Treats in the Rain

The theme of this year's Halloween was: dedication. Don't want to eat your dinner b/c you're three and would rather just eat candy? Push through it. Are you a one year who does NOT want to be a giraffe but you look too cute to not be a giraffe? Suck it up. Pouring rain standing in the way of you and a bucket full of delicious candy? Strap on your rain boots and go.

Fin was SO excited that Uncle-Will-the-robot- came trick or treating with us.

Fin wanted to be a shark-robot. You can never have too many of those.

The boys before we headed out.

Cole didn't know how to feel about Halloween until he learned lollipops were involved. Then he was a fan for life.

Cutest little spider man came trick or treating with us.

Annie the pirate. Warning: She takes her job seriously. Don't steal her loot.

Gotta end the night with a wrestling match with Daddy.

My favorite quote from Fin of today was: "Since I'm a shark, maybe my name could be Fin, b/c I have a Fin. Is that funny?". Good call bud, except your name kinda is Fin already.

Shout out to my sister Anna for an AWESOME rock, paper, scissors costume. You're my hero. And I hope you won the whole night.

Around and about

We have had a beautiful week soaking in this gorgeous fall weather. We've lived outdoors as much as possible playing with neighbors, going to parks, and having picnics on the back porch.

The boys latest favorite thing is playing in Cole's crib together. They will seriously stay there for almost an hour just wrestling and tickling each other. If this picture looks like Cole is growling and standing on Fin's head...it's because he is. He's recently learned to growl like a dog and I think he thinks he is a dog. It's pretty cute but ask me a year from now if this phase is still lasting ;o)

The boys laid cuddling together watching Mickey Mouse like this for the longest time. I died.

Blurry but love these babies playing together.

One morning we made handprint ghosts with neighbors and Fin played ring around the rosy with his friend for the longest time. It was cute and heartbreaking the way he looked like he was at a school dance.

99% of the time when we head outside, Cole makes a beeline for my next door neighbor/friend Jess's house. He climbs up and sits contentedly on her porch rearranging her pumpkins. He seriously is obsessed. You combine the fact that they have his 3 favorite things: dogs, goldfish crackers, and pumpkins and I'm pretty sure he's moved in there. And yes that is a toothbrush in his little hand. It's like his security blanket. He walks around all day with it. Dr. Dan will be so proud.

Thursday night Sarah and Nicole came over for "Pinterest Potluck". I did dinner, Sarah did dessert and Nicole brought a craft from pinterest for all of us to do. It was so fun and we had such a good time together all hanging out. Cole and Fin were very determined to be a part of the craft portion.

Final Result: Mummy candles. How cute are they?

We had a great family week together. It's a joy for me to see my boys playing together more and more and as a result I'm having to play cars less and less so it's win-win :o)

From the Parental Files: Suffering

With two of my sisters living in different countries and going through many highs and lows, my parents have of course been their usual pillars of support and love through skype and email. They sent out this email to all of us this morning on the five S's of suffering that they have thoughtfully compiled. It was so insightful I wanted to record it here for future reference. Just because I'm living in a "peak" right now doesn't mean the valleys aren't coming. Such is life and thank God our Father is there for both.

Suffering is not Permanent: trials come and go, even though when we are in the middle of them, it feels like they mostly just come. “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, …. Later on, however…” Heb 12:11 promises there will be a later on..when these tough times are behind us. “Blessed is the one you discipline, LORD, .. you grant them relief from days of trouble.” Psalm 94:12
Suffering is Painful: “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful”. Heb 12:11 ”Unless the LORD had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death”. Psalm 94:17
Suffering is Purposeful: “but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness”. Heb 12:10   and “when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold”. Job 23:10
Suffering Produces fruit: “every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, so that it will be even more fruitful”. John 15:2, and  ”discipline produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it”.
Suffering brings Jesus Praise: “These trials have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed”. I Peter 1:7

A Happy Meal

On the way back from a doctors appointment today I swung through the Mcdonalds drive thru to get a happy meal for Fin as a reward for being so good. This is a rarity for us as we don't usually eat Mcdonalds food. Not because I'm against fast food but I'm a bit of a fast food snob and Mcdonalds is the lowest of the low to me. But Fin saw a commercial about Mcdonalds happy meals being given in trick or treat buckets and was intrigued. I was hungry too so I grabbed one for myself.
   As soon as I smelled that meal and ate a fry, I had a flashback. I grew up eating a .99 cent hamburger happy meal every.single. Tuesday. As my mom put it, "where else can you feed a family of six kids  for $6.42?". I was reminded of sitting in the dark in the back seat of the car, riding home, smelling those yummy (?) meals and wishing I could sneak a fry. Of getting home and grabbing 6 Kraft singles from the fridge for everyone to slap on their burger. Sidenote: putting a cold cheese slice on a lukewarm burger does not a delicious burger make.
     I remembered drinks being passed out with the options of fruit punch or sprite and inevitably there are more requests for sprite then there were drinks. Of searching for the burnt fry in the bunch to use to scrape the onion pieces off of my hamburger because of course you don't want to waste a good fry on that! Of picking off the pickles and passing them to a sister that likes them. Of pretending not to care that I got a toy in my meal, but secretly hoping it wasn't the same toy as last week.
     I have to say, the happy meal definetely hasn't improved with age in regards to taste, but it did make me happy today.

A Mother's Lullaby

Tonight I was rocking Cole to sleep. This is a time I usually cherish but tonight if I'm being honest I was hoping for a quick session as I'd had a long day and was ready to clock out as Mama and clock in as sit-on-the-couch-and-watch-my-shows-without-interruption Becca. Pat has a basketball game and so I get free reign of the remote.
Every night while I'm rocking Cole, I sing him a lullaby. Its' words make no sense but it's a lullaby I grew up with and I love it. Tonight in my weariness I may have mixed it up a little in my head...
As my lips were singing this:
No-nee, No-nee,No-neeeee
No-nee, No-nee, No-neeee
No-nee, No-nee, No-neeee
No-nee, No-nee, No-neeee

My mind was singing this:
Please child go to sleeeeep
Please just shut your eeeeeeeyes
Mama's losing paaaaaaaatience
And I need a vaaaaaaacay.

Endearing, no?

Patrick and the Terrible, Horrible, No good, Very bad Day

My poor, poor husband ya'll. Yesterday was like WHOA for him. So bad that I said to him, "that's worth recording for future reference because your day was so bad".
Sunday night Pat was up all night with a bad toothache. We don't have dental insurance so he was probably also awake all night wondering, "how much is this going to cost?". Monday morning he got up, took his work phone off the charger and realized it was dead. He cannot be without his work phone because how else will hillbilly truckdrivers call him yelling that they don't know how to work their GPS? So off he went to get a new cell phone. When he got back to his office, he opened up his computer to discover that the whole thing was frozen. He ran anti-virus software and found out he had a Trojan so he had to leave and drop it off at HHGregg for them to fix.
When he got back to the office for the second time he found out his forklift had a popped tire. Bare in mind he's dealing with all of this with a horrible toothache.
So he deals with all of that with grace (what was going on in his head, I'll never know), and he left work early to go to the dentist. There the dentist told him he had two cavities in one tooth at which point Pat's response was, "just yank it". It's a tooth no one can see, he actually has an extra tooth back there, and did I mention we don't have dental insurance?
So homeboy got his tooth yanked and walks out of the dentists office to a text message from me saying my car battery is dead and I can't get to work. Don't worry though, I solved the problem all by myself. I merely moseyed over to one of my elderly neighbors and posed a few carefully crafted questions to him:
"Hey Mike, do you happen to have some jumper cables I can borrow?"
"Great, and also do you know how to use them?"
"Great, and also can you show me how to use them?"
"What? You'll just jump my car yourself? Well if you really want to..."

Sneaky, Sneaky.
So Pat picked up the boys from the Y with half his face packed with gauze and brought them home to feed and bathe them until I got home. He then went out at 8:30 pm to replace the battery in my car.
My dad always says not to say "bless you're heart" b/c it's a fake southern thing to say but yesterday that poor boy needed his heart blessed! He definetely lost his Pat throughout the day until he was a shell of his former self last night :o)
The good news in all of that: Tooth got taken care of, God is in control of our finances (thank goodness!), we are continually blessed by helpful neighbors, anything electronic of Pat's that could have broken...did. So hopefully he's in the clear today.

A Very Merry Unbirthday to you...

Today was a day where it was nobody's but everybody's birthday in the Stephenson family. We got together and celebrated three birthdays in one- Denise, Dennis and Kerry. We had everyone over to our house, ate chili, inhaled helium, and had a mini dance party. Typical family get together.

Kerry, you look SO young in the pic. Denise, that pose is so flattering I might try it myself next pic :o)

Of course Grandma brought a fake bloody arm over. Cole had a weird fascination with it. It was a little too life like for me.

Sibs minus one

Our attempt at a grandkids pic. Cole wasn't having it. I still like the picture though.

Check out Fin's over the shoulder pose.

Sibs

The core group. Love this pic. Even the shortest person in this pic has a good 8 inches on me.

Vote for Erin

Me and Grumpy McTeethingson. He would not let me put him down the whole night. This too shall pass or this mama might need a happy place.

I'm so blessed to have the inlaws that I have. So family oriented and my mother in law brings everyone presents when she comes! Besides mopping the floor twice in one day, I'd host again in a heartbeat.

Fun at the Fair

Today Pat and I took Fin to the fair on a date. Anna was sweet enough to hang with Cole and we were able to give Fin some one on one attention...and avoid pushing a stroller through the crowds. We weren't planning on doing any rides but Fin's face lit up when he saw them all so we let him do a couple of kiddie rides.

This car ride was SO boring and I'm pretty sure the carnie fell asleep at the switchboard because a) he looked unconscious and b) we rode in a circle for like 15 minutes. Even Fin was chanting, "stop the ride".

The food eating commences. Today I cheated on my mistress Nutelle with a deep fried snickers bar. Being wrong never felt so right. I'm becoming quite the food polygamist.

Silly boys.

I always look forward to seeing the biggest pumpkin. This picture does not do it justice. I wanted to hug it so bad.

Tiny litle newborn piggies. Cait, I'm one step closer to getting a tea cup pig as a pet.

Fin loved the petting zoo. He kept feeding the goats carrots and I was pretty impressed at his bravery.

Pat was pretty brave too :o)

We ended the fair with cotton candy on the ferris wheel. The perfect end.

Our attempt at a family pic. Our heights are not very compatible...sorry Pat.

If I could, I would hug today. I loved it that much. But I'm not gonna lie, the boys and I were DRAGGING when we had to go to work at the Y this evening. Def regretted picking up that extra shift. I should have taken into account the food coma I would be in.

Finisms Dos

Three has been SUCH a fun age for us so far. The things that come out of this kids mouth amaze us daily...and crack us up. Just for my mama heart to remember...
- Last night we were at Old Navy to get shoes for Cole. I picked out a couple of different ones to try on him and I showed them to Fin first. Fin's face lit up and he yelled, "I can't handle this Mom, they are so cute!". I died laughing. Then I put a little pair of moccasins on Cole and said, "Fin look!". Fin's response..."I can't even speak mom!". Seriously who is this kid? He is such an old soul and I can't get enough of him. Will definitely be taking him shopping from now on.
-I was prepping him for going to the doctor tomorrow for a check up and how he would probably be getting some shots. I told him that it might feel like a little pinch but that it wouldn't be bad because doctor's don't hurt people. Fin sat there for a little bit absorbing that and then asked me so seriously, "So the doctor's aren't going to throw baseballs at me?". I guess he was trying to think of something that would hurt him and that's what he came up with. It was really hard for me to reassure him with a straight face that no doctors would be throwing baseballs at him.
-Fin was sitting next to me on the couch when I smelled...a smell.
 "Fin did you toot?" I asked him.
"No mom, I just smell beautiful things", was his reply.

Love him.

Children of the..,Aluminum.

I feel like the boys and I lead fairly active social lives. As long as it doesn't mess with naptime, we're usually game to do anything. We go to the Y daily, have playdates at the park, play with our neighbors...I felt like we get out enough. Until I take them the library.

My boys have a weird fascination to the little metal statues of children that are scattered around the library and community center. They seriously RUN to them and treat them like a long lost sibling. It would be cute if it wasn't so...sad.

There's just something about your three year old "reading" a book with a fake child statue that makes you wonder, "He does know this is a fake friend? Right?".

I mean granted I can see the upside of this love affair. I may never need to hire another babysitter again. I'll just stick a statue with the boys and I feel like they would never notice if we slipped out for a dinner date.

They were SO excited to get their picture taken with their friends. Sweet little sillies.

While I do think this is cute/slightly pathetic, I have no problem admitting that I would totally feel threatened if they had mom and dad sized statues. I don't even want to think of the unconditional love the boys would shower on those metal people, but my mama heart can't handle it. I will not be replaced!

Excuse me sir is that a caterpillar on your face?

So a couple nights ago Pat disappeared into our bathroom and came out prancing around and dancing with the grossest mustache ever on his face

I immediately screeched in horror while Fin highfived him saying he loved it. I thought he would go right back in and shave it off after his little joke but he insisted it was staying. No sir....no sir it is indeed not.
     After the boys were asleep I found a balloon, aka Pats cryptonite. If you know anything about Pat you know that the sound and texture of balloons give him goosebumps and make his skin crawl. He literally cannot stand it. So I proceeded to to rub it and make it squeak saying I wouldn't stop until he shaved his mustache. He was in AGONY.
    So then he sneaks into the kitchen and from across the room he throws this sharp kabob stick and pops the balloon first try. We.died.laughing. I mean seriously? Who does that?
So then we called a truce, he shaved off "the newest member of our family" and I can now look at him with love instead of disgust now.
Our kids have NO chance at normalcy.

Sanity

So five minutes before I left for the wedding Saturday, Fin threw up EVERYWHERE. All over the couch and carpet. For those of you with weak stomachs, I'll spare you the details. Let's just say the color of it rhymes with...orange.

So picture me in my dress, hair done, scrubbing puke up. Thank goodness Nicole and Rob still agreed to babysit my pukey kid so I could go to the wedding. He had no fever and acted fine so I chalked it up to a one time thing.

Until last night. When he struck again and developed a fever. So picture our last 24 hours and be very jealous. The only time I left the house today was to push the boys in the stroller to Food Lion to get basic flu supplies- carpet cleaner, lysol and gatorade.

But Fin has been so sweet through his sickness and very cuddly. And he got to watch Toy Story 3 today so he's a big fan of the stomach flu.

And today after dinner and another puke session, I grabbed my car keys and phone and left with Pat's blessing to drive around for a half hour, listen to music with the windows down, and drink this gem:

And now I feel a lot better and came back feeling refreshed and ready to do some work on some laundry. It doesn't take much.

7 years in the making...

Last night we had the BEST time celebrating Pat's best friend Elliot getting married. He and Casey have been together almost as long as Pat and I and it was such a blessing celebrating them all weekend.

Casey's dress was gorgeous with lace all over and a long lace veil. She was beautiful.

Since Pat was in the wedding I was glad my in-laws were there to hang out with. It's their birthday weekend since their birthdays are one day apart. And their names are Dennis and Denise. Obviously made for each other :o)

We had an awesome time together all night laughing, smooching, dancing and just being us.

Denise is an awesome dancer. Pat does not enjoy fast dancing. This here is magic folks :o)

 

Doesn't everyones mother in law know how to do the cupid shuffle with the flower girl?

 The wedding had a photo booth which was SO funny. First we squeezed all ten of the people at our table in for a photo strip...then Pat, Kiera and I did it. Kiera was my sister wife for the evening and it was so great to see her and hang out. We love her and her twin!

The reception was at Macgregor Country Club and it was gorgeous with huge white tents, twinkle lights and beautiful flowers everywhere.

Right as we pulled into our neighborhood at the end of the night we almost ran into these guys. Apparently they were out partying too.

This is not a scandalous picture people. This pic makes me laugh b/c after we got home, Pat walked around in black socks, basketball shorts and a bowtie around his neck. He said he was getting every penny out of his tux rental. Homeboy even slept in his bowtie. Made me laugh so hard.

We love you Casey and Elliot and had a blast on your special day! Thanks for letting us be a part of it...and for having gelato served at your wedding :o)