Laurel Elisabeth Stevens

Timothy Stone April 24, 1971-March 17, 2007 See you on the other side.

We welcomed Henry Jack into the world on Monday, March 19th at 2:17 PM. He weighed 8 lbs 15 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long. One day old 10 Days Old April 1--Henry's baptism (wearing Grandma Virginia's baptismal gown)

"When will the baby come?" Elisabeth asks me. Wish I knew! The due date on the calendar (March 12) has come and gone, and here we are. Elisabeth told us last week that she was ready for the baby to come--aren't we all. But still everything looks fine, I'm feeling well and trying to keep busy. Here are a few recent shots. Hopefully the next update will feature a baby! 40 weeks: A walk with Grandmere, Grandpere, Daddy and Elisabeth riding her John Deere tractor (pedal power)! The walk wasn't enough to bring the baby. (me at nearly 39 weeks) Elisabeth and Mommy--"ready for the baby" at 2 days less than 40 weeks. Elisabeth is crazy about books! All day long she asks me to read to her, and if I won't, she'll look at books by herself. I've also started getting her more books on tape so she can listen on her own. Here she is reviewing Little House in the Big Woods --we're actually now on Farmer Boy , having just finished Little House on the Pra...

Well, I guess we just don't take a lot of pictures these days. Most of these are from Kristen. Maybe when the baby comes that will change! Christmas morning! Snuggling with Mommy and Auntie Kristen on Christmas Eve. Charlotte's grown a lot since these were taken, but I had to get them in. Elisabeth loves to play dress ups. Sometimes she is Cinderella and I am either the step mother or the fairy godmother. She also likes to be a bride, or a mom, here pushing her grocery cart full of stuffed animals and doll clothes. Lately she has taken to talking about "when I'm a mommy." Today she said, "When I'm a mommy my tummy will be as round as a ball." Hmm, wonder where she got that idea. She has also taken to not napping, which is a bit of a strain. However, she spends the time reading books in bed or quietly playing with dolls, so it isn't too bad. Last weekend John took her to a sibling class at the hospital. They went around the room and asked the c...

Tuesday, Jan. 16 We had an exciting event occur today--Elisabeth wrote her first word. Now, please don't judge me. I wasn't pushing her or leaning over her, correcting her every move. Nor had I said anything about wanting her to write. Well, I guess a little. On Saturday she was doing chalk drawings on the driveway and I asked if she wanted me to label them (pig, spider, cow, goose etc.) So I did. Then she kept drawing, and I was labeling, and I asked if she wanted to write an A. So I showed her an A and she wrote a sort of A. This continued until we did the whole alphabet. Her attention span was longer than mine--I was ready to go inside, but she wanted to do more letters. That brings us to today, when she was coloring and she said she wanted to write something on the calendar. I said I'd rather she didn't (I could just picture a big scribble all over January). Then I said, "What do you want to write?" She changed her tactic and said, "You write Happy Bi...

In December we took Elisabeth to her first ballet, a local production of The Nutcracker. She was very excited about it—getting to wear her purple dress, getting to see the dancers. She loved the first half and watched intently from her father’s lap. The second half, however, had a back drop with a picture of a great big ice cream sundae on it. John whispered to me, “How do they keep the ice cream from melting?” and from then on Elisabeth was asking, “When are we getting ice cream?” (never mind that the day was more on the order of hot cocoa weather). I tried to quiet her down, but she wasn’t as into the dance of the Snow Queen etc etc. as I was. Eventually in her wiggling she hit her head on the arm rest and cried. We were able to reach the exit just as the second wail came, and that was it. A sad ending to a fun performance, but Elisabeth has happy memories. She is forever asking when she can be in the Nutcracker. Douwe is Elisabeth’s best friend. We go to the same church a...

I'm sure every parent has one of these stories, so I'm sure it won't be as funny to you as it was to us. Our pride is a bit injured, but the humor is still there as well. I hope you won't take it as sacrilegious, but rather as a 3 year old's play. Elisabeth has taken to repeating after us as we pray during devotions, and I was so impressed with her desire to pray. Currently we are going through Advent devotionals that have written prayers. Yesterday the topic was the new covenant and God writing his law on our hearts (from Jeremiah). Not a very tangible concept for a 3 year old. But we were trying. When it came time to pray, Elisabeth was in a wiggly mood, but that was nothing new. I tried to get her to hold still and fold her hands and stop playing with toys. She always was very interested in repeating after us phrase by phrase, but she seemed so distracted. I finally decided to begin. Here's how it went: L: Dear God, E: Dear God, L: we ask you to wr...