Tag Archives: Life with Stella

The Monday Snapshot – Camping Edition
Last weekend I took the kids to Moab for a camping trip with some friends. It was a lot of work without Charlie with us, but we had so much fun!

Honoring Those Whom We Love
I’m not an incredibly sentimental person by nature, especially when it comes to holidays. I know I’ve mentioned it here before that we rarely celebrate holidays and birthdays in our home with more than a song or a hug (well, and a few gifts for the kids), and I am 100% okay with that. Mother’s […]

The End of a Season
…quite literally. It’s the end of ski & snowboard season here for our area, and it’s bittersweet. Most of my soul is screaming BRING ON SUMMER, but I’ve honestly really enjoyed my days on the mountain with Stella this year. Harvey, not so much. Maybe next year for him. 😉 Other than our last day up […]
The Show
Yesterday my husband and brother and I were watching the football game when the kids came into the room and asked us to turn off the TV so they could do a show for us. Of course we obliged. 🙂 These are some of my favorite moments in parenting! <3

A Christmas Wish List
Last week Stella’s pre-k class walked down to the post office (12 blocks round trip) to mail their Christmas wish lists to Santa. Here is what Stella asked for… can you decipher it? 🙂

5
This morning our (fantastic, amazing, intelligent, loving, beautiful) newly 5 year old firstborn child woke us up at 5am to let us know that we had failed her. Yep. Last night she made us promise to wake her up by singing Happy Birthday to her with presents in hand like we did 2 years ago (see […]

Day 14, #NaBloPoMo – Rainbows
Behold, Stella’s latest drawing that she brought home from school today. Mom, did you know I made the green by mixing the yellow and the blue? And I mixed the red and blue to make the purple! And I put in rain drops, because you need the sun AND the rain to get a rainbow. […]

Day 12, #NaBloPoMo – Birthday Plans
26 Days from now, Stella will turn 5. Holy crap. Last night she told her Dad that she wanted to make a birthday party invitation list, and this was on the table when I got home. It’s so crazy to realize my baby can do stuff like this now! (And yes, there are two Liams […]

Day 5, #NaBloPoMo – Forgotten Memories
Last year I went to the movie Inside Out with my kids and sobbed my heart out. You see, there’s a scene where the main character’s imaginary childhood friend falls into the Memory Dump, aka where forgotten memories go to die. There is a chance for he and Joy to get out, but he sacrifices himself so […]

Protecting Our Children
First off, Stella is okay, but… ***** Those are definitely six words you don’t want to hear at the start of a phone call from the school nurse. A good URL turned IRL friend of mine wrote this post on Monday about one of the horrible games she remembered being forced to be a part of […]

School Dayz
It’s amazing what a difference a year makes! She told me the night before school started that last year she was “really really nervous” but that this year she was “just a little nervous.” 🙂 My little girl is getting so grown up! <3 First day of her second year of pre-school…

Hurtin’ Unit
Yesterday marked Stella’s 4th day on the mountain, and she truly is improving by leaps & bounds every weekend that we take her up. We have gotten to the point that we’ll take her on the big ski runs and let her just practice her turns & stops without being on the leash, though when […]

Skiing, Day 2
Last Saturday my little brother and I took Stella up on the mountain for her 2nd day up. This time I was armed with an edgie wedgie (little clips you put on the tips of their skis to help keep their tips together in “pizza” mode to slow them down and give them better control) […]

Four
This morning I woke up at 5:30 and panicked when I realized I hadn’t wrapped Stella’s birthday presents and we hadn’t made the cupcakes for her to bring to class and GOOD LORD I feel like I’m failing as a parent lately. Gah! I skipped my workout, wrapped the gifts, and got out of the […]

MMM – Skiing Edition
So sorry for dropping off the face of the planet for the last week, but I’ve been horridly sick for the last week and trying to still hang in there for work and holiday fun and snowboarding & skiing. I know I know…more rest would have probably helped things, but I’ve been trying, I swear! […]

Scene
This morning Stella and I were walking out the door at 7:45am and I was patting myself on the back for having my shit together and being on time for once. 7:46 – see random piece of paper on the counter as I walk out that says “Halloween Party Tomorrow! Preschoolers can wear their costumes […]

The Monday Snapshot – Just Like Her Nana
Charlie’s mom (Nana) is one of my kids favorite people in the world, hands down. If she’s around, I’m chopped liver to them. 🙂 At any rate, yesterday we were hanging out at his parents’ house with some friends, so our kids took naps there. We went in to wake Stella up to leave, and […]

The Monday Snapshot – Hairstyles Edition
I’ve realized over the past four years that I’m very much a pick your battles parent… as in, I choose which battles are worth the fighting, and to me, there are a lot that just aren’t worth the tears. Case in point – hair styles. Lately Stella LOVES to “do her hair” – which generally […]

Expectations & Reality
It’s been a rough few days in our house because of some money drama going on. Basically, our new-to-us $12,000 truck that we still owe nearly $9k on suddenly needs $11,500 of repairs to get it to run again…money that we don’t have. Um, not cool. At any rate, Charlie and I have handled it […]

This is 3: On Going to the Movies
[Driving down the road to the “big town” 30 miles north of us where there’s a movie theater.] Stella, are you going to have fun going to the movies with me tonight?! I don’t know, Mom. Why don’t you know? Well, I’ve never gone to the movies with you before so I don’t know if […]

This Is 3: On Taking Comments Literally
Dad: Stella, you don’t get to watch a show tonight or have any dessert because you haven’t even touched your dinner. Stella: [silently turns towards him and touches her taco] (I forgot to post this a couple of weeks ago, but I figured better late than never! She’s such a little smarty pants. LOL)

The Monday Snapshot – Scissors Edition
Yesterday, on Mother’s Day morning, I had my brother take a quick snapshot of us before church. It’s hard to get us all looking at the camera and smiling at the same time, but we got a pretty cute one. Little did I know it’d be the last one of Stella with her long hair! […]

The End of Pull-Ups!
Back in July of 2013 (yes, almost 2 years ago), I wrote a post called The End of Diapers? In it I detailed what we had done to (day) potty train our 19 month old. Click on the post to read more, but basically we started setting her on the potty before bath time at around […]

Pre-K Registration = Complete!
First off, for those of you who read my post yesterday, I added a quote and few clarifying thoughts to the bottom of it this morning that most of you probably missed. Please check it out! To be clear, I can’t stand the term “free-range” when used as a descriptor for parenting choices and our children, […]

Interview Time! Stella: Age 3
A couple of blog friends did interviews with their three year olds recently, and I loved watching them so much that I stole their questions and did the same with Stella. 🙂 I hope to do this every year, because how fun will that be to watch her answers evolve as she grows up?! Here […]