Connor Ferrin Stevens

Connor Ferrin Stevens arrived Thursday (the 17th) at 7:47 p.m. He weighed in at 8 pounds 4 ounces and 21 1/2 inches long. I was scheduled to be induced at 7 a.m. but got a call from the hospital just before we walked out the door saying that they didn't have room for me and would call when they were ready for me. It wasn't until 2:30 that afternoon that they called and said they were ready and the waiting was pure torture. By the time I got admitted and they started the PIT it was 3:30 and I figured we probably would be in for a long night since I was in labor with Josh for 14 1/2 hours. I was absolutely shocked that Connor arrived a little over four hours after they started me on the drip. I was very pleased with my anesthesiologist. He did a great job on the epidural. My delivery nurse happens to live right around the corner from me and is really good friends with my aunts Sharlene and Marlene. She took really good care of me. Everything went really smoothly. So far Josh likes having Connor around and is a very cute big brother.

The final belly shot I promised, taken the day Connor arrived!

Random Stuff

There was a lot of zucchini and cucumbers that were way overgrown and going to waste in Grandpa Wood's garden, so someone had the great idea of letting the kids carve boats out of them. After all that carving the boats needed to be floated somewhere, but there wasn't time to go to a pond or a stream. Grandma Karen decided to fill up the tub to float them in. I'm still not sure how Josh managed to remove all his clothing and jump into the tub without getting caught by any of the adults, but we all laughed so hard I was in tears. It didn't matter that the water was cold, he could have stayed in the tub all day with those boats and I'm sure it did great things for his skin. So if you're wondering what to do with excess produce from your garden there you go.

Josh and Grandpa Wood sitting outside. Sometimes Grandpa will take Josh on a little spin on his walker and Josh thinks it is great to play on. Grandpa turned 93 last week!

I wonder how many Marines would like to see Sergeant Stevens napping in a Cars bed snuggling with Snoopy!

Josh & Daddy playing basketball. In case you've noticed, any of the pictures Gary's been in for the past month he grew a beard. I can't say I was very fond of it, so this weekend I'd finally had enough and made him shave it off. I've missed seeing a clean shaved face!

It was $2 Tuesday at Thanksgiving Point so Gary and I took Josh to the Dinosaur Museum. Josh loves to read stories, and there have been a few about dinosaurs so Josh was excited about it. He had a good time at the museum.

Here's a belly shot for everyone that has been requesting it. Gary thinks the belly is cute (though I don't agree), and I tell him in order for me to repeat this process again I have to forget how huge I get and how uncomfortable it is. So I keep pictures to a minimum! This was taken a couple weeks ago and I'll take a final belly shot to post just before I deliver.

Walk in the Canyon

I have been going through some serious camping withdrawals this summer. I've missed being in the mountains, so Saturday I made Gary drive us up Payson Canyon so we could go on a little walk to the Grotto. It was a lot of fun. In fact, Gary enjoyed it so much that we did it again Sunday afternoon! It was perfect weather and really pretty up there. Sydney especially loved it and surprised us by getting in the water.

We had to be careful not to let Josh get too far ahead of us because he wasn't afraid at all to cross the little bridges all by himself!

A cute picture of my boys getting all rested up before we went to the Grotto. Tigger is a nice touch too!

For Mother's Day Josh and Gary gave me this chair. Gary wanted me to have a comfortable place to sit and still be able to enjoy being outside during the summer despite being pregnant. It has really been nice to sit down and put my feet up while Josh swims in the pool or plays in the back yard. We've had a lot of sword fights at our house. I don't know what we'd do without Josh's swords or bow and arrow since those seem to be his most favorite things to play with. He was pretty smart to figure out how to use his belt as a sword holder all by himself! Last week I took Josh to the dentist. He really didn't enjoy the experience all that much, but he did pretty good for a three year old. For weeks he's been running around the house with an imaginary bow and arrows, and then I saw one at Walmart. In an effort to distract him from the not so fun dentist experience I took him to Walmart to get the bow and arrows and I have to say it worked beautifully. He has played with the bow all day every day since. Now I just need to find some spare arrows since he's already broken two of the three that it came with!

Summer Fun

I thought that once I quit my job to be a stay home mom I might find more time to do things like update the blog on a more frequent basis. It has been just over two months since I stopped working and I haven't been bored for a single minute. It's been a busy summer, but we are having fun and I'm loving being able to stay home with Josh. Here are a few things we've been doing this summer.

Josh has had a good time swimming in his pool on the deck in the back yard. He's tried to get Sydney to join him, but she's not so much a fan of the water. Despite his fear of dogs, Jordan had a good time swimming with Josh and was surprisingly at ease with Sydney. They were entertained for quite a while just sitting in the pool and playing with the dog.

After they got out of the pool they were a little chilled so they bundled up together.

I found that sending Josh to Jumping Jacks for a few hours is a great way to exhaust him. He had such a great time going down all the slides and keeps asking to go back.

This is the tallest slide there, and Josh being the fearless little kid that he is wanted to go down it. Since he's so small and it is such a big slide, I sent Gary up with him. They got to the top and before Gary had a chance to turn around and sit down, Josh had already gone down the slide. We spent a couple days at Zermatt in Midway. It was a fun thing to do as a family before Andrea and Jordan moved to Pennsylvania. The boys had a good time making their own game with the checkers while the others played chess behind them. We also spent a lot of time in the pool while we were there. Josh loves to swim. We got to have a test run at having a baby around the house. We got to watch my cousin's baby a couple time and Josh really enjoyed having a baby around. He was such a cute little helper. It got us all excited for our baby to come. I'm at 30 weeks now. The pregnancy has gone really well. I'm really starting to feel huge as the belly gets bigger and bigger and I'm starting to lose a lot of energy, but thankfully we haven't had any complications yet! For the 4th of July we headed to Richfield for the weekend. The kids had a good time on the slip-n-slide. Everyone at the parade, ready to catch candy. Josh, Jordan, and Kristy riding the four wheeler. Josh absolutely loves the four wheeler. He knows where my dad keeps the keys and will go get them out and ask for rides. If he disappears we can usually find him in the garage getting a helmet out and sitting on the four wheeler.

Newest Addition

We have a new addition to our family! This is our new puppy Sydney. Her mom is a pure bred golden retriever and her dad is a black lab. She was the only puppy in the litter to get her mom's coloring but she has a lot of the lab in her personality. She is three months old and is very full of energy.

We got Josh a puppy for his birthday, but didn't pick her up until a couple weeks ago. The lady we got her from was kind enough to hold her for us while we were waiting for our vinyl fence to be installed. Thankfully Josh is just as full of energy as his new puppy so they can wear each other out. At first he was a little nervous around her since she can get really hyper and is about the same size he is. She thinks he's a puppy too and likes to nibble and jump on him and he wasn't too appreciative. We've been teaching her and Josh how to deal with each other so they have a lot of fun together for the most part. He really enjoys having a puppy.

Josh wasn't too thrilled about picking up a new passenger!

I'm In Trouble!!!

I went in for my 20 week ultra sound Thursday and we found out we're having another boy!!! I don't know yet what I'm going to do with three of them, but it will be lots of fun. We're excited. Everything looked good on the ultra sound and nothing came up that we need to be concerned about!

Celebrations

Josh turned 3 the day after Easter, so we had a good time celebrating Easter and then his birthday!

I decided we should decorate eggs more often. Josh got to tell Gary and I what colors to turn the eggs in order to avoid a staining mess. Then when the eggs dried he got to decorate them with the stickers that came in the kit. He sat at the kitchen table until he had found a place for every single tiny sticker that came with the kit. It entertained him for quite a while.

He was really excited to see what the Easter Bunny left him, and go on his Easter egg hunts.

Josh was really excited about his rocket ship cake. I let him pick a cake I could make out of a book a few days before his birthday and then he wouldn't stop asking for his rocket ship cake. I wasn't entirely sure how I should decorate it, so I let him do it and he had a good time.

I took the day off work to spend with him. Gary had to work and go to school, so we decided to have a picnic outside Flowserve. We let Josh open presents and feed the ducks. I loved his face in this picture trying to open presents.

He was very excited about his new train tracks.

Playing with his new bubble toys with his cousin Kaitlyn. Grammy Debbie, Grampy Mark, and aunt Kimi spoiled him rotten and got him this John Deere truck for his birthday. He has been having a good time with it, but isn't so great at steering yet. Thanks Grammy, Grampy, and aunt Kimi!