Playing Together

Things Lydia and Joel do together:

Read books

Play with dolls

Decorate with stickers

Play doctor

Pose for pictures

Four Generations

Four Generations of Handsome Stegman Men

Super Bowl Sunday

On Super Bowl Sunday, Aunt Krissy and I decided to plan a fun food menu with new recipes from the world wide web. Then, all the ladies, including little Lady Lydia, put on their aprons and whipped up a feast!

I realize now that I don't have any pics of the final products, but what I will remember most about this day is dancing around the kitchen as we cooked (Aunt Krissy, you can thank me later for not posting any pics :) ) and this picture:

Looking at Little Lady Lydia in this picture makes me think this photo should be black and white and dated 1835. And that the rest of us shouldn't be smiling. I love it!

Lydia, Meet Joel!

This is a good sign, because Lydia does not share her pink bear with just anyone.

Baby Joel

Joel Michael was born on January 25, 2010 at 10:39AM. He weighed 9lbs 3oz and was 23 inches long!

Joel's entrance into this world was much different for me than Lydia's entrance into the world. I delivered Lydia naturally, the old fashion way. I waited day after day for her to decide to make her debut. She ended up being a week late. Intense labor started around 8AM. The car ride to the hospital seemed to take forever and was super uncomfortable. Checking in to triage seemed impossible with all the questions. And then, finally around 4PM, Lydia arrived!

But with Joel, we woke up like any other morning - except it was a little unusually early for us (6AM), and I didn't get to eat breakfast. We arrived at the hospital at 7:30, comfortably walked up to triage to answer all their questions, understandably waited while the nurses attended to mothers who were in more immediate circumstances than us, went into the operating room nervously, but without pain, around 10:15, and then the next thing I knew, there he was... handsome little Joel!

Recovery was definitely much more difficult for me with Joel than with Lydia.

And changing Joel's diapers were much trickier than changing Lydia's.

But, we all made it, and now we can't imagine life without smiley, precious little Joel.

January Snow

Remember the snow way back in January...

Classic Lydia picture - very serious.

There's a smile... and a snowman!

Christmas 2009

Thanksgiving 2009 Highlight

This is a picture of Lydia with her cousin, Colton, on Thanksgiving Day 2008.

On that Thanksgiving Day, the only food Lydia was eating was pureed.

This is a picture of Lydia and Colton on Thanksgiving Day 2009. This year, Lydia was tall enough to reach the crackers sitting on the table. And so, she happily helped herself to an appetizer of Ritz Crackers. Being the polite little girl that she is, she also got crackers for Colton to enjoy, too!

My, what a difference a year makes!

Why I'm so behind on blog posts

On December 28, after a whirlwind of fabulously fun holiday events, Josh and I learned that Joel would be born a week early by way of a c-section, scheduled for January 25. From that point on, I was in full nesting gear, unable to concentrate on items not on my "Nesting List", which was prominently posted on my refrigerator. The good news: I finished my "list" before January 25. The bad news: updating my blog got shoved off the list when I realized I had too many other items on my list. So now, I will begin to try to catch up on blog posts, but it might take a while, because on most days, naps trump the blog.