My Montage 12/28/09 at OneTrueMedia.com

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Cuz it's Christmas...

It was a Merry Christmas indeed and we were very glad to be back home with our husband/Dad. This year was very special for several reasons. It was our first christmas in our home here. Stella was much more interested and involved this year. We felt much more comfortable affording presents and Randy's Dad-Bill drove all the way from IN to be with us.
Our tree with our very own homemade ornaments.

I think we need to find 'Santa' a bigger hat.

One of my dearest friends got this santa bag for Stella. It'll be great to use this year after year. It will be the bag Santa leaves his presents in

She loves her new percussion set of instruments.

She's got on her Dad's new slippers. Carrying a purse, cell phone and car keys. She's all set and all girl.

Indiana adventures

We had a wonderful trip back to Indiana! We were able to spend a lot of time with family and friends! We were able to be with all of our family for three Christmas parties. Though we missed Randy very much and were glad to come home. There are so many great pictures from our trip. Here are just a few...

She let her Unlce Todd hold her. This was big.

Stella got her very own vacuum.

She played Santa with her Grandpa Kruse

She helped her Uncle Matt play guitar

She met Santa and he brought her an early present

She really loved opening presents this year

She danced with 'Pagi'-Grandpa Rupert

We've got lots of wonderful girl cousins. I felt like I was on vacation. Stella was very entertained and did not need me much at all.

Waking up to lots of girls was great

She loved to play on the piano

We're in trouble now

Uh oh, she's figured out how to gain access to just about anywhere she wants now.

I had to get this on camera before I started correcting the behavior of course! It all started with her toy that is a small table with little button and things on top. We got it for her when she was first able to stand. A week or so ago, she figured out that she could push it to the computer desk or kitchen counter and was then able to reach so much more! I took the legs off of it. Then she found a small little metal bucket that is home to her blocks. She dumped all the blocks out, turned the bucket upside down to stand on it. Now she's found that the chair is soo much better!

Thanksgiving was great. We celebrated here just the 3 of us. Stella wanted nothing to do with the turkey, cheesy potatoes, stuffing or green bean casserole. PB&J for her. She is getting so picky. She likes what she likes and she won't try much else. Hmmm.

The christmas tree is up and Stella really likes it. She's been doing a very good job at leaving it alone for the most part. She helped hang the decorations we made and had a good time.

Stella loves watching America's Funniest Home Videos! She will watch it for at least 30 min. straight. Which for her is amazing. She's never watched any show, cartoon, sesame street etc. for more than 5 minutes. But with AFV she watches and laughs and smiles and claps! She complains when the commercials come on. I have to explain to her that the show will come back on, we just have to wait. And she repeats...'wait'

Christmas ornaments

This year I'm making christmas ornaments for our tree; what with a 20 month old child running around and all! :) We used a really great recipe. 4 C Flour, 1 C Salt and 1 1/2 C Warm water. I added a couple tbs. of cinnamon too. You knead that all toegther then roll out the dough on a floured surface and cut out the shapes. Bake them at 325 for an hour and voila!!!

Here's a video of Stella enjoying her first experience painting. Can't wait to do more fun projects with her.

what we're doing now

I caught Stella reading a book to her baby
Very proud of her princess shoes and says 'cheese' very well for the camera

Stella is learning more and more everyday. Our dog Millie has been renamed Mimi by Stella. Stella has a Grandma who goes by Mimi; I guess we'll figure that out later. If you ask her how old she is she holds up her 'one' finger and says one. She can repeat after us so many things now. She gives out lots of hugs and kisses too. She'll be playing by herself and then all of the sudden will come up to you and give you a kiss. I wonder how she comes up with that. How is it that she's playing and then all of the sudden thinks, 'I'm going to go give mom a kiss.'? So funny.

She says night-night to Millie (Mimi) every night complete with a wave.

This morning I snapped off a little dog treat and gave it to her to give to Millie. Minutes later I found her and she had pup-peroni breath.

She loves to try tickle us. She says 'tickle, tickle, tickle' and tickles me right under the chin and in the collar bone area. It really doesn't tickle; it kind of hurts. But she is so thrilled with herself to be tickling mommy that I endure it.

grocery shopping

Here is a video of Stella going grocery shopping at the Children's Museum. She absolutely loved it!! They even had a check out place to scan all the items. We did the shopping trip two times before leaving the museum.

time with Grandpa Kruse

Stella's Grandpa Kruse came for a visit. It was great to have him here and Stella really enjoyed his company and time.

She went to the playground with him...

Went to The Children's Museum with him...
Planted a tree with him...

Rode in a car with him...

and played in her new princess shoes with him...

What a fun couple of days. I'm sure Grandpa Kruse will be taking a nap when he gets back to Indiana this afternoon.

The girl pays attention to everything

I caught Stella wiping down her grocery cart . Monkey see, monkey do.
I, of course, think this is hilarious (for now) I just hope she doesn't turn into a germaphobe later.

enjoying S.C.

It was a beautiful weekend here. We took some time to travel to Ceasar's Head State Park, about 40 miles from where we live. It was gorgeous up there with some spectacular views. Stella enjoyed the hiking with Dad.

a tight squeeze...

Bring on the books

Stella's not one to sit down and focus on something for long. Up to this point she's not been really into books. Or if by chance I've got her sitting and try to read to her, she normally will try to grab the book out of my hands. I am pleased to report that today, however, she brought me book after book to read to her. She'd go to her shelve, choose one, give it to me and turn around and sit down in my lap and patiently listen to the story. We went through 11 books this morning. Woohoo!! :)

Stella's got a bit of a cold, just a runny nose. Nothing major. But she sure was crabby after her nap yesterday. I took her to the playground and shopping and that cured everything.

A very happy halloween

Here we go...
This is the group we went trick-or-treating with. Our good friends, Jeff and Janae are great about having parties and it's really great to have all of the kids together!
This was a snapshot of the brief time Stella was in her stroller. She walked from the stop at the first house on. We had to lengthen the straps all the way out for the monster's big belly.

Trick-or-Treat! We had such a great time with Stella this year. It was so cute to see her with all of her friends dressed up and getting candy! Such a big girl.

I even let her go up a couple times by herself. She did a great job of taking a piece of candy and coming back!!! Though she didn't want to put her candy in her bucket. Maybe afraid I might take it?

Here we are in the lead. What a cute picture Randy took of all the moms heading up to the door with their little babies. Er um...bees, butterflies, ladybugs and monstersEven monsters need some form of transportation apparently. Here are some pics from the halloween party.

Stella with her friends. Such fun!!

I would say, "Stella, say I'm a monster, Rahhhh!" And she'd say "Rahhh" That noise is also her dinosaur noise. A handy noise to know, so very versatile.

Let the battle begin. This is a popular toy at Elizabeth's house.

Our pumpkins

Our pumpkin carving journey....
I wasn't going to carve pumpkins this year (I hate the scooping goop part), but Randy's brother Mike and Mike's girlfriend, Terri, were visiting this week and she got us a big 40 lb. pumpkin to carve, and so we did. It was really fun. I made Randy do all the scooping out work. That's my least favorite of course. :) Stella did not like the inside stuff at all. Randy and Uncle Mike kind of pushed her into touching it in the beginning and she cringed and screamed. (we didn't make her touch it again) She didn't even like the sight of it at first. She warmed up to the pumpkin a little more and, after all the inside was scooped out, was pretending to do it herself. She once got a little goop on her arm and freaked out a little, holding her arm out to Dad to help her. She was very cute and I'm glad we did carve a pumpkin this year. We would've really missed out. Thanks Terri :)

In this picture she was using her scooper. Randy threw a little of the previously scooped stuff on her spoon as she brought it up. Look at her face.

'No Dad, don't do it!!! "