Stella packing for vacation

It's Official...

Stella LOVES LOVES LOVES the beach and ocean. We went to the closest beach to our house the other day, which is about 10 min away. Last summer we went a few times but she would sit on the towel or in her tent. She played in the sand, ran around, chased birds, fed birds and WOULD NOT get out of the water for anything. She has no fear of the water either, which is kind of scary. She would keep going unless I stopped her. It was mid 70's so I didn't bring our swimsuits, so needless to say she ended up in her shirt and diaper. I know I have said it a million times BUT this summer is going to BE SO FUN!!!

We leave for vacation in a few days...SO EXCITED! :)

Happy St. Patricks Day!!!

Happy St Patricks Day from the little leprechaun!!!

Junior Museum

She LOVED watching the animals, this is the first time we've been since she's been able to run around. She definitely enjoyed it more then sitting in her stroller, she hadn't REALLY noticed the animals as much last time. She was having a BLAST but would get so mad when I would try to put her in the stroller!
Yep, we're in Florida. Alligator!

Deer

By the time we reached the interactive area she was wiped out. You can tell by the zoned out look on her face!
Stella tried a ice cream sandwich for the first time, I think it's safe to say she liked it!
She loved looking at the animals. She would run around and squeal, it was so funny!
I didn't know deer swam. We were walking across this bridge and these deer go swimming by. It totally scared my friend Jenny, she thought they were alligators!!

Spring!!!

Our friends Brett & Margaret came over this weekend for a bbq. Bella and Stella love to play together! This time they had the newest addition to their family with them! 2 month old baby Christopher! We were talking about all wanting to go camping so while they were here we reserved a spot in Panama City Beach in late April! Yay!
Stella's step cousin Blaise was here from Kansas City this weekend also! I think Mario's dad may have taken some good ones of them, neither were looking in all of mine.
She likes to go back in the corner and play hide and seek in the corner behind her crib.
It feels like spring is finally arriving. Not here yet, but close. My fave month I think since I moved to Florida is April. 80 degrees and warm enough to spend the day at the beach but no humidity yet. I'm so excited! Plus we have lots of fun stuff coming up in the Spring!
For some reason we've been pretty busy lately, hanging out with friends, lots of errands, wedding and baby showers, etc. Tomorrow we are going to the Childrens Zoo with my friend Jenny and her kids.
Just in the last few weeks Stella has really started to copy what we say. Still just words and sometimes not so clearly but I've definately seen a difference. I can hear her on the monitor right now up in her crib saying "Uh oh". She likes that one. She'll say uh oh, up, ball, yum yums, and a handful more on her own at the appropriate time but in between she will copy words that you say. I'm excited, she's in such a FUN age. I love it.
When she gets up from her nap we are going to go out to weed the garden and start getting ready to plant! We already started some flower seeds that are beginning to come up and she LOVES to dig in the dirt!!!

Little video for Grammy Cathy

Grammy Cathy likes to see actual video instead of just pictures sometimes so here's an update for her!!!

Picnik

The other day I was reminded of this website and forgot how much fun it was. http://www.picnik.com/ I hadn't messed around with it in a while.

For Stella's 1st birthday I made magnets as party favors for the adults. I used a picture of Stella then edited it with Picnik. I also put "Stella is 1" text at the bottom in pink. I had the picture developed as wallet size sheets then bought magnets. The magnets come with a sticky side that you can stick a business card on it, but instead I cut the pictures out and stuck them to the magnets. They turned out SO cute!

Here's a few pictures from the last week or so that I was playing around with. The effect below is "1960's", which happens to be one of my personal faves since it totally reminds me of pictures we have of me as a baby. Ok, no jokes, I wasn't born til the mid 70's but the pics still looked like this.

You can join the site for as low as $2.00 a month to use all their "premium" resources but I don't edit that much, so I haven't. Besides, they have enough cool things you can do that are free. I think I just don't sit down enough and play around editing but it is fun every once in a while.

Mean muggin the camera. Boy can she give you stink eye when she wants to. Then she starts laughing though, she thinks it's funny. I think she picked this up from me when I tell her to not get into something. She's better at it then me though. Terrible two's here we come. Mama's scared.
But then on the other hand she has the sweetest smile and laugh. When you pick her up and give her a hug she will pat you on the back, it's so cute. She's a love bug too...