The Stewart Family

Fantasy Football and Fox

2008-09-07T23:06:00.000-07:00

It is now a little after midnight and I have just checked my fantasy football team. My good cousin Tod invited me to join a league and so for the first time I have entered into the fray. I spent about 10 minutes this morning pouring over scouting reports, fasting, seeking inspiration and rubbing my lucky rabbits foot. All this to find out that we aren't keeping track of scores until week 2. It might end up being good because I only have a 14 point lead over my match up and all of my guys have played and he still has one on MNF. If this doesn't make sense to you don't worry it didn't to me either about 24 hours ago. For those of you anxiously awaiting the final tally I will let you know how the game tomorrow night turns out.

The second part of what is on my mind is as I do most nights now about this time I flip through several family blogs and try to read what people are up to and it has been awesome to get to know some of our family better. However tonight I read a rather disturbing yet hilarious post from Ryan Miller regarding a soap opera Passions and his heartache over its recent cancellation. If you haven't read it I would encourage you to click on my favorites to the right and enjoy. As I read his post I started to reflect on my life and the guilty pleasures I have indulged in and a few came to mind.

For several summers I would work on the Ferry Farm in Corinne Utah, generally with my cousins Johnny and Joel. Things could get a little slow during the summer especially on TV and at the ranch you only had local channels. Now some of you might be saying wait we have so many reality TV shows to choose from, but alas back in the ninety's these edgy, purely genius gems hadn't come along. Instead we had the latest creation from Aaron Spelling comprising a perfected formula of beautiful women, california, and a bunch of gorgeous hunks some of whom were bad boys, good guys and misfits. You through them in a common living/working environment, watch them grow together/apart/together/apart etc. and you have cinema gold! You have to love Fox for the shows they produced were admitidly a little edgy and slightly risque (I would put them in the same league as Passions.) These shows were generally so well written they were able to cover the whole plot for the season in one summer so there wasn't a need to bring them back for more, but a similar show would always surface. I am curious if these titles bring back any memories for anyone else: Summer 1994 "Models Inc." (the title says it all!) This show was so well written it had 29 episodes and lasted until March 1995 when they finally exhausted all the possible angles and drama surrounding a modeling agency as a spinoff from 90210. Summer 1996 "Malibu Shores" Summer 1997 "Pacific Palisades" Sadly this well written theatrical masterpiece only lasted for 13 episodes but they were each very action packed and dynamic. Of course during this time you also had melrose place and Beverly Hills 90210 (another fun fact I graduated with Kelly, Brandon, Dylan and the gang in 1993). I must say Aaron Spelling had a simple formula and he kept using it time and again. Anyone else out there want to come clean? Ryan I feel your pain, I had filled the hole in my life with the TV show Las Vegas but sadly it has been canceled. I now hope another brilliant script will be picked up this fall. Maybe Night Rider or Lipstick Jungle (J/K the previews on that one make me blush)!

Vader has left the Building

2008-09-06T20:55:00.000-07:00

12 Bags filled with party favors ..... $25

4 Pizzas from Little Caesars .........$20

1 Pinata stuffed with candy ..........$18

12 five year old boys for an hour and a half ....... Priceless? Hell No!
(Apologies to Mastercard)

As you may have guessed David had his birthday party today. Wow! Last year I was unable to be at his friend party and I think I may be occupied next year. Talk about total chaos. The other thing I learned is next time (if I have a serious case of amnesia) I am going to get the pizza. The party started at 1 pm and at 12:59 Brandi decided she needed to get the pizza (veteran move I must say). I finished feeding Jack and laid him down and the doorbell rang for the first of 11 times. To set the stage for you it was a scene like in Chevy Chase, Christmas Vacation when the in-laws come to the house and they ring the doorbell and it rings in slow motion through the house and each family member has the look of total fear and anxiousness. As I open the door I can faintly hear a mother roar down the driveway in her SUV with a chant of freedom that would rival Mel Gibson in Braveheart.(Yes I like movies, I wish I could make comparisons to Shakespeare or classic novels but I is what I is)

It is now 1:10 and there are now 12 five and six year olds in my house running from the main level up to the playroom and David's room. It is a constant tornado roaming the house. In fact for the first time Katherine isn't sure what to do and looks a little scared. You know it is serious if Katherine is nervous to mix it up. I now have several sets of skid marks from SUV's leaving my driveway. Unfortunately for one mother, who is a friend of Brandi's whom we will be eternally grateful to, Brandi staged a sit-in in front of her car until she promised to stay and help referee the savages. Brandi had envisioned that she and I could handle the festivities, she must be taking something strong after giving childbirth to be that delusional. After getting over the deer in headlights I was able to convince her to also call her sister and beg and plead for help. To sweeten the pot I offered up Brandi to help with Maddy's (our niece) next party. I know I am generous but remember she left me to get pizza.

1:15 Brandi finally shows up with pizza, personally I think she did a little joy riding but she denies it. We get everyone together and inhale 3 of the 4 pizzas. Now it is game time. We have a couple of games that don't take nearly long enough. We are anxiously watching the clock and things are going way to fast. 1:40 we now have cake and ice cream. Brandi's
sister makes a homemade cake and it is quickly devoured. It is now 1:50 and we are opening presents. It is hilarious to watch as each present is opened a scrum closes tighter and tighter around David. He now has about 20 hands grabbing and ripping paper and ribbons. You can faintly hear Brandi tell David to thank so and so and then a mumbled thanks and your welcome.

It is now 2:05 and a few of the boys have left for soccer games and other commitments. We then head out to the driveway for a pirate pinata. After witnessing the scrum around the presents and games I decided for liability purposes to create a perimeter that everyone has to stay behind. I then walked up and down the line swinging the bat muttering threats if anyone crossed the line they would regret it. Each boy took their turn with the bat and the pirate quickly surrendered its head and candy was everywhere. With bags overflowing with candy we send everyone on their way and begin the cleanup. All in all we survived. Brandi's sister points out, as she is laughing, in future years we will have three successive weekends with parties for each child. I am one step ahead of her. I think we will have a one big party and a lottery to decide who gets to invite friends. I am not sure if it will fly but we will see.

Happy Birthday Katherine!

2008-09-03T21:43:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday our little Katherine turned 3 years old. She informed David that she is now older than he is. A great argument ensued and David finally told her when he had his birthday on Saturday he would be older than her. She of course had to have a princess party. We had both our families over for what was originally supposed to be cake and ice cream. Brandi then decided if people were coming over for cake we could order some pizza as well. I didn't really feel like pizza and so as usual things evolved from cake and ice cream to pizza to BBQ. (For those of you who have kids this is beginning to sound like the two kids books , "If you give a pig a pancake" and "if you give a mouse a cookie" for those of you not familiar with these literature classics this joke is lost on you) I told Brandi I would handle everything and she could just rest. Keep in mind it was her idea to have everyone over in the first place. Things of course got a little crazy with 14 adults and 9 children under the age of 8, but hey i grew up with crazy. Of course for our BBQ we couldn't just have one meat because some people don't like fish or beef or whatever. That combined with the fact that my brother Justin and I went to Costco and we were a little bit hungry. We came home with salmon, tri-tip and Brats, salad, cucumbers, corn (from a stand), artichoke dip and I think that is it. I did my best to keep Brandi out of the kitchen but she kept getting asked questions and ended up doing more than she should have, but it was a lot of fun and Katherine was thrilled.

Sorry back to the Birthday. Growing up in my family birthdays tended to be shall we say on the mild to non-existent side. In Brandi's family it is the Prom, New Years Day Parade, Cinco de Mayo all rolled into one! First we have Balloons, princess cups, plates, napkins, table cloth streamers, and a pinata among several other things. This is for our 3 year old it gets crazier when you have friend parties like David will have this Saturday which we sent out Star Wars invitations to. Don't worry those of you asking will he blog on the David Birthday, I will unless I am precluded by an exclusive arrangement with one of Brandi's smut magazines US and In Touch who are vying for the rights.

Sorry I keep getting off point. The festivities started with the aforementioned BBQ. Then we went outside and the kids took turns at whacking a princess crown Pinata. Following the pinata we had everyone inside for cake and ice cream a presents. Pictures are below! For those of you who haven't seen the slide show thing below before (myself included until about 20 minutes ago) if you want to see the pictures with out the border and hearts click on the link underneath that says "View All Images" and you can see them more clearly.

First Day of Pre-skool

2008-09-02T22:04:00.000-07:00

Katherine had her first day of Pre-school today which also happened to be her Birthday. She was pretty excited and Brandi was excited because she could pick out her outfit and make sure it was up to the occasion.

Katherine is no longer our baby as you can well see in the two pictures below. These are the two outfits she had on before her mother got a hold of her and made sure hers was cute enough. She likes to pick her clothes and generally does a decent job matching. Her one weakness is Pink on Pink.

Katherine Greets Her New Baby Brother

2008-08-31T15:00:00.000-07:00

By this time Katherine has been staying at her Nana's house for about 4 days and is missing her mother something fierce. We have all been a little worried about how Katherine will handle a little competition. The big day finally came yesterday when Brandi got home from an early morning doctors appointment. As Brandi walked into the room Katherine ran to her squealing and excited, surprisingly more to see her new baby brother over her long lost mother. Jack now has 2 mothers.

Jack gave Katherine and David presents when he came home yesterday and Katherine's was a baby. Katherine is all over Jack. She wants to feed him, hold him, see him what is he doing and whenever you answer any of her questions you then deal with the automatic Katherine follow-up question of WHY? Needless to say one of my favorite things to do is to turn this on her and ask her why until she becomes quite annoyed and yells at me to stop and leave her alone! or "What is your problem!" I thought she would now obviously see how this is annoying and stop but alas no, everything is still WHY?

Kung Fu Katherine

2008-08-31T12:00:00.000-07:00

Ok for the 2 of you that read my blog I am sure you are having Stewart Blog Fatigue. I went from a flurry of posts in May to nothing until this last week, but I figure while I have a little downtime with the new baby I would catch up people on our summer and some funny Katherine experiences. Today is Sunday and I am here helping with Katherine and Jack (actually mostly blogging). Jack basically slept all day yesterday and was wide awake from about 3 until 6:30 this morning, unfortunately my shift. As I was reflecting on church and unfortunately missing it today I was reminded of a recent experience with Katherine. A little while ago we decided to go to Kung Fu Panda as a family. This was our first effort with Katherine in a theatre. My fellow movie buff David is fairly experienced. We got popcorn, drinks and treats and sat down with both grandpa's in tow. First she was disappointed that the movie wasn't a ride and didn't move. After 45 minutes of multiple questions of why this and why that she announced she was done and Brandi, who hates all animated movies (apologies to Walt Disney), was more than happy to take her to the dinasaur museum.
By now you might be wondering how this relates to church or you may have stopped reading but I will press forward. Katherine has become a fairly prominent person in nursery. She has struggled with some issues of aggression to the point we now before each nursery have to run through a litany of possible abuses and forbid them. For example here is how the conversation goes on the way to church:

Dad: Katherine are you going to be a good girl in nursery?
K: Yes I am a nice girl.
Dad: Yes you are; Now you remember nice girls don't hit, kick, poke, or shove. You won't do those things will you?
K: But can I bite?
Dad: No.
K: Can I push?
Dad: No Katherine.
K: Am I a nice girl?
Dad: Yes Katherine

We then send our little princess of to nursery. A couple of Sunday's ago we picked up Katherine from nursery and one of the nursery leaders told us she had kicked a kid. When we got home we cornered her and started threatening her ever going to nursery again. When we asked her why she kicked the little boy, she adamently denied doing it. She informed us she was Kung Fu Panda and Kung Fu'd him. As we stifled laughs and smiles through gritted teeth we added Kung Fu Panda to the list of forbidded offenses. David always our little helper and enforcer has been assisting us in enforcement. When we got home from church last Sunday he was, mind you in a very serious tone, reviewing church with her and grilling her about her nursery and did she hit, poke, kick, shove, push or Kung Fu Panda. We are happy to report she has been incident free!

Big Brothers Visit to the Hospital

2008-08-30T09:50:00.000-07:00

The First Smile!

Proud Big Brother

Big Brother David got to visit Baby Jack in the hospital. I picked him up from school (he started this week) and took him up to the hospital. He was a little nervous but as long as a I promised I would take him back to Papa and Nana's to finish his sleepover he was willing to come. David was a little reluctant to hold his brother but after some threats and guilt he finally came around. I have been trying to post a video but it won't for some reason. David was holding Jack and got the first smile (gas) and we got it on film. David was holding Jack and Jack grunted and cooed so David said he got the first smile and first word. He is pretty excited for a baby brother.

First Bath

2008-08-30T09:13:00.000-07:00

Some Pictures of baby Jack Jack's first bath.

Baby Jack

2008-08-30T08:31:00.000-07:00

Brandi, pictured here, is Ready to Get it Going! Unfortunately her body wasn't. We called at 6:30 am (I should say Brandi called I was still asleep) and the hospital said to call back at 8:30 am. Brandi called back and the hospital said come on in and we could get the party started. It is funny how all of our kids births have been nothing like you see in TV or on movies. Brandi's water never breaks there hasn't ever been a panic scrambling around the house as she screams in labor pain. We nonchalantly took the van in for service ran a couple of errands and showed up to the hospital at about 11:30 am. After we arrived and checked in they hooked Brandi up to Pitocin to help kick start labor. Brandi had been induced for our other two children and David had taken about 7 hours and Katherine 4 hours of being hooked up to the pitocin drip before giving birth. So in Brandi's mind she was going to be done with this baby thing in under 3 hours. Well, 3 hours into the ordeal and Brandi had dilated to a 2. A couple of more hours pass by and she is stuck on being dilated to a 4. At this point she is a little stressed and doesn't understand what is wrong. For those of you who know Brandi her biggest fear of the whole birth is the epidural. For David she waited until the pain of contractions was greater than her fear of the needle. By the time she got the epidural she was shaking because of the pain she was in and she was lucky they would still do the epidural. With Katherine she was extremely stressed and her anxiety was through the roof. In fact the nurses kept telling her she needed to settle down because the baby was stressed bad things were going to happen if she didn't get under control. She finally let them do the epidural. Having to watch my wife go through this and hearing everything from the nurses I was holding her hand when the anesthesiologist came in. About 2 minutes into the procedure and I went to my knees and they had to rush in another nurse with some juice and a paper bag. The epidural went well and I fully recovered from my dramatic experience. This go around we got the epidural early. As she was being prepped to be poked she asked our nurse to hold her hand. The nurse kind of sheepishly said would you rather have your husband and Brandi emphatically said NO! Go figure apparently she didn't like me taking some of the limelight last time.

Joining Brandi and I in the delivery room were Mandy (sister-n-law), Joni (Brandi Mom), Melissa (Brandi Sister), and my Mom joined a little later.

It is now about 7:00 pm and Brandi is convinced that the epidural is wearing off. She is shaking quite a bit from the medication and everyone is convinced she is cold so they keep putting blankets on her. Brandi is now convinced that she is never giving birth and is starting to cry from pain and fear. They pumped up her meds and then checked her at about 7:45 and she is now fully dilated. She went from a 4 to a 10 in about 30 minutes. They call the doctor and get ready for birth, the irony is they told her to hold on so the doctor could get there. The staff are now in full swing and getting everything ready. The doctor arrives and a couple of pushes later the baby is born and in his mother's arms.

This is the first time in Three kids that Brandi was able to hold the baby right after giving birth. Both David and Katherine had minor complications that had to be dealt with immediately after birth. It was pretty cool to see her holding the baby and tears streaming down her face.

Here I am looking in a little pale but not to light headed. I was given the job of holding one of Brandi's legs while she pushed. That was a little close to the action for me but I am happy to report I stayed vertical throughout. Although I think my mom or Mandy might have like to see me go down so they could step in.

Here are the Grandmothers Tattooed By Jack's Feet
7 LBS 4 OZ

Hello world! Baby Jack arrived Tuesday night at 8:15. He weighed 7 lbs 4 oz and he is 19.5 inches long. As you may have guessed by now his name is Jack Nelson Stewart. Since I am fairly lazy the next several posts will likely be about Jack!

As you can see Brandi is very relieved and exhausted yet still striking!

Brandi and I both feel very blessed to have 3 healthy children. We are extremely grateful for the awesome responsibility of being parents for the third time. In watching Brandi go through this process again I am in awe of her strength and courage. I am very lucky to have such a wonderful wife and amazing mother to my children. After everything was done I went into the hall to make a few phone calls and spread the news. After one of the phone calls I had to sit down and I wept with gratitude for everything going so perfectly. It is truly a miracle to witness the birth of a child. We love you all and are grateful for your thoughts and prayers. We look forward to seeing each of you and introducing you to Jack Nelson and yes he is the cutest baby ever.

The Beach

2008-08-30T00:49:00.000-07:00

Well now I am back in the blogging world from a summer long hiatus I thought I would post one of my draft postings from our disneyland trip in May that never quite got posted. Cute pictures! I hope I will stay more on top of this but who knows.

After a fun day at the beach we rented a bike and rode it down the boardwalk. This wasn't just any bike it would seat 12 people! We were quite the spectacle. Johnny was in front and supposedly steering. The highlight was when we would all stop pedaling and Johnny would be the only one.

My cute little beach rat

David buried with Gibson watching and then Grandma jane with David. She was a lifesaver on the trip!

Just another day at the beach. Katherine's fever was now gone so after a feast cooked by our amazing hosts we headed off to Newport Beach. Katherine was knocked down by a wave early on and didn't recover for quite awhile. She got sand in her mouth and every time she tried to wipe it out she would put more sand in from her hands. It was pretty sad. Brandi rescued us all and took her on the peer.

Mostly we built sandcastles and played in the water. Johnny tried to do some boogie boarding but never quite caught the big one. Gibson ate about a third of his weight in sand. He literally

shoveled it in as you see below.

Brandi and were talking about how much fun we had on this trip. Johnny and Jen were amazing hosts.

David's First Day at School

2008-08-26T10:26:00.000-07:00

Ready for the First
Day of School

David started school today. Brandi postponed her induction a day later so she could be there for the big event. She is a great mom. Brandi was a little disappointed in the clothes selection for the first day but David would wear nothing different. His mother got the last laugh when she packed his bag for staying at his Nana's she only packed "cute" clothes.

Last week David went to meet his new teacher and be evaluated. He wanted to get it over quickly because Nana and Katherine were swimming at home and he was missing out. Mrs. Burnside, Brandi and David sat down to get acquainted Mrs. Burnside was very cute in introducing herself and telling David she was very excited for this upcoming year. As David sat down he let out a big, dramatic sigh and said, "I just hope this doesn't take to long." Mortified Brandi explained that he wanted to get home to swim. Mrs. Burnside went through several little exercises to determine some basic skills. She had him read some words, count out loud and to our surprise asked some simple math questions which he answered. After he answered each question and his teacher would compliment him he would turn to Brandi and give her a thumbs up and a wink! That's my boy always the showman.

If David Get's a Picture so does Katherine

Potty Trained?

2008-08-11T20:57:00.000-07:00

Brandi and I are wondering if Katherine is ever going to be potty trained. With the baby coming soon we have given up for now. We got our hopes up the other day when Brandi got Katherine up from her nap and she had put on "big girl underwear" and taken off her pull up. Brandi explained that she had to tell Mom when she needed to do tinkles because we don't tinkle in big girls. Katherine's reply? "Then put a pull up on me." So we did.

My Spiritual Child

2008-08-11T20:53:00.000-07:00

Last week David asked Brandi what day it was. She told him it was Friday and asked why he wanted to know. He let out a groan like he was in great pain and said "I hate Friday! It's so close to Sunday and then I have to go to church!"

Spain

2008-05-30T16:14:00.000-07:00

Well I am now back among toe living that is I am staying my final night in Spain in a hotel in Madrid and i have access to the internet for the first time this week. It is pretty pathetic how attached I have become to the internet and cell phones. For those of you who weren't aware i am on a golf trip in Spain with some other lobbyists. One of which is the lobbyist for Delta Airlines and helped to hook us up. We have had a great trip with wonderful weather and nobody got sick. We spent the week in a condo down in southern spain by the beach in a town called Alcaidesa which is about 10 minutes from Gibraltar. I will give greater details later since it is now 1:30 in the morning and I have a 10 hour flight to JFK and then another 5 hours to SLC ahead of me! I have attached a few pictures from our trip to wet your appetite. I am still new at this and not very good at attaching pictures. So I will give you a brief description of them. The first picture is that of me on a golf course attached to our condo. In the background you can see the Rock of Gibraltar. The second picture is from a dinner we ate. I have the lower leg of a suckling pig in my mouth. Very tasty! Lastly there is a picture of me at the top of the Rock of Gibraltar. Like I said stay tuned, if jet lag ever wears off I will put up some more posts and pictures. hasta Manana!

Jedi Master

2008-05-19T21:50:00.000-07:00

The highlight of David's trip was going to the the Jedi Training Facility. A couple of times each day they have a staged star wars enactment hosted by Jedi Masters. Darth Vader, Darth Maul and a couple of storm troopers make a surprise appearance. Luckily the selected trainees have been trained to avoid falling to the dark side. David was selected to battle Darth Maul. The video is short and sweet. Enjoy a few pictures from his training, battle and David sporting his diploma from his intense education. However, according to David he will not be a true Jedi until he can do double flips.

Princess Lunch

2008-05-18T23:58:00.000-07:00

The highlight of the trip for Katherine was our princess lunch. For anyone with young daughters this is a must! You have to schedule it in advance and you have dinner in a restaurant where 5 princess's come around and meet the girls and have their pictures taken with them. Katherine was in heaven. She was mesmerized and for the first time in her life she sat still in awe. The first two pictures below are our princess quite in her element. The first princess is pocahontas, then cinderella, and snow white. Lastly you have prince David who was a good sport and didn't mind seeing the lady's!

Princess Jasmine was Katherine's favorite. After posing for a picture Katherine wrapped her up in a bear hug.

When we first entered the restaurant Ariel was taking pictures with each little girl and when Brandi put Katherine down she bolted for Ariel. Her little legs couldn't keep up and she plowed right into Ariel head first.

Diaper Dance

2008-05-18T21:26:00.001-07:00

I was downloading pictures and found this gem from Katherine doing her diaper dance. As many of you might imagine she keeps us laughing!

Hello World!

2008-05-18T21:23:00.000-07:00

Well we have joined the blogesphere. Thank you to Johnny F. who helped hook us up. Stay tuned for some quality (probably more quantity) insights into our family.