Scary...

Scary for so many reasons....the very last picture sums it up. But the fact that I haven't blogged in seriously almost a year, and that my ambien has kicked in but I'm determined to finish this post tonight...all a little scary. But there's some adorable images here of my little tiger and beautiful arabian princess!! The pictures following my kids are of my 1st-annual adult-only halloween party. We had a really fun time, I definitely plan on continuing the tradition! All around Good Times, good times. Minus the rain when we were trick-or-treating. Coulda done without that!!!

See how Max has grown!!!

This week my little baby turned three months old! Crazy how time flies. I honestly can't say that I'm sorry to see those months go, though, they have been rough months!! We have unfortunately been just toughing it out waiting until he's older and grown out of his reflux. He really has cried a lot! I remember days in the first two months especially where I would be shocked and have to get out the video camera if he was awake and not crying. Not to complain, I think I'm just so grateful now that he doesn't cry half as much. Instead of being fussy 80% of the time and good the other 20%, it is the opposite: 80% good, 20% struggling. It has been so fun to see him smile and he gave me his first little laugh last saturday. He really is such a good little boy now and we enjoy him so much. I feel like his little personality is starting to emerge. When he was in my belly he was such a mover, constantly kicking me, and really hard. And now he is so funny, and I'm not surprised, he'll sit and alternately kick his little arms and legs so fast and hard while we're holding him, and just go at it for a half hour or more if we let him.

Cecily loves her little brother. Although I wish she could love him from a little further away! She is always right up in his face almost touching him, and talks so loud, bascially yelling right in his face. I don't know how he stands it, but I guess he has no choice. She can be a little bugger--while he's sleeping, she'll just yell really loud. It drives me crazy that she tries to wake him up. But I think she just loves to see him and talk to him--she's always so excited when 'he awake'. The other day in the car, she said "I love him" and when I looked back, I saw her little hand holding his. It's the first time she's done that and it melted my heart!!

This week has been pretty rough for Max though--the little guy got a horrible URI (Upper Respiratory Infection) about Monday. The doctor thought it was probably RSV but didn't officially diagnose it. Luckily the congestion wasn't down deep in his lungs. But he was coughing so bad Tuesday night it scared me so bad--it sounded like he had fluid in his lungs and he just kept choking more than coughing. Ryan was out of town and so my sweet parents came over at midnight and my dad drove us to the E.R. while my mom stayed with Cecily. I was relieved that his oxygen levels and other vitals were ok, and no fever, so we were home about 4 am. The next few days were rough, not improving, but at least he didn't get any worse. Friday he developed an ear infection so he's on antibiotic, but that night he finally seemed so much better, and Saturday and today even better. He is almost over it. Poor little guy, it's the worst thing to see such a little baby so helpless and not be able to breathe. I tell you what, moms, I don't know what you did before humidifiers and the blue suction thingies!!!

Anyway, here are some cute pictures of my baby (and my big baby!) to show how he's changed and grown. He's really filling out--he's 13 lb 7 oz and was 75th percentile for weight and 50th for height. Here's my little cuties!!

Max's Photo Shoot

Haylie Bowler did our newborn pics for us again. She took Cecily's and they were just incredible, so we were super excited that she could do Max's as well. He's 6 weeks old in these pics. So, for your viewing enjoyment....















And drumroll please for the best picture of all....

Baby Max is here!!!

The long-awaited arrival of our little guy is finally here!!! We are so excited, he's of course the cutest thing in the world to us! The timing of it all caught us a little off guard though because I had an induction scheduled for Wednesday morning at 7:30. So I'd gotten the whole house cleaned, and scheduled a few extra piano lessons before I took my maternity leave. Well, Tuesday evening at about 6:30--I had literally just finished teaching-- I started to feel contractions. But I didn't think much of it because you always hear the stories of women who think they're in labor, go to the hospital and get sent back home. So I ignored it as just discomfort from being so busy that day, and went to a Relief Society dinner. But ten minutes into it, I started to time the contractions because they were really getting painful. They were about five minutes apart, so I called Ryan to come back to the church, and we left for the hospital. We didn't even have time to stop home and grab stuff, or take Cecily anywhere because they were so intense I knew we needed to get there fast. Sweet Cecily was asking, "You ok mommy?" and " We go to the Doctor and he make you feel better." She was very concerned! What a sweetheart! I couldn't answer her during the contractions because I was just trying to get through them! Luckily Ryan's parents met us at the hospital right as we pulled up and took Ceci home with them.
By the time I got into the room it was about 8:30 and I was dilated to a five. I was pretty anxious to get the epidural but they had to get an IV in me first, and they couldn't find a good vein! Apparently my veins are really small and they roll, so it took about three tries of jabbing the needle around to finally get it in!! The epidural went really smooth though and I was finally pretty comfortable. But I could still feel the contractions, and they started to get more and more painful again, so the anesthesiologist gave me another dose and then I went completely numb--I couldn't lift my legs--that's such a weird feeling!! It felt a little scary 'cause my chest was even a little tingly. But I progressed really quickly--in about an hour I was at an 8 and by about 11:30 they called my Dr in. I started to push at midnight and he was born at 12:11. My mom almost missed the whole thing--I had been calling her since my contractions started but she and my dad had gone to the temple and didn't have their cell phones with them. So I told my sister Amelia to come because we could have one other person in the delivery room besides Ryan and I thought she might as well be there in case my mom didn't make it! But we finally got a hold of them, and they got there with just a half hour or so to spare. My mom was pretty relieved. And they ended up letting Amelia stay in the room too, so it was great.

Anyway, the little guy was 7 lbs 3 oz and 19 inches long. He looked so healthy and perfect and I just can't say how happy I am to have him here!!!

I have to tell the story of how we decided on his name too. We had decided even before we got pregnant with him that our two boy names were Christian (my maiden name) and Max--we both jsut really liked the name and it happens to be my Grandpa's name on my mom's side. I have loved both names equally and I still hope to be able to use them both, but if we only have one boy, I honestly didn't know which one i liked better. I kept saying I was gonna need some kind of sign, or have him come out screaming his name for me to decide. Well, when I scheduled the induction, we just randomly picked a day that was close to my due date and when the Hospital wasn't too busy. When I called my mom to tell her the date, she said "Guess who's birthday that is?? My Dad's!" It seemed meant to be that we should use Max after his namesake. That was the little 'thing' I needed to help me make a decision. But when I started to go into labor on Tuesday the 17th, I thought "oh no, he's not gonna have his birthday--now I have to start from scratch!!" And with how fast I was progressing, I really thought he would come before midnight. But lo and behold, he came just 11 minutes after! So his birthday was definitely meant to be on the 18th!!! So we named him Maxwell Ryan Stevens. And here are his darling pictures!!!

Four days before he came


She loves her baby brother already!!


Minutes after he was born


Taking it all in!


So sad!


Proud Daddy!


Aunt Amelia


Nani and Opa