Happy Halloween!

 Happy Halloween from 

Iron Man, a friendly Witch, Vikings Cheerleader and Super Stella!

beautiful

Last week I ordered Stella's name from a seller on Etsy. They arrived in the mail today and I think they are absolutely beautiful. The seller's store name is Aunt JJ's Attic. Check her out, you won't be disappointed! She was very reasonable, $4.00/per letter. I know when I did Adeline's name the letters were $6/pc from Hobby Lobby, plus scrapbook paper and mod podge to adhere the paper to the letters. And I only did "Addie" so these were a better deal! Now to get her ledge shelves hung up in her room so I can display these beautiful letters!

Stella's hospital pictures

As a gift to all parents who deliver at our hospital, they have a professional photographer come in and take pictures of the baby, then a few weeks later you get the disc and copyright to print any and all pictures that you desire. We just got Stella's last week, the photographer had some family things come up and felt bad she didn't get us the pictures sooner so she mailed us a $25 gift card to use towards prints from her. When we had Adeline, she was in the hospital taking pictures to see what they could do for the hospital website, etc., so she took Adeline's pictures and the two other babies that were there at the same time. And we got the disc from those as well. I think this is a wonderful gift for the hospital to provide. They are absolutely gorgeous! Gone are the days of cheesy hospital pictures! These are just a few of my favorites.

so sweet!

I love baby feet!

This is the picture they used on the hospital website

Stella Kate

Out of the mouth of Paul...

Paul is quite the character, he comes up with the darnedest things!

Tonight we were going out for dinner and Kevin had been helping our friends out on their farm on Friday night and most of day Saturday, as we were driving by their farm Kevin and I were talking and I said "Isn't it so cool that our kids are getting to expierence things that you never really got to when you were a kid?" Meaning they get to basically live in the country, even though we live in town, they are exposed to the country life. Granted Kev basically spent his summers with his Grandparents in the house we now live in, but he spent much of his time at the Station. Our kids are very interested in the farms and what farmers are doing etc. I grew up in a small town until we moved to the cities when I was a Sophomore. So I was telling Kev how when I was a kid my Grandma didn't work and that when we were sick from school she'd pick us up at school and bring us home or we'd get off the bus at her house after school and we spent a good majority of our summers there. My Grandpa was a rural letter carrier and a hobby farmer. When he'd get home from the mail route he'd head out to the field, since he was diabetic he needed to keep his blood sugar levels at an even keel, so we'd always bring him "lunch" at around 4 o'clock out to the field. I remember lunch consisting of deviled ham sandwiches (gah, don't think I could eat those anymore!), and Lipton Iced Tea with lemon that my Grandma would mix up in a big jug and we'd take it out to the field. I'm not sure what else we had for lunch out there, but those are the two that stand out and to this day I still love the smell of the Lipton Iced Tea powder! I was also saying how my Grandma didn't work until after my Grandpa passed away in 1995. This is where Paul pipes up and says "Why did your Grandpa die?" I said "He had a heart attack" and he said "What's a heart attack?" Kevin says "His heart got sick and stopped working" Paul "Okay"  then there was a pause and he said "Mommy how many Grandpa's do you have?" Kevin said "Mommy had two grandpas, just like you have four grandpa's" Paul is still confused about this how thing and he said "It's okay Mommy, because now you have a new Grandpa, you know, Tim." For those of you who don't know Tim is my step-dad and Kevin said to him "No, Tim is your grandpa, not mommies" We were just rolling, it was too funny that I just had to call and share it with my mom. She said to me "I sure hope you write this stuff down somewhere" I said "Well, my blog is as far as it makes it!" So I thought I better at least post it here, I hope to someday print out our blog and either get one of those blog books you can have made now or just print it myself and put it in at three ring binder...maybe someday if I ever get my color laser printer that I want!

Also on the way to dinner he declared he was changing his name. He as no longer going to be Paul Francis T-----. He was going to be Paul Iron Man T-----.

Man, I love that kid!

Super Stella

I made Stella's Halloween Costume this year, she was going to be a "Peapod" but we decided we wanted her to be something more girly and something we could buckle her into her carseat in. She has gotten the nickname "Super Stella" at our house because when we hold her up out in front of us, her legs always go up straight behind her and she looks like Super Man flying, so I decided she could be "Super Stella" for Halloween. I used things I already had at home so her costume basically cost me nothing. I took a long sleeve bodysuit, some fabric that I had bought over a year ago to start a "blanket" for Adeline, it was a remnant and still rolled up and in the Hobby Lobby bag from when I purchased it. The white fabric is something left over from our wedding. Her leggings are a pair of "Baby Legs" that I had purchased for Adeline and they happen to match the pink stripe! I cut out the cape, sewed all of the edges and then sewed it onto the back of the bodysuit. I cut a circle out of the fabric and cut out an "S" that I had printed from the computer and sewed that onto my circle and then sewed the circle on the shirt. I don't sew, I've had a sewing machine for almost 5 years now and this is the first "real" project I've done with it. The costume is nothing fancy and I wouldn't let anyone look at it up close, but I like it and it'll work for her first Halloween!

Well Baby/Child Checks

Adeline and Stella had their well baby/child check ups this morning. Adeline had her 18 month check-up, we're just a month behind on that. She goes back now at 2 years. She had two shots, her MMR and flu shot. She did great with both. She weighs 28.4 pounds and is 32.8 inches tall. She's growing like a weed! Stella had her 1 month check up and we go back in when she is 2 months old. She had one shot, hepatitis B. She cried for about 5 seconds and then was over it, she didn't have any reaction to it, not even a fever, she slept pretty much all day. Ate when we got home from the appointment around 11:30 and didn't wake up again until 5:30. She was one sleepy girl! Stella weighed 10 pounds 10 ounces and was 22 inches long. She's really grown a lot in a month. She was 8 lbs, 5 oz at birth and 19-1/4 inches long.

Jumping in the Leaves!

Snoozing away while her siblings play in the leaves!

Climbing the slide!

Driving his dump truck in the leaves!

Daddy showing the kids how it's done!

The kids loved daddy throwing them into the leave pile.

Not so happy that she got stuck!

Happy again!

I love baby feet!

One Month!

Stella is a month old today! She is a great baby, she still sleeps a lot and gets up about one time a night, which isn't too bad. She can sleep right through any noise that Amelia, Paul or Adeline make, even through the tornado siren that was going off the other day as the monthly test. And let me tell you it's loud at our house when it goes off because it's directly across the street!

Like I did with Adeline I plan to take a monthly picture of her with her Build-a-Bear that my Grandparents gave her so everyone can watch her grow. I took these in her crib, but I think I'll take a new one of her sitting up in a chair so I can get a better shot instead of shooting above her crib! She has her 1 month check up on Thursday, so I will post her stats on Thursday!

Stella's Baptism

We had Stella's Baptism on Saturday evening. We had a great turn out of family and friends. We had appetizers at our house before hand for everyone to be able to visit before Mass. There was quite a wide variety of appetizers thanks to everyone who brought one. Then Mass was at 6:30 and following Baptism we had dinner at our house. I made a roaster full of chili, chicken tortilla soup and cheesy vegetable. See my recipe blog for the recipes for the two soups. My mom, sister and grandma filled in with salads. All of the food seemed to go over well. Stella received some really nice gifts and it was nice to see everyone. Here are a few pictures.

Stella and her Godparents Katie and Ryan