Randoms

Not much has been happening with us this week, which is why I have had a lack of posts as of late. We've been taking it easy around our house, trying hard to get Stella on a regular sleep schedule, which she still fights like crazy at every nap, and every bedtime. Even if I lay down with her and nurse her to sleep, she wakes up as soon as I get up... lame. The other night she was awake for 2 full hours from about 2:30 til about 4:30.... again.... lame. She has such an active mind, and is such an active little girl, I think she just prefers going a million miles a minute, and we prefer her to chill out and nap at least twice a day, so for now were agreeing to disagree, and trying our best to get her to like sleep a little bit more. She is so active, that currently I am sitting out on our deck blogging (because it's finally tolerable to sit out here and there is an awesome breeze going through), which she bounces away in her activity jumper. I never thought I would be one of those parents who rely's on a big toy to keep their child happy, but seriously? She is so active, it's tough to put her down and have her stay happy for more than 5 minutes, even if surrounded by toys. She wants to be into everything, touching, seeing, biting, jumping. Her favorite thing to do is stand up on our laps and jump, she laughs and we get the biggest, gummiest grins when she's jumping, she just loves it. 

This little girl is going to keep us on our toes. We can already tell she's a mover, we've known this since the first ultrasound, she was wiggling all over, just this little embryo, standing straight up.  Where most babies at 10 weeks gestation are curled up and looking like a seahorse, Stella was dancing across the screen, even the tech warned us we were going to have our hands full. I wouldn't have it any other way though, She keeps me moving, gets me out and about, loves the park, loves being outside (literally, could stay out there all day) and is just our little firecracker. I cannot wait to see what her activity brings us as a toddler :)

I have a ton of pictures to share from the last 2 weeks, I am just now getting around to uploading them, and didn't realize just how many there were... Enjoy!

The little, or Gremlin as we affectionately call her when she's got this face/attitude going, is now into EVERYTHING. Fighting hard to reach things she wants, putting everything she successfully grabs right into her mouth, yea, it's fun

Daddy's cup is especially yummy to chew on

mmmmmm. cup.

Daddy trying to take it back... Stella was having nothing to do with handing it over though...

look at the sheer happiness and huge smile on Stella's face, you can see it, even though she's upside down, you can see it on Brent's face too, I love it. 

so happy!

Have you ever had an ORANGE watermelon??? We have! and it was delish!!

I've only dared take one photo of Stella sleeping... i'm afraid the flash will wake her. But isn't she so freaking adorable!?!
She's such a big girl now sleeping in her own crib!!

Last week I finally got around to painting our dining room chairs, yay! I had been wanting to for awhile, but it's tough finding extra time for crafty stuff with the little. So, I had daddy watch her, and I was able to paint all 4 chairs! I only got one coat, so they are a little rough, not as smooth as I had hoped, but at least they are yellow!! I love the color, it brightens up our kitchen a ton! 

We've had some pretty awesome sunset's lately, and I finally got a picture that turned out! For some reason the pink skies never look the same in the pictures, but orange? It looks pretty great! 

These next pictures are of Stella eating some of her first foods, I just loved the intense look on her face watching daddy scoop the rice, and how big her mouth gets as the spoon approaches, love it.

And don't you love her bib? Yes, my sister bought it for her, so it's totally ok that she is pretty much advertising her auntie is Hot... and Single. Her number is 555.... ;)

a few of our favorite (and necessary) things

I've been wanting to share the things that are our saving grace with Stella these days, things that keep her entertained, things that keep her engaged, things that make her happy, things that make our lives a little simpler. We have our go to items, the ones that never get left at home, always make it in the diaper bag, or in the carset with Stella, the ones that i'll even tuck inside the wrap with the little while were are the grocery store. I know every baby is different, but I do think that most enjoy similar simple toys at this age, things that make noise, feel good in their hands and mouth, and keep them entertained for more than 3 minutes. 

So, in no particular order, Stella's favorite things:

Indestructibles - books that were built for babies.

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These books are AWESOME! Stella is totally in the destruction stage... chewing, tearing, pulling, ripping, kicking... she is pretty much into everything right now. The other day at Starbucks, she grabbed a handful of straws and knocked over a stack of bubble lids... in one fell swoop. She totally destroyed one of Brent's work documents just a few minutes ago, it's now covered in baby drool, ripped into pieces, and crumpled into an unrecognizable blob. I found these books at one of our local downtown book shops, The Rediscovered Bookshop , and from the moment Stella had them in her grasp, they have not been let out of her sight without a fuss. She loves them! The cool part? These can be crumpled, chewed, pulled, dunked in water, washed in the washing machine, run over, etc. and wont be damaged.... The only thing that really ruins them? The microwave... which I don't know about you, but I don't normally microwave my books ;)

Sophie

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Sophie the Giraffe has been around for 50 years (as of 2011! Happy 50th Sophie!) and thank goodness she's still one of the best teething toys around! Stella loves her Sophie, she goes everywhere with us, and is always the first toy I go to if Stell is fussy. 

Rich Frog Duck Crinkler

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This little duck is another one of the little's favorites. She'll twist, pull, chew and overall try to destroy this little crinkly duck in everyway she possibly can, and it has held up over the last month just perfectly. She loves the crinkly noise, and that she can chew, and I love that it is soft, entertaining, and fits perfectly in her little hands. 

Homemedics sound spa lullaby 

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This sound machine has been our nighttime saving grace since Stella was born. It was a gift from a family friend, and we honestly use it almost EVERY night, I love it, Brent loves it, and Stella for sure loves it. It helps block our the street noise, or neighbor noise, or any other noises that the night brings. The light show is great for getting Stella calmed down and relaxed for naps or bedtime, we turn it on while were reading books if she's not really into the book, it's a good distraction but keeps her calm. The projector part tilts, so it can be shown on the ceiling above the crib, or on the wall at any height. I love the rain setting, it reminds me of the sound I grew up with in Seattle, the constant rain drizzle hitting the roof, hitting the patio outside my window, it's a very comforting and soothing sound, both Brent and I love it. 

Didymos wrap

I realize you cant see the whole wrap, but check out their website to see more beautiful patterns and wraps

Stella loves being worn. I've worn her since the first day we brought her home.... we'll, my sister actually wore her in the Moby that first week while my milk came in, it was just too painful to have her snuggled tightly against my chest. But, she's been worn almost every day of her life. I wear her around the house, on walks, at the grocery store, to the market, to parks, pretty much anywhere. Only recently has she been in the stroller, which I think she enjoys for short walks and when it's really hot out. Otherwise, she's being worn. We now use a Didymos wrap, which I borrowed from a babywearing friend, and have decided to purchase from her, I love it because it's so much more sturdy and breathable than the Moby. I can no longer wear her in the stretchy Moby wrap, they are not safe for babies to wear over 15 or 16 lbs, they just sag and get super loose. Woven wraps don't do that, they only have a slight stretch, which is perfect for small adjustments and for the baby to be able to move and wiggle a little, but they wont sag or need to be adjusted, even if you're going hiking or will be wearing the baby for a long time. I also prefer these to the more structured carriers that are advertised so much, such as the bjorn or infantino, which are not safe baby carriers at all, and can cause injury to babies when worn too long or improperly (i.e. facing outward). I love seeing moms and dads wearing their little ones, but please research before you buy, try on carriers, and look a little more deeply into good carriers vs. the inexpensive and not so great ones. I've been thinking of asking a good babywearing friend if she would be interested in writing up a blog post on the different types of carriers and carry's, so keep an eye out for that sometime in the future. 

Raw Baltic Amber Teething Necklace

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We ordered this exact Baltic Amber necklace a few months ago for the little and I am SO thankful we did. Not only is it absolutely beautiful, but Stella is a different baby with it on. She was getting to the point where her hands were always in her mouth, crying in pain constantly, nursing non-stop, and had some major rashes going on down there from all the acid building up in her body from the developing teeth. This necklace took about 3 weeks to arrive from Latvia (my first piece of international mail!) and was hand made to order just for Stella's little neck. Baltic Amber is a natural healing analgesic, it has natural anti inflammatory and pain relieving properties that the skin absorbs from the amber beads which help with teething. So far? It's perfect. Stella is super happy almost all the time, and hardly seems to have any pain from teething anymore. She wears it 24/7, and the days we do take it off? the rash returns, and her pain seems to come back, so we just keep it on to keep the pain away and keep the little happy. Stella also has a Healing Hazelwood necklace, which helps pull the acid out of her body and into the wood and also is a huge help with teething. We put that on her when her rash flares up, and in a day it's usually under control. 

Well, these are just a few of the things we cant seem to live without these days. Do you have your favorite, go-to items, the ones you never dare leave the house without, the ones that are babies tried and true happy time things? I'd love to hear what they are, and what you can't live without. 

Our week by Droid, week 1!!

I'm so excited to be linking up for the first time this week and share our week in phone pics! I've wanted to do this link up for awhile, but I rarely upload all the photos I take, until I realized I could easily upload them right to the blog through picasa, how awesome is that?! So, hopefully now i'll remember to join in the phone photo fun!

Want to hear another really exciting new thing for us this week??!?! Stella is sleeping through the night!!! Well. Almost. We've started putting her in her crib, in her room for naps, and she sleeps so well, that we thought we'd try out putting her in there for bedtime. She slept 9 hours the first night (albeit, after a 2 hour sleep fighting battle between her and us...). It was rough, especially for me, but she finally went to sleep, stirred once and daddy calmed her down in just a few minutes, and then... she slept! All night!!! So, we tried again last night... and it only took about 25 minutes of fussies and just a little bit of dancing and again, she went right to sleep!!! Tonight??? Umm, she was asleep in less than 10 minutes :) I AM SO HAPPY!!! She has woken up a couple times tonight, but she was down by 8:45... which meant Abby and I could go on a bike ride, which I haven't been able to do with her since last summer, it was so great! I would love to share a picture, but I don't dare sneak in there and use the flash... i'll get a cute one of her napping, we don't mess with nighttime. Hopefully it will continue to get easier every night, and soon, she'll just lay down, and go right to sleep, babies do that, right? 

so, here's some of our week in Dphone pics...

The beginning of the week I found myself doing some projects around our house... I installed a retractable clothesline, which, I love. and I painted our dining room chairs an amazing shade of yellow! I looove them! They have brightened up our tiny dining room a ton! and now pull the living room and kitchen together :)

Brent, Stella, Abby and I took a walk along the greenbelt downtown, our power went out for a few hours and it was way too hot to hang out inside with no AC, so we packed up, and walked almost 4 miles along the river. Stella passed out halfway back, and I kicked an exposed root somewhere along the way, leaving me with a split big toe and lots of blood to clean off my sandal. 

We are officially starting Stella on more solid foods, still mushed, but different from her norm. This week she LOVED avocado, which is the green stuff smeared around her mouth. She also enjoyed chewing on a green bean that we picked up at the market, she would not let that thing go, and cried when it broke and I had to take it away :(

More of Stella's culinary adventure a few nights later, applesauce on the left (the yellow mush) and zucchini on the right (the green mush), the small bowl in the middle is a mix of the two... this wasn't a big hit with her. and the last pic was out grilled dinner that night, chicken, squash, and corn with a garlic parsley butter, yum!

Linking up with Amy @ a good life, head on over and check out their week in pics!



Oh, and how about sharing the love and clicking through for a vote? Thanks!

Our week

Sorry for being mostly MIA this last week. While the hubby was out of town for 10 days, my mom and sister came to visit us for a few days. I was so happy to have them here to keep us company and love on the little for a week! My sister was only here for the weekend, but mom drove over and stayed for a full 6 days!!! It was SO wonderful having her here all week, just someone to help out with Stella, let me clean, help me clean, and go do fun things with all week made Brent's absence much easier on us. Unfortunately, I forgot to charge my camera battery before they arrived, so as I was trying to click some pictures on Friday night, my camera went dead... then Saturday we went to the market, and as I pulled out the camera to shoot a cute picture of my sister wearing Stella at the market, I had forgotten to put the battery back IN the camera... fail. So, I didn't get any fun market pictures like I had wanted. Mom and I went to Sun Valley on Tuesday, I actually remembered to bring the camera, but, didn't take any pictures while up there... fail again. What did I take pictures of? Us hanging out at home. Lame huh. But there are some pretty adorable shots of Stella with our guests, she sure was lovin' her some family time!

Getting snuggles with Grandma

Doesn't Stella look so content! She really loves her Grandma's cuddles.

I love these series of pictures with Stella and her auntie. Bare Bum (naked time), Aunties cute braid (and little sneak of her newest tattoo!!), kisses and huge smiles! What more could a baby girl ask for!?!

Grandma gave Brent and I a date night while she was here, and apparently everything was great up until Stella started fighting sleep... Bath went great, naked time was awesome, the tour of the backyard went splendly, but sleep? No thank you Stella said. And she fought it like crazy I guess... We didn't get the "Having a meltdown" text until we walked in the door.... where we found this scene below:

Stella finally passed out, slung over mom's arms where she had been bouncing her trying to get her to calm down in between heartbreaking sobs mom said. It broke her heart but what a trooper!!! and for the record... Brent and I only went to get ice cream and were barely gone an hour... poor little just cant handle her evenings with anyone else but mama I guess, something were going to have to work on apparently. 

After Grandma got the little to sleep (yay!) She passed her off to dad for some snuggles, he had been missing his girl an awful lot while out of town. 10 days is the longest he's been away from Stella so far, and it was tough, so he's been catching up on all the lovin's he can get!

Don't ya just love sleeping babies?

How about a vote?

Snapshots of our week

So I'm thinking of starting up a new weekend post/photo dump with randoms that happen throughout the week, nothing fancy, just extras that I don't get to blog about throughout the week normally. I find myself with a ton of pictures left at the end of the week, photos from a day spent out back, at the park, cute snuggles with daddy, or even sometimes mommy if I'm lucky. We'll see how this goes, I'm not sure I can keep up a weekend post every weekend...but i'll sure try :)

Now I fully understand the term "sleeping like a baby", She's so cute.

Having fun hanging out side with daddy

and a couple attempts at family photos that didn't turn out so well...

Happy Weekend!

3 Months and Growing!!!

Stella,

Today you are 3 months old!! You are growing so fast, and have changed so much in the past 13 weeks! You are such a happy girl now, smiling constantly at mommy and daddy, and even people you meet for the first time if you're in the mood. You squeal with pleasure when you see big smiles or when someone pay you special face to face attention. You are such a chatterbox!!! We sit and talk for hours throughout the day, and if we are distracted, you screech and let us know you were not done with our conversation. I have to admit, you make mommy laugh constantly throughout the day, with your many noises and faces you make, you're one hilarious baby girl. You've taken quite the leap on many levels over the last few weeks. You now wiggle and squirm your way all over the place, using your super strong legs to push yourself up and around on the carpet, daddy and I have to watch you carefully to make sure you don't scoot your way into the couch, or make it too far across the room. You also roll back and forth, from your back to sides easily, and once or twice to your tummy, we're thinking you'll be rolling around the room in no time. We are trying to get you to sleep on your own, for more than a couple hours at a time. Last night you actually slept in your travel crib next to our bed, for 4 hours!!! Mommy was so happy!! Hopefully you'll be going almost through the night very soon, with just one feeding in the middle, that would be perfect! Your body is also now absorbing almost all of the food you get from mommy, which means you have taken to only pooping once every 7 or 8 days... which at first scared mommy and daddy a lot, but now we kinda get it's normal, and you're thing, and you're still growing and doing just great, so were not too worried. You love your bath time, and baby massage every evening. You love to snuggle, love your naked time, and love the mirror. We cannot believe how much you've grown and changed so far, and how fast you're developing mentally and changing physically! We are so excited to see what this 3 month of life brings with you, and what changes you'll make over the coming days and weeks. 

We both love you so very much baby girl, 

Love, 

Mommy and Daddy

Spending your 3 month birthday on Jayson and Lindsay's boat on the Owhyee Reservoir 

You LOVED the boat!!! And your life jacket, thankfully!! You took several naps, usually lulled to sleep by the jetboat engine and the bumps on the water.

Chillin' with daddy on the boat, you were so freakin' adorable in your little life jacket!!!  Daddy forgot to get a picture of mommy with you, but that's ok, we'll get one soon hopefully. 

The "Snapshot" part of this blog, and some blog hopping love.

First off, WELCOME ALEXA BLOG HOPPERS!!! I mean to say this every week, but dont normally get a chance to, so here it is, I love having you here, and hope to check out all of your blogs and send some blog love back!

So, on to the part about why this blog is named "A Snapshot of Our Life".

I had fully intended to have this blog be full of pictures one day. Pictures that I took, that Brent took, and others took of us... but it's been tough with the little around. I also have been slightly discouraged by not knowing how to work out DSLR camera. I really need to get the manual out and read it, cover to cover, to help me learn what some of the not-so-well-known buttons and knobs are on this thing. We have a Nikon D3000, and it is awesome, I just don't know what i'm doing, but i'm working on it. My dear friend and much loved photographer, Nikki Hoover, gave me some great tips the other day on how to take better pictures. She told me to take 100 pictures a day. Of anything. Of everything. Just take pictures. So, That's what I've been doing the past few days, taking pictures of everything, mostly Stella, but a lot of other things also. Today I will share with you the raw, unedited photos, partly because my demanding little one doesn't allow me much time to post, let alone edit, so i'm doing this in kinda a rush... oh how I long for the day that she will go to bed early and I can spend a little bit of time blogging every evening, but for now, I squeeze it in while I can. and trust me, i'm not complaining, I love this little girl, I just wish I could share more adorable photos with friends and family of her :)

So, here goes, some of the best of my 100 photos a day, over the last 3 days,

nom nom towels, she's chewing on everything now

So Tired!

She was waiting for me to throw her bumper

our strawberry plants are producing!

and some berries that came off the plant

The beautiful planters my mom planted for/with me for my first Mothers day, I love them!

A Mule deer shed Brent found in the Nevada mountains

I kinda love this picture, Abby came right up and stuck her nose in my face, how could I not capture it??

Lilly lounging just out of the sun's reach

Napping baby on the back deck, loving the shade on a sunny day

more daddy snuggles

we have one happy baby on our hands...

sometimes...

there's the smiles

and some giggles came with this one

see how her tongue is curled? she's screeching haha

and now just talking

and more excited screeching

so cute!

now just some bubbles

very focused on the camera

my super happy girl