She's a big girl now

Stella has made the transition to her bed! We have finally broken down the pack-n-play in our room and have committed to having her sleep exclusively in her crib. So far it is going really well. She is pretty much sleeping through the night. She will sleep until about 5am and then go back to sleep until around 7am when her brother gets up. Usually Curtis has time to get Luke dressed, fed and Sesame Street started by the time she wakes up. This works out quite nicely for me as it allows me an extra 30 mins of sleep and I don't have to worry about entertaining Luke while I feed Stella. We shall see how we handle all this when I head back to work on January 4th.

Speaking of work I took both kids in to the office today with the help of Kristin. I wasn't sure how they would handle all the strangers peering and making cutie-pie faces at them. Luckily they did surprisingly well. My first visit with Luke was awful but then I was extremely nervous bringing him in. I don't do well with showing off my kids to my co-workers. Anyways, everyone was great and said wonderful things about the kids.

And of course they all asked if I was ready to come back. My response..."eh sure". I know I will be happy when I get back to my job but I also know this little fantasy world I have been playing in has been fun especially these last few weeks. I've finally gotten the physical and emotional parts of my recovery handled and I'm relishing being a stay at home mom. I've recently realized this is the only time in my life that I am going to be able to do this. The next time I anticipate having this much time on my hands I plan on being retired and my children will be out of the house. It is a sad but yet invigorating feeling. Which means in my next 3 1/2 weeks I really need to make a go of it!!!

Of course it is Christmas time and that also is a great wonderful time sucker but I do hope to get Luke to the Aquarium for a Luke and Mommy day and I hope to have a few last days of just Stella and I doing Mommy/Daughter stuff (shopping, watching chick flicks, laughing at the boys). No matter what I'm going to hold both my kids as much as I can and spoil them rotten with my love. It's a mother's right!!!!

Jumping Bean

Fun times with Luke

Here are some great pics of Stella and Luke "playing"

She's so BIG!!!

I can't believe Stella is already going to be 4 months old. I put her in the Johnny Jump-up yesterday and she really likes it. She also can sit in her high chair and she is so OVER her swing. The times they are a changing...

Stella's really big adventures

So Stella is a US traveler now.... I can't say world traveler yet!!! But she has been to Texas!!!!!
Stella was a big hit with her Mimi and Papa in Bryan. She even dressed up for the big game between A&M & UT.

Stella was a great flier she slept on both flights. We were able to take direct flights which is always a blessing when taking long flights. Thankfully the flights were full of other children so we were not too worried about being the only people on the flight with the screaming kids and even better our kids (as well as all the others) didn't scream.
Hanging out with the boys.....


Stella is getting bigger every day. She is a really happy baby and loves to talk and giggle. I had really thought you couldn't be a happier baby then Luke but I have been proven wrong. I'm going to miss our talks and laughs when I go back to work.

She really looks up to her big brother. She watches him move around the room and Luke loves to come up to her and say "Hi. Hi". It is cute. She smiles and coos at him all the time. I think they are going to be great friends.

The other night we trimmed the tree and Stella did her part. She looked adorable in her dad's arms and helped with putting on the tree topper!!!