We have a crawler!

Ford started crawling at six and a half months old, far earlier than I was expecting him to crawl!  He started getting up on all fours at the start of August.  He would rock back and forth and then kind of thrust himself forward.   But just days later, he had the hand/knee coordination down pretty well.

Here he was at the beginning of September...

And it hasn't even been a month since I took that video and he is already SO much faster and more coordinated.  He now LOVES to play on the living room floor and can happily play by himself for 30 minutes or more as long as he can see me.

I really enjoy this phase of babyhood but I'm still adjusting to the fact that I now have two kids that can move.  It's like a whole different parenting ball game.  I have had to get on the ball with child-proofing.  It was much easier with Eleanor at this crawling stage because I could control the environment pretty easily.  But now that I have a 2.5 year old leaving beads and crayons and coins in random places, I find myself much more stressed about what all could end up in Ford's mouth.  So far so good though, both kids are alive and doing well! :)

Finding out the gender

I was supposed to have my ultrasound to find out the gender when I was 18 weeks along and we were stoked.  My appointment was set and we were counting down the days.  The day before the appointment came though the ultrasound place called and said they changed their policies and no longer took our particular insurance.  So just like that they dropped my appointment and our dreams of knowing baby #2's gender were dashed.  I worked quickly to get an appointment at a new place but the soonest they could get me in was in 4 weeks.  It was torture waiting so long (I didn't get to find out until I 22 weeks along!) but for some reason I was determined to hold out for that main ultrasound appt to find out the sex instead of going somewhere and paying to learn the gender.

So finally October 7th rolled along (which ended up being the same day we got the keys to our house!) and it was gender reveal time.  I dropped Eleanor off at my friend Lindee's house and then Aaron and I drove over to the children's hospital where my ultrasound would be.

Our ultrasound tech was everything you'd hope an ultrasound tech should be.  She was talkative, enthusiastic and detailed.  She quickly identified all the key components of the baby's body and went on and on about what a healthy looking baby we had.  Such a wonderful thing to hear that!  Aaron held my hand the whole time and we kept squeezing hands every time we learned something new.  Despite all the challenges of being pregnant and of raising children, I could be pregnant ten more times just so I could have that ultrasound experience over and over again.  It's just an amazing, exciting feeling.

Part way through the ultrasound, I could have sworn the baby was a boy. I didn't know for sure though until the tech honed in on the area.  Sure enough our guesses were right...a BOY! Everyone guessed we would be having a boy so I can't say that we were shocked, but we were 100% stoked.  I can't remember what we said in the moment but there were a lot of happy statements and excited hand squeezes.  The tech went on to tell us that we better not name him anything crazy like Achilles to which we reassured her that we would keep it as normal as possible ;)

We drove back towards Aaron's work, dreaming up what it would be like to have a boy.  It's all just so new to us seeing as we are so entrenched in girly things (the amount of pink in our lives since Eleanor arrived is ridiculous).  The thought of having a boy just seemed so hard to wrap our minds around.  And yet, we couldn't be happier.

We stopped in the parking lot before saying goodbye and filmed a quick video to send to our families.  Watching this video now makes me kinda cringe as it is totally cheesy, but oh well, we are just going to go with it :)  I guess I just get cheesy when I'm excited.  So here it is for your viewing pleasure...

We can't wait to meet our boy!

Eleanor's First Steps

Eleanor took her first real steps this past Friday!  

She has pretty much showed no real interest in walking solo up until this point so it was fun to see her finally figure it out.  

We were hanging out in the living room when I set her down facing her dad.  He motioned for her to walk towards him as he always does but this time she actually moved her feet instead of just dropping to a crawl.  

Aaron and I looked at each other with big eyes and looks that said "It's finally happening!"  

We sat on the rug with her going in between the both of us for a good twenty minutes.  Then we snapped the above video and sent it out to our family. We were pretty jazzed.  

Since Friday, Eleanor has still mostly preferred crawling but we are seeing glimpses of her walking skills each day.   Go baby girl!

P.S. To see her knee walking at 13 months go here and almost walking at 14 months go here.

Almost Walking!

Yesterday, Eleanor kinda sorta took a step or two.  We were at the Young Women's pool party and she had tons of youth gathered around her encouraging her.  Eleanor was pumped.  She was standing sturdily and dancing in place on the grass.  She took those kinda sorta steps and I texted Aaron to say that we were going to get her to walk THAT NIGHT!

We waited in anticipation for Aaron to get home at 6:30 pm so that Eleanor could take her first real steps with him there to witness.  I had high hopes for our night but as we should have guessed, she was over it by night time.  She was a combination of hyper and tired which then turned into stubborn.  And when Eleanor doesn't want to walk, she doesn't want to walk.  So we tried, but sadly no solo steps were taken.

We will wait for that day to come but here is the video of us attempting walking last night.  It's still pretty cute I think :)


I think her shoes were interfering with her walking here a little so we took them off and tried but it was still a no go.  We really aren't stressed, just super excited at the fact that it may happen soon!

March Weekend in Riverside

March in Riverside is completely dreamy.  We drove in late Friday night and even with our windows rolled up we were overcome by the amazing scent of oranges from all the orange groves.  The weather was sunny but not too hot.  And then top that off with the chance to hang out with Aaron's parents and grandparents, it just couldn't have been any better.  Really.

We went down primarily to be there for Mark's first Stake Conference in the Stake Presidency.  He gave an amazing talk on Sunday about faith and getting back to the basics.  We were so glad that we were able to hear him deliver it in person.

And when we weren't in Stake Conference meetings, we just enjoyed being around the house together and getting the chance to watch Eleanor and her Grandpa laugh on the stairs.

Grammy and Grandpa McKell were also in town for the weekend and we loved catching up with them.  We sure miss our Provo days of Sunday dinners and BYU games with them at their house.  I especially loved getting to see Eleanor bond with Grammy over her dolly and patty cake.  I love that Eleanor has the chance to develop a relationship with her great-grandparents.

^^Eleanor's never been much of an "on the lips" kisser but she laid one on Nana our first night ;)

 ^^Another shot in the Mustang (see yesterday's post for what Eleanor looked like last year in this same spot).

^^They spruced up Mark's old bike and Aaron was excited to take it home to borrow til Aaron gets his own.  We are looking into buying bikes for me and Aaron and a trailer for Eleanor because we loved our last family bike ride so much.

Eleanor could have kept playing on those stairs with Grandpa for hours if we let her.  She got a kick out of it!  Here's a little video of the whole thing but the video really doesn't do the moment justice:

 ^^Playing Cover Your Assets.  If you're looking for a fun, short card game then I recommend this one!

^^I love babies in tights and I love babies in hedge hog backpacks.

Post Bath Peekaboo

I shared part of this video on Instagram last night but couldn't resist sharing the whole 35 seconds here.  This video is Eleanor to a "T" right now at 12 months old.  Her playfulness, her constant babble, her new little giggle.  She is a whole new level of fun and interactive. 

And because the video doesn't show how cute her toes were at that moment I have to include these two blurry iPhone photos.

The day Addy became a big sister {and a video!}

The most exciting thing happened on Tuesday--my sister-in-law Chelsea had her baby!  This was the happiest day for our whole family, but I think it was the very best day for Addy, who became a big sister for the first time.   Addy has been anticipating the arrival of "Baby Eloise" for quite some time now. Addy is 3 years old and totally got the whole pregnancy thing. She seemed to fully understand that her a little sister was on the way.

Besides the excitement of meeting Eloise myself, the second best part of the whole day was seeing Addy anticipate meeting her new baby sister and then seeing Addy hold Eloise for the first time.  Addy makes sure everyone knows that Eloise is her baby sister, not yours :)

So while I sort through some pictures to post of Eloise and the family, I thought I'd first share some of Addy's excitement.

^^Addy showing me her "Big Sister" shirt and demonstrating how she would hold her baby Eloise^^

And the cutest little video interview on the way to the hospital (you have to listen carefully to catch all her answers):

Our Weekend--Jan. 20th

So, I made a movie of our weekend with lots of funny scenes from a nerf gun war to Remy's bowling face.  It's a really great little video and the song is "Ho Hey" by the Lumineers but for whatever reason, I cannot get it to show up on this blog like my other videos.  I have tried vimeo and youtube, but neither work and it is beyond me.

Anyways, I'm going to have to resort to just linking to the video.  So click here for 2 minutes and 39 seconds of pure entertainment :)

Oh and Sunday night Erin and Nate Collins invited us over for our rousing night of the Name Game and dessert.  It was so much fun.  I made the above cannoli cups for it, but was a total space case and forgot that it had gluten in it so Erin couldn't eat it.  Darn! Erin has an awesome food blog though that has tons of yummy gluten free recipes that I want to try soon!

*You may notice in the video that we still have our Christmas tree up and it is nearing the end of January. We have no shame. 

Fall Break {A Park City Get-Away}

A couple weeks back we decided we needed to do something to re-gain our sanity.  I was exhausted from school and tired of not being with Aaron very often.  We noticed my Fall Break was coming up (meaning I had an entire, glorious Thursday, Friday and Monday off!).   So we did something very uncharacteristic of us and booked a hotel for TWO nights in Park City. We relaxed, swam, took a mini trip to Provo to attend the temple and the BYU homecoming game, ate glorious food (of course, sushi!) and perused Park City shops.  It was one of those trips that was good for the soul. And our marriage :)

And now a video!

Among other things, this video features: 

Me showing you how to eat a Dairy Keen chocolate dipped strawberry milkshake 

(a.k.a. heaven on earth) 

and 

Aaron demonstrating how to use an iPad 

(the first appearance of "the iPad" on this blog!)

All very important stuff so you better watch closely...

If you haven't been to Park City in the fall you are missing out.  The scenery itself did wonders for relieving our stress.

*Song "I Melt With You" by Modern English.

And here is the vacation video, family!

I finally finished the video I was making of our family's trip to Zion's.  It's hard to cram a week into 3 minutes and 39 seconds but I did my best. Hope you have fun watching!

Photos: Mostly by my dad, Craig
Videos: Mostly by me

Music: Entirely by Tyrone Wells, "And the Birds Sing"

Excited

I'm excited.

Why am I excited?

Because today I will be heading to Lake Powell for the McKell house boating experience!  Aaron will follow me in a couple of days and then I expect we will have many moments like this one:

It's like their related or something, huh? Cracks me up every time.

I've never been on a house boat before, but Aaron assures me that it does not disappoint.  Can't wait to be in the sun, wakeboarding and hanging out with everyone...especially Adam and Christy who we haven't seen in forever!

Adios for a week!

A trip to the Ranch {Stewart Family Vacation 2012}

Every two years, we go on a Stewart family vacation and they are always tons of fun.  The parentals decided on the lovely Zion's Ponderosa Ranch and Resort for our location.  We all caravanned into this secluded little area in Southern Utah, just outside of Zion's National Park.  I loved seeing parts of Utah we didn't even know existed!  We enjoyed the "homesite" we stayed in, which nicely fit our growing Stewart family.  During the week we took advantage of the resort's activities as well as the close by national parks (Bryce and Zion's).  We felt like we got the best of all worlds, from horseback riding, to rodeos, to ATV's, to hikes, to large family meals to birthday parties to the name game.  We had a great time hanging out with everyone and came home happily exhausted.

I have been meaning to make a video of the trip for some time now but have been running in to all sorts of obstacles (one being laziness and the other being we have no internet at our apt).  Here are some pictures that I love from the trip and I promise family I will post the video soon(ish!).

Photos taken by my dad, me and I think there's one by Brad/Patrick. 

Missing it already!

I must say...I'm feeling wiser these days :)

I remember thinking during my sophomore year at BYU, "Wow, I can't imagine making it to graduation."  At the time, I was floundering between three different major options, looking forward to serving a mission and hoping to one day see Aaron again.  I had no idea the wonderful things in store for me--no idea of all the wonderful experiences in New York on my mission, of discovering my passion for teaching and of marrying my sweetheart.  I couldn't foresee this day, but I am so happy it came.  I feel so blessed.  Thank you family for coming to my graduation and for supporting me along the way.  We did it!

Videos by Me/Gin Gin

Photos by Craig Stewart
Music: "Up Around the Bend" by Creedence Clearwater Revival

Reminiscing

I was reminiscing today about my cute little 9th graders that I have left behind at Timpview.

Their next unit in Geography is on the Middle East.  For my last day of student teaching, I made them a short video with some of my pictures from Israel, Jordan and Egypt to give them a feel for the Middle East.

I loved sifting through the pictures from my study abroad and remembering every beautiful street I walked on and all the amazing people I met.

I thought it would be fun to share the video I created.  Since I made it for my class and wanted it to be educational, I chose Dave Matthew's song "Mother, Father" because the song refers to hatred and fighting that exists in a beautiful world.  I thought it was a good teaching tool for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.  However, if I had just made the movie for your viewing pleasure I would have picked a much more upbeat Middle Eastern song to match the pictures.

Anyways, here you go!  Hope you like it :)

Stewart Family Christmas

We are just packing up to leave Northern California and are so sad to go.  

We spent a great Christmas with my family and were lucky enough to have everyone here for the holiday!  I appreciate my family more and more with every passing year and love any chance we have to all be together.  

Christmas was especially fun because of our four little nieces and nephews.  

All eyes were on Oliver (4), Remy (2), Adelaide (1) and Henry (8 mos) throughout the whole trip. 

Here is a video of our Stewart Family Christmas.  

Notice the attention on the kids...they are just too darn cute.  




Merry Christmas Everyone!

Brandon and Miranda's Wedding

We attended the beautiful wedding of Brandon and Miranda Harvey this past week.  

Miranda is Aaron's cousin and we just love her so much.  Of course, we would be very particular about whoever she chose to marry, but we think the world of Brandon and definitely approve. 

Here is a little video of the day that will hopefully help us all reminisce on the wedding fun.  

Congrats Brandon and Miranda!  

We love you!

Life Lately

Here's a little video I made to show our life lately.  

Aaron and I were watching it and realized that the video kind of turned in to "The Aaron Show."  

That's what you get I guess when you are newly married, have no kids yet and think your husband is pretty funny.