Wednesday, November 30, 2011

She Dances

We've always known Stella was destined to dance one day, and that day has finally arrived. Stell has recently taken to bouncing when she hears music, even a jingle on tv will get her little legs-a-hoppin'! So today I finally was able to capture her adorableness on camera! She bobbed and wiggled, and just loves to move! So here you go, our little dancin' machine! (You may want to mute the music on the blog before playing this video)

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Family Christmas Pictures

I am so very excited to share our family pictures done by none other than the awesome Nikki Hoover over at NHP. This slide show took me over 3 hours to upload and put together... I need a faster computer lol, but I was determined to get it done and posted so all of my friends and family can see them. When our pictures turn out this amazing, it really makes me want to get pictures taken every month! I love them! 

Enjoy!!


Monday, November 28, 2011

Photo card (see below)

We had our Christmas pictures taken last week with the Fabulous Nikki Hoover Photography, and here is our final Christmas card!! I'm so excited with this years card and photos, they turned out pretty amazing if I do say so myself!! We used Shutterfly to order our prints through, and I have to say, I've used a ton of different photo hosting sites, and Shutterfly has the most adorable and creative ideas I've found yet! 


Do you have a Christmas card to share? I'd love to see it! Leave a link in the comments to share your photo cards this holiday season! 

Photo Card


Handwritten Wishes Christmas
Don't send boring Christmas cards , personalize them at Shutterfly.
View the entire collection of cards.

Thankful!

We have so much to be thankful for this year. Stella is obviously the biggest blessing we could have ever wished for. This year will forever be one of the best years of my life, because of her, and the years to come will only get better and better. We are thankful to have a home, cozy and warm and filled with love. We are thankful to be able to afford food, clothing, and material things, that sometimes I honestly think we shouldn't have so much of, but feel blessed that we do. Thanksgiving every year is spent as a family, normally just Brent and I, but this year the 3 of us. We had some dear friends, Clint, Amy and Cora, over for dessert, and were so thankful they could join us! In years past, Brent and I have taken trips over the Thanksgiving holiday, normally up to Sun Valley for the long weekend to our favorite B&B, but this year we had the little, and wanted to be in our own home to start a new tradition with our family. 

We had a great 4 days of daddy home, I love when Brent gets time off and we spend it together. We did some shopping, crossing 3 more people off our Christmas lists. Did some much needed house cleaning and organizing, and spent some time with our awesome friends! Clint, Amy and Cora invited us to go meet Santa, the REAL Santa! Fluffy white beard, bowl full of jelly, and the kindest, gentlest manners i've ever seen in a santa, he made me want to curl up on his lap and list off what I want for Christmas! Stella loved him! She pulled on his beard and coat, played with the pinwheel and candycane he gave her, only smiled at him, not the camera once, just stared curiously at his face, wondering who this jolly old fellow was that had her snuggled into his hip. I think we'll go back to this Santa again every year, He had a special Santa quality that is hard to find. Thanks Amy for the invite!! I went a little overboard with photos, but your kid only meets Santa for the first time once! Right!? 











I love this one, they look like they were genuinely having a great conversation.


waiting patiently in line to meet the jolly old soul

some naked time over the weekend 

Our wreath this year, it's square! We bought it at the market :) 
Love this outfit by Tea collection, Stell loves their soft clothes

We headed downtown to the Boise Market on Saturday morning, it was too beautiful out not to go!

and I enjoyed my favorite Mexican hot chocolate from Big City Coffee, yum!

One last cute pic of Stell and I at Edwards Greenhouse, where we met Santa 


Thursday, November 17, 2011

8 months and growing!

Stella,

You have truly become quite the little handful this last month. You are a professional crawler, and quickly moving onto being a walker. You get into EVERYTHING now, opening cabinets, pulling out drawers, we need to do some serious baby proofing around our house ASAP! You've perfected standing, and hardly wobble at all anymore. You love to walk along the couch, usually to wherever Abby is sleeping. you also love to go up and down, across the room from couch to chair to ottoman, and back again, over, and over, and over. You are finally mastering how to sit back onto your bum from the crawling position, pushing with one hand and balancing with the other.  Daddy and I think you will be walking in a matter of weeks, most likely long before Christmas! And then were sure running wont be far behind. You've always been quite the mover! We just didn't think you would be this busy of a mover so early :)

You have also become quite the eater! You love trying new food, smelling it first then attempting to swallow our entire finger along with whatever we've offered you, it's pretty hilarious watching you eat! You chew very deliberately, mouth open, and staring at whomever gave you the food. You also clear your mouth, show us your done, and open for a new piece, sometimes we cant give you food fast enough. So far your favorite foods at Peas, beans (black and pinto so far) Organic Banana and Greens puffs (Happy Baby Organics), carrots, bananas (sometimes), Avocado's, Kiwi berries, and stone fruits. We always get that funny "what the heck is this?!?" face when we introduce something new to you, but within a bit or two, you're hooked. You're not a HUGE eater though, you like almost everything you've tasted, but after a dozen pieces or so, you're over it. I'm still nursing you several times a day baby girl, you love you some boobs, which is just fine by me, I love that something from my body can fill your tummy better than anything else, and that I can offer you all the nutrients you need to grow. I love how you touch my face while staring up at me with your big blueish eyes, How you curl into my chest, and bring your foot up over my shoulder, your my little nursing contortionist. We've had to start quieting the room and dimming the lights while you nurse, because you have become extremely distracted, you really don't want to miss anything. 

Little gremlin, you are so much fun right now! I love this stage of your life. I've loved every stage so far, but every day is a new adventure with you, we have so much fun playing together! It's getting very chilly outside now, the leaves are on the ground, daddy spends some time each night raking and filling bags, while you trail behind him, making sure no leaf is left behind, instead they all end up in your mouth, some even make it to your tummy... mmm, fiber. You are still very much an outdoor baby, as cold as it it, your little nose can be bright red, fingers like little ice cubes, but you'd still rather play outside, and sometimes even cry when we bring you in for the day, fighting the whole time. You are finding things to keep you occupied on your own, which is wonderful when mommy wants to do some laundry or make dinner (we've actually had a home made dinner every night for almost 2 weeks!!!), but most of the time you just follow me around, from room to room, all over the house. It's so fun that you can crawl and follow, I love when you finally catch up to me wherever I've gone, you always smile and look so proud of yourself! 

You certainly are also trouble for daddy and I, but we love it, and were ready for all you can dish out! Last week I caught you with Lilly in a headlock... literally. You had your arm around her neck and had her pinned to the floor, poor cat! She was so good to you though, and just let you do it, your animals love you so much. Yesterday you learned how to pull the Velcro off your diaper, or how to just take it off in general... which scares my quite a lot actually... I love when your naked and let you be naked all the time... but what scares me is the one time you poop and decide to take the diaper off yourself... oh man does that scare me! I'm sure it's going to happen though... maybe we'll just stick to snaps for awhile. You also had your first bloody and fat lip!! A casualty of crawling and taking a faceplant without stopping yourself, it was the saddest thing ever to see the blood pouring out of your mouth, not knowing quite where it was coming from, and you sobbing in my arms, so scared from the pain and unsure of what was happening. You were a trooper though, and still nursed like a champ, even with a top lip twice the size of the bottom. It ended up being more of a scrape on your lip than a cut, and you were back to normal in only 2 days thankfully, your such a tough little girl! 

I'd love to tell you what a good sleeper you are also... but we struggle with that one. You have a high need to sleep with someone, or near someone, which is wonderful most of the time. I absolutely love sleeping with you, and could not imagine any other sleeping arrangements. The only thing is naps, which have gotten better, but still don't last much longer than an hour to maybe an hour and a half if were lucky. Night time is hit or miss. You usually are in bed and asleep between 7:30 and 8, but have been waking up within an hour or so. I think it might be too warm for you sometimes, so were going to see how you do sleeping in just a diaper for a few nights, it's too chilly to have no heat, and we don't turn the heat up that much, but I think your body is just so warm naturally, that when you're up against me sleeping, our bed turns into a little oven. I guess you might be like your daddy in that sense, he radiates heat when it's barely 10 degrees out! 

Stella Jean, Daddy and I are so thankful to have such a smart, curious, and energetic little girl! We thank God every single day for you, and could not imagine out lives without you in them! I cannot wait to see what this month brings, i'm sure many new things are going to happen, some wonderful, some spills, some possibly yummy and yucky food adventure... All of which will bring smiles to our faces i'm sure. We love you so much baby girl! Happy 8 months of life :)

Love, Mommy and Daddy

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Inspired by Pinning ~ Pinterest project # 1

Hi. My name is Jess, and I'm slightly in love with Pinning.

Pinterest is my new found obsession... I love all the creativity that is flowing around those boards, some super smart, some super creative, and some just so darn cute! A few weeks ago I decided that it was time to tackle one of the many crafty ideas I had pinned onto my bedroom board, New DIY headboards for our bedroom. Which go adorably with our new bed from here! So, I went out around Boise, in search of the perfect supplies for my project, wood, batting, and a beautiful fabric. We already had the staple gun and staples (Brent actually has 3 staple guns...) and I ended up having to go back to JoAnn Fabrics for hangers... but after 2 trips out for forgotten supplies, I was finally able to put these beautiful new pieces of art together. So, here's how it went...



Lay boards out along folded batting. I used a king size extra fluffy bag of batting, folded into 3rds, and then laid out my 4 24"x24" pieces of half inch thick plywood, being sure to space them a few inches apart, then cut and smooth batting.

Fold batting along edges and staple with gun, I used alternating staples, horizontally and vertically, just in case some decided to pull. 

Smooth the batting somewhat taught as you go along, so you don't leave creases or wrinkles on the front.

When your all done, you can trim the excess batting to make sure it's not too bulky. Also trim the corner folds so they are not too bulky either.

Finished batting covered boards!

lay your fabric (I used a twill style thicker upholstery fabric) print side down on the floor, you can iron if it is especially wrinkly, I didnt as you can see above... but it smooths out when you pull and staple it tightly. 

Be sure if you have a print that it is laid level along the print, I didn't on the first one and had to redo part of it... 

Fold fabric over batting, and staple at the edge of the batting, so there is a nice little tuft along the edge of the board. I put staples every inch to inch and a half apart, just to be sure it wouldn't tear or pull. 

Staples placed about an inch and a half apart. Continue folding fabric along each side, tucking corners in at the end. I forgot to take pictures of how I tucked the corners, i'll add those when I finish the last two boards this weekend.


Some of the finished boards!!!

I chose two contrasting colors, they look so great staggered on the wall!!

 I'll be hanging and finishing up this Pinterest project this coming weekend, Stay tuned and check back in a few days for the final reveal! :)

Fall in full swing

We've been thoroughly enjoying the arrival of fall around here, so much so that I've once again been neglecting the blog, my apologies (sorry mom). So i'm taking Stella's nap time, and my usual 'pick up the house and shower' time today to update and share some of what we've been doing around here.

Lots of puppy lovin'



I love this picture, Brent snapped these of Stella, trying to get Abby's attention through the door. If Abby is outside, Stella goes and stands at the door, slapping her hand constantly until Abby responds, haha. 
The Leaves were nice and crunchy this year, not yet spoiled by rain, still clean and somewhat bug free. Stell had a BLAST crunching through them, eating some, breaking some, and having a good 'ol time with her papa.



And now a little fun with dad in the leaves, I think dad got more of a kick out of all this than the little did...








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