random assortment...

Cute sleepy Eli

Super Daddy with both his boys!

Eli at Souplantation (he went twice in his first two weeks of life!)

Look at that chubby face!

Jayden and Grandma Dottie at the Long Beach Aquarium

Owen and Jayden at Souplantation

14 months old!

Jayden turned 14 months old yesterday!! It is hard to believe. Feels like yesterday we were changing HIS newborn diapers and dealing with his spit-up. Hee hee. A lot of people have asked how he is settling into having a little brother. For the most part, he's just fascinated with Eli and wants to touch him. He also likes to try to steal his blankets. :) He has been more fussy of late, and more clingy. Could be the adjustment, could be a new tooth coming in. Who knows. But for the most part he is still our happy go lucky little guy, filling our lives with laughter and joy as always.

What's he doing these days, you ask? :)

• walking walking walking!!! he has gotten very good at it and we rarely see him crawl now.
  
• still chowing down on tons of food. he has gotten so big, too. our itty bitty guy has turned into quite the big boy!
  
• sleeping 12-13 hours a night most nights and most days still taking two naps. some days one. the other day we kept him up a little late cause there were lots of people here and he was socializing. he then walked over to the bathroom door (where he takes his bath every night), bangs on it, and says, "night night." it was hilarious. we promptly got him ready for bed!
• talking talking talking. so far his words are: papa, mama, boppa (grandpa), kittie (still keeeeeeeeeeey), airplane, cracker (ka-ker), trash truck (tash tuck), all done, hi, bye bye, baby, ball, birdie, duck, night night and car. that's all I can think of for now

Recent pictures to come (we've been a little busy...hee hee)!

THE BIRTH

So I am finally getting around to posting pics of the birth. I figure with an almost 14 month old and a 2 week old, I'm not doing too badly! :)

For those who don't know the gory details yet, labor lasted 18 long grueling hours. I had the goal of doing it without pain relief and succeeded. It was pretty intense and I would NOT have made it without the support of Dan, my mom, my sister-in-law, and my mother in law. They were all INCREDIBLE. My sister-in-law seriously could be a midwife or doula. She was amazing. When I would start to panic, she would say, "Sarah, NO. Relax. Breathe." And when I was really panicking when he was about to come and they told me not to push while they set up, she got on the bed and got right at my ear and said, "Get it together, Sarah. You did NOT come this far to give up now." I said later, "You were kinda mean..." but with a smile on my face. I am so blessed with all these women in my life. And to have a sister-in-law I would be friends with anyway, that I consider just my sister and not my in-law, that flew down from Oregon (she is TERRIFIED of flying, too) just to be with me and help me...WOW. I am truly blessed. And my mom...she does NOT like to see her kids in pain (just like any mom) and was so strong for me, even though I knew it was killing her to watch me go through it. And my mother-in-law...she was there with washcloths, ice chips, jello...she hung in till the end. And Dan...well there are NO words. NO WORDS. Through two labors and deliveries now, he has been my rock. Breathing with me, cheering me on, loving me...I think I am the luckiest woman alive to be married to him. And to watch him weep with joy as both of our sons have been born...his heart astounds me. Every moment of pain and agony was worth it for sweet Eli.

So without further adieu...here are the pictures!!

Timing contractions on the couch


When you're super tired, you will sleep ANYWHERE


Goofing off with Matthew in between contractions


Things starting to get intense


My mom, being a superstar


Fresh into the world!


First kisses from Mommy!


Bonding with Daddy


Sweet little feet


Dan "losing it" like he has with both boys. So precious!

Everett, the future baby whisperer

Our nephew Everett is going to be 5 in September and already LOVES babies. He has always been amazing with Jayden and now is IN LOVE with Eli. He comes up multiple times a day to stroke his head and give him sweet kisses. When Everett was a tiny baby, we all lived together and he would sleep on my chest all the time. From day one, this kid had me wrapped around his finger. To watch him love my kids so much now....there are NO words. His tender sweet heart just makes mine melt!!

sweet baby Eli

a family of four!!!

Jayden....

Showing off his new shoes

Looking patriotic... (some realtors came by and put flags on everyone's lawn..so, amazingly, this was not posed!)

Playing in the cool new giraffe pool with Eleni, his only girl cousin! (Haley from down the street was there too...she is in the second picture)



Jayden, we love you sweet boy and cannot believe you are a big brother!

pictures of our new bundle!

Hey if people want to check out some cutie pie shots of Eli, here is the link to the web nursery page from the hospital.

Eli's WebNursery Page

More of our pics coming soon!! :)

in one day, out the next

My mom sent me these shots via email today and I laughed. The first one, entitled:

In One Day


And the next, entitled:

Out the Next

Welcome Eli Samuel Stephens!!!

Happy Birthday Eli!!!

Eli Samuel Stephens arrived today, July 9th at 3:51 PM after 18 grueling hours of labor for Mommy (no epidural and lots of Pitocin...YIKES!!!). He weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs, 2 ozs and is 19 1/2 inches long. He has a full head of dark hair just like his daddy. Here's a couple pics we have. Most of the good ones are on both grandmas' cameras and so we will get those soon.

smiles and laughs

Jayden fills our days with smiles and laughter...he is such a happy boy!

38 weeks pregnant!

So here we are. After all that bedrest, all the contractions, hospital visits, etc. We are full-term and waiting on sweet little Eli now. Ha ha. Life is funny. Yesterday was the 38 week mark which means he could come any day now!!

Yesterday my mom took some pictures of my GINORMOUS belly. I've been told multiple times I am carrying much more out front than I did with Jayden. I think its true, esp. after these pictures. My brothers are 10 months apart and my mom talks all the time lately about remembering holding Sam on top of her 9 month pregnant belly. So she wanted to get some shots of Jayden "on top" of Eli. Hee hee.




And, for once, a picture of me I love! :)

13 months old!!

Jayden is 13 months old today. This freaks me out for a few different reasons. One, when we find out we were pregnant with Eli all those months ago, I remember saying to Dan while we sat in the ER in shock, "Jayden will be 13 months old when the new baby is born." That seemed SO far away then, and it seemed so old. Jayden is still a baby in so many ways, which means I will soon have two (yes I hear all my twin mommy friends now, chuckling away). Also, 13 months old sounds old to me at the same time. Where has my tiny baby gone? Who is this person that is walking, talking, interacting with his world, becoming more independent everyday? Some days I long for the times when he would sleep on my chest while I watched movies or napped myself. These days go by so fast!! So fast. I just want to soak them all up. Especially right now, while its still just me and Jayden a lot of the time. I want to pour my time into being with him, loving him, savoring our precious moments together. I never knew you could love like this, or this much. He is so incredible!!! So Happy 13 months, sweet boy!!!

Here are the cool things he is doing:
-walking!!! finally, he seems to prefer it over crawling. he's not great it yet and tends to tip forward a lot. but he'll promptly crawl over to something else and pull up and walk again. it is so fun to watch!!!
-talking like CRAZY. his current words are: mama/mom, daddy, hi, bye, kittie (keeeeeeeey), balloon (ba-oon!), all done, Jayden (this is SO cute), light, fan, ball, birdie, gram (we think that's what we heard a few times). he also repeats all sorts of things we say. its adorable!!
-learning to use a spoon to feed himself (see post below)
- eating all sorts of big people food. he had cream of chicken soup at Souplantation last night and LOVED it. his favorites are: raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, kidney beans, and peanut butter and jelly
-sleeps between 11 and 12 hours a night
- most days takes two naps but in the process of dropping one, we think. if he sleeps too late for his morning nap, he refuses his afternoon one and then is Cranky McCranky Pants by bedtime. so we'll see how this evolves over the next few weeks. as i type this, he is playing in his crib instead of napping :)
-climbing stairs like a champ. he LOVES the stairs and gets very sad when the gate is up and no one will follow him up.

hair!!!

Jayden is really growing hair now!!!


It is still quite a bit longer in the back but is much longer on the sides and on top now. Definitely looks it will be strawberry blonde!!!

kitties!!!

So Jayden's favorite part of living at Grandma and Grandpa Adams' house is the KITTIES!!! He is obsessed with them. He has kitty radar and the minute he sees even a glimpse of them, he points and says, "Keeeeeyyyy!!" He doesn't quite know how to be gentle with them yet but we're working on it. My mom has a stuffed kitty that she let him play with. Here is his love of kitties directed at a stuffed one. Too cute!!!

using a spoon!!

Jayden has recently started trying to feed himself with his spoon during breakfast or snacks. So far he has been most successful with applesauce and cottage cheese. Yogurt is still a little tricky for him cause its runny. So here are some shots of his super cool new trick!!

Happy Father's Day!!!

Happy Father's Day to all fathers in every form out there. We had a good day today. Daddy got to sleep in, which he was very excited about. We were planning on going to church but Jayden woke up with a tummyache and followed it up with a puking episode. So we stayed home. Later on we went to lunch as a little family. This evening, Grandpa Roger and Grandma Gayle came over for dinner. Daddy cooked a TASTY meal. Why did he cook his own Father's Day dinner, you ask? Cause he loves to cook. He enjoys cooking more than being cooked for.

Anyway, onto pictures. We stole a bunch of pictures off Grandma Gayle's camera tonight. So here is another random assortment of pictures from the past few months.

Jayden and his Uncle Ken. We're sad he lives far away and we don't see him more. :(


Looking cute cute cute!!


Finally a picture of Jayden's flirt move. This is what he does when he wants us to think he is SUPER cute. Needless to say, it works!

There are a few people in the world outside of his family that Jayden has a special place in his heart for. This is one of them...Suzy (check out her blog here). Check out the way he is looking at her. We miss you, Suzy!

This is at Jayden's party. He is walking towards Jeff. I love this picture!

we have some walking!!!

Jayden is taking some steps. He definitely still prefers crawling but is experimenting with the walking. Here's a fun video of him with Daddy and Stephanie!

still here...and a random assortment of Jayden pictures!!

Hey all!! We are still here. Life is just INSANE right now trying to get settled after the big move. So many boxes, so little time.

Jayden updates:
- he now has five teeth and seems to be working on #6. This last tooth was a doozy and we were so glad when it finally cut!
- still not walking. He has taken a few steps but for the most part is showing no interest in this milestone. Oh well. He is quite the fast crawler so that will do for now!
- he seems to be settling into his new digs well and is sleeping like a champion.
- he is terrified of his new toy, the "Busy Ball Popper" by Playskool. Just a glimpse at it requires 5 minutes of snuggles and soothing. We're not sure why it scares him but it does.

I am writing this entry from my mom's computer, where thousands of Jayden pictures reside, some of which I haven't seen. So here is an assortment of never before seen Jayden shots. Enjoy!!

Itty bitty Jayden (that jacket is 0-3 month size I believe)


An example of his tongue phase


Back when his playmat was good entertainment and not just something to crawl through


His lovey before it became his sleep companion. So bright and shiny!


Jayden and Grandma Dottie (a rare shot as most pics are taken by Grandma Dottie!)


A highly requested picture from Jayden's party. Jayden and his two buddies, sweet Jacob and Mia! Mia was too fascinated by Jayden to look at the camera!


Jayden isn't in this picture, but these two guys are two of my favorite people in all the world. Scot is on the left. He was my youth pastor growing up. And Jeff is the other one...we've been friends for a long, long time! Oh and the sweet little munchkin? That's Scot's daughter, Emma. We love her!