Blah Monday...

I would really like to be HERE today.
Or HERE.

Mmmmm, here will do also.

I have a bit of the blah's today. I think it's the post Christmas blahs. Mario has been home hanging out with us all weekend and today he went back to work til Wednesday. It's freezing here and I would really like to be headed somewhere beautiful and warm. Though no vacation planned for this family until April, when we head to south Florida for a few days to meet one of my bestest friends Hillary and the fam. Oh well, I'll just dream. :)

Off to vaccum while Stella Roo is napping.

Christmas Morning & Dinner at Scomas

Mommy let me try a candy cane!
Nana got me a cool tent, it even has a tunnel!

Aubrey and Grammy making croissants
Papa and his prime rib!

We had a really wonderful Christmas! The only thing that could have made it perfect was if we would have been able to share it with family in Seattle also. We missed them! Stella is having so much fun playing with all her new toys. The kitchen is a BIG hit. Although as you can see I think Daddy likes it as much as Stella! They are so cute! She continues to do new things every day. She's getting better at repeating words when you say them to her. She took the fake milk from the kitchen and was "pouring" it in the teacup all by herself. She new exactly what the spatula did and was stirring away in the pan. She obviously watches mommy in the kitchen a lot. I feel like I have a Christmas hangover and am still really tired. Hopefully I'm not fighting something and am just wiped out from all the excitement of the last few days. Today has been a nice mellow day and we all stayed in our new flannel pj's all day.

Christmas Eve get together!

She climbed in the laundry basket, so Mario tied a rope to it and pulled her around!
Uncle Jason feeded her some of his smoothie. She knows how to work a room...
Grammy & Aunt Rachel
Presents!
I love my picture Grammy Cathy! Can you believe how much I've grown!

I didn't know the tractor actually moved! You should have seen the look on my face when I figured it out!
Reading the Christmas story from Aubrey and Nana.

Playtime!

I just think this video is so cute. I'll upload some pictures asap but I wanted to at least post these for your Christmas pleasure! SO CUTE! We are pooped though so enough for now. We had a wonderful Christmas and I hope everyone else did also! Merry Christmas everyone!

Daddy can I have my kitchen back???

What can I say...my husband is funny. :)

Merry Christmas!

Stella was so cute! We turned her Elmo kitchen on before she was all the way down the stairs so she could hear it before she saw it. As you can see, she went straight for it! She LOVES it and has had so much fun playing "kitchen"!

Nothing much...

Did NOT like Santa. We'll try again next year. :)

I don't really have much to update. Haven't taken hardly any pics in the last few weeks. Also, the batteries in the camera mysteriously made their way into some other electronic device, most likely the Wii. When there has been a moment when I would usually grab the camera and take a pic I realize I have to track down some batteries so I put it off. I am going to take some from a remote somewhere as soon as I finish posting this though so I'm ready. I'm sure I'll be taking a lot this week so there will be plenty coming. I seriously don't know where batteries go. I think instead of a sock monster in the dryer we have a battery monster hiding somewhere in the house. We buy the rechargable ones by the 8 pack. You would think we would have enough to cover all our devices. But between, remotes, toys, tools, and the Wii we can't keep them around. Seriously the Wii alone takes like 8 or 10. The board takes 4, each remote is 2. Ok so I am going to wrap this lame post about batteries and will be back soon!

Oh on a Stella note though, she is teething again. She didn't get any teeth in for a few months. She has had 6 for a while. Now her top left next to the 2 front is coming in. They've been bothering her so she's been up at night quite a bit. 3 times Sat night and once last night. She had one of those screaming in pain meltdowns before bed though. I hate those, they make me cry. We calmed her down, got some tylenol in her, gave her a bath and held her and she was better within the hour. Poor baby. I'm scared of when the BIG molars come in. One thing I won't miss is seeing her in pain from teething. I HATE IT!

Ok, well everyone have a GREAT pre-Christmas week. Luckily we are ALL DONE! Whooowho. Just need a little candy for stockings but other then that we are good to go!

Curious George!

There is 1 cupboard in our kitchen that isn't child proofed. She loves to pull everything out of it but now she has figured out that she likes to get into it. She is little miss curious George!

Placemat Twirling

As you saw from the previous video Stella likes to twirl. Well, now she has a "stage". She brought her placemat in the living room and will twirl on it. She also has been pulling out some new moves. I think they may be breakdancing related because it involves floor moves with feet in various air poses. Now that I think of it it could also be pilates too. We shall see... :)

Giggling babies is the sweetest sound in the world! :)

It really wasn't this dark in the house when we were eating dinner but the video turned out really dark for some reason. The sound is the funniest part though. Stella is getting VERY vocal. She points to the baby ornament on the tree and says "baby". She's trying to copy you when you say a word and just jibber jabbering in general. I have a feeling she is going to be a "talker". Weird...don't know where that comes from???

Thanksgiving Weekend

Gobble Gobble! Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for my family today and that everyone I love is happy & healthy!!! I am SO thankful for my beautiful, sweet, baby and AWESOME husband. I hope everyone has a wonderful Turkey Day!!!

Pumpkin Ice Cream Torte! Happy Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin Ice Cream Torte

Thaw 10 Minutes before serving to slice

12 Servings

Ingredients

3/4 Cup Graham Cracker Crumbs

2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

2 Tablespoons finely chopped Pecans

2 Tablespoons Butter, melted

Cooking Spray

1 Cup canned unsweetened pumpkin

1 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

1/2 Teaspoon Ground Allspice

1/8 Teaspoon Ground Ginger

1/8 Teaspoon Ground Cloves

9 cups Vanilla low-fat Ice Cream

(about 1 1/2 cartons)

1/4 cup finely chopped Pecans, toasted and divided

1/4 cup jarred Carmel topping

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Combine first 4 ingredients (mixture will be crumbly).

Firmly press crumb mixture into bottom of a 9 inch springform pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

3. Combine pumpkin and the next 4 ingredients (through cloves) in a bowl. Soften 6 cups ice cream. Add to pumpkin mixture, stirring to blend. Spoon half of mixture into prepared pan. Cover with plastic wrap. Freeze 1 hour or until firm. Cover and freeze remaining pumpkin ice cream.

4. Soften remaining 3 cups vanilla ice cream. Stir in 3 tablespoons pecans. Spread over pumpkin ice cream layer. Freeze 1 hour or until firm. Soften remaining 3 cups pumpkin ice cream mixture. Spread over vanilla ice cream layer. Cover, freeze 8 hours or until firm. Cut torte into 12 wedges. Place 1 wedge on each plate. Place topping in microwave safe bowl and microwave 45 seconds. Top each serving with Tablespoon Carmel topping, sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon pecans.

This is one of the dishes I am bringing to Thanksgiving at Mario's moms. Thought I'd share. Yummmm!!!

1st Birthday Take 3

I LOVE sweet potato!

Last weekend Mario's dad and step mom came over to celebrate for Stella's birthday. We didn't get a chance to reschedule so we have been celebrating over the last few weeks! I'm so glad we got to do an actual "party" when we were in Seattle.