Family Photos

We have been needing to this for a long time...we FINALLY got some professional photos! I was a little nervous at first (just ask Alex how the day before went...) but it turned out great. I'm not too crazy about the pictures of me but Stella and Alex both look cute so that's all that matters! Here are some sneak peeks:)

There are a bunch more that I would love to show anyone in person and yes, you can order prints to frame if you like:) We have some nice family pictures but we're waiting to post those as we aren't sure which one we're using for our Christmas card:)

Dad was getting too boring...

On Sunday afternoon, we all came home from church and I crashed in bed (wasn't feeling too well) and Dad and Stella made some lunch. About an hour later, Alex came and woke me up to show me this:

I was worried she would wake up when we tried to move her to her crib but she was so tired she didn't make a peep for over 2 hours. I wish this would happen more often;)

Stella cleans herself

Lately we've noticed Stella grabbing the soap in the tub and she'll get some on her hands and rub it all over her body and in her hair. She even tried to eat it once and then I had to help her clean out her mouth because she was freaking out...who wouldn't?? We finally decided to catch her on video cleaning herself. Such a cutie:)

The other day I made a vegan pie (check out my other blog...) and I set it on the floor to take pictures and Stella was very interested in that pie. I don't blame her:)

Here are some more pictures of Stella playing in her little crocodile pool that we got from our nice neighbors:) This was like a month or so ago.

Somebody wasn't having fun...

A few weeks ago we went up American Fork canyon with our neighbors, Patrick and Ashlee because it was Patrick's birthday. The boys went fishing and Ashlee, Stella, Annabelle and I hung out. It made for a good time and the boys came back with some trout!

Annabelle was just as interested in the trout as Stella

Visit to Calf Creek, Boulder and Hell's Backbone Grill!

 Let me just begin by saying that ever since I heard about Hell's Backbone Grill I have wanted to go eat there and a couple years later, I finally did! It was great. Exceeded all of my expectations. In fact I can't wait to go back.

We arrived in Boulder in the late afternoon so we had time to go set up camp and then return for dinner. We camped at the Calf Creek campground and there was hardly anyone there so we had a lot of privacy. We even set up our hammock that Marc brought back from Costa Rica! Our campsite was like 20 yards from a little swimming hole in the river so we went swimming before we went and got dinner.

Stella at first got really mad when we tried to get her in the water. She wouldn't even let me hold her while being in the water. She finally got in with her daddy holding her and when he tried to hand her off to me she would freak out. I don't think she trusted me in the water:)

Stella loves the hammock!

Ahhh, yes.

Hell's Backbone Grill. That cat was in the exact same spot when we came back for breakfast the next morning. I would park myself there, too.

Stella wasn't so happy to be taking a picture.

The food was so yummy. Probably the best thing I had was homemade biscuits with sage butter. Amazing. The ribbon pasta with oyster mushroom cream sauce and braised greens and pine nuts was also very good. And the rosemary limeade. And the smashed sage potato pancakes. And just about everything else. Okay moving on from the food.

After eating dinner we sat in the field for a while because it was so relaxing. Molly did some business and we picked it up and Stella was so fascinated by the plastic bag! We would throw it to get it out of the way and she would chase after it and bring it back like a game of fetch! Who knew a bag of poop could be so entertaining?

This was Stella's first camping trip so naturally I was a little nervous. We set up her Pack'n Play in our little two person tent and made sure she had familiar things like her doggie and her favorite blanket. She cried a little bit but went to sleep and slept the whole night! She even slept through us trying to sneak into the tent when we got too scared sleeping under the stars (sounds a lot more romantic than it is).

The next morning we went back to Hell's Backbone Grill and I won't go into more food details (I meant to take pictures of the food but I was so busy enjoying it that I forgot...whoops). They have the most beautiful garden out front which is where they get some of their herbs and also some flowers that they use to garnish their food:) Stella loved the garden and was pointing out the flowers (she says flower!) and looking at the little stream they have going through it. So cute.

This was our favorite road. It's a few miles outside of Boulder headed toward Escalante. It's called Hogback Road, I think. There's a cliff on either side going down into lush canyons.

If you look down one side of the cliff you can see the hike we did, Calf Creek.

There was expected thunder and lightening that day so we were a little worried since the hike is a canyon (flash floods...) but we asked around and apparently Calf Creek isn't a big concern since there is a lot of high ground. It actually made the hike kind of nice because it was overcast and cooler compared to the extreme heat the previous day.

Being silly...

Lucky us, it didn't start raining until we had packed up the car and were pulling out of the campground. 

Stella dances in the bathtub

Early in the evening, Stella was dancing to Paul Simon and it was so cute! She was moving her shoulders and her hips...but of course before I could get it on camera she stopped so I spent the remainder of the evening trying to get her to dance and now have a lot of videos to show for it:) These ones were pretty good.

This first one she actually danced a little bit to Van Morrison (who wouldn't dance to Van Morrison??) and then at the end of the video you see her frustrations with mommy start to show:)

In this next video, I think Stella is done with me trying to get her to dance. There are a couple times where I'm nodding my head on the other side of the camera and you'll see her shake her head back like "Noooo, Mom." I guess Elton John and Antony just weren't dance-worthy tonight;)

Stella is walking!!!

We've been wondering tor a while now when our little Stella would start walking and she has been close for several months. I think she just didn't feel the need because she knew that she could just be carried everywhere:) Over the weekend we stayed with Megan and I think seeing Vivienne walk made Stella want to walk a little more so it happened! She is now on the go!

Cutie-puh-tootie

Stella is talking! Here are some cute pictures. Sorry, I tried adding a couple videos but it won't let me so I'll just keep trying:( Stella is saying "dada," "mama," "daddy/doggy," "hot," and "thank you." Her personality is also starting to show more and more and we just love her!

Stella, mid-song:)

She looks like she's plotting something mischievous...

Can't look at this one without laughing. Goofball.

Can you see her tongue through the square hole?

I have to include this.... The other day I thought Alex was watching Stella and he thought I was watching her...long story short, she got into the bathroom, pulled ALL the toilet paper off the roll and when I found her it was just a huge mess on the floor. I proceeded to roll the whole thing back up (it was fun) and now this is my toilet paper roll. Love having a one year-old!

We love Miss Stella!