Thanksgiving

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!! We had a fun Thanksgiving this year. It started out a bit sketchy with a little girl who is teething and also had a cold. She forgot to sleep on Wednesday and when we got her home after our date, she woke up every hour from 1 am to 8:30. It was rough. We went to Mike's uncle's house for the big family gathering and ate and played some games. We left from there and went out to some friends house for another dinner. The smoked turkey was amazing and her potatoes... TO DIE FOR!!! I must get her recipe, something about white and gold potatoes with a sweet potato and turnip thrown in and of course butter, cream cheese and milk. OH MY!

Friday we all stayed at home and lounged, watched some TV, slept, ate some leftovers then went to another friends house for some leftover food and great conversation. We were so blessed and so stuffed at the end of the two days.

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving here are a few of the things I am thankful for (in no particular order).
1. Family. I love my small little family.
2. Health
3. Heavenly Father
4. Jesus Christ
5. Alabama football
6. a warm home that keeps me safe
7. Amazing friends near and far. (and too many are far away)
8. My sister... she is pretty awesome
9. laughter from my family
10. the internet
11. Food. We have been so blessed with awesome cookbooks that make me a pretty darn good cook
12. A husband who does dishes so I don't have too...
13. A mom and dad who bring us home to spend a whole month with them.
14. teething tablets and children's advil.
15. Men and women brave enough to go out and fight for their country, people like Mark A. Forester.

I hope everyone out there had a fantastic Thanksgiving!!

Happy Birthday

On November 4th 2011 my happy smiling baby turned 1!! It was a Friday night so we didn't do much. We sang happy birthday to her and gave her extra attention (is that possible??). I had to work that night so we kept it pretty low key. I did make her a tye dye cake. It was not bad but I realized 1/2 way thru mixing the colors I didn't buy food coloring, I bought a box of icing tubes. OOPS! oh well. I also think I forgot to add a bunch of the powdered sugar to the frosting.. my buttercream was... well buttery. Stella loved it. We took the family to the park. I was chilly but not to cold. Until the wind started. It was crazy windy. So we left Stella in the car sleeping and ate at the picnic table without her. :) We were joined by Mike's brother Jamison, his wifey Sheri and their cute baby James. Mike's parent we not there yet. So after we ate lunch we decided it was too cold to stay so we headed out to the church. Some friends were setting up for a wedding reception so we snagged on of the extra rooms and set up her birthday cake. Mike's parents met us there and we had a low key but fun afternoon. Stella really loved her cake. I stripped her down to eat and true to form the church was cold so she started shivering. I tried to take the cake from her so I could put her clothes on and she snatched her arm away and shoved the cake in her mouth. It was pretty funny. I let her shiver and shake for another moment then I cleaned her up.



The birthday cake decorated by Isabel


Birthday Girl!!


loving my cake!

We spent the next little bit playing with the kids. Stella did open up her present and got some awesome stacking/nesting balls from her aunt and uncle. She LOVES them. She also graced us with more walking and crazy laughter while playing with a balloon. Seriously, it's crazy how much fun kids can have with an air filled piece of latex.

Happy with the balloons.



The rest of the night consisted of a bit of shopping, a reception and dropping the girls off at Gma and Gpa so we could go watch the LSU/Bama game at a local bar/grill.

All in all it was a super fun day (minus the outcome of the game of course). Sunday we had our big family home evening with extended family. I made two cakes and man...they were AWESOME. My buttercream was to die for and my chocolate... oh my.

For posterity's sake
Stella is 22.7lbs and 28 in tall.

October recap

I have been waiting to have the camera to download all of our pictures and Mike takes it most everyday for work.... so.. I'm (patiently) waiting for the camera. I worked and worked the whole month and finally we were able to use our Groupon to Grant's Farm here. I had never been and I LOVED it! Grant's Farm is a 281-acre ancestral home of the Busch family, located just south of the city of St. Louis. The Farm is home to more than 900 animals representing more than 100 different species. Ulysses S. Grant founded and farmed a portion of the 281 acres. There was a tram that took you around so you could see the wildlife and it dropped you off at the center of the farm. There were places to feet baby goats, which was awesome. One of them was trying to eat the fringe off Stella's pants and Izzy couldn't figure out how to walk with them jumping on her. We went to an Elephant show, fed some chickens and saw the Clydesdale. I forgot just how GIGANTIC their feet are.



Tram ride into park


zebras


feeding goats





We also had our ward Truck or Treat party, we didn't get to stay long but the girls were cute in their matching outfits. After that party... Some great friends from back home who are HUGE Cardinals fans flew in town just for the 7th World series game. So Mike and I ran down to the stadium to watch the game just outside gates. It was so much fun. After a nice visit at Steak N Shake we finally ended that part of the night.




Halloween night we went over to our old stomping grounds and did trick or treating. Stella made friends with a really cute dog and a bunch of ladies. Izzy made a haul and will still be eating her candy in February. :)

So blogger is being funny and my preview is all messed up... Hope you enjoyed the many odd faces of Stella!

Buddies

Stella has a little buddy, meet Kyle. Kyle is the son of a friend of mine that I get to watch periodically. He was born a week before Stella and is SO CUTE! I love watching him. This last time a couple weeks ago I started snapping some pics of them both right after their naps. Kyle's face was almost dead pan the whole time Stella was slapping his back and laughing. I love that she cracks herself up. And yes... my child is naked.

Favorites

I know that you shouldn't have favorite children. I mean heck I only have two living with me but at times I love them both (ok...all the time) and sometimes... well you know. But for the last few weeks this cute face (I wish I had another recent picture of her doing this)



She is awesome! School has been so good for her, it's helping her focus her energy, follow directions better, she is so helpful at home. Isabel loves playing her with little sister... you know this one..


Now of course I love this little girl, she is super cute and squeals all the time. But.... well but. Yesterday we were all desperately trying to take a nap, I have been working so much that I needed sometime to sleep and lay around with my family. Since Stella decided to sleep during church she took it upon herself to try and keep us all awake, squealing with some sort of delight, crying when we tried to ignore her, climbing all over us with her booty in our face. I tried telling her that I would love her more if she just gave me 30 min...honest to goodness, she laughed at me.

one of those days

You know when you have those days where the powers that be are conspiring against you? yep, that's me. Yesterday went pretty well, sewing class was great, I went and babysat for a friend, that was fun but poor Stella never got a nap. So we get home at 3:30 I put Stella down for nap, got Isabel from the bus... and live as we know it was over. Stella was CRANKY (of course I did feel bad that her sleeping was off) and the rest of the night was more cranky, no making her happy, whining, whining and more whining. In the middle of all this I was trying to get my FBI background check info so I could be a chaperone for Izzy's field trip today. (oh and Isabel is the best daughter, I love her!) My work requested me to have it done, but the school also requires it to be with the kids. So I thought 'great I'll knock it out and it will count for both'. So 2.5 weeks ago I went and had it done. Now it turns out that even though it was categorized the same for both, done thru the DESE (dept of Edu) Isabel's school doesn't have access to it. I just don't understand. Isabel was CRUSHED when I told her I probably won't be able to go. I could find no way to log in to check it, no one could help me, my boss was calling to get it done also and to no avail.

Finally we go to bed, it took Izzy 2 hours to fall asleep, Stella was crazy so I went to bed in tears. (my apartment is also a MESS so that wasn't helping) Fast forward to 6:00am. Stella wakes up screaming bloody murder I get her calmed down and for the next 15 min it was like she had turrets, randomly crying or screaming out in her sleep. So all this has left me with an awesome day I'm having trouble shaking. I apologized to Isabel for not being there for her fieldtrip, she understood but said it would be so much more fun if I was there. So Isabel loves me, Stella is driving me nuts (I'm so grateful for cute kids that I can't stay mad at... Stella grins and melts my icy mood). However she did just fall asleep....

one year

I can't believe it's been one year. I was driving home from work and it hit me that it's been one year since I received a call from Cheyenne telling me that Sr Airman Mark Forester was killed serving our country. I cried on the way home. I cried for the loss of my friend, cried for his family, and cried for what might have been in store. Followed behind those tears was an overwhelming sense of love and pride for what Mark did for us, for Mark living his life, and dying, doing what he felt was his duty, and was what he felt God wanted him to do. My thoughts and prayers are with my friend Thad, with his family. I hope I can always teach my children of the sacrifices, the selflessness of so many who are better examples then I.