Sarah and Naps

Sarah is kind of fickle with her nap time. Why should she want to take a nap because she is afraid that she will miss something important that big brother is doing. He doesn't take a nap so why should she? Because this will happen....
In the afternoon when it supposed to be nap time sometimes it is too quiet I stumble onto a scene like this. A girl with so much to do and no time to rest. Recently she has gotten better at going down for a nap and that make for a much more pleasant evening for everyone.

The Look

Alex has this funny look that I think is hysterical. I get a bellyache from laughing at this look that I chance to see every now and then. He is one expressive kiddo. I get a chuckle from him each day. Here is the LOOK:
You see what I mean? Did I catch you laughing at it too?

All About Me and Preschool

Alexander has been going to a preschool at a local high school since October and loves it! He has been getting more and more self-control. He is learning so much and his favorite thing besides snack is doing science experiments.
Each week one child has the opportunity to create and present a poster about themselves and their favorite activities. As parents you are invited and encouraged to come and visit them during the day. It was Alex's week to present his All about Me poster and it was fun to see him at school and what his day is like while he is away from me. He still has a difficult time speaking and looking at people when he is talking especially if he is retelling a story. It was fun none the less to see him having fun and learning. I can't believe that he is growing up so fast and is leaving the little boy stage all too soon for my taste. Here are some pictures from his preschool day.

Levi is Four Months Old

Levi turned 4 months old today. He is so fun to be around. He gets very excited and his eyes get big in anticipation of what will happen next. He is doing better at sleeping more at night. He wakes up usually once about 2 in the morning and nurses then goes back to sleep. Sometimes he wakes up about 5 am, nurses and then goes back to sleep until about 7:30.
He still doesn't like taking baths, or having his diaper changed. He is a very social baby and will cry if it is dinner time and is sitting in his swing. He wants Eric or me to hold him while we are eating so that he can be at the table with the rest of the family.
I started feeding Levi some rice cereal because he was waking up more frequently at night. Having him start that has helped him sleep better at night.
He has big beautiful blue eyes that are very expressive like Alex's were, but he has more of Sarah's coloring. We go into the Dr in a few weeks for his checkup, so we will see how he is growing more then.
*** Updated ***
I took Levi into the doctor and here are his stats
He was:

• Weight 15 1/2 lbs- 50th %
• Length- 90th %
• Head size- 90th %

Answers to Prayers

Just yesterday I was sitting and talking to Eric and he looked at me and said, "Where is your diamond?"
I looked down at my engagement ring and was staring at it in disbelief. The center stone broke off and was missing. We began to search everywhere for the missing diamond. We searched and searched for it, trying to think if I had banged it somewhere on something. We could not find it.
That night we were saying our family prayers and I asked Alex to say a prayer that we would find the diamond. He included it in his prayer, and I really was lacking faith. I thought that it was impossible for us to find. I thought that the only way for us to get the ring back the way it was before was to buy a new stone.
I have to admit that I had been short with the kids and not very pleasant to be around. We were getting ready for church and Levi had been crying and so I picked him up ready to nurse him, but after a few minutes he was content and so I went to set him down on his playmat. I looked down and there was my diamond. I could not believe it. It was as if someone was forcing my eyes to look at a certain spot. There it was laying right there.
The miracle happened and a prayer was answered. I do have a testimony that prayers are answered and that the Lord is in the details of our lives. He didn't have to answer my prayers to find the diamond, but he did because he knew that it was important to me. We stopped right them and offered a prayer of gratitude to Heavenly Father for answering our prayers. I learned a valuable lesson that day, to never think that nothing is impossible with the Lord's help. It was truly a lesson that I needed to learn and a powerful one that taught Alex (and me) that Heavenly Father does hear and answer prayers.

Locks for Love

I have been growing my hair out for a very long time and about a month ago I got it cut really short and am sending my ponytail to locks. So that someone else can use it. I must admit, I love having short hair again and I don't know if I will be having long hair anytime relatively soon. The ponytail was about 12 inches that was chopped off. I love not having my hair up in a bun or ponytail everyday. Here are the before and after pictures. It was just cut and not styled yet. I don't have any pictures of that right now, but hopefully in the next few posts you can see the new do with it being styled "my way". In the past few weeks I have gotten lots of compliments about it.

Celebrating Dad's Big Day

I know that I am so far behind blogging about events that have happened in our family this year, but here is my initial attempt at recording our life in a small way.
This year for Eric's birthday we celebrated as a family and had a day date. Eric has every other Friday off and it makes it nice to be able to spend it as a family. This year his birthday fell on a Friday and we took advantage of it.
We tried a new restaurant called Cheddars and liked it. We also went mini-golfing and had a great time. Alex especially loved dropping his golf ball in the hole and watching it come out the other side. There was one hole that he REALLY ENJOYED! It was a hole that had a stream of water that you sent your golf ball down and it directed it straight to the hole. Alex thought that it made a better water slide than its intended use. He thoroughly enjoyed sitting,running, and laying in the water. Sarah, our sweet girl was content to follow her big brother around and just do what he did. It was a great day to spend some time as a family. I sometimes feel like we don't really enjoy and live in the moments enough. I really should take a lesson from my children and savor each moment more.

Life with Three

It has been an adjustment period here at our house lately. I wouldn't say that anything was back to "normal" yet.
Alex and Sarah have done so well with welcoming baby Levi into our family. Alex is always so helpful with bringing me diapers, wipes,and giving love and kisses to Levi. He is so affectionate with him and is always requesting to hold him. Levi is sure adored by his big brother.
Sarah is very affectionate toward Levi in a slightly different way. She is very good at finding all of his pacifiers and trying to stick them into his mouth. There is a slight problem with that though, because she likes to put them into her mouth before giving them back to him. She is getting very good at identifying body parts and likes to poke, I mean point, them out on Levi.

One funny story about Alex and Levi when we first brought Levi home from the hospital. I was changing Levi's diaper one day and Alex was watching me. He saw Levi's umbilical cord that hadn't fallen off yet, and was curious. He asked a few questions about it and told me I needed to take him back to the Dr. and have them take it off. I didn't think much more about it until Alex dismantled Eric's nail kit and brought down all of the instruments to try and take off the umbilical cord. Thank goodness it came off a few days later.

Eric and I are doing well, but I did pick up a nice case of bronchitis the day that Eric's parents left to go back home. I have been nice enough to share with Eric and now he has a cold too. Life goes on and we are all getting used to having Levi in our family.

Levi is a very good-natured baby and is very laid-back except when he has his diaper changed. We are getting adjusted to life with three around here. I can't believe that Levi is 4 weeks old today! Here are some pictures from the past 4 weeks.




I will have to publish more pictures in the next few days of his first visit with Grandma and Papa Stewart and Grandma Jung. Meanwhile, enjoy these teaser pictures.

Little Levi Daniel

Yea!!! Little Levi is here safe and sound. We are so excited to welcome little Levi to our growing family. We have been waiting in anticipation for when he would finally make his arrival into this world. We had a few false alarms and I could feel my body growing very tired of still being pregnant. Finally on Sept. 15th I saw my midwife and she scheduled me for an induction the next day because my blood pressures was rising and nothing was going to fix that until our little one arrived.
We got a call from the hospital early the next morning and said that we would have to wait because they were too full and couldn't take me when I had been scheduled. They said to wait and call back in about 4 hours. I called back and it was still busy and had to call back again in 4 more hours. Called again and was still told that they were full and to try back in 4 more hours. Right before I was going to call back they called us and asked us if we could show up at 5 pm that night. Absolutely!!! We arrived at the hospital and got ready. I had fabulous nurses and the best midwife ever. She stayed around and I was induced starting at about 5:30 pm and they broke my water 30 minutes later. I continued to labor and only had really hard labor for about 15- 20 minutes. Eric was wonderful and just when I got to the point of " I really can't do this any more" is when he said that they were turning on the baby warmer and were getting my midwife. She came in and was fabulous. I gave one great big push and out our little guy came.
He was by far our biggest baby so far.
I love looking at him and I am once again taken back by how much more love in in my heart. I am so happy to have him join our family. I can't thank Mom and Dad Stewart enough for sacrificing and coming down to help us with the adjustment from 2 kids to 3. They have been fabulous. What a burden they have lifted by being here to take care of Alex and Sarah for us.
Alex is a fabulous big brother. He is always wanting to hold Levi and will tell me if he is sad and needs something. Sarah is still adjusting to having a little brother, sharing more of my time, and not being the youngest in the family. She still wants to give him loves and touch his tiny hands.
I love our growing family. Thank you for all of your well wishes and prayers. We appreciate them so much.

Our new arrival

Levi Daniel Stewart was born at 8:20PM last night! He's 21 inches long and weighs in at 8 lbs 14.5 oz!! We were surprised given Alex and Sarah were both in the 6 pound range. Mom's doing well, and was in labor for a whole 2.5 hours. He arrived on the first push. We should be coming home tomorrow.