Andrew Asbury Stimson!

We are so proud and happy to announce the birth of our son, Andrew Asbury Stimson! Drew was born on May 14, 2012, at 10:11 PM, and he was 7 lbs., 14 oz. and measured 19.5" long. The story of his birth is pretty fantastic, so we wanted to share it with you all!

Stephany's due date was originally tomorrow, May 16. Yesterday evening, after Nathan had come home from work, Stephany had taken a warm bath and was laying in bed. Around 8:45 PM, she began experiencing contractions, and by 9:15 PM, we realized that she was in labor and that this was it! Nathan called Stephany's sister, Malory, to come over to watch Becker for us for when we would go to the hospital. By the time Malory arrived, around 9:30 PM, Stephany's contractions were serious and were happening every two minutes or less. As Nathan was grabbing one already-packed bag and gathering things into another bag for the hospital, Stephany began telling Nathan and Malory to call 9-1-1 because the baby was coming! And sure enough—he was!!! Nathan saw the baby's head emerging, so he washed his hands and grabbed a towel (a little in disbelief), and began holding the baby's head with the towel (all of this happening in our bathroom). Around this time, the EMS paramedics arrived, and we soon had ten or so firemen in our bedroom, their assorted gear all over the place. They took over (from Nathan, that is), and a few minutes later, Stephany pushed once and baby Drew was delivered! A little while later, Stephany and Drew were taken by ambulance to the hospital, and we will be heading home tomorrow.

Stephany started going into labor around 8:45 PM. Drew was born in our bathroom at 10:11 PM. The home birth was completely unintentional for us, but all praise to Jesus, it was a completely awesome and amazing experience! Stephany prayed throughout the final portion of the delivery and was filled with great joy afterwards. We are completely in awe of the circumstances, and we are so grateful for the Lord's provision and care.

With great joy and appreciation,
Nathan & Stephany

Becker Turns Two!

Our Becker turned two years old this past Sunday, March 4! It's so amazing to watch our little boy grow up! Stephany and I are so thankful that God has blessed us with the Beck boy and another little boy on the way in May.

Stephany made a very fun Thomas the Train cake for Beck. He's really been into Thomas lately, and he was very excited to have such a fun (and delicious) cake!

The birthday boy with the birthday cake! The rockin' "2" shirt was courtesy of Aunt Tish!

Auntie Mals got Becker some fun soccer gear, including two kids-size goals and these cones. They also work pretty well as orange party hats.

Beck also got a super fun bowling set for his birthday. He was already well acquainted with Wii Bowling, thanks to Pappy, so he's a natural. Here's the little bowler with his bowling ball and Me-mom.

Checking out the fun musical card Gran sent from Texas!

Daddy and Becker, taking a break from opening presents. Beck's holding a fun cowboy cup with his name on it, thanks to Aunt Tish and Uncle Joey.

Resting with Mommy on the new Thomas pillow.

Pappy and Me-mom got Becker a fun train set! We can hardly wait to get it all set up!

Beck was so excited about his new table and chairs that Nana sent! He's been sitting there near-continuously for the past week, eating snacks, coloring in his drawing books, and even bowling from his chair! It will also be great for visits from his young friends in our community group.

Playing the new matching game with Pappy (and probably beating him).

Beck's birthday was so much fun! We love our little boy!

Nathan

The Final Week!

Well, we didn't really think that we would make it to 41 weeks, but here we are! Our little one appears to be pretty attached to his mama. Stephany's due date (Feb. 24) came and went, so tomorrow, Wednesday (March 3), evening we will be going in to the hospital for an induction Thursday (March 4) morning. We are hoping and praying for a safe delivery, and we would appreciate your thoughts and prayers as well.

It is a very exciting time for us, mixed with a lot of hopes and emotions. Stephany's grandfather ("Papa" Sakowski) in California passed away yesterday, so we are mourning that loss and remembering his life and contributions to his family. I have thought of my dad often lately and wished that he could be with us for this experience. While those losses are painful for us, we joyfully look ahead to new life experiences and the coming of a new family member. For us, these things hold substance regarding life's meaning and God's design, and from that we take hope and satisfaction.

We look forward to updating our blog and sending emails soon regarding the arrival of our son!

Nathan

40 Weeks!

Stephany is 40 weeks today! Her due date is tomorrow, February 24! We are definitely playing the waiting game right now, and we're praying that our little boy will arrive at the right time and without complications. Stephany is feeling very ready at this point (as you can imagine), and we are very excited to be meeting our little guy soon.

We have been so thankful that Stephany's pregnancy has gone so well. Aside from some sickness during the first trimester, it has been a really great experience for her (and for me). We hope to be posting some good news very soon!!

Nathan

Full Term

Stephany is officially full term this week! We had another doctor's appointment yesterday, and everything continues to look great. We are so fortunate to have had such a good, healthy pregnancy! Stephany is seeing her doctor once a week now.

We have really been enjoying a lot of good quality time together lately. In anticipation of the big day coming up (the "birth day" of our little boy, that is), we have been getting out of the apartment a bit more lately and doing some fun stuff, like catching a movie and having more meals out. We've also been doing a weekly coffee date during a break on my long day of the week, Wednesday, when I have some free time between classes. This past Thursday (Feb. 4) was my birthday, and it's been a really great long birthday weekend for me (since I was able to apply some reserved course credits this semester and take a lighter load, I don't have classes on Thursdays or Fridays) - we'll post some birthday celebration pics soon.

Nathan

37 Weeks (Almost There)!

Stephany will be 37 weeks tomorrow and officially full term! In some ways, that's hard to believe, and in other ways, not so hard. She's getting to the point where sleeping and a whole lot of other normal things are getting more difficult and uncomfortable. The pregnancy continues to go very well, and Stephany is now seeing the doctor once a week. Our little boy should be a bit more than six pounds now and somewhere around 18-19" long!

We have really enjoyed getting ready for our little boy's arrival. In addition to getting the clothes washed and put away, organizing the toys, diapers, and bath items, and moving some furniture around to create some space for the little guy in our one-bedroom apartment, we've also begun assembling some of our new accessories! Here is us putting together our new Chicco pack-n-play "play yard," which the little boy will use until we get out to Albuquerque in late May and get the crib set up. The play yard was a generous gift from Stephany's grandparents in California, Nana & Papa (thank you again!).











Here are some pictures from yesterday when we assembled the new travel system/stroller. Thanks again to Gran (my mom) and Grammy & Pappy (Steph's parents)! We know we'll really enjoy using this. The next step is getting the car seat base installed in our car soon!









Fun, fun stuff!

Nathan

Law School Baby Shower

Two weeks ago some friends of ours through the law school hosted a baby shower for us! It was so much fun having some of our close friends from law school celebrate our new little addition!

This is Amy, Rachel, and Natalie. Amy and I met back in March 2007 at an admitted students day at SMU Law prior to me starting school that August, and Steph and I have been friends with her and her husband for quite a while. Rachel is from New Mexico, and we both worked at downtown Albuquerque law firms this past summer. Stephany introduced me to Natalie last year (when she was a first-year student) at the Starbucks near campus, where Steph used to work.



This is Nicole, Erin, Tami, and Jiroko. Nicole was my partner in the law school's child advocacy clinic this past semester, and we really enjoyed working together. Erin was a year ahead of me, and she was on the SMU Law Review when I joined (she's also the older sister of my friend Christine, who was in my first-year section and is also a good friend of ours). Tami was also in my section, and we are both Chief Counsels in the child advocacy clinic this semester. Jiroko was another student from my section, and she is a super-friendly friend who is always a delight to be around.



Here is Lani, Christine, and Kristen, all great people and good friends. Lani and Christine were both in my first-year section and have been friends of ours since the beginning of school. I've enjoyed getting to know Kristen through classes and Law Review (she is one of two Managing Editors on the journal who receive my edits for the articles for which I am responsible); Kristen came to school from Hallsville, which Stephany and I pass on the way to Marshall to visit my sister's family in East Texas.



Here is Stephany and me opening gifts. The baby shower was thrown for us not far from campus at the home of the parents of our friend Molly. Our friends Amy, Molly, and Don hosted—and they did a really fantastic job! Good food, good drinks, and good friends.



Lots of friends. Don is in the corner in the back, and Molly is on the other side of the lamp. We invited guys and girls to the shower, and although the girls far outnumbered the guys, the men had a respectable representation by Don, Mark, Colin, and me.



More gifts. Lots of small, fun things and a few larger, fun things (like our Diaper Genie and umbrella stroller).



Here, Stephany is holding some really cute pajama and towel sets. And although my attention was focused on the pacifiers in front of me (and pacifiers are great), I happened to be much more enthusiastic about receiving the cool, green Columbia daddy diaper bag for which I had registered. I'm pretty excited to be carrying that around soon! Stephany also got a really cool orange diaper bag at the shower which was on our gift registry.



These are all friends of ours who were in the other first-year section (I was in Section 2, and these are all Section 1 friends, who I have been fortunate to get to know during the past couple of years). This is Mark, Kristen, us, Jessica, and Amy. I met Mark during our first year when he was my opponent in an inter-section negotiation exercise, and we have been friends since. Jessica (from Tyler, as am I) is President of the law school's Christian Legal Society this year; she did not show up in many of the pictures because she graciously offered to actually TAKE all the pictures for us. So, thank you, Jessica!



And here is us with the baby shower organizers! Amy, Molly, and Don did such a great job putting our shower together and hosting. It was a very special day for us celebrating our soon-to-arrive little boy with good friends.



Nathan

Stephany at 32 Weeks!

The time is definitely going by quickly, but it's been very exciting for us! Stephany is now more than thirty-two weeks pregnant, and she just has about seven more to go! BabyCenter tells us that at thirty-two weeks, our baby boy now has fingernails, toenails, and hair! She has really been feeling the baby move lately, and we've started being able to discern little feet rolling across her belly. It's really amazing!

Nathan

The Third Trimester!

Stephany entered her third trimester of pregnancy this week! More and more lately, she has been feeling the baby move around a lot, at all times of the day. I am able to feel the little guy's movements through her belly too now, which is pretty special for me! Stephany is definitely getting and feeling bigger. She is still working at Starbucks and plans on continuing to do so until shortly before she takes maternity leave in February.

We visited the doctor today and received an "A" on our report card! Medically, everything looks great, so we were happy and thankful for that. Just a few more months to go before we welcome little boy Stimson to the world!

Nathan

Our Baby Shower!

On Saturday, November 21, we had a baby shower! We decided that we wanted both girls and guys to be there so that our family and friends could enjoy celebrating the coming of our little boy. It was so much fun!! The shower was thrown by the sisters, Jamie, Malory, and Tish, and it was in Plano at Jamie's mom, Jan's, house.

Malory made a "diaper cake" for us! It's pretty cute. It is now sitting on our bar, between the kitchen and living room. We hear that at some point, after the baby comes, we'll realize how much money is actually sitting there all wrapped up and will not have much trouble dismantling it for its more practical use.



Steph and Mal with some of the excellent desserts. Diane, Steph's mom, made her tasty cookies (a staple holiday treat for those fortunate to be in her vicinity), shown in the bottom right corner of the table. My sister Tish brought some wonderful petit fours (on the tiered platter near Steph) and cookies from a bakery in Longview, Texas, called Kern's Bake Shop. There was also some very tasty sherbet punch.



Stephany and Diane.



And here is a close-up of the delicious petit fours! They had little booties on them!



Here's a shot of the spread we had for lunch and some of the shower decorations. Stephany actually had a hand in designing and making some of the decorations, as she thoroughly enjoys that kind of activity.



Little forest animals was the theme of the shower. These are little owl and deer cutouts, which all read "It's A Boy!" We also had two owl and deer toys hanging from the "Little Boy Stimson" banner in the living room.



And here is our wonderful host Jan! We have enjoyed numerous occasions at Jamie's parents' home, and this was definitely a special one for us!



And here is me with Jamie, my sister-in-law. We go way back.



And us with my mom Marla! It was so great having her there with us to celebrate!



Here is my mom with her friend James, who came with her from East Texas to be with us that day.



And here is a shot of us with our friends Josh and Kathryn. We are part of the same church home group. We really enjoyed attending their wedding this past May and blogged about it here.



Here is Steph with our friend Talitha, who has lived in Dallas a bit longer than us, but who we actually know from Albuquerque.



And here is Stephany with our good friend Andi.



Andi and Brian lead our church home group and have been good friends of ours for more than two years in Dallas now. This is them with their little one Avery. She's cute.



And here is us with dear Debbie, also a good friend from our home group.



Us with Kyle and Sherah and their two little ones, Ryland and Brenley. Sherah and Talitha are sisters.



And here is us with my aunt and uncle, Anne and Andrew! They are very wonderful. They live in the DFW area, and we are always happy to see them!



My brother Stephen with little one-year-old Macy, their third and youngest.



We also played a game! It was pretty fun because the guys got to play too. Our hosts took chocolate candy bars and melted them down in diapers. Then we all passed the diapers around and smelled them to guess what candy bar it was. Whoever correctly guessed the most number of candy bars won. Here is Marnie, who attends Dallas Theological Seminary with Malory, putting her nose in a chocolate-filled diaper...



...and Kyle doing the same...



...and now Stephany's turn.



Sherah ended up winning the game (she's good). Her prize was some rather fancy chocolates that had not been melted in a diaper.



Here are a bunch of shots of us opening gifts. It was so much fun! We received a lot of gifts that we had included on our registries. Most of these gifts are now sitting nicely sorted under our Christmas tree! We are truly blessed by the generosity of our family and friends who chose to celebrate with us by supporting us this way.



That's right—those bibs have hedgehogs on them. Rockin'.



And we now have a fantastic red bowl with our name on it. :)



I was super excited about this one: the hooded monkey blanket. When I saw this at Babies "R" Us, I just envisioned our little guy running around naked after bath-time with a monkey hood on his head. THAT will be priceless.



Front baby carrier!





Our little "Tree Tops" raccoon towel. So soft...



We were really excited to get the bedding set for our crib! When we saw this one at the store, we just sort of fell in love with the cute forest animals.





Here is us holding a sign showing our new travel system stroller that was generously gifted to us by my mom and Stephany's parents!





Us with the parents!



We took the opportunity to get a group picture of my family: me, Tish, Stephen, and our mom. The times are sweet when we're all able to be together.



Tish was so busy taking care of so many things at the shower that she somehow managed to evade the camera most of the time! But we got a good shot of her and Steph after things calmed down.



And a good one of Steph with Jamie and Macy.



And finally, one of Bob, Steph's dad, walking little Macy. The little kiddos take well to him. We think he's pretty cool, too.



We had such a great time at our shower! Thanks to everyone who participated and who celebrated with us, both there at the shower and from afar. You are so dear to us, and we are blessed to call you our family and friends!

With much love,
Nathan and Stephany