Fancy cameras for family memories

We have lots of people in our lives who have fancy cameras. For this we are very lucky because they like to practice on us! Here are a few shots, most are recent except for the ones that I am pregnant in ;)

My uncle Lamar took Roth family pictures when I was seven months pregnant. They turned out great!





Our friend Jodi got a new camera recently and we had fun playing with in during our visit to Denver:





The the famous Megan took some great pictures of the Stover family over Thanksgiving:







Sawyer is four months old now and really becoming interactive. Lots of smiles and he is giggling and laughing now. He loves to stand, play on the yoga ball, and fly in the air. He is still sleeping 10-12 hours a night and taking small naps during the day. He travels great, which is nice for our many trips to Iowa :) We still aren't sure what color his eyes will be so vote in the poll above and we will see what happens!

Our world

November has been a fun month. Sawyer entered the monthly age group instead of the week by week age group. He is now three months old! Lots of things have gotten done, lots of new friends have been made, and new experiences have been had.

Sawyer went to exercise his right to vote for the first time and although we had quite a bit of poo issues that day we enjoyed switching the "I voted" sticker from outfit to outfit :)


Sawyer has made lots of new friends. He has discovered the dogs:


He and Nathan are super friends after we braved a trip to Denver on an airplane!


He hung out with baby PJ at their Great-Grandma's birthday celebration


And we stopped by to see the fabulous Lu and her preggers mama. Megan looks great for 9 months pregnant! :)


Here is a few samples of a day in the life of Sawyer and his mama:

Cleaning out closets - can you believe the amount of tissue paper we have! That is what happens when you get married and have a baby within 16 months.


Find the baby - can you find the baby three stories down? The stairs in our house are insane but the openness makes it easy to move about and still see everyone. Until the crawling and walking begins...


Cloth diaper bleaching. Since we are cloth diapering sometimes a little fresh air is good for them ;)


After a long day of diapers, spit-up, and daytime TV, Heath and I get to be one again as Sawyer sleeps.


Life is good. Sawyer is sleeping 10-12 hours a night and is getting better about napping during the day (instead of cat-napping). He is smiling and beginning to laugh now. He has almost reached his feet and sits up great in his bumbo. We love to love him :)

Change

Change is happening in the Stover household. Of course Sawyer is changing every day. But we have another change: we have decided that I will stay home with Sawyer - and Sawyer is excited! He shows his excitement by handing out smiles as often as possible, especially in the morning! This picture is one of the reasons I cherish being able to spend all day long with my sweet baby:



The month of October was the beginning of many things. We put Sawyer on a strict schedule and he thrived, sleeping 10-12 hours a night now! We used this book given to us by Mike and Kelly, the parents of Triplets and it has worked great! We have modified it a bit to meet our personal needs.

I started seeing my "Little Sister" again now that we can make it work. Both uncles (Aaron and Shiloah) got to meet their nephew which began the battle of the "Hawks" as Sawyer got his first round of Hawkeye apparel and now fits in his Jayhawk gear :)




Sawyer had his first "adjustment" from Uncle Shiloah and LOVED IT! He relaxed right away and let Shi do his thing.



Sawyer went from graduating to a Velcro swaddle instead of just a blanket swaddle to a sleep sack within 3 weeks! He loves having his arms free :) Although there have been strong signs of him finding his thumb....uh oh!!

We also spent tons of time with the Ory family as they were in town for Holiday Mart and Theresa has a booth for her business: Timeless Moments by Theresa. I spent all day long with Brennen, much needed and somewhat stressful time for me ;) It was stressful at times when I was alone with both kids and had to accomplish successful nap times. But we did really well and it was wonderful bonding with Brennen, and he is a BIG fan of baby Sawyer :)

We had a short but sweet visit from Great-Grandpa Smokey and Grandpa Ross so we took a four generation picture:



We also got to dog-sit for Jack. He has been great! Wonderful around Sawyer and doesn't bark as much as I thought he would. He loves the fireplace too! Here is a picture of all three boys napping :)

German Nanny

The Stover family was blessed with a foreign visitor for the past three weeks. Jana came to visit from Germany. Her main objective for her visit was to spend as much time with Sawyer and 'our' mom. A few shopping trips were squeezed in of course ;)

Jana was a wonderful help and it was so great having a friend to keep us company too. We made two trips to Iowa together and I don't know if I could have done it without her! She was the official car seat carrier as I had a routine weight restriction and she loved it. Never letting me even attempt to get him in and out of the car. She was there to help me get things done around the house and manage emergency feedings on our many outings. We were a very efficient team of three :) I can't thank her enough.

Some fun conversations led to many questions about certain things we do here in the USA. I found that most times the only response I could come up with was "its the American way". Here are a few examples...

"Are these chairs common here? We don't have them in Germany" Referring to the 'recliner'

"Why are there 'party platters' for just vegetables? Don't they know they can do it themselves for much less?"

"How do you feel about Arnold Schwarzenegger being the Governor of California?"

To all of which I responded "That's the American way"

Jana came when Sawyer was 4 weeks old and left when he was 7 weeks old, so she was basically here for half of his life! In that time he started making eye contact, smiling, and pushing up with his legs. So that means next time she comes she has to stay the length of his age. So if she comes when he is 2 years old then she needs to stay for two years ;) Here is a picture of a classic bonding moment with Aunt Jana.

Sawyer Nash Stover

Parenthood is in full swing at the Stover household. Sawyer Nash was born on August 12, 2010. Labor started at 11:15 the night before and mom labored in Sawyer's room for two hours before waking dad up. After we took showers and packed up we headed to the hospital around 3 am. With a quick stop for mom to unload her dinner on the side of the road - yikes! We made it safely to the ER to be admitted to Labor and Delivery. We called the grandparents at 6 am and five hours later Sawyer arrived just in time for both sets of grandparents to be present.


The past 6 weeks have been amazing, difficult, interesting, fun, relaxing, intense, hilarious, rewarding, new, and most of all wonderful. We have learned to breastfeed, use cloth diapers, enjoy bath time, etc. We have met new people, received TONS of wonderful gifts, and transformed our house into a baby machine. Here is a video of Mr. Sawyer waking up at 3:00 am for a feeding. Somehow he makes my 3:00 am the best time of the day. Sorry its so long (4 minutes) but its worth it! ;)



We have braved a wedding, travels to Colby, KS and travels to Iowa. So far so good!

Here are some favorite snapshots taken over the past few weeks...


Grandma Stover made this blankets


3 days old (photos via Megan Peters)




Jana came all the way from Germany to spend three weeks with us!


Daddy brought us home flowers :)


Sticking his tongue out at Grandpa Stover!


Napping in Iowa with mom :)

The countdown to sleep deprivation bliss

Baby Stover is on his way! We are three days from D-Day with minimal signs of meeting him anytime soon. While have been waiting, our local photographer friend Ms. Megan Peters took some wonderful belly pictures for some quality memories. Here are a few:





This one is Mommy's favorite



This one is Daddy's favorite



We have also been melting away here in the Midwest so I'm curious what day this little guy is going to come. On a hot day or....a hot day? Those are basically our choices.



A few weeks ago my son managed to master the virtual world from the womb and sent me these beautiful flowers signed "Love Sawyer Nash"...


...or maybe I just married a super-sweet clever man ;)

Showered with generosity

A few weeks ago was the baby shower for our little guy. It was a ton of fun and I owe a big thanks to Megan, Theresa, and Holly for putting it together. The amount of gifts and fun was overwhelming. We had tons of kids and tons of balloons for them to play with :) The biggest hit as far as gifts go was the Wee Blocker - thanks Sara!
Here are some snapshots of the lovely event:


I feel so fortunate to have had my mother and grandmother at the shower with me :)


Megan decorated with vintage baby clothes from our parents. Check out the picture Tawny brought of Heath and Shiloah in the cute baseball shirt!




Hooper checking out the ducky decorations


THANKS LADIES!! (Megan, me, Theresa.....Holly refused to get photographed)

We are really starting to feel like we are ready to bring this kid home, not so sure about knowing what to do with him but everything is as ready as its going to be! The nesting has hit full force for both mom and dad (and grandparents too!). His 0-3 month wardrobe is clean and put away, the baby monitor is up and running, the pacifiers are out of their packaging and put away, etc. Here is a picture of my Nesting Team from last weekend :)


Big thanks to Daddy and Grandpa for helping make the baby's room perfect :)

A little pregnancy humor for you all....this is my cankle after 5 hours of driving to Iowa. Holly thought I broke my ankle - nope, just got knocked up and swollen!


And to end - here is a recent belly picture - 37 weeks/9 months along.

Star struck

A few weeks ago a dear friend invited me to a wedding reception here in Kansas City. Since he didn't know anyone except for the couple he asked me to tag along. I wasn't expecting much, the location was in a rough part of town but the suggested hotels were all the best of the best on the Country Club Plaza. So I was a bit confused as to what sort of reception this would be.

After driving through the ghetto we pulled up to this gorgeous, super old, country club tucked away. We were greeted by a valet to park our car and proceeded back behind the country club. When we rounded the corner my jaw dropped and I started slowing down so I could take it all in. On the golf course were beautiful cabanas with flowing sheer cloth in a canopy over white couches and chairs scattered all over. The main tent was massive made completely from this sheer white material with amazing, trendy, chandeliers hanging from the top of the tent. And that was just the beginning. I could go on and on about the gourmet food, music, table settings, etc.



But that is not why I am dedicating a post to this wedding reception.

As we were making our way towards the endless buffet of food (complete with carnival food served at Midnight - score for the pregnant chick!) I squeezed by a woman that caught my eye. I knew her....from a movie! I was totally convinced and immediately told my friend. Of course, he is pop-culture illiterate and told me I was crazy.

So later on I saw her sitting in front of me and I was so convinced that I immediately got on IMDB to find out who she was but I couldn't place her to know what to search for! Then a man sitting with his back to me leaned over and kissed her - that man resembled Pacey Witter from Dawson's Creek way too much. But he seemed thinner and my friend didn't recognize him either so now I was starting to second guess my baby brain. Maybe I was crazy and just looking for some drama/entertainment.


So after awhile they got up and moved past us to the photo booth the reception provided as wedding favors to capture some fun shots. Now was my chance! When they signed the guest book next to their snapshots I would go over and read what they wrote. So I waddled over there (my friend super embarrassed) and looked for it. Darn! The photo booth girls were hogging the guest book, obviously doing exactly what I was about to do - confirmed celebrity material.

So I went back to my chair and sulked for a bit. And sure enough, a woman walked up to me to talk about my pregnancy, I have never been so excited to talk about my pregnancy with a random stranger than right then because I saw her talking to the gotta-be-a-celebrity lady earlier. So after letting this woman try to talk me into having a home birth (suuuure...) I casually asked her about the couple.

And we have a winner! Diane Kruger and Joshua Jackson were guests at the same reception I was at. I gloated to my friend that I was, in fact, correct. Then proceeded to dedicate the rest of the evening to stalking them. I even peed within 10 feet of Pacey.

Diane Kruger - seen in Troy - Helen of Troy, and National Treasure as Nicolas Cage's love interest

Joshua Jackson - Pacey Witter in Dawson's Creek and Peter Bishop in Fringe

So three weeks later my pop-culture savvy friend Megan let me in on the inside scoop that Diane Kruger had posted the photo booth pictures on Twitter from that evening. I got on Twitter right away and sent Diane (first name basis) a response that I was at that same wedding and she and Josh were adorable...blah blah blah. Sure enough, she responded! Nothing exciting but she still responded :) Here is the photo booth picture she posted:


Now you all know two celebrities by two degrees a separation through me. You're welcome.