Grandma

My Grandma Wanda (my dad's mom)  passed away last Thursday, January 12th.  She was a beautiful, funny, smart and caring woman.  She will be missed.  The service was on Wednesday and it was beautiful. I love you Grandma...
 

What Stella eats...

Dinner is served! I try as hard as I can to give her mostly organic fruits, veggies, milk and nitrate free meat. I'm not a lunatic about it, but when she is home this is usually what her meals look like (rotating different fruits, veggies and meat of course!)

Peas and carrots, banana, turkey and cheese (listed in case you don't know what food looks like:)

Backyard

Our backyard was one of the biggest selling points of our new house when we first saw it. It is huge and insanely overwhelming. We have grapefruit, orange, lemon, fig, avocado and peach trees. It sounds amazing (and it is), but apparently in order for them to flourish, you have to take care of them! We have no idea how to do that! My mom's BF, who is like my aunt has a ton of fruit trees, so we may need to have her come over for "fruit tree boot camp" (ever heard of it? :).  Every time Morgan and I are in the backyard we say '" I love this house" and we really do.  I fall deeper in love with it everyday.  You can faintly hear the church bells chiming from down the street and at night you can hear the trains in the canyon.  We never thought we would actually own our own home and it is just now feeling real.  Stella is obsessed with the backyard.  I remember the first time we brought her to the house, we took her in the backyard and let her loose.  She ran around, yelled at trees and it was actually then that I knew this house was supposed to be ours.  I feel so lucky, happy and proud that I can give this to my girl.  She deserves it.

Spoon fed

We have been trying to get Stella to eat with a spoon and last night she was actually very interested in doing it.  She seems like she is in fast forward lately and I want her to slow down.  She has been trying to talk, which always comes out as gibberish (I know one day she will just start talking in full sentences and freak us all out!) and has been playing independently.  Last night while I was rocking her to sleep, I looked around her messy, played in room and just laughed to myself.  Her books were all laid out next to each each other, her stuffed animals were out of their basket and she had her little Minnie doll stuffed tightly in a little red bucket. I always wonder what is going on in her head.  She likes to be in her room by herself, with her door closed.  One day I went in to check on her and she was rocking a stuffed lamb in her rocking chair.  She seriously melts my heart about a million times a day!

Pigtails

I have been waiting for this for a while now and it has finally happened!  I can put Stella's hair in pigtails!  Her hair in the back is super curly and long and her hair on top is not so long and straight!  She has a mom and dad combo!  I honestly can't handle the cuteness of her little pigtails!  They make her look like a little girl and not my baby!

                                               

2011

I was going to do a month by month  2011 review, but I have the worse memory ever, so I can't remember when things took place!  I know that this year has been out of control and filled with ups and downs.  At the beginning of 2011, I weaned Stella, got on medication and seriously dealt with postpartum depression.  I didn't talk about it much, but it was bad and I am so happy to be back to normal (my normal, which is still crazy). 

Stella said her first word,"momma", then "dadda' and then didn't say "momma" again for months.  She celebrated her first Valentine's day by joyfully yelling in a crowded sushi restaurant.  Stella and I also took mommy and me swim lessons at the YMCA.   In April, she took her first airplane ride up north to visit family after my Grandma Susan passed away. She was loud (happy loud), but right then we realized that or Australia trip would have to wait. 
In May, Stella turned 1 and I turned 31....yikes!  We had a big amazing party that probably cost too much :), but everyone had a blast, including our girl.  Over the summer Morgan and I decided that it was time for me to get my fibroids removed, so we got in touch with an amazing doctor at Cedars Sinai and got the process going. The day after the 4th of July, Stella got up and decided to fully walk.  She had been cruising before, but was apparently ready that day. A week later, I had my fibroids removed.  While all of this was going on Morgan and I somehow decided that it was time to buy a house!  We started looking in June, put offers in on 5 houses and in October we finally found the one!

In September Morgan started his MFA at Cal State LA aka, our lives got more insane than we could have ever imagined!

In October we signed the papers to our new home, painted the walls, pulled up the carpet and by November 16th we were moved in!  Our family was so insanely helpful with the entire process and I am not sure we could have gotten it all done without them.  We love our house and feel so incredibly lucky to have found it!

Stella celebrated her second Halloween by dressing up like Minnie, trick or treating and in general just acting miserable (we set our expectations low around here, so I wasnt' disappointed)! We had an amazing Thanksgiving with family and friends and geared up for Christmas.

In the middle of all the madness, my work has been crazy busy, Morgan has been working full time, going to school full time and I have been caring for Stella at home while I work!

Christmas time was nice, but Stella, Morgan and I all got the stomach Flu the day before Christmas Eve, we made the best of it.  We missed Christmas Eve with the family and I slept through Christmas Day.  Our family came to our door caroling on Christmas Eve which made me cry.  Morg and I both had the week after Christmas off, so we packed the week full of activities which included snowboarding, movies, relaxing and Stella's first trip to Disneyland!  It was an amazing day that I will never forget! 

We decided to have a big NYE party at our new house!  It was a great party,which included too much food, too much booze and amazing family and friends.  I feel so blessed! Now we gear up for 2012!  Here are a few goals I have for the upcoming year!

1. To get Stella into part-time daycare!
2. To be a better wife to Morgan.
3. To lose 15 lbs!
4. To take better care of myself.
5. Finish The Slater Sisters full length album!
6. To blog more!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy year and that 2012 brings amazing new ventures!