Four Months

I'm pretty stoked that I'm actually doing this on the 23rd.  So, our little one is four months old today.  She's all grown up and wearing boots!

It's hard to believe how fast she's growing and it's fun to see her getting a little more mobile and interested in the world around her.  As you can see, she's quite the little chunk.  I have to be careful to clean in between her little rolls.  The double chin is particularly tricky because she gets spit up in there and then it's all I can do to get her to look up so I can clean it up.  But, look how cute she is!

We decided to try giving her a bottle.  She's going to have to take one eventually, so we figured it would be a good idea to get her used to it.  We give her one every once in a while and she does okay.  She sometimes has trouble getting started, but eventually she drinks it all.  And we're still figuring out which bottles she likes better.  So far the Phillips Avent is not a favorite.

As I mentioned, she's getting more mobile.  She rolled over for the first time the day after Christmas.  She went back to front and then she did it a few more times that week and decided that was enough.  She hasn't done it since.  She rolled over from her front to her back shortly after that, but only did it once and has given up rolling over for the time being.  She is excellent at spinning in circles, though.  I put her down to play and after several minutes of rocking back and forth and rolling onto her side and back again, her head is at the opposite end from where it started.  This is how I find her in the mornings most of the time now.

She's also gotten really good at grabbing things, especially her feet.  If there are no toys within her reach, she immediately goes for the feet.  As you can see, it's pretty adorable.

Everything she grabs, she immediately tries to put in her mouth.  Sometimes she misses and it makes me laugh.

You'll notice she's not really smiling in most of these pictures and in the ones where she is, she's not looking at the camera.  I've decided she has a healthy dislike of the camera.  She can be all smiles and as soon as you point the camera at her, the smile disappears.  In fact, sometimes she even cries a little.  We'll have to see if we can get her a little more used to it.

And here she is doing some tummy time with Scout's supervision.  Scout is always in the vicinity of baby because she's learned about spit up and has developed a taste for it.  Stella is most definitely a spitter, so Scout suffers no lack of little snacks throughout the day.  Yes, we realize it's disgusting that the dog laps up Stella's spit up.  But, it's super handy when she spits up and I can't immediately grab something to clean it up with.  I just yell for Scout.  And most of the time, I don't even have to yell for her.  She's learned what it sounds like when Stella spits up and she just comes running to help.  In fact, when I'm feeding Stella, Scout just sits expectantly at my feet because 99% of the time, Stella's going to spit up all over immediately after while I burp her and since she spits up so much, half of it will shoot right off the burp rag and onto the floor because the burp rag can't absorb that much spit up that quickly.  Did I mention Stella has a spit up problem?

And that's our little four month old.  She's pretty awesome.  I love waking up to her chattering in the morning.  She doesn't cry when she wakes up.  She just chatters away.  It gradually gets louder the longer she's awake - almost as if she's yelling to me that she's awake and ready to play.  And when I finally drag myself out of bed to go get her, she sees me, she stops wiggling and chattering for a second and gives me the biggest grin.  It makes all the spit up and dirty diapers worth it.  We love our little Stella!

A Project

Mr. Frisby and I have started a project.  This is a MAJOR project.  Bigger than our ceiling project.  We have begun a complete bathroom remodel of our master bathroom.  This is a project that I have been excited to tackle for awhile because the state of our bathroom when we moved in was, shall was say, pathetic.  Or maybe gross.  Dated.  Any number of adjectives along those lines would work.  It was in dire need of an update.  Well, an update is finally happening.  And this update has become even more exciting with the news of the massive tax return we will be getting (having a baby and paying a mortgage are great when it comes time to do taxes) that will allow us to do a little more than we had originally planned.  Now, don't get too excited.  When I call it a master bathroom, you must keep in mind that there's nothing "master" about it except the fact that it is off the master bedroom.  It's tiny.  Perhaps 5'x8'.  There's only so much you can do with that small of a space.  I would love to move some walls and make it bigger, but there's really nowhere to go, so the size of it will remain the same.  However, everything else that can be changed will be changed and we're super excited about it.  New sheetrock.  A new tile shower.  A new toilet.  A new vanity.  New lighting.  A vent fan.  A tile floor.  Pretty much, it's going to kick butt.  I'll save the pictures for a before and after when it's complete.  We gutted it yesterday, so it's all ready to go.  Our plan is to get sheetrock and backerboard up this week along with the ceiling lights and vent fan.  Next weekend we'll put in the new shower pan and get the floor ready for tiling (assuming they come in on time).  And the following week, Mr. Frisby is taking two days off work to give himself a long weekend to try to get the tiling and installations done.  It will probably be a stretch because we have a lot of tiling planned, but we'll see how it goes.  I plan to film the process so I can make a sweet video of the project.  Updates to follow...

A Holiday Post

I thought I was doing pretty good at keeping up with blog posts with my monthly Stella updates plus a couple others here and there.  Then I had a few minutes the other day to actually sit down and check up on other people's blogs.  Turns out I'm a little subpar on my blogging.  I saw everyone else's Christmas posts and realized I hadn't done one.  I saw everyone else's New Year's posts and realized I hadn't done one.  I saw all the fun things everyone has been doing for the holidays and realized that, not only did I not post anything, but we just really didn't do anything.  Indeed, it was a pretty low key holiday season for us.  Stella isn't old enough to understand anything of what was going on and not even really aware enough to be kept interested by festive lights and decorations.  And, she won't remember even a second of this holiday season.  So, it seemed a little pointless to bundle her up and head out on fun holiday adventures when we didn't even want to do it ourselves.  (And when I say ourselves, I really mean me.  Perhaps Mr. Frisby wanted to go out and do fun, festive things for the holiday season, but he was too busy with bishopric duties, so he was never available.  So, that pretty much just left me and I was more interested in relaxing this year.  Judge me if you want, but I thoroughly enjoyed a low-stress holiday season).

That said, this Christmas season was immensely more enjoyable with Stella around.  Funny, since she didn't have a clue what was going on, but it was still much more fun.  Even if she won't remember her first Christmas, I will, so although we didn't go out on fun holiday adventures, I thoroughly enjoyed shopping for her and making her as festive as I could.  So, without further ado, here is how The Frisbys celebrated this holiday season.

It started the day after Thanksgiving when we headed up to the Santa Cruz mountains to cut down our Christmas Tree.  We didn't take many photos because Mr. Frisby had his hands full with a saw and a Christmas Tree and I had my hands full with a baby and a dog.  But we snapped a couple photos and had a good time.

I think my sister may have taken a photo with all of us in it.  Maybe I'll get that from her someday.  But, for now, this is what I got.  Cutting down our Christmas Tree is a tradition that I've grown up with and it's really fun to be able to continue doing it with Stella.  And, just like last year, Scout was in dog heaven running around the tree farm.

Next was our ward Christmas party at which Stella got to meet Santa.

She charmed everyone at the party with her cute reindeer socks, rock star hair and pleasant, happy demeanor.

On Christmas Eve, Stella played Baby Jesus in the Nativity.  Aside from spitting up in the middle of the performance, I think she did pretty well.  No crying and she even tamed down her hair so it wasn't sticking up in the back.  I didn't get any pictures since I was playing Mary myself, but I think maybe someone in my family did, so we'll at least have some photo documentation.

Christmas morning was pretty exciting.  Mr. Frisby had no church meetings, so we got to sleep in until Stella woke up.  Then it was time to see what Santa brought.

Maybe she remembered a little from last year, but Scout caught on very quickly to what was happening.  But, like a good dog, she didn't touch any of her presents until we told her it was okay.

We helped Stella open all her presents, then we opened ours, and then it was off to church where everyone oohed and aahed over her general adorableness.

After church, we attempted a little photo shoot with the timer on our camera before we changed out of our church clothes.  Stella was hungry, so it didn't go well.

After that, it was off to my parents' house where we opened more presents and enjoyed a delectable Christmas dinner.

It was a lovely Christmas.  Stella loved all of her Christmas presents.  Here she is with one of her (and our) favorites:

And after Christmas, my sister and her husband came to town so we had lots more fun with them, though no photo documentation of any of it.

Okay, on to New Year's.  We enjoyed a small New Year's Eve celebration with family and some family friends.  We ate, we played games, we counted down to midnight, and we drank Martinelli's.  Well, Stella didn't.  This is how she rang in the new year:

And, admittedly, that's how I wanted to ring in the new year.  As a true mother, I thought about the planned festivities for Saturday night and I thought, "do I really have to stay up until midnight?"  But we had a good time.  And, on New Year's Day, we went to church where Stella again charmed the masses.  I must say she is adorable.

And that is how we Frisbys celebrated the holiday season.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

Three Months

 Merry Christmas blogosphere!  Once again, I'm a little late.  Stella was three months old on Friday.  Can you believe she just keeps growing?  She's been into her 3-6 month clothes for a few weeks now.  I was excited to make the change because she has some really cute outfits.  But, when she started wearing the bigger clothes, I was also a little sad to realize she would never wear those smaller clothes again.  It's not like me leaving my regular clothes behind for a few months when I moved on to maternity clothes during my pregnancy.  I knew I would be back in those clothes eventually (and it feels so great!).  No.  She will NEVER wear those clothes again.  It's a little sad.  But, life goes on and she keeps growing.  In fact, she's growing very well and getting quite chunky as you can see in these pictures.  Her doctor was very impressed with her weight gain at her last check up.

Here she is with her Aunt Tammy just after Thanksgiving.  Those cheeks are very kissable (Stella's, I mean).

And tolerating tummy time.  This has actually been getting a little more fun over the last month.  Not really for her, but for me.  I get to see her getting stronger and starting to push up on her little arms and it's fun to see her grow.  She likes it about the same as she always has.  For only a few minutes at a time.

Since we didn't get many pictures of Stella on her blessing day due to inclement weather outside and horrible lighting inside, I did a little photo shoot of her in her blessing dress a couple weeks later.  Here she is showing off her left hook.

I got out of the shower a few days ago and saw this.  Little Stella asleep in her bouncy seat with her bow slipped down over her eyes.  It made me laugh.  I don't know at what point the bow slipped down - before or after she fell asleep, but she didn't complain so I like to think it was after.

And that says a lot about Stella.  She doesn't complain in general.  She's a pretty easy-going, mellow baby and she's great.  This last month she's started to pay more attention to her toys and swats at them and reaches for them all the time now.  She can hold them in her hand if we put them in it, but she doesn't really realize she's holding it.  She recognizes us and our voices.  In fact, the first Sunday in December, we got to church and sat down just as the meeting was starting.  Stella was drowsy and her eyes were droopy, but she wasn't asleep yet.  She was starting to doze off in her car seat when Mr. Frisby got up to start the meeting as it was his turn to conduct.  As soon as she heard her daddy's voice through the microphone, she perked up and listened for a few minutes.  It was pretty cute.  She's also started laughing this month, though she's very stingy with them.  She's given me a couple little laughs here and there and she giggled quite a bit at her Aunt Gaylene, but that's about it.  She does have a favorite toy, though.  It's a little yellow lion that squeaks when you squeeze it.  Without fail, she smiles at that little lion whenever you give it a squeeze.  It's adorable.  She also rolls onto her side all the time now when I lay her down on her back to play.  And, she's also discovered how much fun it is to watch Scout playing.  She just sits there smiling while she watches the dog running around playing with her toys.  Again - it's adorable.  We just love watching this little girl grow and learn.  She's the best!

And, although, it's a couple days after her three month mark, here's a picture of our little cutie all ready for church on Chrismas Day!

I Was Not Cut Out To Be A Pioneer

I know I said in my last post that the next one would be about Stella, but I had a very interesting morning and thought I might share what happened.  It involves chasing a bird around my house.  Here's how it all went down.

I went outside to put a letter in the mailbox.  I left the door open so Scout could watch me (she likes to know where I'm going).  I told her to stay at the door which she's very good about doing.  As I got to the mailbox, I heard her come running out.  So, I looked over just in time to see her scare a little bird out of a bush and then to see that little bird make a beeline for the open door.  "Oh crap," I thought.  "That bird did NOT just fly into my house!"  (As a little bit of background, I do not like birds).  I headed back to the house and told Scout to go back inside, which she did.  Fortunately, she hadn't seen where the bird went and was oblivious to the fact that her desired prey was now trapped inside the house.  I cautiously went inside the house, looking up at all the ceilings and light fixtures as I made my way to each room.  I shut all the closet doors and then the bedroom and bathroom doors as I made my way through the house looking for the bird.  I wasn't entirely sure it had actually gone in the house, so after several minutes I began to relax thinking it didn't make it in.  I went in to change the baby's diaper and in the middle of the diaper change, I heard a small ruckus involving Scout out in the kitchen.  I finished the diaper change and headed out to see what was going on.  Scout was by the big window in the kitchen jumping up and down and looking outside.  She was clearly excited about something.  I got close to the sliding glass door that goes into the backyard and saw lots of feathers on the ground.  Obviously the bird was inside.  I figured that the bird must have tried to go out the sliding glass door and Scout saw it.  She tried to catch it which sent the bird to the other window.  I knew it couldn't have gotten out, but Scout didn't.  She thought it had escaped and was anxious to get outside to look for it.  I let her out and began searching for the bird.

Meanwhile, I sent a text to Mr. Frisby to let him know what was going on.  I soon spotted the bird hiding out between some shopping bags that are between the wall and the kitchen cart in our kitchen.  I asked Mr. Frisby what he thought I should do.  He said I should try to catch it (yeah, right!).  Then he suggested I just open the sliding glass door and shoo it out.  Fortunately, the baby was happy playing in her room with all of this going on.  I brought Scout inside and shut her in our bedroom because I knew things would not end well for the bird if she was around. I then approached the little bird and with a pole (because I was not about to get close enough for it to peck my eyes out) I started poking the bags to get the bird to move.  It hopped down to the floor and starting hopping around.  I started prodding it a little with the pole, trying to move it toward the door.  Stupid bird wasn't having any of it.  It kept hopping in the opposite direction.  Then it started to make use of its wings - big problem.  It flew over close to the front door.  So, I opened the front door and again tried to prod it over.  No dice.  Stupid bird then headed down the dark hallway (good thing I had shut all the doors).  I got a bag and tried to coax the bird into it.  Didn't work.  That's when the bird really remembered it could fly and it flew right up to perch on our Christmas Tree.  Of course, at that point, I decided I needed some photographic documentation of this little guy.

Yep.  There he is.  Looking quite festive, don't you think?  I was sort of at a loss for what to do at that point.  Then the bird made it easy for me.  He flew to the back of the tree and went into hiding somewhere inside.  I couldn't find him.  I looked and looked and looked, but that little fella was hidden well.  After a little while, I gave up.  I had things to do.  I informed Mr. Frisby that he would need to take care of the situation when he got home.  I let Scout out and told her there was a bird she needed to find.  She didn't really get it.  She could tell something was up, though, and stayed pretty alert.  A little while later, I was in the kitchen and Scout was laying on the couch.  All of a sudden, she jumped down and ran over to the tree.  The bird must have moved.  It was pretty awesome to watch.  Scout was army crawling around under the tree, by the tree stand, around the gifts.  She was on the hunt!  Fortunately, the baby had fallen asleep at this point, so I didn't have to worry about her for the moment.

Right about that time, the doorbell rang.  Of course, Scout ran over to see who it was, forgetting about the little bird.  I answered the door to a salesman from a company that does home repairs.  He was quite chatty and actually had some relevant information.  While Scout and I were occupied at the door, I guess the bird decided it was an ideal time to make a run for it.  Problem is there was nowhere for it to run.  I heard the little bells on the tree garlands ring and I knew the bird was on the move.  Seconds later, I heard a thud and I knew it had flown into the sliding glass door.  At this point, Scout was getting bored with the salesman, but I didn't want to unleash her on the bird.  I glanced back at the back door and saw the little bird lying on the ground with its feet sticking up in the air.  It didn't seem to be moving.  I kept a hold of Scout and waited for the salesman to finish.  Finally he left.  I took Scout back to our bedroom, put her inside and shut the door.  I cautiously approached the bird and I could see its chest still moving.  I figured maybe it was just stunned, so I grabbed a bag, prodded the bird inside with the pole, went out onto the back patio and slid the bird out of the bag.  It just laid on the concrete with its little feet twitching.  I let Scout out of our room and called Mr. Frisby.  He didn't answer.  So, Scout and I just watched the bird twitching away outside.  I couldn't tell if it was coming to or dying.  Scout didn't care.  She just wanted at that bird and was really upset that I wouldn't let her outside.

A few minutes later, Mr. Frisby called back and I explained to him what had happened.  I told him I didn't know if the bird was coming to or dying.  He said I should give it a few minutes and see how it was doing.  "It's been a few minutes," I said.  "It's probably been 20 or 30 minutes."  He said the bird probably broke its neck when it hit the door and it wasn't going to survive.  He then suggested I put it out of its misery.  "You're joking," I thought.  But, I knew he wasn't.  And I knew he was right.  So, I asked what I should do.  He said, "here's what you need to do - you're not going to like it."  I said, "I'm not smashing it."  All the while, I have ideas going through my head of how to kill a bird and I'm trying to figure out which method I would actually be able to carry out.  He said, "just put it in a bag and then drop one of the heavy logs on it." (We're taking out a tree in our backyard and have a number of logs suitable for killing a little bird).  I thought about this suggestion.  My stomach was doing some impressive flips at this point.  But, I couldn't think of anything better.  So, I said, "okay.  I'll see what I can do."  I then hung up with Mr. Frisby and headed outside with a bag.  At this point, the bird was clearly not going to recover, so I knew that it really would be better to kill it and end its suffering.  But, I was not excited about what was ahead.  I pushed the bird into the bag with the pole and flattened the bag as much as I could.  I went over to the pile of logs and got the smallest one I could find.  I went back over to the bag, held the log over it, shut my eyes, and dropped the log.  I looked at the bag.  It was still moving.  "Oh crap," I thought.  "I have to do it again!"  Stupid curved log!  It was curved enough that the middle part didn't hit the ground when I dropped it and, therefore, didn't smash the bird.  I examined the log and found a knot that stuck out more.  At this point I just wanted the whole thing to be over, so I quickly held the log over the bag with the knot directly over where the bird was and dropped it.  When I picked the log back up, I knew it was over.  I quickly put the log back, grabbed the bag, chucked it in the garbage and went back inside.  And, as I headed in, I thought, "I could never have been a pioneer!  There's a reason I was born in this day and age."

The Finished Nursery

This post is nearly a month overdue.  But, I have seldom been on time since having a baby, so why start now?  The finishing touches on the nursery are done and I thought it would be fun to share.  First, the bumper pads.  My mom got them done before the baby arrived, but I just haven't gotten around to posting pictures.  I think they turned out pretty sweet.

 The inside of the bumper pad

 The outside with the velcro flowers to attach them together

My mom did a great job, as she always does.  Next is what I put on the wall above the crib.  After much contemplation, I decided that I wanted to do something with the lyrics to my favorite primary song, "My Heavenly Father Loves Me".  So, I contacted my sister-in-law, Hilary, who is a graphic designer.  I told her my thoughts and asked her to design some artwork and then gave her creative control of the project.  This was the result.

She did an amazing job and it looks great.  I was super excited with how it turned out.  You should probably click on the picture to make it bigger so you can really see what it looks like.

So, now the nursery is done.  And I love it.  And next I will post about Stella because she is the best!

My Two-Month Old Has Roots

Check it out.  Look closely at the part of her hair that I'm pulling back.  There's a distinct line in Stella's hair.  The top is the red she's had since birth.  The bottom is the blonde/strawberry blonde that's coming in.

Enjoy it now folks.  I don't think this baby's red hair is gonna last!