It's a Girl!

Adelyn Esther Stephenson

7lbs 4oz, 21 inches long

October 21, 2010; 11:17pm

Perfect in Every Way

Proud Parents

Today Wes and I were very proud parents. I was so nervous that the baby would come before Liam's first primary program and I would miss it. But, Addy was a sweet sister and has been holding out so we could all see Liam in his program. I had to snap a few shots of our little Sunbeam before church today. He was *so* excited to participate. He practiced and practiced and practiced his part.



He did a superb job saying his part. He did it nice and slow and spoke very clearly just like we had practiced. I thought for sure he'd yell it and speed through it and no one would understand, but he really did perfectly. Here was his part:
"I have blonde hair and I have a spirit body, just like my Heavenly Father. I am his son."

Good job, Mr. Liam Sunbeam! We love you! (PS- see our great papa pumpkins on the porch?)

One Last Harvest

Yesterday we headed out to Yerington for the day, partially thinking that leaving town would be a sure fire way to start labor, but also to scrapbook and to harvest Papa's pumpkins! We had a great, relaxing day. Wes went bird hunting with the guys and got two birds, my mom and I finished Christmas gifts and scrapbooking, and Liam helped Papa harvest carrots and pumpkins. It was a great day.

Here are the boys picking the carrots:


We went over to pick the pumpkins to discover a haunted pumpkin! haha. Some rodent or something gross ate completely through one of the pumpkins. At least it didn't get them all. Made for an interesting harvest anyway.
Here is Liam carrying the pumpkin we chose for Chester:

I wanted to get some cute fall shots of Liam, but my child is either an extreme ham or hates the camera. You decide:






And here's our little pumpking at 38 weeks with her very first pumpkin! (see the spooky pumpkin?)
They washed up the carrots so that Liam could try one.

And here's the first official pumpkin harvest for Fawcett farms. We got some interesting pumpkins, that's for sure!
Thanks, Nana and Papa!

Pampered

I am one lucky girl. Yesterday my mom, sister, grandma, Erica, and I all went to get pedicures at the best pedicure place in town and then enjoyed a lovely lunch together to celebrate the upcoming arrival of baby Adelyn. It was such a relaxing, fun day and I really enjoyed just hanging out and of course, being pampered. :) Here are some photos from our supreme pedicure experience:

My mom wrapped up a few fun things for me to open. I am laughing here because I saw these vanilla tootsie rolls that I love and told my mom to hide them and give them to me after the baby comes and they were in the bag. I only ate a few and gave them back to her to hide for postpartum. haha

She gave me the cutest, cozy Halloween socks to wear after the baby, too.
And this little outfit-- so cute! It says "I love cookies" and has Christmas cookies all over the pants. Of course this outfit is especially reserved for Christmas cookie decorating in December. I have photos of me as a newborn in the cradle next to the table where my mom, grandma and sister were decorating sugar cookies.
Heather gave me this adorable sleeper that says 'angel' with little wings. So sweet!
Heather is a very talented quilter and makes these beautiful baby quilts. She made this GORGEOUS quilt for Addy that I just love. It has bright colored polka dot flannel and beautiful pink and green minky fabric. I really, really love it. In fact, I had to hang onto it throughout my pedicure because it's just that cozy.
Heaven:
And here are all of our beautiful toesies: mom, Heather, Grandma (with a daring, Dorothy glitter red), me (with PINK and flowers--hopefully Addy likes them enough to want to come see them soon!), and Erica.
Thank you for such a wonderful day! It was a very special treat. Addy and I are so lucky to have such wonderful women in our lives.

Independent

Liam has been exercising his independence lately in the area of clothing. He loves to choose his own clothing and dress himself in the mornings. However, unless we're staying home all day (such as the case of General Conference Sunday), I have to have some say, otherwise he'd be going out in shorts with two different shoes and socks that are too small. ;) Last weekend we headed out for our evening walk and Liam insisted he still wear his jammy pants, orange oversized safety shirt, galoshes, hoodie and helmet. :) I'm at least glad safety is a priority to him as well.
We headed down to the park and played on the swings. He refused to remove the helmet, which knowing my child's coordination, is probably a good thing. However, it's pretty darn funny to watch him swing with his helmet on. Anyway, his new favorite thing to do with daddy is the 'under dog.' I love how these two play together. Every time Wes gives in to 'one more underdog, dad!' Liam just laughs and laughs and laughs.

I can only hope my happy boy continues to march to his own beat. :D

Our Pumpkin Patch

We had a fabulous weekend. We watched general conference, lounged, ate yummy fall food, enjoyed the rainy weather, and nested (well, I made my family nest) for our baby girl's upcoming arrival! One thing that Wes and I think this is a lot of fun is belly painting. We did a giant flower on my belly right before Liam came in the middle of summer, so we thought a pumpkin would be perfect for our little fall girl. Liam got in on the fun as well (would you expect anything different?) The best part about all of this is that, I swear the minute the paint brushes came out, our entire neighborhood and door-to-door sales people all appeared on their front lawns and wondered what the heck the crazy neighbors were doing. Oh well, let them watch us have fun, right?



I had my 36 week appointment this week. All with good news. The baby is very, very low. She looked so cute on the ultrasound, but we couldn't really get any good photos because she's so big now. I did see her pudgy little hands-- so cute! We also got good news that I'm 2cm and 50% effaced. Our midwife really thinks that because the baby's head is so low and with my current progress, she'll be here in about 2-3 weeks. I know that probably curses me to being like 8 days late, but the news was encouraging nonetheless. :)

After that appointment, we kicked it into gear and finished up her room(pictures below), cleaned the house, washed the diapers, installed the carseat base, charged the camera battery, and all that good stuff. Now we're ready. I'm sure this means she'll take her sweet time getting here now, but I'm trying to be patient and let her come on her own terms. I'd like her to hang in there at least another week anyway. :D Time will tell. Let the baby wait begin!

Baby Room Transformation

When we originally decided to buy a house, we really, really wanted four bedrooms, so that when the time came to add another little one we could have 2 kid rooms, a master bedroom, and a guest room/office. When we found our house, there was a loft area that was connected to the bathroom that is connected to Liam's room. As we drove through our neighborhood, we realized that some houses had the loft as a bedroom and some as a loft. So, when we found out we were expecting this time, we decided we'd wall off our loft to make a baby room and make our third bathroom a jack and jill bathroom for the kiddos.

It's been quite the process from beginning to end, but we had a great contractor recommended to us by my sister and he did a great job and made the 'messy part' as painless as possible. Also, my dad graciously wired the room and hung 3 ceiling fans upstairs for us (they were sooo wonderful to have for a pregnant woman in a hot summer sleeping upstairs). Thanks, dad!
So here is the process in photos:

Our loft before (which I really loved because of the openness, but I know it will be much more useful now):

After the first day of construction, all framed:
View from our room:
A few more days into the process:
And then it was time to paint. Ahh the drama with painting. ;) I had decided a while ago that I wanted to paint the room yellow. I didn't realize how hard yellow paint was to pick. I chose "Optimistic Yellow" and, after about one wall was done, I was in tears (blame it on the hormones). It looked like a kindergarten classroom. Both my mom and Wes thought I was nuts, but I enlisted my mom's help and back to the paint store we went to find a 'baby yellow.' I am SO glad that we changed the color. I am MUCH happier with the new result. I wish I had a photo of the ugly yellow, but it's probably better that I don't so that I don't bring back the tears. ;)
Liam had to help, of course, and make a mess. :D But, it was fun, nonetheless.

And here is the finished product! I'm so happy with it! Wes's mom did a beautiful job making the curtains and the diaper hanger and Wes and I made the 'mosquito net mobile.'

This is the view from entering her room:
View from the bathroom door:

View from window:
Her bedding: (I was soo pleasantly surprised when I got it. It exceeded my cuteness expectations. I love the birds and owls.):
Her wall letters that I made:
And view of the bathroom door from the crib. We finally got the swamp cooler winterized and insulated and such this weekend. We figure we'll deal with that problem next summer. :)
All we need now is our little pumpkin!