital photobook

The National Zoo for Haydin's Birthday

2010-03-23T22:11:00.000-04:00

This weekend we again made the trek down to DC. This time it was for our other niece's birthday, Haydin, turning the big 2. She had a monkey themed party with delicious monkey cupcakes (made by her amazing baker mom, Kari) and we got to go to the zoo to see the real monkeys. The weather was gorgeous and the animals were fun to see. Although, the giraffes and hippos are no longer there, we got to see pandas, elephants, chimps, gorillas, lions, tigers and much more. Hannah and Haydin didn't get too into the animals, all they cared about were treats (you'll see in the pics). Especially Haydin, there is nothing she loves more than M&M's and how can you deny her on her birthday?

Stella's first time entering a zoo.

The girls already found ice cream machines at the entrance...

Panda

Stella and Mike watching the elephants, those seemed to be her favorite. I guess they were the easiest to focus on:)

Birthday Girl. She seriously loves M&M's.

Stella and mommy with the Orangutan.

Tiger!

Snuggling after a long day.

It's Spring here in Philly!

2010-03-22T13:08:00.000-04:00

Since our return from Florida, Stella and I have been enjoying the park behind our house every single day. It's been so nice, and we are loving the time change. When Mike gets home, we can hang out outside, take the dog for a walk...etc. And given that we live so close to Mike's work, on Friday he came and met us at the park for lunch. Now that the weather is warming up, I'm loving the location we chose for our home. 5 min walk to Mike's office, 2 min walk to the park and 1 min walk to the grocery store.

Walt Disney World and the National Cheerleading Championships

2010-03-20T02:53:00.000-04:00

My adorable niece, Lexi and her cheer team qualified for the Nationals this year in Orlando. We thought it would be great to go and support her, see my mom, my sister and of course Lexi and get some nice, sunny weather. Unfortunately, Mike had to stay home and work so Stella and I flew solo.

We had a great time. The first two days it was rainy and of course, those were our days "off". So, we just lounged around, saw Alice in Wonderland...etc. On Saturday, we went to the cheer competition... and it really is just like Bring it On. It's awesome! But seriously, Lexi and her team were amazing. I was so impressed at how good they were, she's only 9 years old and she was doing back tucks and being thrown all over the place. I was so proud of her. If you want to see it, the Cheerleading is on ESPN2 this weekend and Lexi's division will be on air too (she's the youngest group I think.)

Anyways, we got to enjoy the weather and Disney World for the weekend and we were very sad to leave. I miss my mom, sis and Lex already and can't wait to see them again.

Cheer Competition

Disney World

Stella is 8 Months Young

2010-03-04T22:12:00.000-05:00

It's been a cold month here in Philly with lots of snow, it almost feels like we're back in Utah, well... not quite. We had lots of snow days and time at home to watch Stella grow and learn to crawl.

At first she had a gimp leg crawl (she kept her left leg completely straight and pushed off the foot while her right knee would bend like a normal crawl.) After a few days though, she mastered it and now she literally flies around the house and tries to keep up with Morris. Consequently, she has now also learned the word "no" as Mike and I run around the house trying to save her. We're all baby proofed now with the gate, the outlet covers...etc. I guess we're officially parents.

Stella can also pull herself up to standing now and has 5 teeth or 3 teeth and 2 teeth buds.

She's eating more and more solid foods and as you'll see in the video she loves to spit her water out all over the place.

She is ticklish now too, which is so fun. We love that we can make her laugh any time we want to.

This photo book customized with Smilebox

DC for Hannah's 4th Birthday

2010-02-24T15:55:00.001-05:00

This weekend we made the trek down to DC to visit my brother and his family and celebrate Hannah's 4th birthday. For her party we took the metro downtown and went to the Natural History Museum to enjoy the butterfly exhibit. It was so fun and the butterfly exhibit was beautiful.

Stella enjoying being a guest at her first birthday party.

The cake - it's Ariel, Hannah's fave.

Waiting for the Metro on our way to the museum.

CJ and Hannah playing tag

Natural History Museum

Stella LOVES it when Hannah tells her secrets.

Like father, like daughter. Do they look enough alike?

Haydin grabbing a snack.

BUGS!

The Butterfly Exhibit

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-17T16:23:00.001-05:00

Our Valentine's days are always so special. We just love the fact that it's a day to sit back, and celebrate the most important thing in our lives, love. Every year we switch off who's in charge of the day and this year it was my turn...

Throughout the day, Mike received notes made of candy hearts telling him what we were doing next.

We started the day with a delicious breakfast with petite palmiers - Mike's favorites.

Fun family gifts

Then we went to the spa and had a nice, relaxing couples massage.

After our massage, we headed home and Stella took a nap while Mike and I made chocolate cheesecakes for our desserts for later.

We then got ready, headed to the city and dropped Stella off with our friends, Mike and Lauren and Mike and I got to enjoy a nice dinner at a great restaurant right in our old neighborhood.

http://www.paradigmrestaurant.com/

When we got home, we put Stella to bed and enjoyed our cheesecakes (they were so delicious and low-fat too!) and the Olympics.

I love Valentine's Day and celebrating it with the most amazing husband and adorable daughter just makes it all the more special.

First night out with a real babysitter

2010-02-17T13:39:00.000-05:00

Friday night was a very special night. It was the first time that Mike and I went out on a date where we didn't have a very close friend or family member watching Stella. We hired a babysitter from care.com. She is a full time nanny and enjoys babysitting on the side. She is trained in infant CPR and first aid, so we felt pretty confident in her.

We had so much fun. Our friends, Mike and Lauren invited us to a Flyers game (Philly's pro hockey team). It's been so long since I've been to a pro hockey game and we just loved it!

We always have so much fun with Mike and Lauren and we were so happy that we were able to get the night out. Afterwards, we stopped in at our old neighborhood bar in the city, Charlies.

All in all it was a great night and when we got home, Stella was fast asleep and Sam said she was great and easy. Good news!! Maybe we'll try it again someday.

Snowed in!

2010-02-11T10:15:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning, we woke up to a ton of snow on the ground and huge flakes were still falling down. Mike checked his Blackberry and saw that his office was closed for the day due to snow... we got to have a SNOW DAY! We haven't had one of these in years, it was so much fun.

Mike immediately hopped back in bed and we slept in until 9am, it was awesome! We then made waffles, lounged around the house, played on the floor with Stella in our pj's, had a snowball fight while she napped, made soup, ate brownies and pretty much had the best day ever. It was so nice to just have the world around us shut down. There were no errands to run (because EVERYTHING was closed), no place to go... it was just awesome. We had such a great time together and we are so grateful that mother nature decided to make everyone take a day off.

Weather Article

View from our back deck.

Stella and daddy.

Play time!

Mike digging our car out of the snow (it snowed another 8 inches after this!)

More play time! Stella loves to have her entire basket of toys. She digs through and pulls them all out, then plays with the best toy of all... the basket:)

Getting ready to go on a walk to get some fresh air.

Back in the warm house, look at those red cheeks!

View out of our front door

This is our next door neighbors car under a tree - she's not getting out for awhile!

The "February Fury"

2010-02-10T10:58:00.000-05:00

It's true... the East Coast has been dumped with snow. And they are calling it the "February Fury." Mike almost didn't make it home on Saturday. We got 27" of snow at our house between Friday and Saturday night. Stella and I spent the day, cooped up in the house, we were told not to drive and to just stay home by state and city officials.

The airport closed and all airports south of us were closed too (DC, Baltimore...etc.) Mike's flight was first delayed and eventually canceled. After spending 12 hours at the airport to find out it was canceled, they told him the next flight he could get on would be Tuesday! He ended up going to a different airline and buying a whole new ticket into the Newark airport and catching Amtrak from NJ to Philly. Stella and I could not have been happier to pick him up at 11pm that night - so glad he made it home!

Stella and I spending a snow day at home watching the snow pile up and keeping our fingers crossed that daddy would make it home.

Grandma Baltz comes to town

2010-02-10T10:38:00.000-05:00

This past week Mike had to travel a lot for work, so my mom came out to spend time with Stella and I. We were so lucky to have such special time with her, so happy she could make it. But...

it turned out to be kind of a crazy week.

Mike and I both got sick at the beginning of the week, we were sure it was food poisoning. He was traveling for business and I was home with the baby alone - I couldn't wait for my mom to get there. Being that sick and having to take care of a baby is no fun. She got in super late on Monday night, so we slept in on Tuesday morning. I woke up to Mike calling me to let me know that he had passed out in the middle of someone's presentation in front of 500 of his coworkers and bosses! Poor guy, it was so embarassing. He hung out in his hotel room for the rest of the day since he had to catch a flight to Orlando at 6am the next morning.

My mom and I spent the next few days going to the gym, driving through Amish country, hitting up the largest craft store in the U.S. and mostly hanging out home, playing with Stella. My sister - in - law, Kari and my two nieces, Hannah and Haydin were able to come up from Washington DC and spend a night to see grandma and hang out with us.

On Thursday morning, my mom woke up and she was sick! Oh no, I had given her the bug... we were sure it was food poisoning. And now, CJ's family had been there overnight and had been exposed. Kari and I decided to take the girls to Stella's swim class and let grandma relax at home. It was so much fun to have them there, they loved it!

The girls left to go home after swimming and Stella and I spent the rest of that day/night taking care of grandma. My mom left to go home on Friday. I'm so happy she was able to come and spend such valuable time with us - sorry we got you sick mom! I feel so bad, and oh yeah, I feel even worse because that night my brother called me to let me know that his wife and two girls got it! So sad. We are sorry, it was a terrible stomach bug...

Kari, Hannah, Haydin and Stella.

Stella and Hannah playing together

At Stella's swimming class

Super Bowl!

2010-02-09T20:11:00.004-05:00

Stella's first Superbowl experience... Sunday, February 7.

We stayed home and enjoyed too many appetizers. What a great game!

Next year... Broncos vs. Seahawks!

Atlantic City!

2010-02-08T12:28:00.000-05:00

Well, we finally got to experience the AC. Our friend Michael celebrated his birthday on Saturday, Jan 30 and Mike, Stella and I went to join the party. Michael's mom was kind enough to come to AC just to watch Stella in the hotel so we could go out with the birthday boy. It was soooo nice of her.

Wow - AC was everything we had thought it would be. It was like the Jersey Shore in real life. Multiple fights, girls/boys whomever. Screaming, hairpulling, skimpy/disgusting outfits on girls who should not be wearing them...etc. We went to an irish bar at the Tropicana and then went on to karaoke. It was a blast and we had the best company.

Mike and I weren't ready to tuck in, so we opted to go play craps with Michael and Lauren (the birthday boy and his girlfriend). I ended up winning $400 and gave half to Michael and Lauren and we made it back to Stella at 5 am!

We had so much fun! But, it's probably the only time we need to see AC. Not much to see there:)

Anyways, we forgot to charge our camera so we didn't get many photos. I got a few on my iphone...

Me with Lauren and Meghann (our old neighbors in the city)

Trying to get proof of a fight (it's the girl in the pic)

Daddy and Stella cuddling in the morning

Stella is a 7 month old

2010-01-29T21:17:00.000-05:00

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.

2010-01-18T22:58:00.001-05:00

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!

2010-01-02T00:50:00.000-05:00

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

2010-01-02T00:36:00.000-05:00

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

2010-01-01T23:48:00.000-05:00

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.

Laguna Beach - Birthday Getaway

2009-12-21T21:31:00.000-05:00

We were lucky enough to travel to Laguna Beach Dec 9 - 13 for a birthday getaway that Mike had surprised me with. It was Stella's first time in California (a 6 hour and 30 minute flight out there due to tailwinds - yikes!!! She was luckily very good though :))

Our hotel room was amazing - right on the beach. It was great for the first 2 days when the weather was nice, it rained the last 3 days but hey, we were in Laguna so it didn't even matter to us.

We had so much fun hanging out with our friends, Sierra and Chase and their 2 kiddos. We miss them already and wish we lived there so we could hang with them all of the time:) On Friday night, Sierra's sister, Amanda came over to babysit the kids while the four of us went out to dinner. It was soooo weird to leave Stella, but it was really fun! I don't know if Amanda realizes how much we appreciated that - there's really no one here in Philly that we can do that with... so thanks again Amanda!

My friend Sierra is also an amazing photographer - especially when it comes to babies! She had a shoot scheduled for Saturday and asked if we wanted to jump on it and get a few pics of Stella while the studio was set up. It was so fun to see her in action... I love seeing my friends in their professional element. She really is amazing. Her blog is sierracampbellphotography.blogspot.com and her website is sierracampbellphotography.com. You can actually see a few of the photos from Stella's shoot on there. I can't wait to get these pics!

Thanks Mike - It was such an awesome birthday trip... I love you. And thanks again Sierra and Chase, we had a great time and miss you already!

Newton and NYC

2009-12-06T18:38:00.021-05:00

This past week Mike decided to take an advanced equity evaluation workshop in NYC, so Stella and I decided to join him and enjoy Christmas time in NYC. Apart from the summer, this is my absolute favorite time in NYC. It's so beautiful and it just feels so warm and magical. Kari and CJ were nice enough to let us stay with them in New Jersey so we didn't have to pay the ridiculous price for a hotel room.

We had a blast. I loved spending time with Kari and the girls. While in NYC, Mike, Stella and I went to see the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City. The Rockettes were amazing and Stella loved the lights, the dancing and the music. She sat there like an angel for the entire 90 minutes. NY definitely got us in the Christmas spirit.

On our way home, we stopped to buy our tree. We picked out a lovely frazer and hopped back in the car and it's a good thing we did because it started dumping! Huge snowflakes, it was so pretty and it made for a perfect evening of house and tree decorating. We are really enjoying having a fireplace :)

Hannah and Stella are buddies. Hannah loves to take care of her cousin, Stella. And Stella is always entertained by her.

Stella with Hannah and Haydin. All in there PJ's watching toons in the morning.

Rockefeller Plaza

Macy's

Times Square

Radio City Music Hall

Buying the perfect tree

It's a winter wonderland!

Decorating the tree

Stella is 5 Months Old

2009-12-03T01:31:00.000-05:00

It's amazing that it has already been 5 months since the day Stella was born.

This month has been so fun. From the first Halloween to the first Thanksgiving. Stella is laughing, she's sitting all by herself, eating her toes, doing yoga poses, she's eating rice cereal and drinking water out of a sippy cup. She now has her own room with a crib and sleeps so well in it every night. She is literally changing every single day and pulling new tricks out of nowhere. We are loving every single minute of it!

Make a Smilebox photobook

Thanksgiving in Dallas

2009-12-01T22:41:00.001-05:00

We were lucky enough to get the opportunity to travel to Dallas Texas for Thanksgiving this year. Mike's aunt, cousins and grandma live there and his mom and Audrey and Dave flew out from Utah and Minneapolis to spend the holiday too. As a bonus, my brother and his adorable girlfriend, Sarah live in Dallas and we got to spend a lot of time with them too.

We got in Wednesday night and spent that night and Thanksgiving day with my brother, Sarah and their new puppy, Pilot.

That night we went to Mike's aunt's house and had Thanksgiving with them on Friday. Friday night, we went with his family to an amazing show called Ice. My brother and Sarah joined us for the show as well. It was amazing, so fun to see.

The weather was amazing, 70 degrees and sunny from the moment we got there. We really lucked out. We had a great time visiting with everyone and we miss you already. Thanks for making us feel so at home and welcome, we can't wait to come back to Dallas!

Stella playing on the airplane. This was her 6th flight, and so far she has been a champ!

Getting picked up at the airport and meeting Uncle Ryan's new puppy, Pilot.

Stella playing with Pilot.

Thanksgiving Dinner at Ryan and Sarah's

Thanksgiving at Aunt Claire's

4 Generations!

Stella's Pilates move that she does all of the time. She's going to have a six pack in no time.

Stella with her Great Grandma Wright.

Shopping with Audrey, Aunt Claire, Sheridan, and Lisa.

Stella playing with her great grandma and Mike's cousin, Nick.

Stella showing Grandma how she can eat.

Swinging for the first time with Grandma.

Christmas lights on Black Friday at the Gaylord Texan.

The Ice show.

Everything is made of ice. It was absolutely incredible. It was 9 degrees so they give everyone these lovely blue coats to wear. Stella of course slept through the entire thing.

Turning the big 2-9.

2009-12-01T20:16:00.001-05:00

Last Tuesday was my birthday. It was a great day, started with delicious cinnamon roles baked fresh that morning by my wonderful husband. I loved getting all of the phone calls from home throughout the day, I miss everyone so much. We celebrated the occasasion at home - Mike made me one of my favorites, French Dips, for dinner and got me a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake from Cold Stone. Mike got me a great surprise gift and I'm so excited for it. We're going to Newport Beach on December 9th for 5 days! We'll be able to visit with our friends, Sierra and Chase and just relax on the beach. I can't wait!

Thanks everyone for an amazing birthday!

The Madness of Moving

2009-11-24T10:59:00.000-05:00

Wow - it's been forever since we've posted anything new. The past few weeks have been completely crazy. We've been in the process of moving from the city to the burbs and we chose to do it ourselves rather than hire movers. Luckily, my brother CJ and his family were nice enough to come to Philly and help us move all of the big pieces of furniture one Saturday. Our neighbors (old neighbors :() helped too and they were great.

Needless to say, it's been about 3 weeks since we started moving and we're still not completely settled in our new home. We have stuff everywhere! It's amazing how much stuff we had in our little 800 sq ft condo. We now have about 1500 square feet and we can't find places for some stuff - ha! Go figure.

These past few weeks have also been a lot of firsts for Stella... she got a crib and loves to sleep in it. She started eating rice cereal for the first time in her brand new high chair, and of course most importantly, she has her very own room!

Anyways, here's a few pictures from the past few weeks. We'll post pictures of our new house soon, it's just not quite ready for it's debut yet!

Moving Day

Stella has recently found her feet/toes and she LOVES them. She is constantly holding both feet with her hands and trying to jam her toes into her mouth. It's so cute!

Our neighbors threw us a little going away party. It's so sad, we have the best neighbors/friends you could ever ask for. We'll miss them a ton, but they've promised to come visit us in the burbs.

Mike and Mike

Lauren

Meghann

Bryan and Stella

Stella's first solid food experience

I'm ready!

Yum... kinda.

I love to drink water and spit it out all over the place

That was easy... bring on the green beans.

Stella's first time in her crib.

She'll miss that moses basket, towards the end she was touching all sides of the basket because she was so big- yikes!

She loves her mobile

Our new homemade headboard. I'm really excited about it, it turned out much better than I had expected.

Morning cuddles.

Saying goodbye to our first house. It was so sad, but with every ending, there's a new beginning, right?

Happy Birthday Elle!

2009-11-02T21:56:00.000-05:00

Today is our niece, Elle's 5th Birthday. Happy Birthday Elle, we miss you and wish we could be there with you!! Love you!