ONE!!!!!!!!

So I just can't believe that I have a one year old child! I also can not believe that only one year ago Miss Stella pretty much slept all day and did wanted nothing more than to be held all day! Fast forward 365 days she is still a pretty good sleeper but I do miss those hours of cuddle time! :(

So we has Stella's 1st birthday party on Saturday and everything went wonderful! With 16 people in our little house it felt pretty crowded; however everyone had a good time and enjoyed watching Stella's reaction to new things such as the fun of opening presents and of course the sweet sugary taste of cake and frosting! Here are a few pictures of the day!

Almost ONE!

So wow it has been a long time since I posted! So much has happened, but at the same time is has been same old same old! Stella is still finishing up swimming lessons, which she is loving however I will keep the mental note that next swimming lessons we are going to take in the summer! The John Adams pool area is not anywhere near being heated and I swear EVERY Friday after swim lessons Stella ends up with a cold!

Let's see what else has been going on?........ Well Stella has been growing of course but I think she is starting to grow up a little too fast! There are two kids that are a little over a year older then Stella and I think that she is picking up habits good and bad from the two of them! We have definite "daddy", "mommy", "elmo", & of course "NO" for words so far. But it is so fun when she picks up a book and brings it over to me sits on my lap and actually wants me to read to her! Anyway here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks, and I am sure that after our birthday party next week I will have a ton more!

Water baby!

Here are some pictures from Stella's first night at swim class!

Little Girl Growing Up!

So many times I start these blogs by stating my total amazement at how quickly Stella is growing up and no surprise it hit me again. While Ryan and I clean up dinner Stella's favorite thing is to watch Baby Einstein Babies First Moves. This DVD is filled with babies dancing, jumping, clapping etc... (highly recommended by babies & mothers alike!) Well tonight after dinner it brought the biggest smile to my face to watch her actually interact with the video; clapping when the babies were clapping and dancing when the babies were dancing. Even when there is just music on the radio or I am playing my itunes it is so cute to see her light up and start dancing to whatever kind of music is on!

Reading has also become another favorite past time (a hobby I am sure Uncle Seth and both Grandmas will gladly support in the future!) I have read Five Little Pumpkins and Where's Babies Bellybutton about a MILLION times, and that was just yesterday! However I do have to share a great find that we have found with this new reading fascination; it is called Babybug!
Babybug is a magazine specially for kids 0-3 yrs. Stella started getting her subscription when she was around six months and she liked the first few magazines, but the last couple she loves! She will bring them to me to "read" to her multiple times a night. The nice thing is that the magazines are not flimsy magazine pages they are like the cover of a paperback book on every page. It doesn't matter how much Stella pulls and chews on the pages the don't end up in peices in her mouth! Anyway you can check it out for yourself at http://www.cricketmag.com/ there are lots of options for helping our kids of all ages enjoy reading everyday. ( Sorry I think I just sounded like the end of an infomercial!)

1st Halloween!

Considering that she is my child it is no surprise that Stella did end up with TWO costumes for her 1st Halloween! Well, we originally had just planned on the Wonder Tot outfit and then Uncle Seth sent back the adorable Octopus costume from Seattle and we had to make a really hard choice! We came up with a compromise and we wore the octopus outfit while we were playing Tuesday night and since I spent more hours then I should have sewing the yellow emblem on the front of the Wonder Tot outfit, I had to show her off in it! Luckily the octopus outfit is an 18 month outfit and we will be able to play dress up in it for a while to come! Here are some pictures of our fun Halloween at home and trick or treating at the Apache Mall!

"These are few of my favorite things....."

As Julie Andrews stated raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens were pretty good thing, however Stella wanted me to show you some of HER favorite things!

Sitting in my "big girl" chair!
Now checking out under the crib, next under the car!
Playing peek-a-boo with Lola
Reading with Grandma!
Having enough hair to actually have a "do" no matter how crazy the style!

What a croupy day!

So any of the sick days we have had up until now have been nothing compared to your latest illness at the Paske house! Last night Stella started to run a temp of around 101 degrees at one point and by the middle of the day had reached 102 degrees and was accompanied with a raspy barky like cough! Most of you that have children know when a bark like cough comes along that mean only one thing, croup. So after a quick visit to the Dr all is well and we are treated, but we are still experiencing a horse voice and a little bit of a sore throat. We also have tooth number two breaking through, which I am sure doesn't make our little girl any happier. However a whole day with Grandma and Grandpa Paske tomorrow will help, I am sure!

Breaking through!

So once again I post with a new mile stone for Miss Stella! We have broke through with our first tooth! Luckly the teething process has not affected Stella's wonderful ability to sleep through the night! I also have gained an even greater appreciation for those mothers that breastfeed through the teething process! That one little tooth is painful on my finger! :) I was kind of hoping that once a tooth started coming in the rest would just follow and pop up in the next few days! Oh well I guess it could be worse, we have not even needed to use the baby Tylenol all that much! Which is a good thing considering all the baby medication recalls currently!

Speaking of medication and babies; what is everyone's feelings on flu shots for babies? The kids at Stella's daycare seem to be getting sick ALL the time! So I am a little scared not to get the flu shot for her. Ryan and I get our flu shots every year, so I don't oppose it but what is everyone's opinion?

Fun Friday night!

The season premier of Las Vegas and a fun name game!


1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) -Tiger VUE

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) -Chocolate Chocolate Chip

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) -S Pas

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) -Pink Puppy (Doesn't really sound like a really tough detective name)

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) -Reye Prescott

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) -Passh

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink) -The Purple Diet Coke

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) -Ralph Ernie Donald (I guess I am one of those "good" racers with three names!)

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy) - Happy M&M (Must be at one of those really "classy" strippers)

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) - Reye Paul

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) -Foster Fresno

12. SPY NAME/BOND GIRL: (your favorite season/holiday, flower) -Spring Cala Liliy

13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) -Banana Jeanie

14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) -Bagle Oak

15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”) -The shopping sunny tour

MOVING!!!!!! Boy are we in trouble now!

I can hardly believe that we will soon be coming up on Stella's 9 month milestone! However being the mover and shaker that she is she had to do one more BIG thing before that milestone; her first step!!!!! On Monday night she made a few wobbly upright movements for Ryan, but of course I didn't want to believe it until I saw it. Then Pam, our daycare provider, mentioned she was make a few "step-like" movements, so of course now I HAD to see her take steps!!! Then tonight after I set her in her "big-girl" chair she reached out her arms and took three fairly stable steps into my arms! It was exciting so I had to see if she would do it one more time, and of course she did. However I did stop after two times, I didn't want to turn my daughter in to a "performing monkey"! Just a side note I DID give Ryan the rights to saying he saw her first step! :P

Yes, it has been awhile!!!!!

As my friend Lori did point out it HAS been a while since I have updated this blog. Most of you I have seen, but for those of you that I don't get the chance to see often, so much has happened since my last post!

I have now been at my new position at Think bank for almost two months and I am loving it. There is still a ton that I have to learn, but compared to what I knew five weeks ago to what I know now I know by the end of the year I will be fully confident in my knowledge at Think.

Stella has been growing and changing everyday of course! Since my last post she has mastered the art of "run-crawling"! When she wants to get across the room it seems as though she does a kind of crawl hop and only touches the ground like three times. She has also mastered pulling herself up, crawling upstairs (with a supervisor close behind of course) and walking with the help of her sporty red car (see pics below!) We also have some form of baby babble starting including the baba, mama (which Ryan says I can't consider her first word yet) and dada (which he then lightened up on the first word thing!) I also received some gratification from our last three months of work on the baby sign language! We now know the sings for "more" and "all done" and can wave bye to people, most of the time!

Ready, Set, RUN!!!!!

Ok so maybe Stella is not running yet, but the determination to run is definitely there. In the last week we have had some very big changes! Starting last Wednesday after her nap some how Stella learned how to pull herself up in the sitting position in her crib! She has been able to sit unsupported for quite a while, but this was kind of out of the blue! The next day she was puling herself up like a pro. Then if that didn't make the week significant enough she then learned how to crawl and move around! It is amazing how one day she doesn't even seem interested in attempting something and then the next day she just does it!

The other big news is that Thursday I quit my job at Macy's! I really did LOVE my job there and enjoyed all the people that I work with. However as many of you knew I was really having a tough time managing retail hour and time with my family. So I am really excited about the change and as of July 16th I will be a Lending Representative for Think. I will be working the Tel America group so when people call in and have questions/concerns about their account I will be the one picking up the phone. I am a little nervous starting in a new industry, but I am so excited about the change for my family! I will miss the social part of working at the mall, since that is where I see most of you between functions, however now I will have more evenings and weekends to participate in group things!

Help our tired arms!!!!!

So as you can see from Stella's picture her new favorite past time is to have us hold our hands out so she pull herself up. If she is standing she is the happiest baby around, but the minute that her butt goes back down she starts to get crabby. All this results in very tired arms! Any suggestions? We do have a jumper, but I feel bad leaving her in there for very long! Help us!

Some Wisconsin blood!

I think we have a Wisconsin Badger fan here!

Father's day weekend

So Ryan, Stella, and I spent a VERY relaxing father's day weekend at my parents cabin up in northern Wisconsin. Between wonderful meals (thanks Mom!) we relaxed spent time on the boat and introduced Stella to her first kiddy pool! We also celebrated Stella's 1/2 birthday (can you believe she is already almost 6 months old!) and she received her first set of wheels from grandma and grandpa Johnson. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the weekend!

Happy Fathers Day!!!!!

So Stella decided to give Ryan his first fathers day gift a little early this year! We were having a little constipation problems, however after a little prune juice in her formula you can see. problem solved!

Now and Then

I had so much fun looking at these now and then pictures I decided that I should share them with all of you!

Baptism/ Mothers day!

So on my first mothers day was also the celebration of Stella's baptism. It was a very special day and it was so nice to have so much of my family together. Stella was awesome through the service and thank you to Adam and Kelly for taking on the task of being Stella's god parents!

So many changes, so little time!

So much has happened since I posted my last message! Stella will be 5 months next week! I can't even believe how big she is getting, especially when I saw her next to Jack Fields!



Anyway Stella has found so many new favorite things in the last couple of weeks. She has mastered rolling over and can roll all over the floor to get her favorite toys. I know she is just itching to be able to sit up, because every time I go to lay her down she holds her head and legs up in the air like she is clenching (sp?) her abs, I call it her "baby Pilate's! :)



Stella has also found she really enjoys being outside! (see picture) On these nice days we have been able to go for walks and work out in the yard and I can't wait for her to be able to play in her little pool!



We also introduced Stella to cereal! (see picture) Right now we just want her to get used to the spoon and a more solid texture so if we only get 2-3 bites in we are good! A few days into the process she realized she can make fun "bubbles" with the liquidy cereal! She had a lot of fun spiting at Mom and Grandma!



So many things I can't believe how much she can learn to do in such a small amount of time, babies are the best blessing of all!