Made for each other......

I actually tried to post this yesterday but I can't make the photos and text line up properly. I feel like a total idiot every time I try to do this. 13 year old slow children can do this blogger thing and I can't get it right. Argh. But, you get the idea! Ryan and Stella were adorable and here are the pictures to prove it! Thanks for having us Lauren!

Today was a fun day! We got to see Lauren and Ryan!!!! YAY!!!!! Lauren and I have always known that Ryan and Stella were made for each other but these shots confirm it!

As soon as we turned on The Backyardigans they pretty much rushed to the tv to point and yell!

Ryan Giving Stella her first smooch!!! She was too busy eating cookies to appreciate it!

This is just a sweet shot I got of Ryan that I LOVED! What a doll.

My little cookie monster! Lauren made the BEST choco chip cookies!

One last cute shot of Ryan before we go!

16 months!

Stella turned 16 months old today! It is amazing and wonderful to watch her learning and growing each day. Here are a couple cute pics from tonight of her telling Daddy she is ready for books and bed and then happily in his lap being read to. I added a few other cuties from the other day just because I couldn't help it! We love you so much Stella!!!!
























I wish this was in better focus but I love the little smile on her face!

An observation.....

I was reading Brian's very sweet entry about our anniversaries and noticed he had left one key thing out! I have been pregnant for 2 out of the 3. Yes, that means I am indeed pregnant now! 12 weeks to be exact and we couldn't be happier. Well I could be happier if I wasn't so tired but we are pretty darn happy. Pregnancy has been a little different this time around. I am exhausted and Brian's claims that I snore already. Great. Sorry honey! We are due November 13th and this time we plan to find out what we have been blessed with. Unlike with Stella when suprises were fun and fabulous now we want no suprises at all. Two weeks ago we had to go for an ultrasound and were thrilled to see that all is off to a great start and there is only one baby in there! YAY! We have another ultrasound coming up this Friday and can't wait to see our little "Gobble".

Our anniversary!

Yesterday was our 3rd anniversary, and we celebrated by going out to dinner in Lawrenceville. Stella stayed home with 3 extremely capable, experienced babysitters (thanks Maureen, Margaret and Marcia!). We had a great time and Stella did great too!

I got the idea that on our first wedding anniversary that we should take a photo of our family every year on April 23rd. So far, we've managed to do it all 3 years which is great! I can't wait until we have 10 years worth of these pictures hanging on our walls somewhere so we can see how much we've all changed over the years! Anyway, here are the first 3 years of pictures, hopefully in chronological order if Blogger will cooperate. It's so odd to see that first anniversary photo and think of what life was like before Stella!

Oh, one other thing...it appears I wore the same shirt on 4/23/07 and 4/23/08. That is just weird...

Proud Stella!

Stella continues to make slow but steady progress to becoming a full time walker. She does great with walking so long as one of us is holding her hand. But she's yet to start walking solo. As we've written about in the past, lately she is making spontaneous attempts to stand up on her own. It's really fun because she gets so excited when she does try. Now she'll even respond when we say "Stella, stand up!". She'll stick her butt in the air and slowly try and lift her upper half. Usually she fails, but today we had a breakthrough of sorts as you can see in the picture below. What is so odd is that she managed to stand up on her own while on her chair! You can tell from the look on her face that she thinks this is just about the most awesome thing that has ever happened in her short life! (click on the photo for a larger version!)

Fabulous hair!!!

One of the cute things about having a little girl is doing fun things with her hair! We didn't actually take her out like this but she totally could have pulled it off! TeeHee!

I love this shot because she is playing with her little toy cameras!

A New Record!

Wow, what a weird, out of sorts kind of day! I took a vacation day (my first of the year) and went for a hike while mom and Stella went to the gym and then grocery shopping. Coincidentally enough, we both got home at the same time, so we brought in the groceries and put Stella down for her nap. Um, 4 hours later she woke up! A new napping record! She actually probably would have gone a bit longer but we went to get her when she started making some noise. I don't know that she slept all that time but she was extremely quiet for most of it. We discovered a book in her crib when we got her up so who knows, maybe she was reading? Anyway, after we got her up we went to Tony Luke's for an early dinner because mom had a craving for cheesesteaks (a craving? Huh...). Anyway, the whole break in our routine has me confused but Stella is now down for the night so it's all good. All in all, a good day with our beautiful, sleepy girl...

Jonny2H comes to play

Jon Henkel came to see us last weekend and Stella had a blast showing off for him. Here are a few pics. Racing her lion back and forth, happy after throwing the ball to daddy and my favorites.....chewing on her shoe! Look Jonny, no hands!

Stand up, baby stand up...

Stella was definitely weird tonight, but in a sort of manic/cute/borderline hysterical way. At one point Jen and I were sitting on the floor in the basement and she was crawling from me to Jen and then back, stopping each time to rest her head on our legs. Very sweet but weird! She definitely seems to be getting more cuddle-y, which is a nice change. But her big moment of the night was when we had her up in her bedroom just before bed. We let her crawl around and play before the always exciting/dramatic change into her pajamas. Tonight she was crawling around with Bear-y when she suddenly stopped and stuck out her leg. We call this her "peg leg" crawl, and she does it when Jen puts her in a dress and she gets her knees caught up in it when she crawls. To avoid this, she sticks one leg out and just sort of pushes along like that. It's quite funny. Anyway, she puts her leg out tonight like she's done in the past but instead of pushing forward she sort of pushes up, and next thing you know she is rising up to her feet. Jen and I were on opposite sides of her and both of us gasped. She got all the way up but it only lasted for a millisecond, and then she was back down. But it is a HUGE step (no pun intended) in the right direction and I wouldn't be surprised if she's standing on her own on a regular basis in a matter of days and then walking. Yay!

A riddle wrapped in a puzzle

During those first confusing months of Stella's life Brian often referred to her as a riddle wrapped in a puzzle or something like that. She puzzled us again tonight......quite literally!

Last week I bought her 2 wooden puzzles that she barely looked at except for the usual dumping over and occasional chewing on. Last night and tonight they finally were put to their intended use and Stella suprised us when she put all the pieces exactly where they were supposed to go on both of them after only one or two tries. Here are a few cute pics.