It's the same as having one, only it's doubled.

Kristen informed me that it was my turn to post. She said to offer a little insight into having 2 kids. So after thinking about it, I came up with an answer. It's the same as having one, only it's doubled. But she didn't think that was enough of an addition, so I continue to write.

This week has been a bit rough for Kristen and I. My job has been stressful as the number of projects have increased and we are running a skeleton crew. It has been a week of longer hours and covering different positions more frequently while trying to take care of my main responsibilities. And Kaleb and Alexander have not been sleeping well. So adding early hours on top of the work situation has been exhausting. Kristen has been right there with me.

Today we found out part of the reason Alexander has been so grumpy. After church, Kristen was holding Alexander. As he usually does, he just grabbed her finger, stuffed it in his mouth, and chomped down. The very sharp pain Kristen experienced indicated that a tooth is just poking through. It's a good thing we don't remember the pain of getting our teeth.

Kaleb has his good boy and bad boy hours each day. He is becoming very helpful in putting things away, as well as being able to wreck havoc by getting into more things. He is using more words and becoming easier to understand. It's truly amazing how fast the little ones grow.

All in all, things are going well here at the Stevens. Some days we just manage to get trough, while other days we realize how blessed we are. So tune in next week for more.

-Jake

I told Jake to update the Blog because I had nothing to write. Who are we kidding? This is long winded me we are talking about.

Just a few quick observations about the boys.

Xander is starting to talk, a lot. I don't ever remember Kaleb talking this much, even now.
Xander is so close to crawling. Pretty soon I know they will be running in opposite directions.
Xander seems to laugh more than Kaleb does, or did. He is always laughing to himself and smiles so easily.
Kaleb is our snuggle boy and is more the one to lay his head on your shoulder. Xander wants to be up looking around.
Kaleb loves music, always has. Quite often he'll come up to me and start humming so I'll put him on my lap and start singing whatever I can think of. He'll just snuggle right down and be very content. This is also the way to calm him down if he's having a hard night, or day. Whenever we have music playing he'll be humming along or bopping his head. When we're in church and the choir or someone starts singing he'll jump up to stand on one of our laps in order to see better. He loves to sit up at my piano, whether by himself or with me. He just loves any and all music.
Kaleb loves books. He is often sitting on the floor flipping through them. He is always bringing us a book he wants to read. I have made it my goal to drop whatever I am doing and read to him. It will only take a few minutes, anything else can wait. It's especially nice to sit on the couch feeding Xander with Kaleb snuggled up next to me as we read stories.

Oh yeah, I have nothing to write :-)

Glad to be Boring

I may be new to this whole parenting thing but, isn't a different milestone supposed to show up before this stage?
...A few days later...
He doesn't crawl but gets up on his hands and knees and will occasionally rock. I think this is very exciting and also a little sad. It's hard to see the boyss growing so fast. I feel like I missed something somewhere. Weren't you just 8 lbs?

We have been having perfect, not too hot, sunny weather. We try to get outside as often as possible. We'll usually bring our grill with us and cook our dinner.


Xander has a cute and rather funny habit of cocking his head to the side when he looks at things. Maybe a new perspective? I'm not sure why he does it but his head seems to always be leaning on one shoulder.


This is our boring life. But, all I really want to be is boring so it works out just fine for me.
Every day is pretty much the same, it always ends with a very wet bathroom.

Happiness is Fruit Snacks

It is a rainy spring day. A perfect day to stay indoors in our pajamas, bake cookies, and ignore the housework that should be getting done.
This past week was busy and fun.
The missionaries came for dinner Tuesday night. We had a pre-Easter dinner. Jake cooked a lamb roast with an herb crust, and a bacon and sour cream gravy. Turned out so perfect. I also made rolls and fresh squeezed lemonade from Aunt Cleo's garden (orchard I guess it is?) They gave us fruit last time we visited and we still had lemons. They made fantastic lemonade!

April 1st I woke up at midnight to my alarm clock blaring full volume. I lept on top of Jake then fell off my side of the bed. I'm sure it would have been funny to witness. I would like to thank my favorite toddler for this experience. It was later I realized what the date was and just decided he was starting April Fools jokes at a young age. And really, it was a good joke, although highly annoying.

Saturday we spent the evening with our good friends in Anaheim. Jake picked us up during his lunch break. We took him back to work then the boys and I made the drive. It's technically supposed to be a 50 min. drive but it took us 2 1/2 hours. I was so frustrated and beyond done by the time we got to our destination. The boys had been screaming for the past hour, and, it just wasn't any fun. Jake had realized earlier that we didn't want to make the drive after he got off work at 4:00 - I'm sure that was a wise decision. He took the train and our friend picked him up at the train station. We grilled hamburgers and had homemade french fries. The boys got to bed way later than normal so they were grumpy goobers. We opted out of our original plan to sew all night and the guys play Wii video games. We ended up playing card games instead, which was equally awesome and fun.
Everyone slept well. The next morning was the first session of General Conference. Tanya made us waffles - one of my favorite breakfasts which I really miss since we don't have a waffle iron. Complete with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. We didn't last long as the boys were done and having simultaneous meltdowns. We quickly packed up and headed back home. The drive was quite a bit better, although still stop and go the whole way.
Sunday -- HAPPY EASTER!!
We spent the day at home watching Conference. We were able to stream it through the internet which is connected to our TV. I love modern technology. It's kind of funny that the one day most of the world goes to church we all stay home.
It was an amazing conference all around. It's always incredible to listen to the Lord's prophets and Apostles. They always manage to say exactly what I need to hear, like their talks were written for me. I particularly enjoyed Elder Ballard's talk about mothers and daughters. There was also an amazing talk about being active involved parents. These men truly do speak with God and I know that the words they speak are truth and need to be heeded. I will be the first to admit, there are a lot of things I need to work on. Conference is a great experience because we are reminded of the things we are slacking on, while being uplifted with messages of hope!
We didn't plan on doing much of anything for Easter because I know the boys don't care at their ages. Grandma Stevens sent them a box of goodies.
Kaleb was so excited to see the fruit snacks.










































We were invited by some good friends in our ward to enjoy Easter dinner with their family.
This is Anne and one of her daughters Maggie
They had an Easter egg hunt that Kaleb loved. I walked around with him and would point out an egg. Ooh, I see a yellow egg, do you? He would eagerly grab the egg and put it in the basket. After a few he didn't need my help anymore and was running around finding them on his own.
Dinner was my all time favorite meal. Ham and cheesy potatoes. I brought the rolls. There was fruit salad and more than enough food to go around. Xander got his first grapes and loved them. In fact, it was the only thing keeping him from screaming. Jake was sitting outside the whole time with Kaleb because he was having a complete meltdown and was screaming about everything (Kaleb, not Jake). Kaleb was only calmed by sitting in the woodchips and throwing them around, while eating bites of dads dinner in between.
After dinner the girls wanted to find the eggs again so they were once again hidden around the yard. By this time they had already been emptied. Kaleb was so excited to go running outside after the eggs. He picked up the first one, shook it with a confused look on his face, picked up a second one, shook it, then blew a raspberry, threw the eggs down and ran off to play in the dirt. Guess it's not any fun when they are empty.

We are so grateful for our friends here in California.
I am also grateful for this Easter season. What we celebrate at Easter has everything to do with who I am and what my faith is based upon.
I hope you all enjoyed your Easter. I am thankful for this promise of no more cold weather.
Happy Easter from our family to yours.