happy new year!!

the new hat

check out this cool new hat that auntie lulu made!

bouncy!

cousins!

stella got to meet her second cousins nicholas and hilary.

xmas

what a nice first christmas!

zito

stella loves to pull zito's ears and he is a real good sport about it!

bapa

stella's great grandfather, frank belcher, better known to us as bapa passed on december 19th, just after his 90th birthday. i am so glad that stella did get to meet him, when she was about 2 months old we visited him in palos verdes where he lived. he even gave stella a little kiss! bapa was a wonderful grandfather to me, he was a world class funny face maker and always made me laugh. we are so sad for the loss but are glad to know that he had a long happy life, having lived through service in world war II. he worked as a french teacher for many years at el camino in southern california and in his retired years, he enjoyed traveling europe.



i have always loved this photo of him and my grandmother, meme on their wedding day.



we love you bapa, meme and uncle john.

big island

stella had a blast in hawaii, despite the fact that she had to go to the hospital the first day we got there due to breathing problems, probably from the vog (volcanic fog). lil' weezy (stellas new nickname) got to play in the pool, and ocean, eat french fries which she absolutely loves, watch gong gong play tennis, flirt with tim and laugh at her mom for putting her hand on a stupid sea urchin. stella loves hawaii...i think we have a water baby on our hands!

holiday party

hi there! we are a little behind on our posts. so the next few are a recap of the last couple of weeks.

stella had a lovely time at diane and norms holiday party. she even got to hang with jordan and ella!

merry christmas!

lush

island style

hawaii suits stella!

from luisa

my mom, margaret and joe all go to the same italian teacher! i finally got to meet her the other night at enoteca molinari. she is due in just a few days with her first bambino. here are some great pics that she took. grazie mille luisa!

standing tall

the hat

we are loving this hat on stella. it keeps her warm and makes her look like a christmas elf.

sitting up

being cute with mo.

the langlois family

nice to see you all!

meeting josephine

stella met josie today, she is my old friend from work, erin's daughter. what a little cutie! erin came over because she writes for the blog apartment therapy and is going to do a little post about our house. so she came over with her fam and the babies got to play. josephine is crawling and it's fun to see what stella might be doing soon. they are 2 months apart. let's hang out again soon...can't wait to see the blog post too!

stella at dwell!

lindsey brought stella to dwell for lunch yesterday for fida's second to last day at the office! i am still in denial. here are some cute shots taken during her visit. the best one is where meigan captured the moment when stella puked on fida for leaving us, check out jordan's face! we also got papa callahan in practice mode. what a great visit, but stella will miss auntie fifi!

party for gen & darren

gen and darren came from minneapolis for the thanksgiving holiday and we were so happy to see them! natalie and justin threw a party in their honor. we are sad to not see them more often but we are really looking forward to our next visit!