A Doc Christmas

Christmas morning, Santa had a Doc McStuffins house setup for Stella to enjoy when she got up.  It's a lengthy 10 minute video, but the very beginning captures when she first sees the house.  I love her reaction!

Her present opening skills have drastically improved this year.

Christmas Card 2013

For this year's Christmas card, we decided we wanted to capture our family in our new home and in our new city (well, new city given that we haven't lived here full time for 10+ years).  So, mom came over with her trusty DSLR and we ended up with the following in front of our fireplace upstairs:

And we just so happened to snap a good picture of Stella in front of the fireplace downstairs with the stockings for the back of our card:

Checkin' Up

Stella dressed up as Doc McStuffins today for school for Halloween.  Here she is afterwards making sure that both Ember and I have stellar tickers:

Pumpkins

Shortly after Stella was born, I carved a star pumpkin in her honor (I carved another star the following year too).  This year, Megan carved a Doc McStuffins face, Stella "poked" Minnie Mouse arms, legs, and head into a mini pumpkin, and I carved the Super Man logo (aka Super Stella).  Here she is super pumped on the outcomes:

Santa's Helper Doing Laps

Apparently putting a Santa's hat on Stella encourages her to do laps around the house:

Christmas Card 2012

This year, Mom came up to visit with her new DSLR camera and took pictures of us at the surrounding parks at Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.  We got a ton of good pics (all that can be seen here).  It was difficult to decide between all of the pictures, but we ended up going with the 4 above.  My favorite though is this one (that's in the center of the card):

First Steps (oh, and Happy Halloween!)

I was expecting Megan to dress up Stella in a princess costume, so I was surprised when she get got her a gnome costume.  There must have been something magical about that gnome costume, because she took her first steps in it.  Right after we got her in the costume on Halloween day, we wanted to have a photo session.  She's been pretty good with standing up on her own, so I tried to pose her in a standing position.  As soon as I did, she took a couple of steps towards us while we were trying to snap a picture of her.  We were definitely taken back when she did this.  I wish I would have got it on video, but at least both of us were there to see it!

Happy 1st Birthday!!

Stella turned 1 today.  Although cliche, time really has gone so fast, and I can't believe she's already existed for a complete revolution around the sun.  We've enjoyed every minute of it, and there's nothing I'd rather being doing than spending time with her.  I'm so proud of her that she's already managed to become such a cool little person in her short time on this earth.

To prep her for her actual birthday party and smash cake to take place on the 20th, we got her a cupcake.  Below is a video of her getting at it.  She seemed really shy and unsure of this new experience at first, but she became comfortable and messy in no time.

Mom's 30th Birthday

Today is Megan's 30th birthday.  Being the thoughtful child that she is, Stella got her mom new earrings from Swarovski Crystal and some massage and pedicure/manicure time at the local spa.  Above, Stella is getting a big hug of appreciation while holding the new earrings.

Happy 4th!

For the 4th of July, we decided to stay home, relax, and try to stay cool in our swimming pool that I've previously mentioned.  Here's Stella in the pool in her stunner shades and then later on in her patriotic themed dress that Grandma got for her (Megan was unimpressed with how I did her hair):

My First Father's Day

Today is Father's Day, and Stella got me a really cool custom made travel and coffee mug with her pictures on it as well as a new pair of boxers. You might not be able to tell from the picture, but the wording on the boxers is "The Best Awesome bad A** Dad" with Homer Simpson standing off to the right.  I already know I'm awesome, but it's pretty cool to have boxers from your daughter and Homer Simpson that confirms it.

Stella also took me to my favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Vietnam Cafe, for lunch.  It was a great day.

First Mother's Day

Today was very special, because it was Megan's first Mother's Day (not to be confused with Mother's Day - Unborn Edition).  Stella was very thoughtful and put together a nice frame that included one of her 6 month pictures and her hand print:

I think I now know why most parents take hand and foot impressions of their babies in the first few months.    All Stella wanted to do was grab the forming material and wad it up.  It took several tries and a lot of distractions for me to finally get her hand impression.

Also, Stella got mommy a Mother's Day cookie bouquet to satisfy her sweet tooth:

Stella's First Easter

Stella got all decked out in a pink tutu and bunny onesie for Easter.  She got a bunch of Easter loot seen in the pics like some new stuffed animals and a book.  She was especially photogenic today.  Megan had my 30th birthday party the night before, so it was nice to have her grandparents still in town to help share this day with her.

Happy Valentine's Day!

As usual, Megan went a bit overboard to make another holiday memorable for Stella.  My parents came up the previous weekend so we could go out to dinner and bowling (I won), but today was all about Stella.  To quote Megan, "I didn't know that I could ever love something so much.".  Here she is all decked out in her "bee mine" t-shirt surrounded by her Valentine's Day loot:

First Christmas (montage)

I didn't do near as good of a job keeping up on all things Christmas and Stella related as I wanted to.  So, I give you the Christmas Montage.

As usual, Megan and I put up our Christmas tree in the front living room.  The tree turned out to be a really good way to calm Stella.  She really likes lights, especially those that change and twinkle such as those from our television and the tree.  So, if she ever got upset, which isn't very common so far, I'd just walk her over to the Christmas tree and she'd stare at the lights in awe and be comforted.

The week before Christmas, Megan and Stella headed down to Bowling Green, MO to celebrate Christmas with the Moss's and Sorrell's.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it because sister Megan had her graduation from Nursing school this same weekend (congrats Megan!).  Above and to the left, you can see Stella laying with Grandpa Marty who's just a bit bigger than her.  Uncle Tommy is seen holding her in the same "deer head" room and Megan holds Stella while she opens her Xmas loot.  Also, Stella had a great time meeting all of her Sorrell aunts, uncles, and cousins for the first time, but Megan didn't remember to take any pictures :(.

Santa came to our home a few days before actual Christmas day and our trek down to Wichita.  The night before, we put out Stella's wish list along with some Milk and truffles (we didn't have any cookies on hand) for Santa.  The next day, the family opened our gifts from Santa.  Stella did, in fact, get the Laugh & Learn Puppy that was on her wish list!

After having to purchase a rooftop cargo bag, we made it down to Wichita with all of our stuff and gifts for the family.  Above and to the left, Stella sleeps in her crib on Christmas Eve wearing the holiday outfit that Grandma got for her.  To the right you can see Stella at Grammy's on Christmas morning.  She got all kinds of neat stuff, including Stella Squeak's Cottage seen in the picture.

Uncle Ryan holds Stella on Christmas morning on the other side of town at Grandma's.  She's holding her baby's first doll that Ryan gave her.  Grandma and Grandpa are smiling in front of the tree with Stella as she sleeps through most of her Christmas morning.

I took off the entire week of work, so we got to spend a nice relaxing week at both our parents' while everyone got to better know Stella.  Above, you can seem Ember "guarding" the crib while everyone else enjoys the holiday.

There are many more Xmas related pics in Stella's picture gallery:

• 12-05-2011
• 12-16-2011
• 12-17-2011
• 12-18-2011
• 12-21-2011
• 12-24-2011
• 12-25-2011
• 12-27-2011

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

Today, we took a bunch of pictures of Stella for our Christmas card.  We thought we would just focus the card on her since she is "brand new" and that's what we want people to see.  All of the pictures from the photo shoot are in Stella's gallery in this album.  The following is the Christmas card we built using Shutterfly and the three pictures we really liked:

Much to be Thankful For

Megan, Stella, and I went down to Wichita for Thanksgiving.  It goes without saying that Megan and I couldn't be more thankful to have a healthy and beautiful baby daughter.

When I was born, my grandparents on my mom's side had a cradle custom made for me.  My parents still have it and Stella got to experience it for the first time.  Here's a pretty good shot showing the whole thing:

Neat closeup with her hand on a spindle:

The green toy in the upper right hand corner of the cradle, AKA Greenie, was also actually mine.  My Aunt Susanne made it for me.

Stella got to meet several great-grandparents for the first time on this trip.  Great-Grandma K.:

Great-Grandpa K.:

Great-Grandpa P.:

Cousin Braedon managed to work in a feeding session with Stella:

While at Megan's mom's, she dug up one of her baby pictures.  The resemblance is uncanny and there's no doubt that Stella is Megan's daughter:

Happy Halloween!

Megan's mom got Stella the above cat costume for Halloween.  We weren't sure if she was even going to be here on time to wear it, but she's here to pull it off!

Stellar Pumpkin

Tonight, Megan and I carved pumpkins.  As I've previously mentioned, Stella's name means star in Latin, so I wanted to do some kind of star carving.  I was planning to do this before Stella was even born, so it was kinda cool to actually have her around to be in the picture since she came a bit early.  Megan carved the pumpkin on the right which turned out great but was unfortunately ruined by the neighborhood squirrels shortly there after.

Both of the Megan's (my wife and sister) teased me for it's simplicity when I was looking for a star pattern I liked, but I think it turned out pretty well.