I can’t believe that in exactly one month from today we will be celebrating one whole year! It has gone by so fast and has been a lot of fun! Let the party planning begin!

It has definitely been a fun and busy 11 months. I have made some great friends during these 11 months from our playgroups. They keep us busy which we both like.  In the next post, I am going to show how fun and busy this last month has been.

Milestones during her 10th month

*will say mama, dada and nana when asked

*says cat and will point at Lola

*will point at the picture of a baby on the wall

*will grab my nose when I ask her to find my nose

*officially likes to read book (or at least the ones that have things you can touch)

*all 8 teeth are out and completely showing (I think some molars are about to start coming through)

*can stand for long periods without holding onto anything

*can stand up on her own without using something to pull up

*got her first really bad haircut from her mom (just trimmed her bangs but it didn’t turn out so well)

*can clap

*went on her first trip to Houston (met friends, old students and stayed at the Houstonian)

*will give a wet, open mouth kiss – sometimes without being asked: )

*likes to blow and will blow on my arm and laugh at the sound

*starting to give hugs

She has officially become mama’s little girl, however, she still will reach for complete strangers to hold her. She is very social! She loves to climb up in my lap and lay her head on me. This is one of my favorite things she started this month. She also likes to blow on my shoulder, arm or leg and make that funny sound. She loves to be tickled or turned upside and will laugh really loud. She is enjoying swimming lessons and playing in the pool and will go under the water and glide from one person to another. I didn’t realize they could do that at such a young age. She loves older kids and will try to do anything they are doing. I couldn’t keep her from trying to get into the bounce house at one birthday party. When staying at the Houstonian she started to stand on her own because she wanted to stand with older kids in the pool. Stella is vocal, outgoing, loves attention, and active. I am loving watching her learn and grow. Excited to see what she learns during her next month.

Blogging Love,

I am not doing a great job of taking weekly pictures. Everyone said this would happen with the 2nd and I was determined to keep up with the pictures. I think monthly pictures would have been more realistic. 

I think my belly grew: )
Here is my picture at 26 weeks with Stella. I am definitely bigger with lil man.

Blogging Love,

She is just getting so big. She really is starting to turn into my lil buddy and she is a great hip rider. So every month just keeps getting better and better…is there a time when it just doesn’t get better and better. Teenage years maybe?? It is crazy how your love just gets stronger and stronger by the day. I love getting to know her personality. I definitely think I am going to have my hands full with her.

Her biggest milestone this month was pulling up. She has done it in previous months but it was definitely mastered this month. She can pull up and stand on just about anything.

She officially has 7 (8) teeth – 4 on top and  3 (4)on bottom. She has a 4th tooth on the bottom that is in as well but it is still very small.

Blogging Love,

We decided we needed to take our last family trip of 3. Turks & Caicos has always been on my list of places to visit so I was super excited to go there as a family!! To get there we had a layover so we were a bit nervous about having to take two flights to get there. However, we decided to just go for it and so glad we did! Turks & Caicos has some of the most beautiful water and beaches I have ever seen! It truly is amazing! It ended up being the perfect place to take a baby. The island does not have much to do besides enjoy the water and beaches and we did just that for 7 days! I would recommend this beach for families and The West Bay Club is also perfect for a family. Just be prepared for a lot of R&R.

I love watching Stella explore her world. She wasn’t sure of the sand at first!

One of the best things ever is to watch your husband with your baby! It makes me love him even more! Stella and I are two lucky girls! I just love this photo!

Stella’s new smile where she shows all her teeth. She’s such a happy baby and loves the water just like her mama & dada!We went for many morning and evening walks
This is just one picture of this beautiful water
Going for a walk to enjoy the sunset.
One of our favorite places to eat
My favorite photo of Joe and Stella. She loves her daddy!
Family Sunset Picture

Blogging Love,

She is 9 Months!!

Always on the move….

Everything goes in the mouth….

I am done with pictures…I am leaving!

Sweet Stella did so much during her 8 months!!

Here is the list:

crawling a few days before turning 9 months

says mama and dada

points at things on your face

rolls over both ways (she has rolled over before but more by accident – now that she has a reason to rollover she does it all the time)

uses her thumb and pointer finger to pick up small objects

trying to pull up on things…found her standing in her bed

 got 3 teeth on top

will wave “hi” and “bye”

will clap her hand with my hand when asked

Blogging Love,

When you add a sweet little girl and a lemon this is what you get!

That face says it all!

She actually liked the lemon and kept on eating it herself!

So glad I got her first lemon on camera! It was actually a fun Friday as a family. Joe was off work for the day so we went to one of our favorite eating spots, Taco Diner. As I sit here writing this blog, I am watching the coverage on the Boston Marathon bombing and it makes simple times like this even more special.

Blogging Love,

For our Easter picture this year we went to have our picture taken by James French at Bunnies in the Park. I was able to get a couple with my cellphone which are not nearly as good as the actual photo. I just received the photograph in the mail. I love the detail in the picture. You can see the tears swelled up in her eyes. Those tears are because she was actually scared of the photographer and she didn’t even notice the bunny. If she would have seen the bunny, she would have smiled. She loves animals just like her momma! They make her laugh and smile which I love! Now if only you can get a smiling baby and a bunny to look at the camera you would have the perfect Easter picture. I am sure this is no easy task! Can’t wait to see how next years picture will turn out with Stella and her little brother.

Blogging Love,

This was Stella’s 1st Easter. It is fun to celebrate her first everything! I realize this day is much more important than a pretty dress or cute Easter basket. However, it is fun to enjoy this big day by having a sweet baby is her first, cute Easter dress and giving her her first Easter basket.

I can’t keep her still! She is TRYING to crawl everywhere.

Stella was T-I-R-E-D and fell asleep on her way to lunch. Such a sweet moment to sleep on her daddy! He is trying to savor every moment because this will not last forever. After church, we ate at Celebration with Stella’s great-grandmother, Mamaw, her Nana and G-Pa.

Getting some love from her G-Pa.

Our Easter day was very low key with church and a family lunch. However, I realize that in a few years our Easter will be much busier with lots of eggs, candy and hunting.

My cousin, Brandi, and her two girls (Cate & Claire) came up for a little early Easter family time. I wish they could have stayed longer but we got them for 24 hours. It’s fun to see cousins play together and of course try to get a few good pics. Claire and Stella are just two days apart. It was definitely fun to be pregnant together and now it is neat to watch the little girls grow together. I hope they become good friends and are roommates at Baylor together: ) Hahaha

The girls in their pajamas!  I love this one!

Those two faces make me smile. I love the look on both of their faces!

We didn’t really want to take this picture looking like this but we had to have a picture with all the girls and their Mamaw. She was one happy Mamaw for 24 hours.

Blogging Love,

I didn’t miss this week! Yay! The belly is definitely growing and it is starting to sink in that we are going to have another baby. I am finally starting to feeling little kicks. If I am laying with the laptop on my stomach, I notice his movements even more. I had the big ultrasound this past week and everything looked great! The sonographer did say he was very, very active. She says some babies are more active than others and he was one of the busiest she has seen. Uh oh! I have only gained 10 lbs. so far which is much better than what I had gained with Stella at this point. There really hasn’t been any big changes with my pregnancy so far. No cravings, not feeling sick, etc…

I am excited to watch Stella grow in these pictures. She has definitely had quite a few milestones this month. I will share them with you in a later post. I can’t believe how big she is getting. This picture was taken right before nap time so there definitely was not going to be a smile but we got the picture taken…that is all that counts, right?

Blogging Love,

Every Tuesday and Friday morning we have a playgroup. It is fun to get with other moms and drink some coffee, chit-chat, and watch babies grow week by week. I have loved watching these babies grow while developing an amazing friendship with some amazing moms.  One of the moms, Ashli, is an awesome photographer and writer. You have to check out these adorable pics of our kiddos at one of our playgroups. She also did the best job at writing how I feel about our little group. Check out her blog http://www.artsymagnet.com/blog/?currentPage=8

Look at these precious girls!

Stella’s buddy, Ally.

Blogging Love,