Steven's Birthday Pictures (amended)

Steven coloring his birthday crown at daycare

 Steven wearing his birthday crown.  Nice face ;)

Outside with all the kids

 The birthday trio (their birthdays are the 9th, 10th, & 11th)

Cupcake time!

Here is Steven at the bowling alley for his birthday

Josh & his pretty dang good bowling stance.  He's WAY better than me!

Steven watching Josh bowl

Josh helping Steven bowl with the ramp & bumpers.  They put the bumpers down when it wasn't Steven's turn...I was hoping to use them, too! ;)  (The sad thing is, I'm really not joking...)

Our final scores.  Steven didn't do too bad!  I've had worse scores as an adult...

Steven with his cousin, Anna, at his birthday party.  He was way more interested in playing with his cousins than anything else at the party....

...even this big pile of presents

Josh setting up Steven's basketball hoop

Steven's first experience with basketball.  I'm sure it won't be the last :)

...and in the hoop it goes!

Steven's first golfing lesson

Is it going to go in??

Super excited!

Opening his present from Aunt Lisa (my sister)

Steven loves his new book

Random Fun (amended)

Recently Steven has started to say his own name.  He says it "Ste-man" but close enough :)  I've also taught him his middle & last name.  He doesn't always say them but sometimes we'll be driving in the car & he'll say "Name: Ste-man James Pendleton [Pendleton is said very quickly & smashed together].  Job!"  I tell him "good job!" when he does something good so it's so cute to see him cheer for himself (he will also sometimes say "Yay!" after he does something).
Yesterday we were at Costco & Steven stopped to look at one of the people at the sample stands.  The gentleman said hi & Steven said, "Name: Ste-man".  It was so cute!  He's definitely becoming more aware & it's fun to watch.  Along those same lines, today after church we were walking in & he introduced himself to the neighbor's cat.  He bent down a little and said, "Hi. Name: Ste-man".  Oh, and when he says "Name" he points to his chest.  What a smart little boy :)
Steven also has discovered what noise a frog makes.  He'll randomly crouch down & hop like a frog while saying "Ribbit, ribbit!"
Steven is really into TV, especially Dora & Diego.  If we let him, he would want to watch it all day.  So a few weeks ago I decided to put a limit on how much he watches.  We got an extra timer & told Steven that he can watch TV for an hour & then he needs to take a break for *at least* an hour.  He hardly ever actually sits down & watches the TV for an entire hour...if he does leave & take a break in the middle of his "TV hour", we'll stop the timer until he starts watching again.  Anyway, last Saturday, I was at my Chem lab so Josh was watching the kids.  Josh was feeding Sofia when he heard the timer go off.  Steven came running in & said, "Times up!  Times up, Daddy!"  Josh told him he needed to take a break now & go read a book or play with his puzzle or something like that.  Steven left the room & Joshcame into the kitchen a little bit later.  He heard the TV on & said, "Steven, you need to turn off the TV".  He didn't hear any reply & so he walked into the living room to see what was going on.  He didn't see Steven & so he started looking for him.  Josh found Steven in his bed, asleep, with this blanket pulled up around him.  He has never done that before!  Apparently he decided that taking a nap would be the best way to spend his break.  It was around his nap time, & he slept for 2+ hours, so it worked out great!  What a funny kid :)

More Steven pictures

Steven hiding behind the curtain. I think his little feet sticking out are so cute :)

 Steven playing with Sofia; they have matching expressions!

 Sofia looks like she's trying to eat Steven...

 Steven playing at a park nearby.  Yeah...it was probably 90+ degrees outside & Steven chose all on his own to wear that hot outfit... (notice his bright red cheeks)

 Slide-climbing pro!

The weekend after Steven's birthday, our condo association put on a little fair for the kids. They had games & the kids could win tickets to redeem for prizes. In this one, you were supposed to get the ring around the octopi arms. Steven thought it would be better just to put the rings in the water :)

 Josh told Steven to put the ball in the cup.  So he did.

 Steven has recently discovered pockets.  He was filling them with his tickets. It was so cute to watch him pull up his shirt to put his tickets in his pocket :)

 Steven playing with the t-ball set he got for his birthday

...more pictures to come! :)

Sofia's 5 Months!

Yesterday was Sofia's 5-month mark. It's a little weird to me that she's still so young. It seems like she's been in our family forever.  She's such a happy baby & is so fun to be around.  A few updates:
-Yesterday she got her first tooth!  The one right next to it is about to pop through & it'll probably be out today. I didn't even notice that she was teething until I saw the tooth yesterday.  She was a little cranky the night before but nothing too crazy.  Steven teethed really well, too, & I'm excited that Sofia's following the same trend (so far).
-She's a little rolling pro!  We definitely can't leave her somewhere for more than a second.  Steven didn't start rolling around like that until after he was 5 months & Sofia's been doing it for a little while.  Not that that's a big deal but maybe that means she'll crawl sooner?  I'm not sure I want that to happen...
-She still loves playing with her feet & if she's not rolling around, she'll be playing with her toes.  It's amazing how flexible she is!
-She is quite the babbler.  She'll just lay there & make lots of noise. It's very cute. :)
-She loves attention!  She does not entertain herself well for very long.  She's incredibly cute so it's not usually a big deal ;)
-She loves her big brother & loves to play with him.  Fortunately, Steven loves her, too & loves playing with her.
I'll post pictures later :) 

Steven Pictures

These aren't all the pictures I'm planning on posting but this is me getting started.

This is Steven in a t-shirt Josh's parents brought him back from a cruise they went on last year. It was too big for him to wear for quite a while (it's still a little roomy) but now it's one of his favorite things to wear.  What a little goof-ball :)

Eating yummy blueberries

Steven helping me make cookies

We took Steven to the Gateway (an outdoor mall in downtown Salt Lake) where they have a water fountain for kids to play in.

He thought it was pretty cool

Apparently lying down was fun...

Steven playing with his cousin, Ethan, when they were over for dinner one night

Chillin' at the bar with their drinks ;)

Sofia, Josh, & Steven. This is actually a good picture of Josh! ;) And I love that Steven is sticking his tongue out :)

Steven's Birthday

I still haven't gotten around to posting pictures (sorry!) but I do have them, I promise!
On Saturday the 11th (Steven's actual birthday) Josh, Sofia, & I took him bowling.  We'd never taken him before but I thought he'd enjoy it.  When we were in California for my mom's birthday, we went to this little Western/gold mining town & along their main street they had a old-school bowling alley.  He really liked that one so I thought it would be fun to take him for his birthday.
We got him bumper lanes & a ramp to make it easier for him.  At first he thought it was pretty cool but then he discovered the ball return.  He was completely fascinated!  He just wanted to stand there & watch the balls come back up.  (Thankfully no little hands were hurt!)  It got to the point where he didn't even really want to have his turn.  He'd go over to the ramp, half-heartedly push the ball & then run back over to the ball return to watch the ball come back up. It was pretty funny.  I was afraid that with the bumpers & ramp that he would get a better score than I would!  (I am notoriously a bad bowler.)  I was pleasantly surprised that I did fairly well.  I got several spares so I was pretty happy.  All-in-all it was a pretty good time.
On our way out of the bowling alley my sister called to sing to Steven.  He's never been all the interested in actually talking on the phone (although he loves to play with mine) but he was grinning from ear to ear while listening to her on speaker phone.  Very cute. :)
After bowling we got some pizza to take home.  Steven LOVES pizza (a child after my own heart).  If he even hears the word he will bug you about wanting pizza for quite some time.  He will eat the left-overs for every meal until they are gone if you let him.  This particular evening we got it from Dominos.  I have to say that they have done an excellent job with "re-vamping" their pizza.  That night my pizza was not as good, though.  They didn't put their new garlic seasonings on the crust & let me tell you - that definitely makes the pizza.  On the box it says "if you are not completely satisfied, give us a call."  Well I wasn't, so I called & got a free pizza!  Woot! 
Sunday we had a family party with my siblings as well as with Josh's family.  Steven was VERY excited to see his cousins.  He loves to play with other kids, especially his cousins.  He got very spoiled with presents but he wasn't all that interested in them.  The problem with a large amount of presents for a little kid is that they want to look at the present they just opened but there are lots more to open.  After a little while he got up and ran into his room & sat on his bed calling, "Anna! Anna!" (my niece)  He was much more interested in playing than opening presents that he couldn't even really look at ;)  I made him some lemon cupcakes with amazing cream cheese frosting (if I do say so myself).  I had given him one before the party (it was a "sacrificial one" to test the amount of frosting it needed) & he did not like the frosting.  I had meant to leave one without frosting but I got carried away with the frosting & it didn't happen.
All around it was a good birthday if I do say so myself.  He got a bunch of sports stuff (basketball hoop, soccer ball, kids' golf clubs, t-ball set) at Josh's suggestion & he's been having a ton of fun with them.  I think Josh wants to expose him to as many sports as possible when he's younger to get him going.  I'm all for it, too, because I want my kids to be active & be involved in activites.
When I have more time, I'll post some pictures.

Steven Turns Two!

I don't have any pictures to post at the moment because I'm at work but I figured I'd do this first & then post pictures later. 
I already posted his weight and all that so I will just mention in here new things he's doing.
-He still loves his baby sister.  He's progressed from just calling her "baby" to "Fia", "baby Fia" or sometimes even "baby S'Fia".  He sometimes wants me to wake her up when she's asleep so he can play with her.  He very rarely gets jealous of her anymore, which is so great.  He'll give her kisses, hugs, & play with her a lot.  He knows he has to sit down to hold her (which is funny to see because she's probably 3/4 his size) & is pretty careful about not laying on her when he's leaning over her.
-He loves to help, especially when I'm cooking.  He gets pretty excited about it & wants to help me measure & mix (which can get very messy).  When I try to use the swiffer on the floor while he's in the room he will get upset if I don't let him do it.
-He is a pretty stubborn little boy (I wonder where he gets that from?? ;) ) but generally pretty happy.
-He definitely can throw fits & temper tantrums & because of this, time-outs have become one of my best friends ;)  For me, they work great!  Honestly, sometimes the only way he will calm down is if he goes into time out & has time to himself to breathe & settle down.
-He is starting to read (no joke)!  Josh (and myself) has been very adament about Steven knowing how to read before he starts kindergarten.  My mom taught me at a very young age to read but Josh didn't pick it up well until he was a little older.  He says it made things a lot harder in school & he didn't want Steven to go through that, too.  He can read all his letters, almost all of the numbers 1-9 & can recognize quite a few words.  He will also ask us to help him write some of his letters when he's drawing.  I can't tell you how proud I am of him :)
-He's not a super picky eater (thank goodness) but I would like him to gain some weight.  He is starting to drink more milk but if anyone has any ideas to help get him to drink more, let me know!
-He talks quite a bit (although he's typically shy around strangers) & still signs some words.  He's very good about "asking" (i.e. repeating) me for things (ex. "Mommy, may I have more cheese?") cause he knows he won't get it unless he asks nicely. 
-He loves his cousins & playing with other kids.  Many times when we're driving in the car he'll just repeat his cousins names (his favorites to repeat are Ashley & Mandy) randomly.  It's pretty funny.  He gets very excited when they come over or when he gets to go play with them.  He also loves to go see "Bumpa" & "Bumpa" (he calls Grandma & Grandpa the same thing).
-For his birthday he got an adjustable basketball hoop, a t-ball set & a kid's golf club set.  He's been really into playing with them since last weekend.  It's very cute to see him play with Josh & Josh teaching him.
-He loves "Boots" (from "Dora the Explorer") & "Diego" & would probably watch them all day if I let them.  It's definitely apparent I'm a parent when I start singing the "Dora the Explorer" theme song in my head.

He can be a stubborn, temper-tantrum-throwing little two year-old but we love him a ton & are so glad to have him in our lives :)