28 March 2009

today is the one year anniversary of the day we came HOME with stella. i can't even describe how good it felt to be HOME with her. once we landed on US soil and made it through immigration, we were so relieved. then, when we flew into KC, we were met by our 2 closest non-family family members :) aunt jilli and uncle jason picked us up at the airport. it was so odd to have other people see us as a family and see HER. everything seemed so surreal until we got HOME. i think i was terrified someone would take her away from me. we have been loving on her a little more this week and squeezing her a little tighter. we can't believe it's been a year :)

today we had her second birthday party. she doesn't officially turn 2 until wednesday, but today seemed like a good day for a par-tay. we had lots of good friends and family there. stella LOVED being the center of attention and played her part well :) i made these funny hats for everyone to wear and we had lots of food - and cupcakes of course!

opening a present from Aunt Cathy before the party.

playing with my new bowling set from nonna and poppa d.

daddy and his girl.

dancing with marti.

i LOVE the way she is looking at marti!

happy happy girl!

my favorite manly shot of the evening.

quite possibly my new favorite picture :)

dancing with marti again.

bowing with marti. she had a whole choreographed dance she was doing with stella all night!

blowing out my TWO candles.

eating my YUMMY YUMMY cupcake from little bird bake shop. aunt meagan owns it and make the BEST. CUPCAKES. EVER.

fingerpainting fun!!!

giving reese kisses night night.

playing ball at the end of the night.

uncle jason teaching stella to use her finger puppets he and aunt meagan got her.

she loves them :)

we love all of you for coming to the party! stella had SO much fun!