HOPELESSLY DEVOTED

Yesterday, when we should have been at church, Stella had just woken up from her nap, and was in a very good mood. I started taking pictures of her even though I was starving. It is certainly interesting the little signs that come up now and then of how much I love my daughter (or how obsessed I am). Normally I would eat if I was really hungry with threat of my blood sugar dropping, but instead I wanted to take pictures. Here is some more evidence of my devotion (as if this blog weren't enough):

• I hate feet, and I always have hated feet. Even when I was tiny I screamed when my mom clipped my toe nails. It was so drastic she even asked the doctor if something was wrong with me. However, I love Stella's tiny toes. I even kiss them all the time since it makes her giggle.
  
• I love it when Stella "gets into things." I find it fascinating that she has figured out how to take her diapers out of her diaper caddy. I am for sure going to be one of those moms who can't discipline her kids since even when she is bad, she is ever-so-adorable.
  
• How annoying is the sound of a sneeze?! I know, I sneeze too, but when someone sneezes...even Brent, I am totally grossed out. But sometimes in the morning, I hear Stella sneeze far away in her crib, and it is so adorable! It is like a mini sneeze! It is even cute when a giant booger flies out of her nose along with it.
  
• I am certain I would end any kind of relationship with someone that peed on me. However, Stella is still living with us.
  

I am sure that more evidence of my strong feelings will arise as the years go by. Until then, enjoy the pictures of my child that I took while I got dizzy from hunger.

GALA IT UP

My crazy friend Heather has entered the Mrs. Utah beauty pageant. When she announced this idea back in November, I thought for sure her usual ADHD behavior would keep her from following through with such a plan. But once she paid the expensive entrance fee, she was in it to win it. As an avid fan of watching pageants for both the very young and old, I have been helping Heather here and there to prepare her for her big moment of competition in April.

Last night the pageant hosted a Gala event at beautiful La Caille to raise money to help the costs that the winner of Mrs. Utah has as she is trying to promote her platform and be beautiful at the same time. Ashley and I went to support our little pageant queen and we had a delightful time.

The event looked like a wedding, so of course I took a ton of pictures that I will post on my photo blog. And since these are the pictures that the PROFESSIONAL photographer took with my camera (he and I had twin cameras) of us girls with the first black Heisman trophy winner, Johnny "the Jet" Rodgers, I feel pretty confident in my chances of becoming a professional photographer myself.

MODELS FIRST

Of course, being moms and all leaves little time for one of our great passions: modeling. Naturally, we had to take a moment to do some modeling poses at beautiful La Caille. I was disappointed that we had just had some snow so there was really no way to walk around the extensive grounds. Do not fret, we still got several winners.

WEDDINGS

To see some wedding pics I took this weekend, check out my photo blog! I'd love any input.

NINE MONTHS AGO

Stella is nine months today, and it perhaps the most beautiful and delightful child I could ever imagine. As a healthy nine month-er, Stella has many tricks, talents and amazing abilities. Here is a list of her new found skills:

• She loves to clap and now will clap on the command of "Stella, play patty cake". (when she wants to, of course.)
• She has expanded her verbal repertoire from just "mama" to "baba" So sometimes she says "mama, baba" Which is a complete sentence as far as I am concerned.
  
• She has yet to figure out crawling, but she scoots all around the room. Currently she can only travel backwards and lets me know when she gets stuck with a helpless whine.
  
• She unintentionally gets into trouble, i.e. opening and emptying drawers, spreading her diapers all over the room, emptying bags of chips to go after the bag etc.
  
• She is currently my number one model, especially since she doesn't know how to crawl away from the camera just yet.
  
• She gets excited when she is picked up and taken anywhere...even if it is upstairs or into the kitchen.
  
• She loves to drink water from a cup (with help), but refuses to figure out how a sippy cup works.
  
• She gets a million compliments of her adorableness wherever she goes. Even in the grocery store parking lot. (You aren't blind, you can tell why ;) )
  

Does anyone know how to stop your adorable nine month old baby to stop growing so fast? Is there a diet I don't know about? Any information would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

ATTENTION SHOPPERS

Here's Stella, happy in the car on her way to a covert operation. Read on to hear about our espionage-like affairs.

If you follow my little blog at all, you have no doubt realized that I have absolutely no shame when it comes to taking pictures. I have embarrassed both friends and family with my zealous nature. I don't really care what people think most of the time...so I simply get over it, especially when pictures are involved. Well folks, I found my match...Target.

Any time I go to Target, I am always fascinated with all the neon lighting and the colorful and clean food shelves. I have ALWAYS wanted to take pictures there. Well, Stella has a new development--she sits in the front part of the cart. (The place where I used to put my designer purse has now been taken over by my baby!) How does Stella feel about the new change? She loves it! She is thrilled with the new view and loves to look at the colorful shelves and interesting shoppers.

Yesterday Stella and I had to go to Target. I already decided that I wanted to take my camera and get pictures of her sitting in the cart. I was surprised that I felt silly about it even before we left the house, but I took my camera anyway. I meandered around the store before arriving at my desired aisle: frozen foods. I was terribly bashful about being a crazy person who wants to take pictures at Target so I only took out the camera when I thought we were alone, putting it in my bag when someone came around the corner. If anyone did see me, they must have thought I was a loon. Maybe I am, but I have to say...the few pictures I took are AWESOME, and I love them. Worth it to be crazy once again. Will I ever learn my lesson?

OUR OWN PRIVATE IDAHO

I just got back from Idaho. My super talented BFF is in charge of this event called the Mayor's Scholarship Fund. Is is a really great scholarship geared toward good students who might not have the other typical characteristics of a student eligible for scholarships or financial aid. The event ends with a rather lovely dinner recognizing the recipients, and they have this lovely catalog where the winners are pictured with their various bios. It is all very lovely. We had talked about me coming up while Craig was out of town, and she mentioned that it would be the days they would be making the video they show at the reception and taking their pictures for the lovely catalog. She was also in a jam--the guy that had taken the pictures last year was not returning her calls or emails. So we came to the genius conclusion that I should come up, keep her company, and take the pictures for her. (Pictures are posted on the photography blog.) My mom was kind enough to come with me and watch Stella and the boys while we were working. Thanks mumsie! Here are some of our adventures:

I spent hours making a book on blurb.com for Heidi with old pictures and emails of our eleven year friendship and I gave it to her for her birthday. Here she is enjoying the book after she was able to wipe away the tears of love and joy.

Cy is learning the guitar. He got one for Christmas and loves to play it. What a talented little 6 year old! Soon he will be recording in Uncle Brent's studio.

Catcher is mad about Star Wars (which he calls Tar Wars). He was happy to model all of his toys. The one pictured alone is one of Craig's from when he was little that he lets Catcher play with.

Oh, and Stella was there at all times looking most beautiful as she spent time with her cousins, who she just could NOT keep her eyes off of.

CARS, THE UNLIKELY OBSESSION

Stella had an amazing time in Idaho with her cousins. Heidi brought up some baby toys from the basement to keep her entertained...and she liked them just fine, but why would she want to play with some baby toys when she had access to her cousin's crazy large collection of Matchbox cars? From the moment she got her hands on one of them, she was hooked. On the second night she was obsessed. She went wild taking out a car from Cy's car case, putting it in her mouth, dropping it on the floor, and then grabbing another one from the case. She was only interested in the cars in the case, or the cars in Aunt Heidi's hand. She emptied the case several times. On top of that, she loved watching her cousins play with the cars. Over all, she must have felt like the luckiest baby alive. It was hilarious to watch.

P.S. There is a Blondie song that has a part about a man from Mars that eats cars. I couldn't stop singing the part in the song where it lists all the cars. Perhaps whoever wrote that song had a baby with a Matchbox car fetish.