painting and pool time

Stella and I are working on some paintings for Daddy for his birhtday.

We had a lot of fun getting messy!  The bath afterwards was not as much fun.  We still have some work to do on them.

Stella loves her friends and had fun in the sun.

Here we are at our neighborhood pool.  She so funny in her goggles.  This day she was perfectly happy to sit with her drink and her snacks and people watch.  She's been slowly getting use to the pool again this summer. 

My Montage 5/25/10 at OneTrueMedia.com

Stella's really becoming very fun. Here's her 'Whoo Ahhh' caught on video..her tribute to the movie, Scent of A Woman.
She's been asking 'why' a lot lately. It's her new favorite question. And to her it can be applied to everything I say. And applied more than once. :)
Yesterday we went to our pool for the first time this season. She wasn't a huge fan, but I'm sure it'll grow on her. I just probably need to pack some snacks next time, so we can stay a bit longer.
She loves lip gloss and calls it her 'lippy stuff'. She also likes to watch Special Agent Oso and Mickey Mouse in the mornings. Though throughout the shows she's still moving around and building with blocks or making a phone call etc. It is very rare for her to just sit still and snuggle with me on the couch, but when she does I take full advantage and try to memorize everything about it as I know it'll soon be a distant memory and I'll be sitting in the audience at her college graduation.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Oh boy, it's another girl.

Followin are today's ultrasound pics plus a picture of how I look today. The words out of the ultrasound tech's mouth were, "she looks fabulous."  Regarding all that they look at to make sure this is a healthy and well developed baby. We couldn't be any happier!!  It's another perfect little girl.  And I'm so happy Stella will have a sister to grow up and to grow old with.  Name is chosen, but we will be keeping it a secret.  You'll just have to wait.  P.S.  This makes for the 8th granddaughter of 8 grandchildren.  No grandsons.  What are the odds?

Right before the Dr.'s appt.  I had been counting the days and then the hours down till this appt.  to find out the gender.  Can't believe it's finally come and gone and now I can say 'she's kicking' and such.

Some pics from the weekend

One day I look out and Stella has gotten the shovel and is attempting to clean up the dog 'toot' in the yard.  She like us, likes a clean yard.  She watches us do this quite a bit and obviously was very ready to do it herself.  After this photo I quickly ran over to help out though.

We had a busy weekend and it was very fun.  We enjoyed two birthday parties with friends.  One at a very cool park.

This is her friend, Jenna, who just turned two.

Next birthday party was for Elizabeth, in this picture with Stella.  She just turned two as well and they had a great time in the bounce house!

Stella and Chase

Trip to Atlanta

This Mother's Day weekend our family took a trip to Atlanta, GA.   We went to Centennial Park Saturday evening and while Stella had fun watching all the kids play in the water, she wanted nothing to do with getting wet and was content to stand on the side lines.  The next morning we had a nice breakfast at the Marriott, where we stayed and I highly recommend, then we went to the Georgia Aquarium.  It was amazing.  There were so many exhibits and huge tanks.  We loved watching the two whale sharks at feeding time.  They were beautiful.  Stella enjoyed herself and had a ball walking and running around.  She wore us out.  We attempted a 3D cartoon movie they had and about ten minutes into it, Stella had crawled onto my lap and was saying, "No t.v., no t.v.!"  So we had to leave the theatre.  It was a great trip.

These are grouper fish! 

One of the whale sharks

Stella didn't really like the fish guy

Here was an exhibit where you could 'pet' small sharks and sting ray.  No way was I doing that, but Randy was like a kid and could've stayed there all afternoon. 

cleaning in style

Had to share these fun pictures.  Stella now loves powdered donuts.  I had to talk her into trying them at first.  She's become very hestitant to try new things lately and seems to be put off by their appearance mostly.  So I, being the good mother I am, really tried hard to get her to taste a powdered donut. :)  I knew she'd love them.  Also, Stella has a vacuum she always gets out when either her Dad or I vacuum and this particular morning it was very funny as you can see.  She wears some of my old heels around the house all the time and why not vacuum in them.  And paired with those silk p.j.'s??? So funny.  She could totally be a some classy housewife someday if she wanted to. 

a visit from grandparents

Stella's grandparents came for a visit last weekend.  And we had a really good time.  They celebrated Stella's birthday and it was like Christmas in April.  There were tons of birthday gifts to open and Stella really enjoyed herself. 

Stella got some new princess shoes during the gift giving extravaganza and she was just thrilled to have them.  The look on her face says a lot. She also loves her new art easel.

She also liked story time with them.  Stella was sad to say good-bye. 

Last trip to Savannah

We took a trip to Savannah, GA this past week.  We had a wonderful time with friends.  Here is a picture with all the babies.  Left is Lexington (10 weeks), Tiger (6 months), Gracie (2 years)  and we all know Stella.  :)  Randy thought I went on a mini-vacation.  Umm...that's not quite the word I'd use.  But it was great to have some girl time with old college friends and sorority sisters.  And it was very neat to be giving a bath to our little children together today, so many years away from our freshman year in college when we all first met.

We fed some neighborhood ducks

The girls celebrated their birthdays together. Gracie and Stella are one month apart.

Stella's got a great idea here...

The girls loved playing with Gracie's water table. It was very fun to see them play WITH each other, rather than just play beside each other.  We all went downtown one afternoon and the girls thought the sprinklers were cool.  We went to the beach one morning.  It was a little chilly for the beach that day and the water was a bit cool, but Stella still had a great time walking up and down, though she only liked walking in the packed down, wet sand.  I had to carry her through the dry sand.  We saw a cool jelly fish on the beach and then went for a walk on the pier.  Stella liked looking down at the water.  She doesn't seem to be afraid of heights at this point.  What a great trip.  We will miss our friends, the Payne family, VERY much as they will be leaving shortly to move to Qatar.  Mr. Payne is an amazing artist and has been accepted for a great job opportunity over there with Virginia Commonwealth.