TO ALL MOMS: This would have been nice to know so I didn't freak out.....

So since Parker has been sick this past week they put him on an antibiotic called Omnicef (aka Cefdinir).  I gave him his first dose of it Friday morning, Friday evening I went to change his diaper and this is what I found..... (Excuse the gross photograph but I went online and had to look it up because reading the description of side effects wasn't enough for me to be reassured)

It was even a little brighter red in person.  I called the doctor on call a little freaked out because I was thinking he just had a bloody diaper and had no clue if he was allergic to the meds or what was going on.  So after talking to the doctor they said red or rustic bloody looking poop is totally normal on this medication it was a normal side effect with children and it would probably stay this way the entire time he is on this antibiotic.  Whew, I was relieved but it would have been nice to have known this BEFORE seeing this and flipping out, haha.  Just thought I'd show all the other moms just incase they have this happen to their little ones so I can possibly save someone the flip-out we went through!

Parker's First Christmas

Christmas starts off early for our family!  We have to be at my Dad's house at 8:30 Christmas morning to open presents with all the siblings... I don't have any photos from their house because my dad usually takes plenty so I didn't take my camera, but this is one of Parker's presents from his Pop Pop and Grandma Dena, one of the wooden block toys I used to love playing  with at the doctors office!  I haven't seen one of these in a long time, and Parker loves it!

Then we went to lunch with Adam's side of the family, and then came back to Nana and Papa's house and Parker had a blast opening all of his presents from them!

Mommy and her little man on his 1st Christmas!!











Last stop of the day is back to our house for Christmas with Mema & Papa Rick.  We had an awesome time celebrating and having a birthday cake for Jesus!

Ken getting into Mommy's purse while she's asleep lol

Brooke knocked out lol...

Uncle Adam & Ken Ken time!

Mema with her grandkids!

Merry Christmas from the Stephensons!

Parker and Daddy opening Parker's first Santa gift!!

Someone's getting a little tired.....

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Our Christmas present came a little early this year.....
he arrived August 3rd :)

And....the CUTEST ornament ever!  From Aunt April to Parker.....

Our first breathing treatment.....

Parker has had a bad cold just about all week now.  Tuesday night his cold def. got worse so I called the doctors Wednesday when they opened back up after Christmas and they told me the basics that I had already been doing but that otherwise thats about all we could do.  Well last night he got a lot worse and Adam mentioned something about his breathing sounding funny, so I called first thing this morning and took him in to see the doctor.  They said he had a DOUBLE ear infection, poor guy!  They gave us some antibiotics, Also that he was wheezing and needed a breathing treatment, she explained that there is a triangle with severe Eczema , usually comes Asthma (or breathing troubles), and Allergies.  So we had to have his first breathing treatment, he did not like it one bit, he cried the whole time I felt so bad because I had to hold the mask on but I knew it would help him out!  But he did get a cute little dinosaur mask....So they sent it home with us and we now have to do them every four hours.  Hopefully he will get better soon so we don't have to do them long!  Also, they talked about food allergies and him possibly having allergies to the formula which has got me debating trying to breast feed again, they say its possible to start back up to 6 months out.... not sure but if anyone has any advice I'd love to hear it!

Also if you live in the Fuquay area and are looking a pediatrician we go to Fuquay Peds and love them I see Dr. Powell or Dr. Lynn Cartledge, or Dr. Schoffner they are all awesome.

21 Weeks Old....

21 weeks old today!  Parker had an awesome first Christmas this past week.  He's still enjoying his feet but he's been very sick this week poor guy!  He's starting to roll over in his crib at night, he will roll over onto his tummy and then start crying.  Even though he can roll back over he wont lol.  He is sleeping pretty good through the night still even being sick he's still been sleeping pretty well.

Christmas Eve

Christmas eve this year we were asked for Parker to play baby Jesus as our churches Christmas Eve service.  Then we got roped into being Mary and Joseph as well lol these photos will make for good laughs..... but we were very blessed to be able to take time out of the busy few days and remember what Christmas is really about.

Jesus is the true reason for the season and my grandfather being a methodist preacher we have always had him tell the Christmas story every year before dessert and then we have a birthday cake every year on Christmas eve and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.  Parker enjoyed joining in this year!

3rd annual Fuquay Crew Christmas Party

This past Sunday we had our 3rd annual Fuquay Crew Christmas party!  I have been very lucky to grow up with an awesome group of friends from my church.  We don't all get together at once much anymore so we have decided to start an annual Christmas party and it's def. an awesome time every year.  We have a potluck and play dirty santa!

Here are a few photos from this past weekend....

Awesome timing one of my best friends had her baby boy 6 days
before we had Parker they interact so good together!  

We made the guys take a snap shot together, haha
 they weren't thrilled about this one as you can tell!

                                                                         

Looking for good Christmas lights for free.....

We went to see Christmas lights tonight with my in-laws!  If you're in the Fuquay/ Holly Springs/ Cary area and looking to see some lights worth your time and not spend any money, check out these two houses they are awesome.....

The first one is on Lake wheeler road right at the hiltop rd. crossroads this house is ridiculously  awesome!  Santa on a Harley and the lights blink to the songs on radio station 88.7 FM
here is a link for more details:

Christmas lights on Lake Wheeler


Then there is a house on Penny Rd. right in between holly springs road and grahm newton rd.  you won't miss it!  For all the NC State fans they have a tarheel they are grilling over a fire haha but even if you're a UNC fan they have some amazing lights, t-rex, a real fire truck decorated a whole yard full.

Baking Christmas Cookies.....

Our icing color palette 

I'm not huge on baking, I'd much rather cook.... but every year since we were kids we always made sugar cookies cut them out in christmas shapes and iced them with colored icing.  This year was no different my sister, April, and I started about 11 a.m this morning and just finished up about 4:30 p.m with a grand total of 153 cookies.  We started of with 6 rolls of pillsbury sugar cookie dough and covered the rolls and everything else in the kitchen in flour haha, then we use the metal cookie cutters to make them into christmas shapes.  We use my Grandma Barnes homemade icing recipe and add food coloring to make a fun color palette, today we decided not to use the traditional christmas colors but some modern, bright colors.

For anyone looking a good icing recipe here is grandma's homemade icing recipe:

Ingredients-
2 sticks of butter
2 lb bag of powdered sugar
A dab of vanilla extract
Milk
Food Coloring

Melt the butter add a dab of vanilla and some of the powdered sugar, then add milk and more powdered sugar until you get the right consistency.  Then split the batch up into separate bowls and add food coloring to make the colors you want.

Here are a few pictures from our day...

Parker got to try the icing himself it's kid tasted and approved!  It was the first food he tasted and didn't make a horrible face about!

20 weeks old!

20 Weeks

Parker is 20 weeks old today!  It's gone by so fast.... We took a trip to see Santa Claus in Fuquay Varina this week, and Parker was so happy and smiled perfect!  We also took a trip to his Aunt Ava and Aunt Clara's preschool and watched their Christmas play.  Sleeping has been pretty awesome this week as well.  We started taking away his night bottle last week and it was rough at first but last night we slept from 830 pm- 630am straight then after his morning bottle at 630 he slept until 830 this morning...we can't ask for much more than that!  We also took Parker to his first tacky sweater party, he even dressed for the occasion.

Always a nice surprise when your husband cooks supper....

We had cream cheese Baked Ziti tonight, for those of you who don't like ricotta cheese this is an awesome recipe that doesn't call for ricotta cheese.  Even better was the fact that my husband decided to cook tonight!  I'll take a fussy baby over cooking anytime haha it was a nice break tonight....

Here's the recipe I found it on the kraft philadelphia website and just added some of my personal preferences if you are interested:

4 cups 

ziti pasta, uncooked ( I only use 2 cups because 4 cups makes WAY too much pasta!!!)

1 jar

(24 oz.) marinara sauce

1 can

(14-1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained (OPTIONAL- I leave the tomatoes out bc I'm not a huge fan)

6 oz.

(3/4 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, cubed

3/4 cup

BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream

1 pkg.

(8 oz.) KRAFT Shredded Mozzarella Cheese with a TOUCH OF PHILADELPHIA (I use self-shredded block cheddar cheese tastes just as good 

1/3 cup

KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese (Store brand is what we use :)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375ºF.
2. Cook pasta in large saucepan as directed on package, omitting salt. Remove from pan; drain. Meanwhile, add marinara sauce, tomatoes and cream cheese to same pan; cook on medium heat 5 min. or until cream cheese is melted and mixture is well blended, stirring frequently. Return pasta to pan; mix well.
3. Layer half the pasta mixture in 13x9-inch baking dish; cover with layers of sour cream, 1 cup mozzarella and remaining pasta mixture. Top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan.
4. Bake 20 min. or until heated through.

A Little about me to start off.....

My niece Kenley Blake (above)

(Left to Right top) Adam, Ava, Luke,Sawyer, Dena, Emma
(Left to Right bottom) Parker, Faith, Clara, Steve, Brooke, and Kenley

My name is Faith Stephenson, known by most as Faith Mangum.  I was born and raised in Fuquay-Varina, NC, where I grew up with my amazing mom, June Mangum, my dad, Steve Mangum, and my two sisters April and Brooke.  In high school my parents got divorced, my dad remarried to my step mom Dena who has three children L.T, Luke, and Emma who are now my step brothers and sisters.  Three years ago my Dad and step mom had twin girls Ava, and Clara and then a little boy last year named Sawyer who are my three half siblings.  So all together I have eight siblings now!  In April of 2011 I married my best friend, a guy I had been dating since March of 2005 Adam, then in May of 2011 my first niece was born to my sister Brooke, Kenley Blake Mangum is her name she is amazing!  This past August Adam & I were blessed with the best gift in the world our first son, Parker Riley Stephenson.  It’s pretty crazy at times, we can’t even go out to eat at a restaurant much anymore with just our immediate family because there are so many of us, but I love every second of it and we are so blessed to have such a huge and loving family!  And we can’t wait to see what 2013 brings our family….

My mom, and Parker

I am a daughter, sister, wife, christian, photographer, daughter-in-law, granddaughter, and best of all a mom!  I stay at home with Parker during the week and do photography during the week as well from home, I love what I do and wouldn’t trade it for the world!

Adam, Me, & Parker


I have really enjoyed following other mother’s, and photographers blogs, as well as people who do things to save money, so my husband, Adam, challenged me to start my own blog because he laughs at the extent of the things I do to try to save our household money and ways I am challenging myself to keep a clean and tidy household with a 4 month old but he says its interesting, so here goes nothing…….