My Little Swimmer

On Saturday after our chores at home, we took a break to go swimming at Grandma and Grandpa Dibble's. Stella isn't afraid of the water, but she prefers to stay on the steps and splash around. Occasionally we'll drag her out and try to get her to kick around, but she always wants to go back on the steps.

All of the sudden she said, "Three, three, three!" and then jumped to me from the top step. She did this CONTINUALLY for the next 20 minutes until Elliot finally took her in the house. She wasn't going to stop! She'd just jump, do her best to try to find me and the second she took one breath, she was pushing off of me to swim back to the step taking no thought into how far away she was and the fact that she can't swim.

This makes me so proud of how brave she is, but also freaks me out that she ISN'T AFRAID! I'm sure she swallowed so much water and between jumps, she'd belch like her Mommy to get the extra air out. She makes me so proud! We didn't get a picture of her jumping in the pool, but here is a Sunday picture! Isn't she so cute!

Happy Birthday Jenny!

Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law Jenny! No one would or ever will know that she's 30 years old because even though she's the mother of 2, she could still pass for 18! Jenny, Jenny, Jenny . . . she dated my brother Adam before his mission and wrote letters to us during his mission. She was always so exciting and energetic and we couldn't wait to make her a part of our family! One of my favorite memories of Jenny is the interpretive dance she made up to Whitney Houston's song, "I Want to Run to You" which is so hilarious! I learned it and it was the source of many nights of entertainment while I was at college. Jenny is a dancer and I loved going to her concerts at Ricks College. She makes it all look so effortless. I’ve always felt close to Jenny and loved talking to her and even though she could keep you on the phone for hours, I sure love that little lady! Happy Birthday Jenny!

Jenny is also the best packer I've ever met. Here she is packing my wedding gifts after our Weiser reception (she's pregnant with Brennan).

Funny Stories

A while a go after we went swimming with Aunt Lindsay, Uncle Keith brought us some lunch. Stella was mooching off of Keith and when he talked too loud, she "shh-ed" him and pointed to Monty, who was asleep on the chair. You got shh-ed Keith!


The other night at the end of Stella's bedtime routine, I was holding her in her room getting ready to sing her a song. Elliot walked in to cuddle and sing with us. We started to sing "Love Is Spoken Here" (one of our favorites) and then Elliot did something to make me start laughing. Then he started laughing. So this made Stella start laughing which isn't going to make her relax and fall asleep. By the time we got to the part of the song where we sing the verses together, I was laughing so hard that it sounded like I was crying as I tried to continue to sing. Finally Stella reached up and put her hand over my mouth . . . and I was done. Elliot finished the song. Goodnight Stella.


The other morning when Stella woke up (for some reason she's been crying lately), I picked her up and brought her out to the computer where I was checking my emails. She was very cuddly for a while and then she wanted to get down to go find her j-j-j-juice (that's how she says it). I asked her for a kiss before she got down and she happily gave me one until she smelled my breath. She pulled back after the kiss and said, "PU Mommy!" I laughed and blew some more fresh air on her and asked her for another kiss (is this torture?). She approached my face with the silliest winced face and kissed me and said, "Yuck!" I'll make sure I brush my teeth before she wakes up.

Happy Anniversary Adam and Xan!

Happy #10 Anniversary to Elliot's brother and sister-in-law Adam and Xan! I've just realized that I need to take more pictures of them together because these are the only ones I have (because I stole one from Adam's blog)! The first time I met Adam and Xan was in 1999 during one of the numerous times Natalie and I were invited to the Dibble's. Xan was about a week pregnant and they announced it that day to their family. I also remember thinking how gorgeous their kids would be because they are both so good looking . . . and right I was! (I think I was also jealous because Xan had long legs) They've produced 4 of the most beautiful babies I've ever seen! Happy Anniversary kiddos!

Sentences

Stella started speaking in sentences a couple of weeks ago. I think she's even sassed me a few times.


Her first was, of course, “I made a mess,” followed shortly by “No more monkey’s!” as she turned off Tarzan after watching it 99 times.


We were out to lunch with Elliot one day and as we were walking to the car, she said, “Dad, get in the car!”


One night after Elliot had been home for all of 5 minutes only to walk back out the door to a meeting, Stella was inconsolable. She wouldn’t stop whining, so this was our conversation:
Mommy: “Stella, are you sad?”
Stella: “Uh huh.”
Mommy: “Why?”
Stella: “I miss Dad.”


Grandma tells me that she said, “Mom did it,” after she asked her who painted her finger and toe nails. This sentence worries me because fairly often I get blamed for things at the Dibble household.


Stella’s most recent sentence is “I need help,” when she is trying open something. She always uses the same tone too, which is actually quite funny.


I don’t know if it’s my medication that’s making me laugh one second and cry the next, or if it’s this talking thing. I can’t believe my little Stella is turning 2 at the end of this month. Where did my baby go?

Pretty

Crystal (Donovan's mom) told me today that Donovan keeps going around saying, “pretty, pretty.” So one day she asked, “Who’s pretty?” Donovan said, “Stella!” That’s a good boy.

These scandalous pictures were taken around February 2006.

4th of July

We started this festive day at our annual ward breakfast at the church. Elliot, of course, was cooking (the man can't relax and let other people serve once in a while), I was being anti-social, and everyone else was complaining that there wasn't enough bacon. We did let other people clean up though and we headed home.


I admired the first bloom of our Bird of Paradise plant in the front yard. It's my favorite desert plant.

Stella

Bethany

Elliot

Raymond
George

After watching a few episodes of 24 at Grandma and Grandpa Dibble's, we strapped on our swimmers and went outside to play in the pool and slip-n-slide. The boys had a great time (including Elliot) along with Beth, and Stella even liked it! Anabelle wouldn’t go near Elliot because she saw him throw Stella through.

Elliot found sparklers a few weeks ago in his parents hall closet and so we busted those out and lit them on fire, hoping they wouldn’t blow up because they are about 10 years old! Stella liked to watch it, but didn’t really enjoy holding it.

Tarzan

Well, it’s taken nearly 2 long years, but I’ve finally done it. I finally got Stella hooked on television. I was a little worried that she wouldn’t fit in with the other kids because she couldn’t sit with them to watch a movie. Would she have to be in special education at school because her attention span wasn’t long enough to sit through a whole Disney movie? I was really worried guys, really worried. Now Stella wakes up asking for “Monkeys!” She watches Tarzan every day and 2 weeks ago she was hooked on Little Rascals. Thanks for all your love and support by keeping your TV’s on when we come to visit and trying to help my baby be normal.

24

We’ve tried, we really have . . . but we finally broke down and rented 24 and now we’re HOOKED! We all but pinky swore each other before we started watching that we wouldn’t let this TV series take up valuable family time or let us stay awake late into the night watching. Discipline I tell you, DISCIPLINE! I guess 11:30 isn’t too bad, but still 2 hours past our bed time. We started watching them on Monday and now we're halfway through Season 1. Retched show!

Update

Natalie just got irritated with me because I go so long sometimes without updating my blog and then update it all at once. Well, this is the way I do things because I'm moody. I get these little bursts of energy and do only one thing at a time, whether it be cleaning the refrigerator (yeah, when will that happen), or organizing every photo I've ever taken along with 4 decades of pictures that my mother has taken. This is why I haven't updated in almost 2 weeks. So if you'll forgive me and just know that there are about 8 or 9 new posts for you to read, I'll continue today's burst of energy which is updating my blog.

Plus, I'm going to add links to some of my cousins blogs that my best friend just found for me, so check those out while I'm trying to finish my updates.

Hulk

Every Thursday we have a play date with other ladies in the ward. Today it was at my house (we’ll do a little more supervising next time because the shelves in Stella’s room ended up on the floor!). My little friend Tyler came over in his Hulk costume, which he wore the entire time. His brother Justin (who is Stella’s age) will go around wearing his Superman shirt and saying, “I’m Pooperman!”

Happy Birthday Ian!

Happy Birthday to my brother-in-law Ian! I’m having a little mind blank when it comes to stories about Ian because I keep laughing about a certain disgusting one involving his jog in Weiser around the 101 Feedlot. See, now I can’t stop laughing. Happy Birthday Ian, you little pooper-scooper!

It’s OK

Stella likes to cradle her baby dolls and bounce them saying, “It’s OK baby.” The other morning as Stella was eating her breakfast, I came out of the laundry room and saw her cradling her English Muffin saying, “It’s OK.” She did it later with her sippy cup too. She’s wacko!

Pretty Girl

Stella has started twirling around to see her pretty dress flare out.

Scrapbook Sleep Over

Elliot went camping this weekend with the Young Men in the ward. My brother-in-law Adam has been out of town most of the month (leaving Xan with the 4 kids), so Xan and I planned a scrapbook sleep over. Bethany came too. Raymond and George were already in bed when I got there at 7:00 on Friday, although they didn’t really fall asleep until 9:00. Anabelle was watching movies and Stella was running around trying to get Anabelle to play with her. Claire wouldn’t go to sleep either. Anabelle finally fell asleep during the end of Sleeping Beauty and I had already put Stella to bed for the second time. Beth was working on some pages, and I started some and quickly got the first one done.

Let me set the situation for you, since within 22 hours, I was able to get 13 scrapbook pages done . . . a new record for me! About 5 years ago, I was having a scrapbook party at my condo. Xan came with a suitcase full of supplies that she’d been collecting (Emily thought she was spending the night). Xan did her first scrapbook page at my house that day (or at least that’s what she told me). From that moment on, she’s continued to collect supplies and basically has a scrapbook store in her room downstairs. This is a situation in which I can CREATE! I wasn’t organized enough to bring any of my supplies from home, but that didn’t matter. At Xan’s I didn’t have to wonder if I could use that sticker on a different page or wonder if I’d have enough of that textured paper for a 2-page layout. I joked with Xan that I’d use all of her paper if she let me stay the rest of the day, but unless she’s giving stacks away at a time, my 13 pages didn’t even make a dent in her supplies.

So now Xan has inspired me to organize my own craft room. I’ve already created 2 more pages in my room (which means that Elliot needs to give me my scanner now), and I’ve neglected even more of my house duties (that’s a funny word) so that I could organize pictures and clean off my desks. I need to hang out with Xan more.

Anabelle has a baby doll named Annabelle that cries and burps and laughs like a real baby. Well, if you don’t put the bottle in her mouth, she’ll just cry.

Stella was playing with her on Saturday morning and the baby was laughing and giggling. She handed the baby to me so she could play with something else and IMMEDIATELY the baby started crying. Stella sighed and came back to relieve me from babysitting and IMMEDIATELY the baby stopped crying and started laughing again. WHAT?