Things can run somewhat smooth…

When you live by a routine.  Zach has been sleeping really well for the past 3/4 of the month and he goes right to sleep when we lay him down.  I think I am actually understanding his queues better than I did with Andy.  He is growing like a weed.  At his 4 month appointment he weighed 15.8 pounds, he was 24 3/4 inches long and his head was 48.3 cm.  The doctor told us that he was going to be pretty smart from the size of his noggin, lol.  I guess large heads run in the family.  Thankfully he came 3 weeks early otherwise we might have had to have another emergency c-section. 

Some new things going on with Zach: he is starting to roll over, has more head control and lifting during tummy time, he’s not a fan of cereal or water yet, he is starting to like playing with certain toys (he likes his monkey maracas from Aunt Shela).  He loves to have his diaper changed, he will just smile and coo away at whoever is changing his diaper.  He is already wearing his 6-9 month clothes and some of that is too small.  He is really beginning to suck his fingers (more so his thumb) rather than his pacifier.  When we take his thumb out of his mouth you hear this huge popping sound and then see his little face squench up in this sad pout and then a blood curdling cry.  He doesn’t like people to take his thumb away.  I don’t know if we are going to win this battle because even when I put mittens on his hands he finds a way to get one off and immediately sticks that thumb in his mouth.

Andy gets to start swim lessons and Lego club today.  Lego club is done through his school and then we are doing the swim lessons through the YMCA.  Today was also crazy hair day at school so Andy wanted a mohawk.  It turned out really cool but not something I want to see all the time, lol.  He is doing well in school but still has some attention issues.

I need to organize my photos so I can get them on here.  Our wireless router does not seem to be working at this time so that will slow down any organizing until I can ask Eric to fix it.

That’s it for now but I will try to post the pictures of Andy’s mohawk soon.

Shining God’s light, Stephany

Where is the time going?

I can’t believe that our baby Zachary is 3 1/2 months old already.  Things are starting to get somewhat normal around here and I’m sure they will change again very soon.  Zach is growing so well and big brother Andy is really starting to become a great helper.  Andy loves holding Zach and he even got the chance to feed and burp him.  I don’t know if diaper changing will be on the list of things he can do besides dumping the diaper or getting me what I need during a diaper change for Zach.

I went and got my hair cut and highlighted last week and I love it so much.  It was definitely well worth what was paid.  The time for a change was over-due.  All the men in my life really love it (Eric, Andy and Zach).     

What a beautiful snow we had this past week and weekend.  Andy got to play in the snow twice (once Thursday and once Friday) having snowball fights and building snowmen.  Zach even got to go out in the snow and he seemed to like it.         

Zach is also starting to roll to his side from his back, can sit up better when put in the bumbo, smiles very big when you change his poopy diaper, getting better at tummy time.  He has great control of his head and even tries to sit up when he is being fed.  He is one week shy of 4 months old and then we get to try cereal.  He is getting so big.  I don’t remember Andy getting this big so early.  Yes, I know every baby is different.  I am thankful for that.  Both of my boys have different personalities and I love them both very much.

Andy is really taking an interest in pictures.  Right now he has my new camera and he is just snapping away at things and people around the house.  He just showed me a picture of the toilet and that made me a little nervous.  We are going to try and get him signed up for spring soccer with Upwards to get some of his energy used up in an outside activity.  He loves playing on the computer and the Wii.  We really have to limit those though.

Well I think I will add some pictures and call it a post! Have a great day and God bless,

Stephany

Christmas has come and gone and

We are still trying to remember the reason for the season. Our plans for Christmas were to go to Oklahoma to visit with family and on Christmas morning we were going to have a birthday party for Jesus as a family. Well we made it to Oklahoma but from there plans got changed up. We didn’t realize that we were going to be in a blizzard while there. We stayed at my mom’s house and were so thankful for the warmth and electricity. Andy stayed at my sister’s house to play with his cousins and we kept Zach with us.

Eric and I got to shovel snow together and then try to get my mom’s car unstuck from the parking lot where we had gotten stuck in a snow drift the day before. How’s that for a Christmas present. There were some very wonderful people who helped us with the car and also transportation. All the snow really was beautiful but we didn’t get to enjoy it because we were trying to get our family back together and make it anywhere safely without getting stuck.

Now that its a new year we are excited about what is in store. Eric traded in our 2-door Jeep Wrangler yesterday for a 4-door Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. Now we can ride together as a family in the Jeep. Yea!

Here are some pictures from our Christmas vacation. Hope you enjoy them. One day I will get to scrap again.

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Have a blessed day, Stephany

Getting ready for Christmas and getting back on a routine.

Christmas time is such a blessed time to remember the real reason for this season. Jesus is the reason we celebrate! One thing I am finding this year though is how to teach Andy that this season is about giving and not receiving. Yes, there will be presents for the boys but I don’t want that to be their focus.

I am also trying to start a routine with Zach in regards to when he eats, plays and sleeps. Yesterday he decided that anything goes and we stayed up until about 12:30 this morning. As tired as I am I still try to remember what a blessing he is in our lives and I just have to smile. Sometimes I just start to weep at all the blessings I have. God is so good to us!

We are heading to visit family over the Christmas break and I am a little nervous about all the things we need to pack to take with us. I really should be making myself a list so I don’t forget anything for baby Zach or any of the rest of my family for that matter.

This Saturday I will be celebrating my 11th wedding anniversary with the most wonderful man I know. Technically, we are going to celebrate on Friday but our day is Saturday. I am so excited because we are giving each other a house remodel project. By remodel I mean we are installing a new back door on the house and replacing the wood trim that the previous owners’ dogs chewed up. Eric has been wanting to replace that since we moved in 2 1/2 years ago. I wanted to replace the door because I am tired of Andy slamming it closed when he goes out and come in. It always makes the blinds close and it really has become annoying to me.

Well, I hear the wee babe crying so I will go and answer his call. Maybe next time I can have some pictures to put up to show how much he is growing.

Love, Stephany

Two children sure make things more difficult!

We still feel so blessed to have Zachary as part of our lives now.  He is now going on six weeks old and definitely growing.

Over November we had our family come down for Thanksgiving the weekend before the actual day.  We had a house full and enjoyed it for the most part.  My wonderful mother made pretty much the whole meal because for one I am not that great a cook and two Zach would not really give me the chance to do much but feed him and pump.  This was also a special Thanksgiving because my sister Sarah was here. On Monday after our get together she hoped on a plane to start her life in Hawaii.  We will miss her but know that no matter where she goes she will always be in God’s hands.  We pray that she will meet some really great Christian examples that live by their example.

Before that, my sister Sandy rode the train down with some ladies from her church to go shopping and to see baby Zach. Zach and I drove to the Ft. Worth Stockyards to go meet her for dinner.  The food was good and we had a great time together.  I need to ask her to get those pictures from the lady that came with her.

This last weekend we went to have our family pictures taken and also covered Zach’s one month picture.  I will add some pictures so you can see how big he is growing. 

I hope to blog a little more often and get to scrapping some again. I have so many ideas and they are just that, ideas. They can’t get done yet!

   

We had so many favorites that it was hard to decide which ones to purchase.  I absolutely love the picture where Andy is kissing his little brother.

Well that’s all I have time for now.  Hope you have a blessed day!

Love, Stephany

He is here...Zachary Alexander

God and Zachary decided that this past Wednesday night would be the time to arrive instead of waiting until November 3 for when things were all planned. I had my first contraction at 8:23pm as I was getting in the car at church to go home. Andrew and I made it home and when I got out of the car I think is when my water broke. I was in complete denial that anything was happening because I didn't know what a real contraction felt like. After getting Andrew straight to bed I took a shower and was still having contractions. They were coming about every two to three minutes by that point. At 9:30 I went ahead and called Eric to tell him to get home quick. Still not knowing that I was in labor I thought we could go to the hospital incase it might be false labor. Eric got home about 10:00 and we all jumped into the car (Andrew was really hard to wake back up) to go to the hospital. Eric asked if I wanted to go to the Mansfield hospital instead of where we were registered and I told him no. Even though I was in quite a bit of pain I still wanted something to go right.

Eric did a fantastic job driving and keeping his calm even though he was a wreck inside. The roads were wet and it was still raining. Made me a little nervous because we were running red lights left and right (as careful as possible). Only once did we almost get into a wreck but God spared us all (that was a major praise). My contractions were coming every 30 seconds to 1 minute by this point. We pulled into the ER and Eric ran in to tell them that his wife was in labor. They ran a wheelchair out to me and than started getting me into triage to check my status. I remember the lady saying "Oh, she is ready" and I was thinking "Oh my goodness, this is so painful". I was feeling the urge to push before we even got to the hospital but the staff continued to remind me not to push. Obviously that is easier said than done. The doctor got there just in time and I think once they told me I could take advantage of the urge to push it only took about 4 pushes and we heard Zach's cry.

Through God's grace and mercy I ended up having a VBAC without any meds. Praise God! I was fully prepared for a c-section and a much longer recovery. Eric told me that he got to actually see Zach being born which was something he didn't do with Andrew since Andrew was an emergency c-section. What a neat privilege.

We are all so excited to now have Zach as a physical part of our family now. He is such a sweetie pie. He weighed 7lbs. 14oz. and was 19 1/4 inches long.

I will write more later but wanted to get some pictures up as soon as things were somewhat calm. Here is our new bundle of joy and happiness.

Mommy and Zach.

Daddy and Zach.

Baby Zach.

Big brother Andrew and little brother Zach.

Mommy, after a wonderful shower and Zach .

Andrew waiting to take his little brother home.

Baby Zach ready to go home.

The whole new Stratton Family.

One more cute picture of the super cute brothers.

That's it for now but when things calm down even more I will try to update some more.

Love, Stephany

Time is going by so fast.

We have had a great weekend together as a family. Andy and Daddy worked on a class project which highlights Andy as the student of the week. It turned out really cute. Eric took lots of pictures of Andy today doing things that he loves and then we printed them off to glue to a poster board. Then Andy got to put stickers all over and color in with markers wherever he wanted.

Zach is still the mover he has been and I don’t know if I would change that. It helps me to know that he is okay. We only have just a little more time before he makes his entry into this world and a more physical part of our lives. We worked on getting his room almost completely ready. We are just waiting on the mattress that my mom will be bringing with her when she comes later this month.

I have been trying to volunteer my time to Andy’s teacher before Zach gets here because I know I will not have time for a while once he is here. I really like helping and I feel it is right up my alley.

I have a super awesome best friend. Shela has gone out of her way and is throwing me a baby shower tomorrow with some other friends. She is so kind and thoughtful of others. I really wish I had her gift of being lead by the Spirit so well. She is also such an encourager even when she herself is going through so much. I constantly pray I can be half as good a friend to her as she is to me. (No, I am not talking height wise. LOL, she’s taller than me by at least a foot)

Eric has been quite the rock for me this pregnancy. Although he has taken a few more cracks at me than the first time. I can’t say I blame him. His sense of humor is one of the things that can turn my gray days sunny. He is doing so much in trying to get us ready for Zach and keeping things going with Andy. He is the peacemaker in our house, especially on the days when Andy and I just can’t seem to get along.

I haven’t put any pictures up for a while so here are a few pictures:

Here is our super cool dude!

  Here is me bare foot and pregnant in the laundry room, lol. The irony is I went straight to the kitchen next to make breakfast.

Here is Andy with Perry the Puppy. This is our family gift to baby Zach. We made him at Build-a-Bear last weekend. We all added one heart each. We then let Andy take over and groom him, name him and bring him home. I will be adding a red bandana to Perry to kind of match the doggy in the nursery theme.

Have a great night and God bless, Stephany