Stephensen Celebrations: Our Life Update

Our lives has been full and busy recently. We have moved back into our home and our getting settled. Some days it feels like we have always lived here and other days, I am reminded that we have traveled and moved a lot in 2 years.

All in all, the last 2 years have been a time of learning and trial for our family. We are grateful to have had time to be close to my side of the family. We love the relationships we have created and improved with my sisters' kids. Now, that we are far away from my family, we of course, miss them. We sure hope we all will get mor chances in the future to visit or have visitors so we will not lose touch or closeness with those we bonded with while we lived in Texas.

Emma is my little helper. Most recently she has asked to help cook. Here we are making mini pizza's on English Muffins. Anything with olives is desirable for my kids! It is hard to believe she is getting older and can really help me out around the house when she wants to.

Our dear Porter turned into a Vampire in the month of May. Quite often I would try and try to capture his fangs on film and he wouldn't let me. At mealtimes, we would pull back his lips and say, " I vant to suck your blood." (poor kid was teased all the time about his teeth) I thought it was rather cool to say I have my own vampire boy, until he decided to sink his teeth in my skin. I wish you could have seen the responses received as people at church would see him smile and show off his vampire teeth.

If you blow up this pic, you can see his canine teeth naturally.

This was the best showing off pic I could get. Love those fangs!

In May we had a little bit of a scare with Porter. At his 9 month appt. we were told he had a heart murmur and referred to pediatric cardiologist. After listening, and viewing an x-ray, the cardiologist wanted to have an echo cardiogram to further investigate. In the x-ray, his heart looked larger than it should have been. This is a painless process, but for infants it is incredibly hard to stay still, so they have to be put under. The anesthesiologist team was amazing with Porter. The results of the echo were that his heart looked great and the murmur detected didn't prove to be problematic. He still has a murmur, but it shouldn't cause problems, and possibly will go away with time. Even still, seeing my baby going under anesthesia was a little hard for me.

Porter is wearing his tie onesie. I love this shirt. He looks dressed up, but feels casual. Glad Daddy bought this at his niece's store, The Peach Tree, in Brigham City, UT.

My little Ellie, loves books. She is me to a Tee!

Now that Porter is bigger, and somewhat resilient to falls, I let the girls hold him from time to time.

Both girls love this!

After, being back in our home for a week and on Kyle's birthday, we went to Chuck E Cheese's. The kids have been wanting to do this for a long time. So, we decided to celebrate Kyle's birthday, and reward the kids for filling up ther marble jar. It was a huge success!