1st Day of School

Our little RockStar is growing up so fast. She has changed from Princess to RockStar because she is so darn sassy and quite the entertainer! See ya later, no tears shed... She is off to meet Ms. Andrea her new teacher!

We just love her!

3 months old

Nelson R. is 3 months old August 1st.

He is healthy as can be.

Weight 12 pounds even (25%)

Height 24 1/2 inches (75%)

Hopefully he will continue to be tall and we can restore some height to the Stevenson name!

This was Nelson at 1 week. I think his sock monkey shrank.

I love his smile. It is so contagious. He is such a good baby, so mellow and loving.
He is sleeping from about 9:30pm- 4:00 or 5:00am. He wakes, eats, and sleeps another 2-3 hours until 6:30-7:00am.
We just love him!

Our Yellowstone Adventures

Calista has the most dynamic and sassy personality. She loved Yellowstone!

All she wanted was to see a BEAR. We saw several elk, but everytime we did she would whine and say, "But that's not a BEAR. Lets go to bear country!" She would look through her Bincoluars and claim to see animal after animal and when we asked her to decribe what she saw it was usually a pink bear, with a black tail, named Treeah.

Our Family

Lance and Calista climbed and climbed...

She loved the rocks...

And they climbed some more. Can you see them way on top?

If Calista looks like she thinks she owns this place, it's because she does. This is the bottom of Uncle Tom's Trail. It is known for its decend into the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. There are 328 very steep stairs and 1/2 mile of trail decending into the Canyon. Calista litterally ran to the bottom, we took some pictures, and then she ran back to the top while mom huffed and puffed and rested about every 50 stairs.
She is a trooper!

Old Faithful. They geysers just never get old. They are amazing.

Doesn't Nelson look like he is having fun? He really was a trooper too. He had a hard time getting decent naps in so he was a little more restless than normal but for taking a 3 month old to Yellowstone for 2 1/2 days, he was wonderful!

Infant Geyser.

Petrified Tree? We think it's a hoax! That's why they lock it up.

The cute little Cabin that we stayed in outside of West Yellowstone. The Cabin may have been the highlight of Calista's trip. Since we have been home she has asked to go back to the cabin at least a dozen times.

Yellowstone Poster Child

If this isn't every litte kid after two days in Yellowstone!

I love this little fart!
More pics to come...

My Youngest Sister is getting Married

Yup, its a joke. She is really getting married, but this is not the offical announcement. It made me laugh though.

My little bugs...

I love these two little bugs so much. Calista loves her baby brother so much and is so good with him. She tugs on his arms a little too much but she means well. She is always singing to him, the lullaby, Edelwiess, from the Sound of Music, and Lullaby and goodnight. And she says, "Mom, baby brother is so stinkin cute." We called him baby brother the whole time I was pregnant because we did not have a name for him until he was about an hour old, so we still call him baby brother, probably more than we call him Nelson.

Bad Hair Days

I let Calista play with a comb in the bath tub. This was the result.

It was so tight I thought I would never get it out. This was after 30 minutes of dangling. Then I got smart and cut up the comb...

Luckily very little hair had to be cut!

My tool kit.

This is in memory of Jessica Curzon's bangs- or whats left of them after her two year old got ahold of them while she was asleep.

This is also in memory of Calista's friend, Ana, who get her locks tangled in a toy truck and had to chop off her beautiful hair.

It must be in the air!

Memorial Day

Every Memorial Day, we read memories of Lance's dad from the Memorial Book that Teresa put together when he passed. Calista loves learning about her papa. (We left Nelson sleeping in the car.) The rest of the day Calista asked people, "Did you know my papa is buried?" It was cute.

Nelson R. Stevenson

One week old.

Welcome Home

Nelson R. Stevenson born 9:24am on May 1, 2010 weighing in at 6 lbs 14 oz

Gotta love the immediately after shot!

Calista meet her baby brother.

Going Home. Finally! As much as hospital's cost they should be more comfortable! We were so excited to go home!

SUPER SATURDAY

I think the Stevenson Clan gave a whole new definition to Super Saturday. We had the opportunity to get some trees at a big discount, but the trees needed to be planted right away. So 9 hours later, 3 men (who can no longer feel their arms) and 3 women (who mostly directed where to put them) planted 30 trees on 4 properties.

Thank heaven for big equiptment!

It was so stinkin' cold and the wind never let up all day. So much for spring weather!

SUPER SATURDAY, continued...

And today....

Calista got her big Ariel.

If you have spoken to Calista in the last two weeks, I am sure she has told you all about it.

Her chart says... "I WILL BRUSH MY TEETH WITHOUT WHINING!" and has a picture of her big Ariel on it. She did such an amazing job! We went from constant fight every night to her being excited to brush her teeth. She is very proud of her pearly whites and our bedtimes are so much easier. 28 times she had to brush and really she only whined about 5 times. I am so proud of her and she really feels like she accomplished something.

Here is her big Ariel. I am sure that if you see Calista in the next month you will get to meet big Ariel in person. She won't let her out of her sight!

And to finish off an already exhausting day... We went to Minico High School's production of Beauty and the Beast. Calista loved Belle so much. She was very talented and beautiful. Calista also talked to Gaston and she said to him "You are a bully!" He said "I'm hurt!" and she said "You are crazy!" Honestly, who teaches this kid these things!

At the end of the production on the way home...

I asked "Did you love it Calista?"

Calista "Yes, but I do not ever want to see it again! I did not like

the Beast

the werewolves

or Gaston!"

I asked "What did you like?"

Calista "Belle."

And that was that. At 10:30pm we dropped into bed! What a day!

Conversations

Calista yells at her dad: "No Stop it." in a very mean little voice.
Mom chimes in: "Calista, don't talk to your dad in that voice. Say, 'daddy, I don't want you to do that' in a nicer voice."
Calista again yells at her day: "Stop it" in a very mean little voice.
Mom chimes in: "Calista, don't talk like that. Nobody talks to you that way. Who do you think you are?"

Calista triumphantly proclaims: "A bossy little girl!"

To which we failed any sort of lesson, cause Lance and I cracked up!

What do you do? She makes us laugh.

Easter Egg Fun

This was my fun. I saw something online about tie-dyed eggs and had to try it. You take 100% silk ties and wrap your eggs up, boil in vinigar water, and the tie image adheres to your egg.

Fun huh!

Guess who did this egg!


Calista checks on her eggs every day. She loves to just look at them, and last night she was actually talking and singing to them. She shows everyone that walks in the door!

Calista loved dying eggs so much! She wasn't really all that interested in it until she saw what happened when we dipped the first egg into the dye. Then she couldn't get enough!

I wish we would remember to get the camera out more often. We always forget till the very end, but here is the one picture we got.

Baby brother has three more weeks! Eggs are supposed to represent New Birth and Fertility so I am hoping some rubbed off on me and I will go sooner than that!

Calista's First Dance

Calista performed in her first dance during halftime at the Minico Spartans game Feb 12th. She was so stinkin' cute. We videoed it but I am having trouble uploading it but you should come over to my house and watch it- cause it so so precious! I can't believe how proud you can feel as a parent. Watching her try so hard and be so brave in front of all those people made me love her so much! She is 7 months younger than anyone in her dance class and had only been going to class for 3 weeks and she was so brave!

They danced to Lollipop, Lollipop and had oversized lollipops as props. For the next several days she had every serving spoon in the house out pretending that they were lollipops and performed her dance endlessly.

She loves her teacher Mrs. Brooke so much. She talks about her all of the time. Mrs. Brooke is my childhood best friend's cousin from Pocatello. I knew her growing up. Now she lives in Declo and I am so glad cause she has my little girl wrapped around her finger!

Sweet Gifts from God

GIFT #1 A Long and Peaceful Night.

My sweet sleeping Calista. Last night my baby girl went to sleep at 7pm and she is still snoozing away at 8:45am this morning. I love her for it!

(She was 5 months in this snoozing pic)

GIFT #2 Short Nights/ No Sleep

It really is a gift! Today is Hump Day. Not because it's Wednesday but because, we are 20 weeks and counting on our way to a baby boy! 1/2 way there and trying to prepare ourselves for those endless new baby nights!

Pheasant Dinner?

My Dad is always looking for the next great shot. Unlike Lance, it is with his camera not his rifle.

This one was taken outside Declo.

Lance's last pheasant he shot. He's up a few from last year so this year there WILL be a Pheasant Dinner. . . (which personally I find gross!)

New Family Photos 2009

This is my family... no not my extended family, just my brothers and sisters and kids. That's what happens when you have 8 children. In 37 years they grow to 41. I am so lucky to have grown up in this family. I love my brothers and sisters so much despite all of our quirkiness!

We wanted to wait till next summer for our 'official' family photo but my dad was gracious enough to shoot some quick shots of our little family.