More coming soon...

This isn't my baby

But isn't he cute? His momma made this beautiful cake for his 1st birthday and I stopped by to document it for them. You wouldn't know it from this picture, but little Preston HATED that cake. He was scared to death of it. But I'll let his mom tell the story. Just thought this picture was too cute not to share. More posts of MY baby coming soon.

And then there was Aunt Missy

My kids love Aunt Melissa. No, I mean they REALLY LOVE her. I think most days they would trade me in for her. She's just so great - seriously. She calls and talks to me and the kids as least twice a week. Who knows what they tell her when they take off with the phone for twenty minutes? Plus she's fun for me to have around too. That's why we were so excited when she called to say she was getting a flight down to see us. Darren and Alexia picked her up from the airport the morning of the 16th and we had three days with her all to ourselves. The kids swarmed her as soon as she walked in the door.When Melissa comes to my house, she doesn't just come to visit, she comes to live with us for the time that she is here, which really translates to her pitching in. While she was here she helped me clean my house, bathrooms, and do laundry. She helped me make bread and plant flowers. She bathed kids and helped them get ready for church. She even cleaned my microwave for me. Plus she held and smelled my baby the whole weekend. I'm trying to remember if she had anytime to relax the whole time she was here. We did sneak in a game of Ticket to Ride and dinner at Red Robin one night. She's the best! Come back soon Melissa! We already miss you!

Grandmas and Grandpas a Plenty

We have had so much fun with all of our visitors lately. Some of the fun of having a new little somebody is that all of the older somebodys come to visit. My parents came for four days and drove in just hours after we brought Spencer home from the hospital. My mom has been with me that first week home for each of my kids. She gives my kiddo's their first bath at home. She sleeps in the recliner next to the cradle while she is here and wakes me up to feed them, then rocks my babies back to sleep for me. She taught Alexia how to write her name when Parker was born. She taught Parker his colors when Elijah was born. She came to read stories and color pictures and help my kids adjust this time around too. She was wonderful! I don't think I changed more than one diaper the entire time she was here. This time she brought my dad, who obliged me and made my two favorite things that he cooks - burritos and Navajo tacos. So yummy!

My parents went home and a few days later our other set of grandparents drove up. Darren's parents stayed a few days with us as well. The kids just soak up the love and we all get spoiled when they come too. Teressa got her fill of soaking up the love as well. They came the weekend of conference so while the guys were at the priesthood session, she and I took the kids (and the stash of old bread I'd been collecting for a month) to the pond in a nearby neighborhood. Feeding the ducks was so fun for all of us. The huge fish in the nasty water got their fill of bread too. Elijah that close to the edge made me so nervous. I just knew that I'd be jumping into that cess pool to fish him out if we didn't keep an eye (and an hand) on him.Here is what Spencer was busy doing while we were throwing crumbs. You can tell he took his job (to keep an eye on the new diaper bag that grandma and mom had bought for just a few hours before) very seriously.

One month old today!

Just about a month ago it was like this..."Come out, come out where ever you are!"

This cute little giraffe had been waiting for this little guy for about a year and a half. Remember when I couldn't find Elly? I ended up asking a friend for hers. Then about a month later while killing time in Walgreens waiting for some perscriptions to be filled, I found another one and this giraffe was sitting right beside him just asking to be taken home for baby number four. At that point I wasn't sure there would be a baby number four, but the giraffe had to come home with me anyway.

He's found his buddy. The little boy who will slobber, chew, wipe snot, and leave kisses on him until he is plum worn out. He found him about a month ago. A month ago! I can't believe my baby boy is a month old now. It has been a sweet month for sure, filled with the feel and smell of a new little one. We love you Spence!

Happy Birthday Honey

I think the older he gets, the better he gets.

Darren with his FOUR kids and his plate of home made creme puffs on his 32nd birthday. He likes them with vanilla filling. Lexi and I like them with chocolate filling. Since it is his day we did it his way. Tomorrow I'll make a batch with chocolate - because I know these will be all gone by then - and I know we are gonna want more by then. These are a birthday tradition for Darren. He should have birthdays more often. :)

Look at all that hair!

This is pretty much the first thing people say when they see Spencer. Lexi has been begging me to put his hair into a mohawk. I told her today we would do a fauxhawk after his bath. Then I had to explain the difference to her. My dad would say that I put a curl in his hair. Then he'd lick his fingers and try and smooth it down. ;)
Let's talk about that onsie for a minute okay? When I had my first boy (six years ago) they did not have anything so cute. I was happy to have found a package that had a gray onsie alongside the two white ones. Now look how stinking cute the brown and blue stripe is. Good gravy! I almost don't want to cover it up with clothes.

PS. The fact that I just wrote the expression "good gravy" (not to mention that I say it all the time) is a testament that I am my mother's daughter. Although her silly sayings were things like "Stars and garders", "Oh my hemalonia" (seriously what does that mean?), or "BraRandHideAlen...Melissa! Whoever you are, come here for a minute." I never understood the listing of all names in the family until you got to the right one until I had more than two children. Now I TOTALLY get it! ;)

So I've decided...

...there is no better way to watch Conference than with a little munchkin sleeping on your chest. Seriously it doesn't get any better than this.
I love the newborn stage. Last night Darren was holding Spencer and I told him that he has changed so much in two weeks. Darren then said, "Yeah, he's growing up." And then I punched him.

Okay not really, but I thought about it. I told him not to use such filthy language in our home. He's two weeks old. He is NOT growing up. Let's not rush things okay?

So in two weeks I have observed the following about Spencer:
* He has Darren's nose.
* He has Alexia's eyes.
* He has Elijah's lips.
* He is a lazy eater and takes FOREVER to nurse. Did you know Little House on the Prairie is still on TV? At 4am?
* He has more sideburns at two weeks then his daddy does at 32 years.
* He poops.
* A LOT!
* He still has that new baby smell.
* He has stolen my heart.

In other news...My camera, Photoshop and I are loving having a baby around.

Love the Honesty

My hair is naturally curly and it's way past time to have it cut. At some point or another each of my kids has commented on my hair. Alexia, before she learned tact, would tell me that my hair looked a little "scuzzy" - (one of those words that belong to our family). Parker generally took the gentler approach telling me after a shower that I looked so pretty and should do my hair all the time.

So while I do leave my hair curly a lot, I do like to wear it straight more often now. When I do that I generally wash it the night before, leaving it in a towel for a while, then just before bed I brush it out, put some goo in it to help it through the trauma of the straightening iron, and go to sleep with wet hair. Needless to say, it is a bit wild until it meets the iron the next day. Yesterday morning when nursing Spencer I took the pony tail holder out of my hair and set it on the arm of my rocking chair. Pretty soon Elijah came over to see what was going on. He's very curious about the whole nursing thing.

Elijah: Momma, what happeneda your hair?

Me: (giggling) What babe, you don't like mom's hair?

Elijah: (after picking up the hair tie and holding it out to me) Here mom, use dis.

...sigh...

I am sooooo in love...

More of Spencer

I'm sure some of you will be tired of pictures of Spencer soon, but I don't have any family here in AZ and so this is the easiest way for me to make sure they get to see him. Here is another slide show. Enjoy!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Grrr to Swine Flu!

Because of the swine flu the hospitals in AZ have restricted visitors to allow only people 12 and over. That means my three sweety pies don't get to come into the hospital to visit me or their little brother. That also means that the "family" picture with Spencer only includes mom and dad so far. Darren did bring them to the outdoor Healing Garden tonight and I walked down, after putting Spencer into the nursery, to spend thirty minutes with them. After I got back up to my room, I opened the blinds and held him up to the window for them to see him. When I talked to Darren on the phone later he told me that they could actually see him pretty well.

Swine flu - what a dirty trick!

Spencer is Here!!!

Here is the short of it, after a long day, Spencer Chase Stewart was born at 5:52 pm yesterday (9-21-2009). He was born 9lbs 9oz and 21". Here is are some pictures.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

And a short video clip.



We are excited to have him here finally. I'll share more later.

Dear Ant Kade

On Sundays while Elijah (and sometimes mom and dad) takes a nap, the older two kids get quiet time. Last Sunday I asked them to write letters to Aunt Becca, Melissa or Rachelle. Not sure Parker got the memo. He did write a letter - to Aunt Kade (Katie). He asked me to send it to her on Monday, but I really want to keep it and so I think I'll send her a copy. A little background info first. Katie is pregnant and has to have daily injections in order to thin out her blood. I'm sure that there is a more medical explanation I could give, but that is the information that the kids got from me. Here is Parker's letter to her:
(Click on the letter to view it larger).

I'm still here...

playing the waiting game...and nesting like crazy.

I'm 38 weeks pregnant now. I had an appointment yesterday and baby love is at a -2 position, I'm 2 cm dilated and effaced 50%. I'm also measuring at 40 weeks instead of 38. Yikes! Look, I know I've given birth to a 10lb 13oz child before so I know it can be done. I would just prefer not to do it again. The midwife stripped my membranes while I was there, but obviously I'm still here.

Here's something to look at while you are waiting with me. Darren took these next two pictures for me.
This one of Elijah was taken a few Saturday's ago. We love a good rain storm around here. Playing in it beats watching Saturday morning cartoons anyday.

I just had to post these pictures

Mostly because they are just so stinking cute.
If you noticed the rash under Elijah's mouth, please ignore it. That's that I'm trying to do. Because a rash around here usually means one thing - food allergy. And dang it, I just can't deal with another kid in our family having a food allergy. And if my suspicions are correct it's to that yogurt that is on the spoon he's eating off of. I told you I was trying to ignore it. "What did you say? Rash? Food allergy? Who me?"

In other news, Parker wanted to take my picture the other day. And since I had clothes on, my hair done, and makeup to boot I said he could. But the shots he took of my belly are off limits.

The Countdown is On

I really want to put a ticker on my blog showing how much longer I have until number four gets here, but they are all so cheesy. I've looked at several and even put in my information, but just can't commit to the cheesy-ness. Anyway after entering my info I found out that I have only 41 days left to my due date. I knew it was sneaking up on me but wow seeing that number sort of freaked me out a little. I have a big list of things that I want to get done before this little one gets here. That being said a huge project is now crossed off my list. The office has now been converted. Gone are the peachy colored walls that I never liked and in their place are guacamole green and white wainscoting covered walls. We trimmed out the window and I'm in love. It reminds me so much of my house in Utah. Thank you Darren for doing this for me. All of those rounded corners and recessed rounded angles in the walls made this project seem like it was going to go on forever. But now I go in there and sit during the afternoons. It makes me happy to be in there. I still need to touch up the green paint above the chair rail where I caulked but I think it turned out great.
The kids helped me put the baby's crib up on Tuesday. Elijah asked if he could sleep in it. It's a little beat up from the three older ones but is still beautiful and putting it up brought back so many memories of setting it up for each little one we have. I still need to get the dresser/changing table out of the garage and into the room, then move the furniture around to see where everything fits best.I've been trying to stock up on baby supplies as the sales have been around. The baby's side of the closet (the other side still has all of the office stuff in it on shelves that Darren put in for me) is full of what I've gathered so far. I counted up and there are 18 packages of diapers and 7 cans of baby formula in there, all bought on sale with major coupons. Just typing that gives me warm fuzzies. ;)Now I'm trying to get some fast and easy meals into my freezer for after he gets here. I have a few ideas, but would love some more if any of you have them. Parker's allergies make meals tricky around here so pick out your best non-dairy meal and tell me if it can be frozen. I'd love your help with this.

24th of July Celebration - Kirtland, NM Style

The 24th of July celebration was always a fun day growing up. Our parents have been telling us to bring the kids back to it for a while now. Since they usually start school right after that weekend we haven't gone. But we hadn't done anything at all during the month of July and we headed out of town on Friday even though we had to be back for the first day of school Monday morning. It was a quick trip but I'm so glad we did it.There is always a play put on at the community center. Here is Grandma Stewart hanging out with the little ones while Darren and I were at the play. Cousin Olivia's mom and dad were busy with the barbeque that their ward was in charge of this year so she and the boys watched movies with Grandma. Lexi went with us to the play.

The next morning (after going to the garden and being late to pick green beans with Grandma and Grandpa Wells) was the parade. Grandpa Stewart was pulling a float this year and Parker was his right-hand-candy-throwing man, so it was just these two on the sidelines. They waited not so patiently for it to start.They both thought the sirens were a little loud. They always are. But that is the start of any good parade.Here they are waiting on the other side of the road for Parker to throw candy to them.Here Grandpa is throwing candy and Parker is throwing me a kiss. That's my sweet boy you know. There was so much candy thrown out that the kids filled a gallon ziplock bag to bring home. I'm not sure my kids had been to a parade that they remembered so it was a lot of new fun for them.

And They're Off!The foot races are always fun. They have each age and gender race together and it was fun to watch the kids take their turn. (Lijah with Daddy above, Parker lined up below)Alexia won her race. No surprise with those legs that go to her armpits.Really though this was the favorite activity of the kids. The dunking booth was a huge hit! They each got the chance to dunk each other. Lexi was up first. Parker cracks me up! He actually hit the target on his second try but not hard enough to release the seat. So after the third try he ran up and hit it himself sending his big sister into the water.
Pretty soon it was Parker's turn up on the hot seat and it turned out to be a repeat of his performance for his sister.
Love that blue snow cone smile ! ;)So she ended up doing the same thing to bring him down.After a miniature train ride, trading in tickets for snow cones for everyone and a yummy lunch of navajo tacos and hamburgers for the kids (thanks Grandpa Stewart) we headed home to change and then went to my mom's house to can green beans with her. We ended up with 17 quarts of green beans that day. We've opened a few of them since being home. I totally forgot how much better they taste than those in a can. Yum! My kids love them too. Thanks for your help mom. And thanks Jerry and Teressa for letting us stay with you. While it was a quick trip we had such a good time.

Following Up

Parker: Mom, how do you know if you are pregnant or just {whispered as he spelled it} F - A - T?

I should have known it was coming...

A conversation with Parker yesterday...

Parker: Mom how does the baby get out? Does it come out of your bum?

Me: Well kind of Parker, but not exactly.

Parker: Does it squeeze out of your little pee hole?

Me: No.

Parker: Then does it come out of your poop hole?

Me: No sweetheart. Girls have three holes and one of them is connected to the place where the baby is living right now.

Parker: Do I have three holes mom?

Me: No Parker, only girls have three. That's why mom's have the babies. Do that make sense?

Parker: No not really.

So I looked up pregnancy stages on the internet, found a diagram of what our baby looks like right now inside me and showed Parker how each hole had different tubes to different places in my body. He got a good laugh at how the baby was squishing the bladder in the picture and why that would make me have to go to the bathroom all of the time.

Fast forward to the dinner table...

Parker: (to Darren and Alexia) Did you know that mom has a pee tube, a poop tube and a baby tube?

We seriously need to work on our table manners around here.