Camera Photo Dump

At the beginning of this month I made a personal goal

to post a blog every day.

I failed.

I failed the first week.

But I had some fun photos that I had taken

and then just didn't ever get a blog together.

So here are my photos. 

I'll try again next month.

Creative can smashing.

"You want me to do what on this skateboard?"

"Oh, ok- that sounds like fun!"

Even smiley during laundry chores

And diaper chores.

Pepper harvest from our garden.

More peppers

What, you might ask, are we doing with all of these peppers?

Well, I'm stuffing them with cream cheese and wrapping them in bacon.

You know, keeping it healthy!

I've been freezing them in preparation for football season.

I think I look forward to the peppers as much as the games!

How Sloppy Joes Got Their Name

I believe I have discovered the origin of the name

Sloppy Joes.

Or in this case:

Sloppy Stella.

Stella definitely loves to eat

and she eats just about everything that we put in front of her.

On this day, it was

Sloppy Joes

Yeah, she liked them.

And yeah, she made a mess with them.

It's fun to watch her feed herself.

We've been giving her opportunities to try the spoon.

She usually waves it around more than she actually uses it.

It's a great teether.

Here Mom, you have a bite.

Those Parents

I realized yesterday that we may be "those parents"

I lump Jim into the "we" even though he

wasn't even home when I came to this realization.

Parenting is a partnership right?

Anyway- back to my revelation

about us being "those parents"

You know "those parents" the ones

who watch as their children do semi-dangerous things

and instead of stopping them, they grab a camera.

Oh yeah- we can climb stairs now.

And play with swords.

And apparently we're those parents who just let

our daughter crawl around the house in a diaper.

That's not dangerous, it's just easier.

Look Ma! I'm a ninja!

Ha! This one was mid-sneeze.

I realize that it's probably time

to put down the camera.

But it's fun to watch her try and learn each time.

The photo that I didn't capture last night

was the moment when she was sitting in the kitchen

opening up the trash cupboard door

over, and over, and over.

Yeah- we're those parents.

Child-proofing the cabinets is on the short list

for projects this weekend.

So here- enjoy this video of

Stella climbing stairs.

Sunday At The Park

We are enjoying the beautiful weather

and Sunday we managed to get out to the park

to enjoy some lunch and feed the geese.

Stella was a little sleepy when we got there

but she rallied and had a great time.

She wasn't that interested in the geese.

She was really more interested in eating leaves.

and ants.

But she had some good play time with Dad too.

Who needs shoes at the park?

Not this girl!

High School

Where does the time go?

It seems like yesterday that I was having Cole pose for this picture

on his first day of school.

Look at his oversized backpack and his tiny feet :)

And now we have this one, on his first day

of 9th grade.

High School!

It doesn't seem possible

Aww- look at his kindergarten picture

So sweet and innocent.

Here are some action shots from our morning

Looking over the schedule

just to make sure he knows what's happening.

Please Mom!

Are you gonna be taking a bunch of pictures today

or are you done?

I'm done.

So off he went to take on the world

My baby.

 

Silly Stella

The girl is silly-

no doubt about it.

She enjoys getting a laugh

So it shouldn't surprise me

that she was willing to wear the onesie on her head

in order to get a laugh from her brother.

It worked.

She got the laugh she was working for.

Are You A Girl Or A Kitten?

Stella has found a new way to communicate with the animals.

She meows to the cats.

This is not the best example of her newfound communication skills,

but it's the best that we were able to capture on video

and it's still pretty darn cute.

New Day - New Trick

Every day is a new adventure around our house.

Blink and you'll miss something.

This morning at 5:30 (!) Stella was awake

and it was clear that she wasn't ready to go back to sleep on her own.

I went into her room and this is what I saw.

Uhhhh, when did you learn to do that?

Right now, I suppose.

It really is amazing to think about how quickly they learn and are able to do new things.

I should say that I didn't actually take the picture at 5:30.

We re-created it at a more appropriate waking-up time.

Happy Monday Friends.