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!!

Daddy got a new camera!!

So Dan got a new camera! Wahoo!! The purchase was dual-purposed. Primarily, its to enable him to start taking portraits for the photography company he co-owns with Grandma Dottie (check it out at www.dsaphoto.com!). Secondly, we can get great shots of our little guy(s)!!

Here's some of the ones we took this weekend. Stay tuned for more. There are tons!!

Look at me standing!!

I love my new toy!!

Such a ham!!

Mommy and Daddy noticed how much I look like a little boy from the back, and not a little baby anymore.

My fully belly laugh...I love life hanging out with mom and dad!!

anemia?!?! We think not!!

So we took Jayden for his bigger blood draw yesterday morning. They did a finger prick and he screamed like a crazy person until the nurse lady gave him an empty plastic tube to chomp on. After that, he was happy as a clam. The doc's office called today with the results and he is FINE!!!
Hemoglobin levels should be 11.1 or above and Jayden's is 11.4! So praise God! No iron supplements for our little guy!

So WAHOO!!!

Oh and stay tuned for great pics of Jayden we took today...Dan's new camera ROCKS!

first word??!?

So Jayden has a rubber ducky in his bathtub (cliche I know) that he LOVES!!! Some kids have tons of bath toys. Not Jayden. All he needs is his duck for hours of endless bathtime entertainment!! So last night I said to him, "Jayden, are you gonna go get your ducky?" and he looked up and said, clear as day, "Duck!" Dan and I both heard it!!

First word? Or a coincidence? We say FIRST WORD, our child is brilliant!! LOL.

Just had to share. :)

12 month sized pajamas?!??!

Our little man is growing up so fast! He is sound asleep in his crib right now wearing TWELVE MONTH SIZED pajamas. The pants are a little big but not really. I just clicked on our video monitor to look at him and was actually surprised at how big he looks in his crib. When we brought him home from the hospital and put him in there the first time we joked around that we could fit 20 of him in there!! And to think he will be the big brother in a few short months. I remember how tiny my nephew Owen seemed until Everett was born. Suddenly Owen was the big boy! The time really does fly when you have kids. So this is just a sentimental mommy post.

I want to freeze the time so much these days, and fully absorb every laugh, every smile, every snuggle. Jayden is in an "I love my mommy" phase big time. When I'm in the kitchen and he's playing on the floor he will suddenly look over, see me, crawl over to me extremely quickly and pull on my pant leg until I pick him up and snuggle him. I love these intimate moments with my little guy...I love him so much, and the bond we share is incredible. I don't ever want to forget these days...of him being my little man, of him still needing me so much. I know that one day he will go off and marry someone and have kids of his own. I just don't want it to come too quickly!!

9 month check up with Dr. Ball!

Jayden had his 9 month check up today.

Weight: 17 pounds, 1.5 ounces (20th percentile)
Height: 27.75 inches (5oth percentile)
Head circumference: 17 inches (70th percentile)

So he's a small guy but that's ok! Everything checked out great except that his heel stick came back positive for anemia so they're sending him for more bloodwork. He will go on iron supplements if that comes back anemic too. Dr. Ball said he suspected this might be the case since I've continued to breastfeed while pregnant and its REALLY hard for my body to provide enough iron for two babies and me. So weaning Jayden, which we are in the process of, will help that as well. He said its no big deal short term but long term it can affect his brain development. So good to get taken care of now. :) But Dr. Ball said he looks "impressive" so that was great.

All in all, he's a healthy happy growing little guy. :)

Stephens Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebs - Collage - Morph

I got this idea from my friend Andrea's blog (you can check out her cutie patootie twins at http://miaandjacob.blogspot.com). I think its hilarious cause Jayden looks SO much like me, even strangers comment on it. His eyes are Dan's, and his hairline, but that's about it!! Anyway, thought this was entertaining. :)

I'm 9 months old!!

No way, is that my mom?

My mom is so funny, but only to me cause Grandma Dottie turned to mommy and said, "You're not THAT funny!"


I'm "so big"! This is what I do when someone asks me how big I am!

No way, its my mom AGAIN!! She is everywhere!

I think I'll crawl right off this couch!

I'm so good at posing for the camera!!

Aren't I the cutest EVER?!??! (again, I think my mom is just TOO funny!)

Mommy says she wants to hang this one on the wall!

NINE MONTHS OLD!!!

Jayden is NINE MONTHS OLD!! Who can believe it? We definitely can't. Jayden celebrated his 9 month old birthday by hanging out at grandma and grandpa's for the morning, then having lunch with mommy and Jeff (thanks for lunch, Jeff!), and now is home waiting for daddy to get home from Big Bear to give him big squeezes. He also spent a good chunk of his day practicing his newly perfected skill of pulling up on everything in sight...people, coffee tables, stools, chairs...you name it, he'll crawl over to it and soon he'll be standing!! :)

Grandma Dottie and Mommy did a quick 9 month old photo shoot today. Here's a sneak preview. The rest should be posted tomorrow (trust me, you want to check back tomorrow! they're AMAZING!).

its a......

BOY!!!!!!!!!

Jayden is having a little brother!! The ultrasound was definitely clear. There are boy parts down there. So for those of you who know my family....we're continuing the trend. My mom's family is two boys then a girl. My family is two boys then a girl. Sam and Andrea had two boys then a girl. SO as long as we have a girl next, we'll be continuing the pattern!!

WE'll try to get some pics posted soon. Dan got a brand new camera today so hopefully we can get some good shots!

what's been going on at our house

Sorry its been forever since we updated. Our little guy has been VERY sick. Double ear infection, RSV, bronchiolitis. Very sick boy. He has turned the corner though and is back to his usual self for the most part. But now he's working on TWO teeth at once. The other bottom one, and the other top one. He got one bottom one, skipped over the other bottom one and got a top one. As our pediatrician said, "I wouldn't call it nooorrrmaaallll..." But it looks like he'll have a complete set of the first four by next week which is exciting!! Our little boy is growing up. Amazing!!! He will be nine months old on Sunday, hard to believe!!

And today is the big day...we find out if Jayden is going to have a little brother or sister. Very exciting! We'll post once we know. We have some new pics of Jayden as well but I still have to upload them, which I'll do soon!

Thanks for reading!!

I LOVE my Uncle Sam!

So Jayden's Uncle Sam (Sarah's brother), who lives in Oregon, was in town for less than 24 hours this past weekend. He's super cool and doing a grad program at the University of St. Andrew's in SCOTLAND. On his way home from his week there he had a layover in L.A. Lucky us! So we headed up to L.A. for a quick visit while he was hanging out during his layover. Now, let me just tell you. Jayden LOVES women but normally takes a lot longer to warm up to men. But he LOVES his Uncle Sam. He practically jumped out of my arms to Sam while we were standing in the kitchen! And then layed his head down on Sam's shoulder and gave him a snuggle. Too cute!! So here's one good pic we got of the guys together! Uncle Sam, we all love you!! :) And we can't wait to see you again!

mmmm...curtains!

So this morning Jayden crawled over and discovered our curtains in the dining room. He looked so cute playing with them that I had to take some pictures. Here they are!!

where Mommy and I used to sleep

When Jayden was very tiny and his reflux was horrible, he couldn't really sleep flat. He slept best if he was on one of our chests, on his tummy. So we spent many a night asleep in our papasan chair. I can't tell you how many mornings Dan would come out to leave for work and find me passed out in the chair with Jayden. Thankfully, those days are long gone (and hopefully not to be repeated with baby #2). But I took some pictures today of Jayden in the papasan chair. He LOVES to sit in it...some of them came out a little blurry but they're worth posting. SUCH a big boy!

Pure joy:

Love those big blue eyes!

"Mom, what are you doing?"

So serious. He looks like a little boy in this pic and not a little baby :(

So cute

Our precious boy!

In other news, Jayden is learning to pull up and did it for the very first time today!! He still only has one tooth and we are anxiously awaiting the second one, as it has been almost a month since the appearance of the first. All in all, he is doing fantastic and growing like a weed.

New baby update:

We see the OB again on Friday. And our BIG ultrasound is on February 21st!! Can't wait. Anyone want to hazard any guesses? Have we been struck PINK or BLUE?

cutie bootie

This post is inspired by my friend Andrea who took an ADORABLE picture of her little son in the bath and called it "cutie bootie." So here's little Jayden's cutie bootie!