DIAPER MOUNTAIN

Yesterday I bought three big boxes of diapers at Big Lots. To entertain Stella I had her "help" me open the boxes and take out the diapers. She thought the whole thing was hilarious. Soon we had a huge pile of diapers in our living room, and of course, Stella just had to try and climb it. I started calling it Diaper Mountain as she continued to attempt to conquer it. She was thrilled when she realized that she could easily stand up with the help of Diaper Mountain, and after she stood we all had to clap at her genius. The fun didn't end there though, as we then started playing with the boxes. So I guess here is my little Mommy tip to other moms: You might be able to offset the costs of your diapers a bit if they can double as toys. Let me know how that works out for you.

WALK WITH ME

Stella is 13 months old today, and she has changed so much these last couple of weeks. It is almost like meeting a different kid every morning. Yesterday at church, she crawled over to a baby her age, waved at her, and said "Hi." I almost melted, it was so sweet. She also no longer uses bottles. In fact, one day I gave her a sippy instead and she just drank it with no remorse over the loss of her old pal, the bottle. It is great for me since she would never hold her own bottle, but always holds her own sippies. I wish she was as cooperative about trying new foods though. She likes all kinds of junk food, but has totally gagged over many new healthy foods that I have tried to introduce. She has taken it upon herself many times to dig out her favorite snacks from the pantry or diaper bag, drag them over to us, and hand them to us so that we can feed them to her. It is so cute that we usually oblige her and give her whatever she wants. Yet, she did have a fascination with bringing me the maple syrup from the pantry for a couple of days. I couldn't figure out what she wanted me to do with it, but it sure made me laugh watching her crawl with it all the way into the living room. Her strange eating habits are a small price to pay in exchange for getting to enjoy her adorableness each moment that we are together.

I think she might be on the way to walking any day now because she will now stand alone, and then she can take about three steps toward me. She loves it, and when we were practicing last night at Brent's parents' house, she was all giggles, with each effort being followed by a round of applause from the whole family. She also can walk by our side if we hold only one of her hands. I made her and Brent go outside and take some pictures for proof. I got nothing but complaints from them both (the sidewalk was hot, hot, hot!), but it was worth it. I also snapped a pic of my beautiful Dior heels...so dreamy those shoes!

TIME TRAVELS

When I decided that I would start college early and attend a summer term so I could be accepted into Ricks College, I was really scared to go up to school not knowing anyone. I was super lucky though, and I had the funnest six weeks with some really amazing roommates. The last time the three of us were all together it was 1998! It has been a terribly short 11 years. Of course, with some people that would make it a little awkward, but not with these two! We picked up right away with giggles and stories. Emily was in town from California and was the one who organized our get together, and I guess it shows that Facebook can't be all bad if it means I get to step back in time for a few hours and pretend I am 18 again. After dinner, we headed to the mall and took Emily to all of the Utah layering shirt stores, where Jodi was kind enough to introduce Emily to everyone as a girl from California. I thought it was very thoughtful, as they don't seem to see many outsiders in Provo. So, 11 years, 3 husbands, and 7 kids (mostly Jodi's) later, we still had the funnest time together. Thanks girls!

PARK ADVENTURES

We have taken Stella to the park a few times, but every time I purposefully have not taken my camera. I know if I have it with me I won't have any fun with her and I will just take pictures. Well, my friend Crystal wanted to get together the other day and take pictures. Since I have yet to get pictures of Stella in her park element I suggested that that was where we should go.

The first park toy that Stella ever tried was a swing. Brent and I put her in a baby swing and pushed her ever so slightly. She loves it, and when she swings she makes her "whew, whew" sound. Another place she makes the same sound is on the slide. Most of the slides that she has tried have little bumps, and she "whew, whew"s herself all the way to the bottom. Another part of the park experience that she loves is all the other kiddos. She loves watching kids run around wild--she finds it fascinating! It is all so freakin' adorable. I just made a resolution to take the video camera next time. Stella's park exploits must be documented to the fullest!

THE SWING:

THE SLIDE:

WATCHING THE KIDS:

CHILLIN' WITH MOM:

OUR LITTLE FIRECRACKER

I am not known to be the type of person that buys holiday-themed tops for myself, Brent, or even Stella. But my mom gave this outfit to Stella on her birthday for the 4th of July. I had to admit that it was rather festive. This is Stella's first holiday that she is not experiencing for the first time. I wish her parents had a big day of events planned, but we don't. However, we still are happy to be part of a great country that is our home, and obviously, so is Stella--our All American Girl.

SUMMER'S FIRST SWIM

Yesterday I called Ashley. "I'm in a slump," I told her. "Let's go up to the condo tomorrow and swim with the babies." She said she was thinking what I was thinking so we started to plan. It is a ton of work to take both babies somewhere. They are on different schedules and we had to think of everything from food to swim diapers.

We were both discouraged when the clouds became more ominous as we drove up the canyon, but we were hopeful the sun would break through as we slathered our daughters in SPF-40 (and me as well--I like to maintain my creamy white complexion the entire summer). When we got there, there was no sign of sun, but we had the pool to ourselves so that was a bonus. Stella was finally able to wear her swimsuit, and she looked pretty adorable in it of course. I was nervous for her to try out the pool since I have seen plenty of little ones find it cold and frightening. But I was pleased to see that she loved it! Then as soon as she realized she could make the water splash, she liked it more. And when she realized Cousin was there too, it was even more fun (if that was even possible). After maybe 15 minutes of total fun, it started to rain and we had to get out of there. Man, a lot of work for not a lot of time in the pool, but it was worth it.

Did you catch that? Yep, Stella likes to put her finger up her nose nowadays. Classy.

CLIMBING SKILLS

It is so interesting to watch Stella reach all of the usual baby milestones. Recently she has begun to conquer the stairs. And she loves it. In fact, after one climb up all she wants is to be taken back down again so she can climb up again. She is pretty good at it these days, and taking pictures was tricky because she was on the move. This is a dangerous new skill, but I can't stop her--she has to learn. With climbing the stairs now, along with her other new skills of pointing to what she wants and singing to music (very different from her talking), Stella is proving to be a great talent!

IN CONTROL

Stella never really lets me snuggle her. She is always wiggling off to the next adventure. Last night though, after her bottle (yesterday was her first day of milk bottles--no more formula here!) she sat with me as we watched television. Stella has her own remote. She found it one day and I let her play with it since it no longer works. However, it was probably a bad idea because now she thinks she can play with any remote at any time. Last night when we were snuggling, which was cute enough, I realized that we were both holding our remotes, upping the ante of the cute factor. So I made Brent come and take a picture. I hate how big she looks here, but it is still adorable.