Dr. Dave

In just 6 more months this young baby face with braces will be a doctor! We are so excited for Dave to be done with dental school. On many occasions Dave's patients have commented on how young he looks or asked him his age. (Braces really tend to make a person look especially young.) In general, I think his boyish good looks :) have served him well, but as a doctor this trait may not be seen as a positive thing by his patients.

However, I suspect Dave has found ways to successfully intimidate his patients in the chair. I always tease him that he must be threatening his patients, shouting threats such as "If you don't open your mouth, sit still, and bring me a gift at your next appointment, this root canal may just turn into an extraction- with no anesthesia...bwaa hahahah"

Over the past year and a half Dave has been seeing patients; and he's received a multitude of unique gifts from patients, many of them being extremely generous. When I ask him why they gave him such a nice present, he always responds with some bland generality like "She's a really sweet lady" or "He's a fun, nice guy." He doesn't fool me though. I know how intimidating a person can be when they're coming at your mouth with a 2 inch long needle.

Here are some of my favorites that he has brought home:

A cute hand knitted hat for Lizzy.

Three pounds of delicious Golden Chanterelle Mushrooms that normally sell anywhere from $20-$40 per pound!

A 2 person kayak- we've had ALOT of fun with this one.

Jars of homemade blackberry jam.

A FarSide tear away calendar.

A cooler full of 8 pounds of fresh Alaskan King Crab Legs. We ate crab dipped in butter, crab pasta, you name it, for days.

Cinnamon rolls, but not your ordinary ones. They were a special family recipe with homemade cream in the center and deep fried.

Assortments of chocolates.

And my favorite- a Speed Racer POSTER. Haha- very random but a nice thought.

3 Weeks Old

Today Elizabeth is 3 weeks old. I can hardly believe I have been a mom for a whole 3 weeks! Already, time is flying by-I feel like the days have suddenly become shorter and my little girl is growing bigger before my eyes! She is so sweet and fun at this age so I am trying to enjoy every moment. I have to say that being a mom is even more rewarding and fun than I had imagined. It is definitely hard work, like everyone warned me, but the positives are tremendous. Many people talk of the joys of parenthood, but I don't think there are words to describe or do justice to the actual experience.

My poor daughter- sometimes I treat her like a little baby doll, dressing her, undressing her, brushing her hair, and snapping endless pictures.

She is definitely "mommy's wakeup call". However, for the past two weeks she has been a pretty merciful alarm clock, for being a newborn. She has had her days and nights figured out for the past two weeks and is an unusually sound sleeper. I generally wake her up so she doesnt go too long without eating. We're on a 2 week roll; lets hope it stays this way. I suppose she sleeps at night so well because during the day she is awake for insanely long periods of time! She's not the typical newborn that sleeps all day. She's trying to act older than her age already! I foresee trouble in the future...

2 Weeks

Jamie, my sister in law, took these pictures on the day Lizzy turned 2 weeks old. She is still so tiny but she is already growing so fast! Over the past week, she grew one inch longer! These are just a few of the pics she took.

Jamie really captured her different expressions and moods. She almost looks like a different baby in each one!

10 Days Old

To celebrate Elizabeth Rose Stevens being 10 days old, we took her out of the house and brought her to the Carter's house for a photo shoot. She may not be able to express it, but I think she likes baby Sawyer already! Tysha did an amazing job capturing her fun newborn moments!

Elizabeth Rose Stevens Has Arrived!

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!! Elizabeth Rose Stevens was born on Oct. 30 at 4:15 PM. She weighed in at 7lbs 15 ounces.

She is such a beautiful, healthy little girl and we are so happy that she finally made her debut!
Dave is a proud Daddy and has been taking good care of Mommy and baby since the birth. Here she is immediately after being born. The nurse is giving her her first bath! She is less than an hour old and you can even see in the picture how alert and happy she is! Everyone was surprised to see her opening and focusing her eyes so well.

Elizabeth and I had a great time together in the hospital. Lots of cuddling and recovering from what was a big ordeal for both of us!

The next day was Halloween and all three of us were feeling better and rested. So we celebrated the holiday in the hospital. Elizabeth dressed up as a little black kitty!

At the end of Halloween day, mom and baby were feeling good so we decided to head home. We dressed her in a warm fuzzy going home outfit to protect her from her first exposure to cold Seattle weather!

Halloween night Linda stayed the night with us and was a huge help! Then my mom arrived Sat. and will be here to support us until the 13th. What great moms!

We are so excited to have Elizabeth as the newest member of the family. She is such a sweet little gift. They always say that you don't realize how amazing parenthood is until you've done it, and so far what "they say" is right on. We are loving it!!!

Belly Shots

Well, here I am in the last week before my due date, anticipating the arrival of my little Elizabeth. Dave and I are both very anxious and ready for her to be born! Over the past two weeks I have had continuous prelabor contractions and even my doctor is surprised that she has not been born yet! Apparently strong contractions every 4 minutes for 1 min length over hour long periods does NOT mean for me that the baby is coming!

Despite our anticipation for her arrival, I am very happy that she did not come too early. So, until she's ready I will continue to prepare for her coming. 3 more days til D-Day!! However, I am not holding my breath that it will happen by that date!

In these last few weeks of pregnancy I have been more uncomfortable, my appearance has changed rapidly, and my appetite is continually fluctuating.

So, Dave has taken on some similar sympathy trials brought on by braces!! So now we can suffer together! He has definitely been uncomfortable with sore teeth, his appearance and smile was rapidly changed, and the poor guy's appetite fluctuates after each appt. when they tighten the bands.

If you take a close look at his teeth you will notice they are perfectly straight. He actually had braces in high school, stopped wearing his retainer, and since then his back teeth have moved into a non- functional, pain causing relationship. So, the only solution was a second round of braces! So when he gets them off in a year, his teeth will appear exactly the same. BUT he will be free of tooth pain and chronic problems!

I think he looks great with braces! He looks pretty excited about it though, huh?