trying my hand....

So I've started trying my hand at digital scrapbooking. I love it!! I don't think I'm very good at it yet. I did three pages so far today and they are ok. My third is my most recent attempt. It contains pictures you all have seen. But they're worth repeating. Jayden LOVES his bear!! Absolutely loves it. I give it to him when we go for rides in the car and you would think I had given him gold EVERYTIME. He smiles and grabs it with so much gusto, promptly giving "Nappy Bear" a good chomp!!

So check this out...

you can call me a hippy, I guess!!

So we have started cloth diapering!! Jayden has already been diagnosed with ezcema (poor kid got his mommy's skin!) and it has been on his little tush already. So I looked into it and cloth diapers are much better for him!!! Also, cloth diapering will be much more economical in the long run with two little bums to diaper!! So we got our trial pack in the mail (a bunch of different kinds to try for 21 days...all for 10 dollars...very cool!!) this week and I started with them last night. I love it!! We have had tons of problems with Jayden leaking out of his diapers at night and last night, his first night in cloth, he didn't!! The great thing is that you can double them up and add extra absorbency. I love it!! So here's a couple pics of him today in one of the new diapers. This particular one is made by a company called Fuzzi Bunz. So funny. This one fits him the least well (its a little bulky and doesn't fit in the legs super well!) but you can get the idea!!!


Sorry for the blur. He was busy playing with our car key!! :)

10 month portraits!!!

We took Jayden to get his picture taken! This is the first time we've done this of just him (we had full family portraits done in November for the Christmas cards!). But when you have a Daddy like his and a Grandma Dottie like he does, there hasn't been a lot of need. But it was great fun nonetheless. A BIG thanks to Grandma Gayle for sponsoring this event as well. :) SO here are the shots. These are pictures of the pictures as we don't have digital versions of them (or a scanner for that matter!). SO they're not perfect (i.e. I had a hard time getting just the picture in the picture!!). We think they turned out marvelously!!

Such a little ham!

I love this one!!

This is the smile we see all the time these days when he's excited about stuff. Warms the heart!!

Mommy, Jayden, AND Eli!!!

Mommy and Jayden...there just aren't enough words to describe the love!!

We weren't trying to leave Dan out of the pictures. We took some family shots but none of them turned out. So next time....

TEN MONTHS OLD!!!

Jayden is ten months old today!! Its hard to believe. Feels like yesterday I was writing my "1o days old!!" post. This time has flown by and as we creep closer and closer to one year old, I find myself wanting to slow down the time even more. I feel like you spend so much time when they're really tiny wishing the time away until they're sleeping better, and more able to play on their own. And now that he sleeps through the night, plays on his own, and is wearing 12 month old clothing, I want to freeze time and just soak it up. And there are days I would LOVE to go back to my tiny baby who slept on my chest and wore newborn sized clothes!!

Jayden is doing very cool things these days:

• crawling all over the place like a crazy person. and he's QUICK!
• pulling up on everything, even the wall and our sliding glass door
• cruising along the furniture and everything else "cruisable"
• standing on his own for a couple seconds before plopping down on his bum
• waving intermittently
• saying a few words here and there, but nothing consistently. we have very clearly heard "duck", "up", "game", "daddy", and "mama" (I am proud to say this is his most consistent one!!)
• sleeping 12 hours every night!! WAHOO!!
• eating lots of table food. so far his favorites are blueberries, raspberries, kidney beans, peas, and any kind of bread like substance we can come up with (esp. pancakes!)
• when we ask him, "How big is Jayden?" he raises his hands above his head and laughs (see pic below!)
• and last but not least, he has FOUR teeth!!! Wahoo. And we seem to be getting a break from the teething. No sign of any new ones!
  

He is so fun these days. Laughing all the time. Very personable and easy going. We are very blessed with a very mellow child. Here are some pics from the last few weeks and some 10 month old pics I took today!!

SO BIG!!!


Now that Jayden is on bottles, Daddy gets to feed him sometimes too. I love how sweet they look together!!

Jayden also loves to ride on Daddy's shoulders. This particular day he was giving Daddy snuggles while he rode around. He's kind of a momma's boy but he LOVES his daddy!!

And some cute ones from today!

finally...pics of Pismo!!

Dan and I spent a night in Pismo Beach for his birthday while Jayden hung out with Grandma Dottie. We had a great time but didn't do too well at taking pics. So here's a couple!!

From the balcony of our hotel room:


And me kissing Dan to get a good smile out of him!

I've been tagged!!

I *think* my friend Emily tagged me on her blog. She tagged "Sarah S" but she knows A LOT of people so I'm going to assume its me and fill out the questionnaire. :)


1) What are some of your preferences that have changed since you were young?
Well the main one, as my husband will tell you, is that I used to LOVE olives and now I HATE them. I think I overdid it as a kid or something. Other than that, i don't know. My favorite soda used to be Orange Slice. Now its Cherry Coke. :) I used to hate pink. Now I like it...in moderation!

2) Rank the seasons in the order you like them most.
Fall is number one by far. It is good for my soul!!! Something about the feel of the air, and the smell. Makes my heart soar!!
Second would probably be winter. Its a toss up between winter and summer.
Then spring. I know that seems weird. I really love all the seasons....

3) If you could only live in one city for the rest of your life, which one would it be? And if you could only live in one country (besides the USA) for the rest of your life, and never go anywhere else, where would it be?
Oh gosh. I don't know. I'm going to have to say LA cause that's where my family is. But if we were going based on just what city I like best, Seattle would win without a contest. As for a country besides the US...ummm....AUSTRALIA!!!!!

And I'll tag a bunch of people:
Andrea, AndreaP, Lisa, Mary, Jason, Shanaka, and Cassie!!! Enjoy!

I love my Uncle Sam (and his family)...aka our trip to Bend, Oregon!

Ok so here are some of the best pics we got in Bend. Everett, who is four and a half, LOVES Jayden and the feeling is mutual. They are good buddies already. And let me tell you, to watch my nephew whom I love so dearly love my son like he does, it melts the heart!!

Here is all four of them in the bath our last night there. Jayden is standing cause...well, he was terrified at first!!! But he eventually sat down and took a very brief bath before practically jumping out into my arms. All those cousins in one tub can be frightening!!

Jayden LOVES cats. And their cat, Jazz, sits outside on the porch a lot. So Jayden would crawl over and stand at the door watching him. This is Everett joining him!!

Not sure what Ev is doing in this picture. But this captures him completely. Silly, goofy, wonderful.

And yet another one of the new best friends...this is Ev making Jayden laugh at dinner one night!

Here is Grandma Dottie with all the grandkids (sans Eli of course..he's wasn't available for photographing at the time!! hee hee)! For those of you who don't know who is who. On the left is Everett, holding onto Grandma's shoulders is Owen. Jayden, obviously, is on her lap. Eleni (aka Chooch) is on the right.

Here's an adorable one of Grandma Dottie and Jayden. He looks so TALL in this picture!

Jayden spent a lot of time at the door!!

Speaking of people Jayden loves...he LOVES his Auntie Andrea and had lots of smiles for her. Here are a couple!



And like when Uncle Sam was in town last month, Jayden was once again fascinated!! He would just stare at him whenever he was in the room. Here they are together!

And even though I'm a mom, I'm still a proud Auntie. So here are my wonderful nephews and niece!!
This one was shot by Owen, who is quite the photographer already! Eleni is BEAUTIFUL already!

And here are Owen and Everett. Aren't they adorable?


So there you go!!! We have a couple videos, too, including one of Jayden climbing their stairs! Yikes!! I'll post them soon.

still here!!

Hey everyone!! Just checking in to let everyone know we're still alive!! This last week has been crazy. Last Monday Jayden and Mommy flew to Bend, Oregon with Grandma Dottie to visit Uncle Sam, Auntie Andrea, Owen, Everett, and Eleni. It was a GREAT trip!! Jayden did ok on the flight up. He passed out while we taxied out to the runway and all were hoping he would sleep the whole flight. As luck would have it we had some mechanical difficulties with the plane and had to go BACK to the gate to get it fixed. By the time all this was done, Jayden woke up and was awake the whole flight. All in all he didn't do too horribly.

He LOVED playing with his cousins and their dog, Laska, and cat, Jazz. The poor kid was so stimulated he slept like a rock (no complaints from mommy!) . We flew home THursday night and took off right at bedtime. Jayden slept the WHOLE flight. It was wonderful. Friday we hung out in L.A. and Daddy came up and met us!! We were VERY excited to see him. Daddy arrived with Tito's Tacos in hand and also brought Jason (see pics below!). Friday night was birthday dinner for Daddy at Grandma Dottie and Grandpa Phil's! It was wonderful. Then Saturday Mommy and Daddy left for a night away in Pismo Beach while Jayden hung out with Grandma, Grandpa, and Stephanie!! It was wonderful (pics to come!).

Monday was Daddy's actual birthday and we spent the day running some errands (ah the life of a parent...what a way to spend the birthday!). We got our car fixed, Daddy got his driver's license renewed. It was all such great fun! The day was topped off by dinner with Grandma Gayle and Grandpa Roger at Mongolian BBQ. Tasty!!

Here are a couple pics we have of the time with Jason. All the rest will be here soon.

Here is Jayden chomping on a carrot!! We are DEFINITELY teething. For all you other mommies out there, don't worry, we didn't let him bite off any pieces! :)

just some cute shots!!

I think its so funny when Jayden's shirt ends up inside his diaper. There is something so cute about it, I don't know why. So here's a picture of it happening the other day!!

And then he turned around to give Mommy a big smile!!

And this is just a cute shot from the bath. He likes to try to climb out of the tub!!

Jayden thinks he belongs in the 80's!!

Our child is working on a mullet!! Check out his bathttime "do"!

sweet baby boy #2, Eli Samuel Stephens

Here are some ultrasound pics of sweet little Eli! He is not super cooperative when it comes to getting his picture taken so we don't have as many of him as we did of Jayden but here's what we have. We get another in four weeks and hopefully will have better shots!!

This is a shot of his face straight on. You can see his eyesockets and face.


Here's a pic of his hand. We have one just like this of Jayden's hand. :)


And here's the proof of his boyhood!! :)


We hope to have more soon!!

finally...belly pics!! :)

Ok I have had a few friends bugging me for belly pics. So here they are!! :)

pictures at the lake!!

So on Sunday Dan and I took Jayden to the lake to take pictures of his cuteness!! :) On our walk we met a family with two little boys 12 months apart. The mom is not dead yet so this gives me hope!! They were really nice. Anyway, enough about that...here are the pics!!

Mommy and Jayden!!




Jayden being super cute!

"I'm SO excited"

Another Mommy and Jayden shot...


That's all of them!! There's no big news in our house. Jayden is working on another tooth (#4) and my preggo belly seems to get bigger everyday! Jayden and I are off to Oregon with Grandma Dottie on Monday to see Sam and family. Can't wait, but we're sad to leave Daddy!!