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.