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.

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.

In other news...

Here are a few snap shots of what has been going on with us the past few months:


Dancing Lucy - Her mom takes such great pictures of her that I couldn't choose so here is one from dance class that just makes my heart smile. And the other is from her dance recital which I was able to attend and I just can't believe how grown up she looks in the photo!!

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Heath got a pipe for Christmas and has almost mastered the art of appearing 20 years older than his true age. A personal goal of his!

Brennen turned one year old! We were able to be there for his first birthday as well as his baptism. I can't believe how fast he has grown and how beautiful he is!

Don't worry, we haven't totally neglected our dogs, not yet anyhow ;)We were able to take them to the lake a couple of times so far this year and of course they loved it! We are so fortunate to be near such a nice big lake (only ten minutes!)

Lightning hit our one and only tree. We hope it survives since we can't plant any trees in the back yard due to the dog destruction.

Heath and I celebrated our first year of marriage on May 23rd. He got me this beautiful rose bush. I love it! I'm trying my best to keep it alive...the neighbors have wagered their predictions as to when it dies and what that means for our marriage. I don't know why they don't have faith in our green thumbs...hum....

Umbrella Medical Systems had a few events in their office and they decided a fooseball table was needed, along with a pop-shot basketball. Priorities.

In photo: Kurk (tech), Trent (business partner), Andrew (business development), and Heath (stud).

The stork has nested

As many of you know in November we decided to try start a family. So on December 4th I decided to take a test in the wee hours of the morning to make sure I was not pregnant and could indeed drink freely at my company Christmas party that evening. And low and behold - the letters Y-E-S appeared! Of course I freaked a little as it was unexpected to be successful so quickly that I then understood the reason for the second test. Except I didn't 'plan ahead' and had a bit of a problem completing the second test. Wow - I hope I'm ready for this!

I went back to bed and slowly woke Heath up, checked his mood to be sure the timing was right, and then let him in on the news and that I would need a lot of help 'faking it' at the Christmas party that evening. He was very sleepy-excited. Being newly pregnant during the holidays is a tricky task. We had three weekends in a row of parties and the lack of drinking on my end would be a dead give-away. Plus seeing family was tempting to share our news, even if a little early.

So once the morning sickness began (all day, every day) at six weeks along there was definitely no hiding it. We slowly told friends and family starting on Christmas Eve. It was really fun and exciting, even though I felt icky. We told Heath's family by hints through their Christmas gifts and it took Heath's mom and sister-in-law longer than Heath's dad and brother to figure it out! We had a good laugh over that :) And we told my family in the car on the way to grandma's funeral - ah, the circle of life... (5.5 months along in photo)






















All check-ups have gone smoothly, morning sickness is long gone, we have a healthy baby boy (go team BLUE!)growing rapidly and he loves to kick and punch. It took Heath six months and two rum and cokes to finally get enough nerve up to feel him and boy was it worth the wait! His reaction was priceless. We are in the middle of labor and delivery classes right now (2 beer requirement for Heath before each class begins) and we are learning a lot! (YIKES)





















Heath and his parents surprised me Mother's Day weekend by getting the nursery going. I left for Iowa on Friday to a lavender guest bedroom and returned Sunday to a slate blue fully decorated baby's room! It was such a wonderful surprise and fun to know Heath painted, shopped, decorated, and cleaned for me :) I'm a lucky girl! My dad made the cradle and my grandfather made the piece of furniture being used for the changing table (previously a TV stand).
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As you can see, I love to lay out all of his clothes that we have acquired as gifts or hand-me-downs and imagine him in them. So far we have 19 newborn-3 months outfits, 15 3-6 months, 6 6-9 months, and 2 9-12 months. I have no idea if this is enough or not! Its just fun to get them :) Also - the 'vintage' outfits that belonged to Heath and me as babies are fun too, here are a few examples.




Now we are entering our 7th month, third trimester. ALREADY!

June events

I am still attempting to catch-up on this blog-thing. I think I might be losing the essence of the blogness by updating only twice a month on subjects from three months ago. Oh well, its better than keeping a diary. I learned from the never ending list of thank you's that my hands can only write four sentences at a time before going numb. Yet I can type for hours. But my neighbor, Al, let me know how very unacceptable the wedding gift thank-you text from a friend of his was. Darn, I was totally going to do that...

To pick-up where we left off from the honeymoon post, about 4 hours after the picture of Heath in the airport was taken, we rolled into KC just in time for Lucy's birthday party. So we had a plan. As soon as we walked in the door at home we each had a list of things to do. Such things on the list included: check on the dogs, bring all luggage inside, turn on the air conditioning, bathing, and to wrap Lucy's present. The one thing that was not on the list was to open all of the presents that were delivered during our honeymoon that were piled in our living room. Which Heath promptly ditched all other responsibilities and began looting through the boxes, not keeping track of who they came from of course. He saved the big one for last. A brand new set of luggage. OF COURSE!

Lucy's birthday was a blast! It was fun to see everyone and to watch her force Trent's sisters' feet into the dress up shoes. OUCH! Here is a cute picture of her we took a few weeks after her birthday :)


Since I spent almost two years growing my hair out for the wedding at Heath's request, I figured I might as well donate it after the wedding. I donate blood mainly because I am O negative and it is apparently rare, so I guess having strong, thick, hair that I don't dye is a good reason to donate hair too. After all blood and hair are free! (not a good sentence to say often) And in order to donate it to Locks of Love you have to have ten inches. The wonderful salon that did my hair for the wedding, offers to donate the hair themselves and the hair cut is free! So the week after we got home from Brazil - off it went!

My mane



POOF! Its gone!


The end result

Emotions

I am overdue for a good solid post of wedding developments. We have been quite busy, but I haven't documented it enough to make the post interesting with pictures. So it will be a little delayed.

For now I couldn't resist the cuteness of miss Lucy Lu on her mamma's site showing off her emotions. This is a good prelude to the wedding post as I have gone through each of these emotions on a daily basis for the past two weeks.

Thinking
DJ or no DJ?

Surprise
30% off bridesmaids dresses! No way!

Silly
If we run out of chairs people can sit on each other's laps!

Sad
rain rain... go away... come again another day... -notonmyweddingday!-

Angry
Why are the hotel people so unreliable!

Lucy is no longer a cute baby, she has turned into an amazingly beautiful little girl. Sad and Silly are my favorite!

Hoop Shooter

This weekend we had the privilege to spend time with Shiloah, Holly, and Hooper J. On their last full day here they went suit shopping for the boys for the wedding (yes, with only two months until the wedding, the procrastination has shown its scary mug) while walking through the mall Hooper was encouraged by his parents (not grandma!) to try out the trampoline jump thingy.



I don't think the kid (now 2.5 years old) will have any troubles living up to the nick-name his favorite Uncle Heath gave him. The boy already has ups!

Our gifts

I have finally obtained the most recent ADORABLE picture of Hooper J, Heath's nephew. Hooper is two years old and lives in Oklahoma with his parents (see piano bar post). We are so excited to see him over the Thanksgiving holiday in Colby, KS with the rest of the Stover/Potter families. It is always a good time with good people. I am a lucky girl to have such wonderful in-laws.

We will be staying at Grandpa Smokey's house this time around. This can be a fun, yet scary option - Smokey can drink most anyone under the table and he is a very festive man. Guaranteed good time, but usually I get to leave when its time. But we will be staying in the basement (where the bar is) of Mr. Peer Pressure himself. The extra bonus is Cuddles, the very fluffy, foo foo dog, will be there to entertain me.

Due to the big trip to Colby we have had to ask some big favors of friends, one favor to Dary and Christy to let us ditch a car at their house in order to take advantage of carpooling (thanks guys!), and the other favor (the big one) is to Tanner and Oheema to take care of our pooches. Late notice and all, good friends always come through. Here is the most recent picture that I have taken of the pups, although we (my dad) built this wonderful dog house, during the fall they love to nestle into the leaves from the giant sycamore tree that fall behind the dog house. Don't worry during the winter they LOVE the dog house.

I can't help it - one more picture of Hooper J - beautiful child!

Our Goddaughter

Heath and I became the proud Godparents to Lucinda (Lucy) Sloan Peters two and a half years ago. We are very good friends with her parents, Trent and Megan, in many ways.

First of all they have been our neighbors for the past 3 years in our eclectic neighborhood in West Plaza. Second, Heath and Trent started their own business in May of 2007 and for at least a year prior to, they worked very hard (in the basement - while Meg and I were upstairs watching Grey's Anatomy) on the concept and the development. Third, Lucy goes to daycare four houses down from our house so we get to enjoy seeing her after work often.

I am writing this because it is the end of an era for the Peters' family, they are moving to the suburbs. EEEKKKK! We will be following suit soon I hope, but for now it is very sad. No more long walks with the dogs, wine/movie nights (at least the kind where I can walk home), daycare pick-ups after work, bringing Molly over to play and watching Satchel look down the street in anticipation, watering each other's flowers, grilling on a nice afternoon, carpools when one of the four run-down cars is in the shop, trips to the office with pizza just to 'say hi' to daddy and HEAT! (how Lu says Heath).

Basically we are like one big family that is spread out between five blocks. I'm sure we will still have our fun times and begin new memories. I know Megan is having a hard time leaving the house she got married in, had Lucy in, etc. But it didn't hit me until I was asked to pick up Lu at daycare after work last night and I couldn't help but take this picture. I'm going to miss this!