Christmas Day 2015

Stella had her first real visit from Santa this Christmas. Last year Santa stopped by, but it didn't mean much to her.

Santa brought her a chair and desk for her many drawing projects. 

She likes having a chair and table that are her size. She ate her breakfast there, colored in her new books and painted with a new paint set.

She likes opening presents (even though she spread out her gifts all day). She especially liked having Max help her rip the wrapping paper off! 

She tried on most of her new clothes, jacket, and snow boots. Styling! 

She tried putting on all of her new pants on at the same time.

Dad played with her new toy for a minute to say Merry Christmas, but Stella wasn't having it. Dad give me my toy back already! 

Christmas Eve 2015

The weather this Christmas is a better fit for early summer. Last night we had powerful thunderstorms come through and today it was over 70 degrees.

As a result, we spent several hours outside playing and drawing with sidewalk chalk.

Stella likes using the chalk on herself almost as much as she likes drawing on the sidewalk in front of the house. 

Stella gave the dogs new collars for Christmas.

She also opened one gift of her own before Santa comes tonight.

Dressing herself

Stella has been practicing dressing herself over the last few weeks. She's pretty good about putting her diaper and pants on although she occasionally puts both legs into one pant leg.

She's also getting good at putting on her socks and shoes. 

She likes do everything except her shirts herself. If you try to put a diaper or pants or socks on her, she will grab them from you and say "mine!"

Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving day, we went over to our friend's house, Nick & Stephanie.

We made sweet potato casserole to take over. Stella got her first real taste of sweet potatoes and loved them. She tasted a few thanksgiving favorites like turkey but was most interested in the sweet potato and the mashed potatoes with gravy.

Christmas in Gatlinburg

We went up to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge/Sevierville for our annua Baker Christmas celebrations.

We all had a great time sitting in the hot tub, cooking & eating a big dinner, and going to the aquarium 

Stella especially enjoyed the underwater tunnel with sharks and fish swimming overhead

Stella got to open a few presents: a play tunnel from mom & dad, a talking dog from uncle Jim and aunt Tricia, and new PJ's from grandma.

The adults did our annual "dirty Santa" gift exchange game.