Blah-ging

I've decided that I need to spice up our blog. Way too many words and not enough pictures, music, and other fun things. Stay tuned...

Poof!

So, the reason I haven't blogged lately is because our 14 month old computer died. Just quit working. The reason I add it was 14 months old is because of course the warranty is only good for 12 months! Funny because our 7 year old dinosaur of a computer is still chugging along. Maybe bigger, better, and faster isn't always the best! Fortunately we have a back up external hard drive that had our computer up to date as of March 4th. I would have been heartbroken if we would've lost all of our pictures of Stella's birth!

Speaking of Stella, she is one tough cookie! She likes to cry. A lot. All the time. We love her but wow, she's such a different kid than Claire! But when she's happy, she can melt my heart with one look or smile. I just wish she would do it more often!

Food coloring is my new best friend!

Because it makes ordinary food "pretty and sparkly" (her two favorite words) and therefore, my almost 3 year-old will eat eagerly! We now eat pink pancakes, pink mashed potatoes, green eggs, blue or pink muffins, blue tuna fish (this one kind of grossed me out but Claire loved it) and a bunch of other things I can't think of. Claire isn't a picky eater but after I made her some pink princess pancakes for fun, she now wants everything colored.

We.Are.Sleep.Deprived.

Stella is going to sleep through the night one day, right!? Last night was a rough night. She had a hard time falling asleep and then was up from 3 - 6 am. Just as we were getting back to sleep, Claire woke up. Such is the life with little kids. I'll post more later, when I am thinking clearly.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday Dad! The older I get, the more I realize what a great dad I have! Too bad I didn't appreciate you more when I was living at home, huh!? I would have made your life a little less stressful! Here are a few of my favorite dad memories:

-Hanging out in the tractor or combine with you at the farm; sometimes you let me steer and I felt so big and important.

-Going to my first daddy-daughter activity when I was in Primary.

-Seeing your face when we got pulled over by the police in Zacatecas! You were terrified! :) The only reason I wasn't was because I knew they pulled over anyone who didn't look mexican and you just had to pay them 20 pesos to let you go.

-The vacations...they were the best. I still think that I've been to every national park this side of the Mississippi more than any other kid!

-Driving from Provo to Hyrum while we were moving, with you singing to me.

-I swear half of the reason I was a decent kid was because you were my bishop from ages 8-13. I remember thinking I didn't want to screw up and have to talk to the bishop, because it was you! :)

-You helped me with my project that went to the state science fair in 8th grade, entitled "What do stems do?" You helped me with my experiment and presentation and mom typed up my report. I think we dyed about 50 stalks of celery.

-Europe with you and Scott was one of the best trips ever, even with you abandoning me at the Golf hotel in Italy and at the Paris Airport! Hee, hee, I still laugh thinking about it. (As a matter of fact, Claire is sitting here wondering why I am laughing!)

-You singing "You are my sunshine" to me.

-You coaching my soccer team for a few years. Now that I think about it, between all of us kids, you must have coached soccer for at least 10 years straight! And poor mom, spending her Saturdays sitting through 2-3 soccer games and cutting up dozens of oranges!

-Do you remember "The life of a Rock" in Boston that had us laughing for an entire day?

These are just a few of my favorite memories. Love you!

Stella

I just had to share this picture of Stella...Matt caught her smiling! She's just started smiling within the past couple of weeks.