New Orleans {NOLA}

Mark whisked me off on a whirl wind tour of New Orleans over Father's Day weekend (isn't it I that is supposed to plan something special for FD?) And for an early B-Day gift!

After a number of delays/and arriving a day later than originally planed, we were in New Orleans...albeit on separate flights/cities/times/etc... We had such a great time with just the two of us. Talk about an amazing history lesson!

Friday
French Quarter
St. Louis Cathedral
St. Charles Street Car
St. Louis Cemetery #1
Palm Court Jazz Cafe
Bourbon Street
McD's (late night trip for me)






Saturday
Garden District (walking tour)
Plantation Tours
- Evergreen
- Oak Alley
Deanie's Seafood

Thank you to my parents for watching Mads and Stella for the weekend!

Four Months

Hard to believe that Stella is four months old!



She is already making a liar out of her momma. At her doctor appointment, the nurse asked if she could roll over...of course she can't. Well, she did it three {3} times for the doctor!
Other highlights:
~follows voices around
~sits in the Bumbo link a champ
~found her feet
~smiles at everyone...even at 4 in the morning...
~will sleep for 8 hours for her daddy...not momma
~holds her own bottle
~had her first 'sleep over' when grandma and grandpa watched her
~went swimming

4 month appointment stats
Weight - 12 lbs 6 oz (25%)
Height - 24 inches (45%)
Head - 39.6 (20%)

todays highlights

Megs and Mads went to the neighborhood 'park day' and came out with no accidents...day six of big girl underwears...Dora to be exact.

Stella rolled over for the first time today...at the doctors...three times. And her ear infection is gone!

Mads stripped completely butt naked when she saw our neighbors slip n slide...fast run behind the fence to find her swim suit.

The best neighbors ever! They threw a bbq/going away party for us...I'll really miss my neighbors.

It's so much easier to meet people after you have kids.

trying to go on vaca

Here I sit in Dallas at 630am...nearly 20 hours after I left Salt Lake. Mark is in New Orleans sleeping. Long story short...when you fly stand-by and they tell you there are 'lots of seats' available, chances are they are just telling you that so you can be someone else's issue.

On my flight from Denver to Tulsa (doesn't everyone go this route to N.O?) I sat next to the most intriguing guy. He is retired from the Army after 23 years, been to Iraq and Afghanistan more times than I remember, graduated high school in Italy, and lives in Joplin...Joplin, MO. Here I am all torn up about how dumb Southwest is, and he's been through more in his life than most people could fathom. He has shrapnel in multiple places, been shot in the 'buttocks', had his leg rebuilt, and has been a secret service agent doing bomb sweeps. He couldn't even tell me what he did out loud...had to whisper it due to the sensitivity. The stories, war pins and pictures he showed were crazy...he calls himself a real life Forest Gump.

I guess my issues aren't so bad anymore.

Out of Mads' Mouth

After spilling water on the stove and me saying 'Bad Mommy', Madeleine proceeded to take me to the corner and said 'Corner Mommy'. Walked into the kitchen, came back and said ' OK ... All done' and removed me from the corner.

'Madeleine's Apple juice, Moma's beer juice.'

'Choo Choo potty diapers' after I told her these were her last box of diapers...her potty training diapers.

'Hump with Momma' or 'NO HUMP MOMMA' when I tell her I'm going upstairs to pump...depending on what her mood is:)

Blessed Little Stella

We blessed Stella in church today, Mark did a great job! She was a very well behaved baby; probably the best she's been yet in church! We are very fortunate to have such great friends out here who are like family; all the men supported Mark so well. After church, we came back to our place and enjoyed lunch and the nice weather! THANK YOU everyone who came to support Baby Stella.

The gown which Stella wore has been worn by 4 ladies in my family. The dress was originally a wedding gown worn by my Grandmother Jenni then a while later by my mom. When we found out Madeleine was a girl, she asked a close friend of hers to tailor it into a baptism/blessing gown. Madeleine and Stella were both blessed in their Great Grandmother's wedding dress. The dress also has a coat which was made, but it's too warm to wear it now:-) {after i wrote this i noticed i wrote the same thing in Madeleine's post...oh well}

The ribbon on the bonnet is the only 'non' original material.