Night on the town

Family nights have been hard to come by lately. Pat has been so so busy lately that we're like ships passing in the night (how poetic is that?). He worked like a dog all week and all Saturday but being the sweet man he is, as soon as he got home Saturday at 5pm, he showered quickly and declared the family was going out for dinner and to buy Fin his first hat.

We ate at Pei-Wei. I have no idea if that's spelled right. I like to eat any place where if the boys are loud, it echos in the room and no one can hear them. I deem it a successful dinner b/c Cole didn't melt down at highchair constraints. The only downside was he hurled my iphone into a bowl of Chicken Lo Mein covered in soy sauce. Yummy.

Cole's fortune cookie cracked me up. What are the dreams of his youth? Graham Crackers? Goldfish?

Fin was a big fan of the chopsticks. It may have taken him a half hour to eat a noodle.

Fin and Pat each picked out a new hat. Pat is basically a hat aficionado and he may have died on the inside when Fin picked a cartoon Cars hat instead of a sports hat. Props to him for letting Fin be a three year old.

Afterwards we let the boys walk around the toy store. I don't know if it's good or sad, but they never ask to buy anything there b/c they know that we just go into play with the toys and leave empty handed. Kinda pathetic. Fin did look really cute on that giant puppy though.

LOVE this candid of Pat wrangling Cole. Love his face.

Cole snuck his brothers hat before bedtime. Cutest face.

I needed that family time. I missed our little family downtime and can't wait till stinkin busy sod season is over. Grateful for the job, not for the craziness.

Birthday Bonanza

A few times a year we have a Stephenson shindig where we celebrate a bunch of family birthdays at once. Its effective and fun. Tonight we celebrated Grace turning 8, Mike turning 21 (he's still alive) and Erin... just turning :o)

Mike gave Grace fifteen $1 bills. AWESOME present for a kid. Note to mike: I want that for my birthday too.

Pat and Brande solving world problems with Mike's new puppy. His name is Bruce. If you think thats a funny, you should meet the other family dog. His name is Larry.

And you thought no one played with boomerangs anymore.

Princess Emma

Fin and Emma. Notice the princess was feeling constrained by her party clothes :o)

Paw-Paw helping Cole with his juice box. You give Cole a juicebox and he's a friend for life.

We couldn't have had prettier weather tonight. The boys were in great moods and I had about 3 different desserts so all around I'd count it as success!

How we roll...

Walking with concentration with our cute little cheeks sticking out.

Dressing ourself with our shirt fashionably backwards

Boys being boys throwing rocks for like a solid half hour. (Zeke was hanging with us for the day b/c his mom just had a baby)

Intimidating a turtle with a stare down contest.

Our own version of the Orange Bowl. Basically: Throw oranges into a bowl.

There's a snake in my boot

Dear Boys,
I'm not sure which one of you did it, but I will find out. I will hunt you down...and I will tickle you mercilessly. Because today when I put my Fuggs (Fake Uggs) on in the dark garage I.about.croaked. when I felt a large lump in my left boot. You KNOW I have a totally rational fear of a snake hiding in my shoes.
I flung that sucker across the garage, died a thousand deaths, flipped on the garage light and found the culprit to be a chikfila sauce packet stuffed into the offending boot.
Not ok, guys. NOT ok.

Thankful Monday

Going into this week, it'll probably be as nutso as the last several have been. Pat's in busy season at work which means he is working looooooong hours so it's mostly the boys and I. We miss him but we're very proud of how hard he works for us! Starting out the week on a thankful note...

I'm thankful for these sweet roses from my mom's garden. Her roses are UNBELIEVABLE so far this year, I've never seen them flourish so well.

Thankful for Fin making me laugh over his ridiculousness. I was playing 'Draw Something' and he was begging me to let him draw. So I did and told him to draw the word "beer". This is what he came up with.

Seized the opportunity to tell him that is what your head feels like if you drink too many beers :o)

Thankful for this goofball, even though he is getting so big. He's officially weaned, at 19 months, and we both had a hard time with it. We went from wake up in the morning with sweet cuddle/nursing time to him waking up SO mad b/c he wasn't getting num nums. It's been sad to deny him, but as my friend Jamie pointed out, at some point it's gotta be done, otherwise I'll still be nursing him right before he walks down the aisle on his wedding day :o) NO, I do not have attachment issues. Maybe a little.

Another thankful is for Sonic's lemonberry slush. Holy Cow that's good stuff. It tastes like Red Robins strawberry lemonade and has frozen strawberries mixed in. I'm in love. And the free coupons keep piling up for free drinks. Also, they know me so well there now that half the time they just give me my drink for free without even a coupon. Being relational has it's benefits :o)

Grateful for all of these little things this morning, and most especially that the sun is shining so we can go play outside. I am NOT however grateful for whatever creature is eating all my yellow flowers to bits. It is so weird, but he/she/it is only destroying the yellow ones. That's just prejudice and I won't stand for it!

Bananas...In Pajamas

Berry Pickin'

Yesterday we went strawberry picking with the normal crew. It was so much fun but amidst the fun there was lots of chasing kids, lot's of tripping and wiping out on strawberry patches, and lots of illegal strawberry eating on the sly :o)

I was a little apprehensive how Cole would do b/c he's in that fun stage where you say "Cole, come here" and he grins at you and totally sprints in the other direction. Let's just say I've been sweating a lot lately. Luckily though he plopped his little butt down on top of the strawberries and immediately proclaimed, "More?". So it worked well with Fin and I picking and whenever Cole would ask, I'd stick a strawberry in his mouth.

Ha, if Zeke sees you taking his picture he immediately  says, "No cheese!!". So cute.

Love this little girl. We're BFF.

Jess won 'Good Sport of the day'. Not many people pick strawberries at 37 weeks pregnant. She's all belly though. I'm pretty sure she'll pop Zoey out and immediately be a size 2. And then we won't be friends anymore because of that. Sad.

Fin took the picking very seriously. Only problem is if he picked a strawberry that wasn't perfect, he would throw it with no warning. Poor Zeke got a strawberry hurled right at his belly :o)

The strawberry farm was really cute with horses and goats and this grill/choo choo train. Cole could not understand why he couldn't go in the choo choo. Couldn't quite grasp the fact that it was just a grill with a propane tank. Tricky Tricky.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Guess Who's Back?

Back Again.

Caitlin's back.

Tell a friend.

(A little Eminem for you)

My youngest sister Caitlins baaaaaack from Honduras. And she's beautiful and bilingual, and funny as always and she brought me a present :o)

But she's back for good now so we had to throw down at the Keegan casa. I came up with the theme from the poem "To market to market to buy a fat hog, home again, home again Jiggity Jog. To market to Market to buy a fat pig, Home again, Home again Jiggity Jig". (Pats myself on the back). So we took that and turned the theme into a pink pig party of course.

Sage and Nicole made pink yarn poms for the mantle.

And tissue paper poms. Sidenote: Those pink sticks are NOT bunny ears. I went and got cotton candy and who knew, but it melts throughout the evening so by the time it was time to eat they were shriveled up sticks of flesh colored...well, sticks. So sad.

The CUTEST pink cupcakes made by Kier.

Decorations

I made 'Pigs in a Blanket'

The oldest and the youngest.

We are some crazy partyers. Give us a rocking chair and some nice weather and we'll rock till the sun goes down.

A pig or Fin? You determine.

Pooping or Playing? You determine.

Fin thinking he's big stuff hanging with the Aunts.

Besties reunited. Anna and Cait are joined at the hip.

I brought out my moms mixing bowls and measuring cups and dumped some water in them. Viola! Entertainment for hours.

I'm so psyched that Caits home. She did AMAZING work with the orphans in Honduras and I'm so proud of her but I missed her so much. I described it to my friend that even if Cait and I weren't sisters, I would still want her to be one of my best friends. Love her and am so proud.

Some Bunny has a lot of Easter photos...

Easter Recap:

Amazing Saturday Church service

Two Sunday Family get togethers

Ate my weight

Cole had a hissy fit during the hunt thinking people were trying to take his eggs

Fin found the $1 egg. His life is complete.

Ended the day exhausted, well fed, strangely craving more candy

Easter morning

Cute kid. Strange face.

Fin pre-gaming for the Keegan Easter Egg Hunt by reading comics on my parents bed.

They got the signal that the eggs were ready.

Sweet moment with Pops.

We're in love

Love.

Nanny and Pops with the boys. SO grateful they are a part of their daily lives.

Anna got the $10 egg. Dad wouldn't let me participate. Something about cheating one year. Whatevs...the gas tank ain't gonna fill itself.

Fin with his $1 prize.

Blonde haired, blue eyed boy, where did you come from?

Great pic.

A display of Cole's fury in the egg hunt. He was SO mad when it was suggested to put his eggs in his basket.

Fin searched for eggs like it was his job.

Go figure, Cole was more then happy to share with some random dogs.

"Nanny how dare you try to get me to give up my eggs. What's your motive?"

Beautiful spring day celebrating Christ has Risen! One of my favorite days of the year. As soon as I get Stephenson family pics from my sister in law I'll post those too. And if you're not family, this amount of pictures was probably obnoxious to you, but that's ok :o)