It's a Wonderful Life

So much has happened since I last wrote. So much development, fun, laughter and celebration. Stella is getting absolutely huge and the tooth count is at EIGHT! I can't believe it! She had a visit to Oklahoma City for nearly a week to stay with my family and I wasn't quite sure we were going to get her back. If my grandfather had his way, we wouldn't have.

My doubts about Stella ever being a traditional crawler were very much too hasty and she is in to everything! I don't think it will be long before she is walking. My brother was nice enough to teach her to climb the stairs while she was visiting my parents...needless to say, that is keeping me busy!

All of her teeth have come in handy for her eating habits. She loves to eat! She has three meals a day and two snacks. We are sad to realize that it won't be too long before the bottle is gone she is just using a cup. That is undeniably a sign that our little one is growing oh so fast.

Stella fascination with animals is still going strong and we have discovered that Winston and Farley could have a career as dog comics for children. It is amazing how entertained Stella is just by looking at them, though we have always thought they were weird. My friends joke that Stella is going to be a circus trainer. She growls like a lion, so I think they might be right.

Backyardigans is a show that Stella absolutely loves. Brad and I both cried when she started watching it. She is so big and smart. She is absolutely drawn into American Idol. She sits completely still while they sing. It is unreal!

She is saying uh-oh and making us laugh and the other day she said "yeah" while we were in the car with Laura. I can't wait till she can tell us stories, I can only imagine the things her creative little brain will think up!

Brad's grandfather passed a couple weeks ago and God's perfect timing brought his sister Leanne's babies on the day of the funeral. Drake Alexander and Jordan Victoria are absolutely beautiful. I know it helped make the trip a bit easier on Brad seeing those precious babies and becoming an uncle. We are so excited for Mike and Leanne and as you can imagine Bill is just over the moon! He loves that they are twins because when it was just Stella, there was always the danger of someone taking her out of his arms...but with three, he says one will always need holding. We really enjoyed the trip to Kansas City, despite it's original sorrowful purpose.

Brad is staying very busy at work and I seem to be taking on new projects all the time. We are having a lot of dinner parties and I'm hosting wedding and baby showers constantly, both of which I absolutely love doing. Next up is a baby shower for Brad's friend Matt and his wife Annette this weekend to celebrate the little boy that will be arriving soon. I am also preparing to reupholster some furniture in the next couple weeks, which I have never done but am ambitiously undertaking, so I will let you all know how it turns out.

Being Domestic

I have found myself domestic lately. I have always loved to cook and do things motherly and but I am spending time learning how to do things like fondant cakes and upholstery. This do-it-yourself attitude and lifestyle is very much accounted for by my MeMaw.

She passed my junior year of college. She was diagnosed with an aggressive form of lung cancer and was gone so quickly that I never had the opportunity to say goodbye or see her before she left. The funeral was over Thanksgiving and somehow I sang at the service. It was by far one of the most difficult things I have done in life. I have never met a stronger woman than LaNeil Chesney.

As a girl, I would travel to spend a week with her each summer in Dallas. I remember everyday so vividly. I would sit in her recliner and watch Grease and eat bologna and mayonnaise sandwiches garnished with her homemade sweet pickles. We would go to the fabric store and I’d choose patterns and fabrics for more outfits than a girl could dream and she taught me how to sew and surge beautiful garments. Her hands were crippled with arthritis and when she was younger than I am now, she was told that she would never walk again. It wasn’t long after that she was back on the tennis court not just walking but running.

I slept next to her bed every night. I outgrew the cot she had when I was about twelve and would make a palette in that special place, just next to her. I woke there Christmas mornings as a child and even as a college girl, that was still my place.

Today, at the grocery store I was looking for a sifter. I found one and started to cry. I do that more often than I would like to admit thinking of her. All these years later, I still miss her as much as I did immediately following her death. In one of the glass front cabinets in my kitchen, on the top shelf the is a ceramic pitcher with strawberries on it that says "LaNeil’s Kitchen". I know my husband thinks it is unattractive, but that is it’s place, watching over me as I prepare meals as my MeMaw taught me.

If there were any task she needed done, she did it herself be it carpentry, lawn care, gardening, cooking, sewing, mending, you name it. While battling lung cancer she was still mowing her own lawn. She had been a widow my whole life, as my Grandaddy died the summer I was born and she was used to taking care of herself. My uncle had to have a crew come when the lawn needed mowing before my MeMaw could get out and do it herself.

I wish my husband and daughter could meet her. In so many ways, I am hoping that the person she was is the wife, mother and grandmother I will be. She taught me more than the domestic life, she taught me strength, tenacity, resilience and work ethic through her superhuman example.

Our Little Fruit

I would definitely say we are a bit spoiled. It is not quite seven and Brad just looked up at me from where he is playing in the floor with Stella and told me that she is not sleeping yet...yes our baby not only sleeps through the night, there are many nights that she is tucked away at or before seven and rises smiling at seven thirty the next morning. We couldn't be more blessed!

We are having so much fun with Miss Personality. She doesn't think anything is funnier than her "puppies". If we are having a rough day, all I have to do is let the dogs run in and I am promised laughter filled moments as she watches the dogs lay in the floor. Monday through Friday Stella naps from around nine to eleven and then goes back down from about two to four. We spend a lot of afternoons over with Nina (Brad's mom) playing and getting the kind of love that only a grandmother can give!

She is so mobile, getting her hands on anything she sees! I am not sure if she will ever crawl forward the "traditional" way, she much prefers the army crawl but does crawl like a normal child when she goes backwards. She is so close to standing without help from mom and maintains a couple seconds before she goes down.

Last week I said something to Brad about her being strong willed and having a strong personality...he said, "I wonder where she gets that?" We had to laugh when we thought about where and who she comes from.

We had a great weekend, going on a date Friday night to celebrate Valentines Day. Bean had a slumber party with her Aunt Caitlin and Uncle James and seemed to have a really great time. Saturday, I guilt tripped Aunt Kendra (my best friend who recently moved to Tulsa) to come and see Stella. Lynsey also decided to drive over from Oklahoma City so I made Chicken Enchiladas and we hung out with Brad and my friend CT and the girls. It was a fun low key night, but Stella had not seen CT in five months (he is a contractor and has been traveling on the West Coast and Hawaii to work on some projects) and was TERRIFIED of him. Our friendly little girl is starting to get stranger danger!

We are looking forward to a great week with our beautiful, growing girl.

Stella's Page

Living a distance from our friends and family, I created this page to keep everyone up to date on the goings on of our day to day lives. I will update this site as often as I have time so check back often!