Christmas and Birthdays and New Year's, Oh My!

Wow are the holidays really over? I can't believe that they have come and gone already. We have a really great year this year, busy and challenging but great.

For Christmas we went to Utah to be with our family and we had a great time. We did our own Christmas here with each other first and it was so awesome to see Jesse's face with the new toys and books and clothes that he got. He mostly just wanted to eat them but he liked them all the same.


We spent Christmas Eve with Cameron's family and ate the yummiest prime rib ever! And then we opened presents and talked and enjoyed being with each other. We had Christmas with my family and woke up early but with Jesse there is no sleeping in. But we had a good Christmas Day and we got to see grandma and grandpa McEntire. Jesse made out like a bandit. He got lots of new toys and a much needed highchair and he got a jumperoo, which is basically a jumper but with toys around it. I think one of the funniest and most entertaining parts was when we brought our new dog Dixie into meet Tucker and he thought that we brought him a present. He went crazy. She wasn't too sure at first but by the time that we had to leave she was running circles around him and stealing his bones, and they were really good pals by then.

Then it was Cameron's birthday the Sunday after Christmas but he got to spend it driving home. Well not the whole day, we left Utah Saturday afternoon and made it home by Sunday morning. it was a really quick trip but we had a good time. My parents came home with us to deliver their present to us, a new recliner. They spent a day or two with us and then it was off to California to deliver Christmas to my brother and sister-in-law.

We rang in the new year the old fashion way, sleeping soundly in our beds. Lame I know but when Jesse gets up so early its not worth it to go to bed late. We had a good New Year's Day. We did a little shopping and then went and ate Greek food. It was really good, we have never had Greek food but the gyro was so good, I could have eaten it all day. That is defiantly a new favorite. We have had a great year and we look forward to another great year!

What Patience?

Well things have been going pretty well, up until Sunday. We woke like normal and Jesse was playing just fine and then when it came time for naptime he flipped out! He has never done that before, so I tired all the things they say, swaddle him, shush him,binki and finally try to feed him, none of that worked. So I just sat in his room and was holding him and singing to him and he finally fell asleep and it took another 15 minutes to make sure he was asleep enough to put him in his crib. Well that worked for maybe an our and then he woke up and was back to the same old screaming and screeching thing that he does. I was getting pretty worried because he has never cried for this long, so I made an appointment for the dr. She basically told me everything that I already knew, Jesse is teething. So he isn't the happy all the time now, and he is way more clingy to me now. So I told Cam the other day that I think its time for a trade. No I am just kidding but it does really try the little patience that I have. But when I hear him gabbering on or when I can make him laugh and when he smiles up at me, it makes it all worth the headaches and the sleepless nights. He is mine and I would never want it any other way. But other than that life is good at our house. We have our tree up and we are all ready for Christmas. Its a new one for me because its not cold here so its not very Christmasy, but I am enjoying the warmer weather.

When Jesse is happy and feeling good, he is talking your ear off! He is a major chatter box. I wonder the things that he is trying to tell me?

We have been having fun trying to train our new puppy. She is really smart and she is already pretty good at sit and down. Now if we could only get her to stay there when we tell her to do one of those commands. But she is still really young, only 10 weeks. But we are having fun with her and she is pretty good at fetch too. She is a very timid and shy. Which is not a bad thing in my book. She loves to sleep on Jesse's blankets though, I am trying to break her of that habit though.

That is pretty much what our lives consist of now, Jesse and the new puppy. Well Cam has work so its what my life consists of now. Oh and trying to feed Jesse baby food. He is not very interested in eating it and I wonder if its even worth it. I don't even know how much of it even ends up in his stomach, but I will keep trying. In the mean time of all of that I am trying to work off the pregnancy weight and it is a lot tougher than I thought, especially when I don't get much time to work out. But maybe one day I will be able to get into the clothes that I wore when we were very first married. Well that is it for now, I have laundry and other loads of house work that need to be done, so until next time.

Thanksgiving & Blessings

There are going to be a lot of pictures on this post, I hope I can get them all on here. Wow I can't believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone already. We had such a good time with our family this year. We drove up the night before because Jesse will sleep most of the night and it is so much easier when he is asleep. We got there really early Thanksgiving morning and got a few hours of sleep, then it was off to Thanksgiving dinner with the Cam's side of the family. This year it was the whole Beveridge side so we got to see all of them and they got to meet Jesse for the first time. Everybody agreed that he looks just like Cam did when he was little. We ate good food and visited with the family, it was so good to see everyone.

Then the next day we spent it with my family. Have to rotate when there is more than one family. So we spent the day with them and Cam got to meet Hannah and his two nephews, Kaleb and Xander. It was a lot of fun seeing them and playing with them. We did a family photo of all the Stevens' that day too so now we have an updated one until someone either gets married or has another baby. It was so cold while taking the pictures but worth it to have them. We played a lot with the babies and I drove my dad's really fast Evo! Oh man that is a fast car! We also got a new puppy that day too. We gave our other one back to the pound a little while ago and wanted another little puppy. We got Dixy that night, she is a chocolate lab and is 7 weeks old. She is so cute.

On Saturday we blessed Jesse and Xander. It was so awesome to be able to do that with all the family and I am so thankful for Cameron and being worthy to hold the priesthood to be able to bless Jesse. We had a luncheon afterwards for all the family and friends and got to catch up with all of them.

We then had a family photo of the Beveridge side and I was so happy to get one done. I love having pictures of my family up to show how awesome they all are. We then got the famous Purple Turtle for dinner on our way out of town. Yep holiday over now its time for the long 14 hour drive. Again we drove at night to keep Jesse asleep. That was probably the most eventful drive home I have ever had. First we forgot some things but to late now so then we get to a part of the trip where there are a lot of wildlife and the roads are windy and they were snowy this time too. So I am driving to give Cam a break and we drive into a snow storm, OK I can handle that. Then there is a herd of elk on the side of the road, maneuvered around them, then there is a herd of deer got around them too. But then there is this lone deer who jumps out of now where and I slam on the brakes and lock up the wheels and I hit my first deer! Yep, that's right. I was so scared, but we couldn't find the deer so I must not have killed it. And I wasn't going that fast either but I still managed to hit it head on. But we had someone watching over us because all the damage that happened was a small little dent in the hood near the front and that is it. Nothing broke and we were able to drive the rest of the way home. We got to Flagstaff and had to rest, so we slept for a couple hours and then got back on the road. We got maybe 15 or 20 miles down the road when we got stopped on the freeway for about an hour due to an overturned semi. But then it was smooth sailing from then on. We made it home and got unpacked. I was sad to be leaving our family but excited that we will be able to see them at Christmas this year.

4 Months and Then Some

Well I guess I should write something huh? Just kidding. So Jesse had his 4 month check up about 2 weeks ago and he his a healthy little baby. He is almost 13 pounds now and is over 2 feet tall. He got some more shots and took it like a man already, he barely even cried. I can't believe that this much time has passed already. He is growing more and more. His hair is starting to come in I can start to spike it now. He has discovered his feet and loves to blab and talk to me all day. We tried to feed him some rice cereal on his 4 month mark but didn't want anything to do with it, so I waited another week and he ate some of it but after a week of eating it I think that he has had enough rice so we are going to move on to either oatmeal or barley cereal. He started taking forever to put to bed at night and so I started to just make sure that he was calm and then I put him in his crib and he goes right to sleep.

He still loves to just play on the floor with his stuffed animals Elliot and Elfonzo, or Fonzie as we call him, but he is starting to want to chew on everything! If we are holding him he wants our thumb or fingers in his mouth to chew and believe me as soon as there are some teeth in there that will be the end of that, he can already bite really hard! He has also discovered his feet. He is always trying to grab them and when he does he takes a roll to which ever foot he has grabbed. It makes for a more supervised bath time as he does it during then and then he gets a face full of water. You would think that after multiple times of doing that, that he would learn not to? Oh well, maybe one day. He has started laughing too. But every time that we try to get it on camera he just looks at the camera, like a deer caught in the headlights. We are trying to be sneaky when we do it now so hopefully one day soon.

Cameron's sister Katie came to visit us for a week this month and we had fun. We went to Old Bisbee and looked in all the old shops and bought a cookie jar that is having a siesta. Cameron and Katie hiked the three kings here one day and got some good pictures. We are so excited to be going home for Thanksgiving. We haven't all been together as a family since we moved to Knoxville. And we are excited to be blessing Jesse while we are up in Utah too. Can't wait to see everyone!

Happy Halloween!

I was so excited to get Jesse dressed up into his costume. He didn't even mind it, he is a pretty easy going baby. He only gets cranky when he is hungry or tired, he is pretty much over the screaming his head off when he has a wet diaper. He is starting to play with other kids, well as much as he can while he is on his back. He is rolling over really well too. He can go back to front and front to back. He is even getting better about being on his stomach too. I am excited to start him on baby food. He is getting really interested in regular food. When ever Cam or I have any food around him he will follow you until you are finished or get up from where you are. He is so good at holding his head up and with sitting up too. I can't believe that he is almost 4 months now. He is the size of a lot of 6 month babies. Which is awesome, he is over 2 week long now and he is gaining weight really well. He is doing really well and he is making more and more noise every day. He is getting hard to take a bath now, he likes to flip over in the tub but he won't sit up very well so we have to watch him so close. He has drowned himself a couple times by rolling over in the tub. At least he really likes the water. We had a few trick or treaters not very much though. But we had some awesome potato, broccoli, cauliflower cheese soup, it was perfect for the night. When we walked down to our neighbor's it smelled just like fall. It was such a nice night not too cold and not too hot, just right. I don't think that I have ever had a Halloween where I didn't need to layer under my costume. I am so a warm weather person. Well that is all I can think of that is going on with us. Until next week.