Josh had a good time trick or treating with his cousins.
My knight in shining armor. It was kind of funny that his good buddy, cousin Jordan happened to be a dragon!
Our cute little Mickey Mouse. Josh picked out his costume.
Pictures after Connor's blessing.
Connor with his grandpa Glen and great grandpa Wood. These are the grandpa's he gets his middle name from.
The hay ride to the patch
The pumpkins he picked.
Ever since carving pumpkins with Aunt Kimi Josh has been asking almost every day to carve pumpkins. Since he doesn't like getting his hands dirty, I end up doing all the work but this time I actually got him to stick his hand in and do a little.
The finished product
Josh likes having his picture taken with his brother.
Most newborns don't stretch their legs out like this. Connor is quite comfortable stretching out like this to nap, probably because this is what he did while he was inside of me. He's still in trouble for the beating my ribs took before he was born!
I still can't believe how much hair he has. It gets a little out of control if we don't put something in it to calm it down!
Josh loves reading stories!
We got to celebrate Kim's birthday while she was here. Thanks for letting us share your birthday with you. We hope you had fun!
Josh got to decorate a pumpkin with Grammy.
Here is the finished product that is sitting on our porch!
He also got to help carve a pumpkin.
I'm sure Kim couldn't have finished without his help!
He had so much fun carving pumpkins he keeps asking to do more.
Grampy brought Josh his own power tools. Between that and the duck game Kim brought he's been busy all week.
Grampy helped Gary install a ceiling fan in our living room. It looks great and I am so excited to have light in that room again! Thank you, thank you, thank you Mark!!!
It's quite the adjustment having a newborn around, and we are enjoying it!
Josh is such a cute big brother. He really likes to help me. So far we've only had to have one discussion about not picking up the baby without help. He was just trying to put Connor in his swing. I was changing a diaper and Josh grabbed a wipe and jumped right in and started helping me wipe him down. He holds a toy that plays music up so Connor can see and starts singing the ABC's (though the toy plays different music). It's cute to watch Josh with the baby and so far Josh has really liked having him around.
The other day as the baby was sleeping in his swing, Josh said, "Mommy, is it ok if Connor snuggles with my Tigger?" I thought that was nice he wanted to share so I said it was ok and the next thing I knew Josh had thrown in the Scooby Doo and his skunk as well. I frequently find the baby sleeping next to stuffed animals.
So far, Connor has not cried very much at all. He's been such a mellow baby, but when he does cry, this is how Josh copes with it. Josh also does this during church when a baby cries.
Daddy with new baby.
Me and my boys (minus the biggest one)!
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!
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!
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.
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!
