Special Moments...

I plan on getting my ass in gear this weekend to take Stella's 17 month pictures. In the meantime we did take a visit to the doctors and she is a healthy 24 pounds :) I am so thankful that she is healthy. She is such a special little girl and I love her something fierce. I have been sharing and loving so many moments with her lately. Here are a few that make my heart melt....

early morning snuggles in bed.

bathtime...no other way to put it. a guaranteed good time :)

playing dress up first thing in the morning.

 in the doctor's waiting room. I remember the times she would be snuggled up in her carseat while we waited, but she is now sitting in the chair next to me waiting to be called. 

and sometimes it's just easier to have matching lunches and eat them picnic style.

Being a Mom to her is something like no other. She makes my day each and every single day. She is my daughter, my buddy, my love, my everything. 

Love you Stella...to the moon and back. 

Who Needs a Bonfire?

We have been making the most out of being kind of housebound. Lately it's just been because it is too damn cold. Like single digit temps! I feel bad taking Stella out because the wind practically takes her breath away when it hits her in the face. So if the trip out isn't necessary, then inside we have been staying.

Rick had off Monday and it was nice having an extra day to spend together. He collected a few sticks from the snow covered yard and brought them inside.

Yes we did! We roasted s'mores in the woodstove and they were soo good! I was shocked that Stella didn't dig them like I did. ha! more for me :) Totally guilty of keeping those sticks on the mantle and using those suckers for a quick treat during the day. S'mores for lunch? Yes, please!

The bursts of independent playtime change from day to day. Some days I find her playing by herself more and others she wants a play buddy all day. During those independent spurts I try to get little things done around the house. Like a quick swifter of the kitchen floor, fold a load of laundry or do some prep work for my dinner such as chop my veggies and store them in a ziplock in the fridge until dinner time. I am sometimes surprised at how much I can get done during those independent play days. And on the needy days my kitchen floors remain dirty, dishes sometimes wait in the sink or that load of laundry will need be to be tumbled later that day before getting folded. But, I am truly thankful for both kinds of days.

And you're not cool unless you wear a diaper on your head... :)

Magical Mornings and My Sweet Valentine

Mornings are just the best. The first thing Stella and I do before anything else is get the woodstove going. The fire is typically raging by 7ish. After she helps me carry (the small) pieces of wood over to the stove, and  crinkle paper our imaginations run wild. We both play endlessly in our pj's while of course I am enjoying my morning cup of coffee. Lately Coffeemate snickerdoodle has been am-az-ing. We play with toy after toy in front of the warm fire after the morning sun shines in. As much happiness as these mornings bring for me, they remind me of a sadness lurking over that we won't be able to have these forever. Each day she grows older, and each day is one less day that she is going to lay in my lap and read a board book, and one less day we will get to build with blocks and one less day we will play in her pretend kitchen and make pretend cake and tea.

We were pretty much housebound on Valentine's Day because of the snow and single digit temps! What happened to ground hog's day and the next few weeks being mild?! total bullshit! It was ever sweeter because Valentine's Day was on a Saturday. So all three of us spent the day together which started off with a sweet Valentine's Day heart shaped pancake breakfast. 



I will admit I skipped the heart shaped cookie cutters and did them free hand- so they are definitely not my best work, but they tasted just as good! And my Valentine? Couldn't be sweeter...

We continue to work on the potty thing. She is understanding the potty process more and more. We have had a couple potty success stories and a few potty stories gone wrong. I am pretty sure there will be many many more of them ;) Best was this week...Rick had just walked in from work and shedded his thousands of layers. Stella looked at him and said "Paaa" which is potty in her language. Rick asked her is she wanted to go on the potty and sure enough she said Yea. Don't ya know?! The kid sat down and went pee pee on the potty. Yep, just like that!! Because we make such a big deal when she goes, she automatically claps when the word potty is mentioned. 

A few other happenings from this week...

we made these delicious fresh chopped strawberry coffee crumb muffins...

had an ice cream sundae (fix your own toppings) party after dinner this week... Stella had a blast putting on her own toppings. I think our favorite was the fresh baked chocolate chip crushed cookie pieces...

i'll take 2 10 please?!

Last but not least...this cheesy face gets me every time...



a Hodgepodge of Thoughts

I am so going to blame my lack of blogging on having too much toddler fun lately. Stella is such a character these days and I am loving every minute of it. We keep adding new additions to the playroom to keep it new and fresh. This wooden cupcake set is just perfect. not the real thing, but pretty damn close ;) In this set came 4 wooden cupcakes, 4 interchangeable icing colors, 4 velcro candles, 3 icing tubes which are really erasable markers, the cupcake tray, a bunch of cupcake paper liners and the cutest damn oven mitt. now she can stop taking my oven mitts when i am cooking :) The fact that you can decorate the icing and wipe it off to do it again it adorable! So let's just say we have been baking up a cupcake storm Stella's kitchen. I like eating her cupcakes, i don't seem to be gaining any weight from them haha!

I think in my last post I mentioned that Stella and I were going to try flourless apple pie pancakes for breakfast. Well we did and they were sooo good! Stella woofed them down, and I'd be lieing if I said I did otherwise. I topped them with greek yogurt, apple slices and drizzled them with honey...perfection. I (and Stella) am such a snob when it comes to apples...only Honeycrisp. They are the best apple for everything. They made these pancakes! :)

If Stella is not wearing a crown, she is wearing a headband. This girl loves to have something on her head. This is a new favorite. If it keeps the hair out of her eyes, I am a happy camper!

I can't even begin to explain how much I am itching for nice weather. I can't wait to get back outside for our morning walks-i miss them so so much, take trips to the park, take walks to the new juice bar in town or walk to the post office or market instead of driving. Driving is so overrated! 

Ahhh...a morning walk in our jammies with the sunshine shining...feels like eternities ago...

Happy Monday! Yep! We are preheating the oven for some fresh, gooey chocolate chunk cookies ;)

Randoms.

Oh this girl...

She is definitely learning right from wrong and knows when she is doing something that she shouldn't be doing; like jumping off of her anywhere chair. When she first started standing up in it, Rick or I would look right at her and say "sit!" or "bad!" Well now she doesn't just stand in it, she purposefully, while looking right at us, jumps off it and laughs. That's not all. After she jumps off of her chair and stands back up she hits her belly and yells "Baa!"

Or when she sees Ellie licking her paws incessantly, which we try not to let her do, she yells at Ellie "Nanana!" for No No! Of course she has that pointer finger gesturing along with No No. alway helping Momma out ;)

Stella loves feeding Ellie breakfast and dinner. If she happens to hear Rick or I opening Ellie's food container she runs over to help. She loves to spin open the container, scoop up the food, dump the food in the bowl and loves to place the bowl on Ellie's mat. As she is putting her food down, she looks at Ellie and says "eeees" for easy! Ellie is like a bulldozer when it's feeding time. She doesn't realize how strong she is sometimes and dozes her way right in and knocks Stella down.

We are still feeding the deer every night. Since our yard is snow covered we feed them in the driveway. Stella likes to watch out the window for them to come. When she sees them eating she says "deees" and "shhh" with her finger over her lips. So damn cute.

Bathtime falls nothing short of a wet mess.  I am surprised Ellie hasn't ended up in the bathtub with Stella yet. Sometimes she stands on the edge of the tub and leans so far over to try and drink the water we think she is going to dive in head first. Ellie does try to catch every drop possible that makes it's way out of the tub. i swear her water bowl has water. This short video clip sums it up....(Stella's laugh kills me).

Our playroom chalkboard lately...

Off to give a new pancake recipe a try. These flourless apple pie pancakes. Stella and I have been on the Honeycrisp apple band wagon these days so I think these are really going to hit the spot for breakfast. And my coffee grinder worked perfect to turn the old fashioned rolled oats into oat flour ;)

Hope your day is less crazy than this crazy morning bed head...

Playing Pretend

don't mind the upside down wings, we can thank Daddy for that...

I have too busy playing pretend and dress up to sit my ass in front of my lap top and blog ;) I would be lying if I said I didn't miss the baby baby stage: that fresh baby smell, the perfect fit in my one arm, the immobility-ha!, the breastfeeding, the staring, but I am loving this age that Stella is at right now. This is by far my favorite yet. We play dress up just about every day. I love watching the beginnings of my baby girls imagination. It really does rock my world. The dress up bin is usually the first that gets rummaged through. A tutu usually is the first to go on, then a crown, then a sash-or two and sometimes the wings. But the best yet, she chooses a wand and waves to yelling "abb!" for Abracadabra!

Tea parties are my jam these days. Especially tea brewed by the finest-Stella :) It is deeeeelicious! The best is when I am enjoying my hot coffee in the morning and she comes over to pour some more tea into my mug and the entire spout of the teapot dunks into my coffee. And just like her Momma- wearing her apron in the kitchen!

Also, it's finally February-almost Valentine's Day and this is what it has been looking like around our home...

and since it's superbowl we had to make a few cupcakes for the festivities... Yep! We are rooting for Seattle. :)

One of our appy's for Superbowl are mini heart shaped pizzas :) Stella and I had a little fun playing in the flour while preparing them....of course she pretended that the flour was make up and rubbed it all over her cheeks ;)

Well that is it for now...time to chow down on some appy's that are cooking away in the oven!