Xmas Tree Hunt of '06

The kick off to a Kemper tradition. We went with the Gradys and Cantos to an upstate Christmas Tree farm where we got to drink a hot cider concoction (thanks Aaron!) whilst we picked out our very first Christmas tree as a family. Stella roughed the cold like a champ (unlike her mom).

Stella's First Solid (sort of)

Stella transitions into solid food with a taste of very watery rice cereal.





Dad's hilarious with his commentary...

Notre Dame

Stella's first trip to the mothership was brief yet efficient. Not only did she get a tour of the heartland, she was also able to mingle with nana, bampi, aunt kristy, cousin conner, cousin cooper via belly rub, great aunt jo and ro, great uncle pete and john, 2nd cousins jenna, tommy, jesse, matt and of course, family mutt... kelsey.

The Fourth Trimester

Finding God - Conner's Baptism Weekend

This is a piece that Conner's godfather put together to depict the weekend when Conner was baptized in Boston. Little did we know that Stella (about six weeks) would be jointly baptized with Conner's little bro Cooper (in the womb?) in about a year.

How cute does he look in his little seersucker suit!

Putting Things in Perspective

Shortly after the birth of Stella, Scott's producer brain begins concepting this video to depict the era before Stella up until her incredible arrival.

Life becomes redefined as we know it. Things now become 'pre-Stella' and 'post-Stella'. There is now a very real little 'creature' that exemplifies what is truly important, and the crazy-quick passage of time. We are now one of THOSE people who respond to time questions with Stella time. It's sad but true. Post-Stella milestones are no longer individualized to us.

For example, Scott no longer responds to questions like "well, let's see, I was at LaRocca's lake cottage listening to "Sweet Child O' Mine", so I was in the eighth grade...making it the summer of '88...". Those types of responses have been replaced with "well, let's see, Stella was a month and a half, making it July of '06...".

But I digress...

In what seemed to be a blink of an eye, S2K becomes S3K...and according to the editor of this video (aka "Daddy-O"), everything gets 'put in perspective'.

Already we have learned a lot from our new, beautiful baby girl...and it continues, with each passing minute. She teaches us so much of what is truly important.