Dinner at Grandpa Rons

Meeting Cousin Reece!

Seattle

I don't even know where to start! I just finally uploaded our Seattle pics. It was a whirlwind of a trip but SO great! I was so happy Stella and I got to spend time with family. It still never seems to be enough time to visit long enough with everyone but at the same time exhausting not having very much down time. We got back to Florida Sat around 11 pm. We stayed in Jacksonville that night and Stella was so excited to see Daddy! In the morning we walked on the beach for a bit then got lunch before heading home. We didn't get home until Sunday around 5. Stella was so happy to be home. From the minute we walked in the door you could tell she recognized our house. I'm sure it felt good after sleeping in a pack and play in different houses. When we went up to her room she got the hugest grin on her face. Yesterday I spent all day getting the house back in shape. I actually was so excited to clean. Weird. I think I am fighting a bit of a cold now. I hit a wall this morning and am SO tired. The whole time I was in Seattle I would be so tired by 8 or 9 pm because the time difference, but now that I am back I can't sleep til after midnight. Ugh. I have so many pics it's overwhelming to upload to the blog. I think I am going to slowly upload by "event" so I'm sure there will be a ton of posts. Not sure if it will take me hours of days but I'll start plugging away today. I want to thank everyone that went out of their way to visit with us or put us up! My mom threw a birthday party for her and we had such a good time visiting with everyone all together! So I especially want to thank my mom for all she did and Carrie for hosting at her house. Not easy with a newborn! My mom also put us up for most of the trip and did a ton to make it as easy as possible to be out of our regular environment so I want to thank her for that also. Stella loved meeting her new cousin Reece, although she kept wanting to touch him and kicked her foot toward him once. Carrie and Craig are doing a great job and have eased into parenthood smoothly it seems! The cousins are getting bigger and they loved playing with Stella. Although you'll see from the pics, I think they thought she was more of a play toy. Cousin Micah LOVED putting all of his plastic tools in the back of her jeans. It was hilarious! Hope everyone is well and it sure is good to be HOME!!!

One step at a time...

Working on walking

Stella's walking!

She finally tried to walk on her own! She has been walking along things for quite a while now but she hasn't really been interested in trying to walk on her own. The other day she took 2 steps. Then earlier today I caught her walking with no hands back and forth from one end of the crib to the other. I was watching her on the video monitor go down for a nap. She's in there practicing on the soft mattress! Haha! So a little bit ago I had her Elmo phone in my hand and she let go of the coffee table and walked about 3 steps to me! It shouldn't be to long now! People have told me to not encourage it but on the other hand I don't want to discourage her either. I have heard of someone trying to slow them down from walking and I don't think you should try to hinder your child from reaching a milestone just for your own reasons. Sooooo, I've just been letting her take the lead. She just has been walking holding on to things for so long I had thought she would try long before so I am glad she is becoming interested in "taking the next step"!!! Yay for Stella!

Zoo

Baby Alligator!
Stella wasn't to impressed...

Yesterday my friend Jenny and I took the kids to the zoo. The poor woman is 6 months pregnant and we walked for 5 hours in the 90 degree heat. She is a trooper! Jaden is 4 and Maddie is 2. They both love Stella!

They have a critter class for moms and toddlers that is 1 hour a week, 1 day a week. They do different stuff around the zoo, do crafts, exercises, all sorts of stuff. Jenny and I are thinking of doing it but it's 18 months to 3 years old so we have to wait about 6 months. :( It sounds fun though!

We are going to go with Jennys family for a Halloween event they are having the weekend before Halloween. It should be fun. They have stuff for all ages. Jenny also has a daughter Aubreys age (that's how we met) and they have a haunted trail for 12 and up so the girls can do that. They also have stuff for young kids too and they dress up. Yay!

It looks like Stella's 1st Birthday (CAN YOU BELIEVE IT???? I can't.) party is going to be ON Halloween. Her birthday falls on a Wednesday so the Saturday after happens to be Halloween. The Saturday before we have things planned so it will have to be Halloween...I think we are going to do a midday bbq type party so people will be able to still do Halloween stuff. I don"t want to tie Halloween in because her Bday being so close to Halloween I'm sure down the road will be incorporated into her party some year. We were looking at renting a Elmo costume (for some reason she LOVES Elmo. Toys & Books!) and having someone dress up and make an appearance but I'm having a little difficulty with that idea so we'll see. I leave for Seattle in 2 weeks so I'm trying to put some stuff for the party together now since it will be a little over a week away when we get home. We are SOOOOO excited to go meet Stella's little cousin, baby Reece! Also to see friends and family. They haven't seen Stella since she was 6 weeks old so it should be a blast!!!

Have a great weekend!