Thanks Grampy & JoNanna!

Thank you for a lovely time in Vermont - I love to visit with you guys and i loved all my new toys you had waiting for me to play with while i was there!  I can't wait to come back again.  And i can't wait to see you at my 1st Bday Party next weekend!

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH Grampy & JoNanna.

xoxo, Stella J.

P.S.  My mommy & daddy would like to take a moment here to especially thank JoNanna for the wonderful daily laundry service she provided - it was much appreciated since she only does that about once a month at home!   ;)

P.S.S. 
DON'T WORRY PEEPS STELLA DID NOT RIDE ON THE 4-WHEELER SHE WAS JUST PLAYING ON IT WHILE HER DADDY AND GRAMPY LOADED THE BOBCAT WITH LOGS.

Stella Jane Highway Sign Posted!

Back in November when Stella visited Vermont for her first time, her Great Uncle Micheal & Great Aunt Susan gave her the coolest gift - this Stella Jane High Way carved sign to post up at one of the trails at Grampy and JoNanna's.

Well we posted it this week - and it looks so cute!

Thanks again for the sign and Thank you Grampy for posting it with my Daddy :)  I love it.

XOXO,

Stella Jane

P.S.  It was great to see Michael & Susan - you both are lookin' good!

Strafford Resort

 Stella enjoyed her pool in VT - even though she had to fill it up herself.

Vermont Office

So while we are up here in beautiful Vermont, Justin, Stella and I like to get some work done on our computers in Peter's cozy office.  We love it up there.  Stella was put to work hooking up the DVD player, as you can see she was very busy reading the manual on how to do so.   ;)

Stella's CT Friends, Rich & Connie

Stella and I were lucky enough to finally meet her daddy's business associate from CT, Rich, and his wife Connie, as we headed from her photo shoot in CT up to VT.  It was perfect - they were just down the road. 

Thanks for the lovely afternoon hospitality you guys.  It was really nice to meet you and take a break from our driving!  And Stella really loved Fig, a.ka. Figgy, a.ka. Figmen  what a cutie she was (go get those toads Figgy!)  :)

Happy to see Happy!

Ryker (or a.k.a. Happy which is his nickname that he earned while down in florida with us) and his mommy, Linda, visit Stella in VT.  And yet another example of how small Miss Stella is as Ryker clearly towered over her and she's got about 3 months on him!  He's quite an accomplished babe if you ask this first-time mom, crawling all over the place and standing up on things (Stella didn't do that until she was almost 11 months).

We can't wait to see you two in VT next time in Nov. and next winter in Florida for our mom and babes weekend too!

P.S.  Linda - again, LOVE that shirt! Will you bring it down to FL so i can borrow it then, hee hee ;)

Stella Visits Cambridge, MA

Stella hit the road yet once again, this time along with Grampy & JoNanna, from Vermont to Cambridge, MA to see Aunt Hadley, Matt, and cousin Kevin.

Summary:

#1.  She was such a good girl as she rooted on Hadley during her graduation ceremony.  Hadley completed a 3-year program at NESA (New England School of Acupuncture) that earned her a masters in Acupuncture and Chinese & Japanese Medicine (i think i got that right or close enough at least!).  CONGRATULATIONS AUNT HADLEY - now if you would only move back home to Toledo so i could benefit with some free acupuncture for this bum arthritic foot i have going on & Justin could possibly quit smoking ;) 

#2.  We enjoyed meeting Hadley's new man, "SuperMatt" as i am calling him :) because he wore a SuperMan shirt one day and that was the shirt he wore when Hadley first met him, and he totally could pull off the Clark Kent look.

#3.  Stella was so happy to see her mama's cousin Kevin who lives in Cambridge too - the last time she saw him was Christmas time - Kevin looked the same, Stella quite different.

#4.  The Mama-rattzi had some fantastic photo opps of Stella in front of yet some more "Stella Venues."

 

Patty Cake with Aunt Hadley

This was just a drive by - didn't know this existed and came across it on our back from the graduation - i of course was like "STOP!!!" as i cannot resist a Stella venue photo, ever.  And i loved the not-so-fancy one here, as most Stella restaraunts or eateries are quite nice.

A great toy store only located in Cambridge, MA - but i did come across them on the web.  Stella didn't want to leave.  Her JoNanna and Daddy found some great 1st Bday gifts for her - some of which we couldn't help but give her early.

Cousin Kevin stops by Hadley's - turned out he only lived 2 miles away so we were lucky enough to see him twice!  Thanks for biking it over to Hadley's Kevin :)

Grampy walking Stella after the graduation

Boat Tour on the Charles River which separates Cambridge from Boston

Pit stop on way back to VT - play driving in the parking lot.

Stella's PhotoShoot in Connecticut!!!

Stella's A Star!  That is indeed is what "Stella" means too - Star  ;)

Thank you to my friend's suggestion on FB, back in July i submitted the "or more" number of photos from the "one or more" that they suggested you submit for the 2011 March of Dimes Campaign......to be exact, i submitted 16 photos of Stella.  Ha!   They called and told me she was one of the babies selected to take part in the photo shoot.  Oh and they also told me "....and that Stella, she sure does have quite the array of hats."

So we headed to New Canaan, Connecticut to Wavely Park on Aug. 3 for an outdoor photo shoot where Stella was primped by an on-set stylist (because apparently her in-house stylist A.K.A. her mama wasn't enough that day, hee hee), held by her model mommy, and walked hand-in-hand by her model daddy & mommy.  Both very nice people and Stella took a liking to both of them no problem. There were alot of balloons on the set - which was probably Stella's favorite part of all of this though.

And usually heading out to CT would be way out of our way but it was perfect as we had plans the very same week to head to Cambridge and Vermont to see Justin's family.  And added to that we also were able to make a stop at one of his very close East Coast business colleauges who happens to live in CT just 1/2 hour away from where we were shooting.  Simply meant to be! 

NOW - let's just hope they use "one or more" of her photos from the shoot!   They chose 11 babies to shoot for this campaign (i asked them out of curiousity how many submitted and they told me about 100!)  They pool together all the photos of these babies they shot and any chapter of March of Dimes across the nation can choose to use any of these photos at their liberty for any particular campaign they are working on, be it an Annual Report, specific fund raising event, website home page, etc..  So root for Stella - were shooting for a billboard placement (wishful thinking just a tad huh!). 

The photographer and crew was very nice and accomodating to us as they let the Mamma-rattzi and Papa-rattzi on set so we could shoot away ourselves of them shooting Stella.   What a very special occassion this was and one for the books - Stella's baby book that is.

I will of course keep the blog posted if any her photos are chosen to be used in any March of Dimes materials.

Grampy Visits Stella

 Grampy sure is one jet setter - and we were lucky to have a surprise visit from him at home while he was doing his round of business meetings. 

Stella seriously was so good for hours while he hung out with her - she didn't blurt out ONE WHINE! 

Stella's Bday Plate

So i've been wanting to start a tradition - paint a bday plate for Stella each year for her bday to use for her piece of cake.  Actually Jill - i've been wanting to ask you if you and Davis wanted to do this some day but there just never was a good time to plan it.  So spontaneously today, as i pulled into our Kroger's parking lot to pick up a few things for our road trip, i plopped stella in the cart still in her car seat and i thought you know what - she's in a good mood right now, i think i could bust some ass and paint this plate super fast.  so the funny thing is this place is WAY down away from Kroger's in the plaza area, and here i go trucking along the lot, into the store with my shopping cart.  i was like a bum with a baby.  hardly anyone was in there except for a few kids.  well anyway,  wahlah - her 1st Birthday Plate!  i did it in about 15 min. - they told me when i asked how long it could generally take to do "oh you could do it quick, in about an hour"  i was like - she doesn't have an hour in her and i still have to go to Kroger's - let's get this show on the road - where's your red, yellow, blue and white paint!? 

i can't wait to see it after they fire it - it should be fire engine red, aqua and and white with some hint of yellow - which are her "birthday colors" :)  TMI?  :)

oh - and it was funny - this place is called "Paint Your Own Masterpiece" but as you can see mine is no Masterpiece but man the few kids in there sure did think i was a DaVinci or something...they were surrounded by me watching me "create my masterpiece" - it was hilariously cute.  and Stella was a gem in the shopping cart for those 15 min.