When Moms away...

So last night I ran out after dinner to get my haircut. This happens like twice a year people because I'm a "wear my hair like a birds nest on top of my head" person due to baby's tugging and lack of showers. Really, it's all the rage. So I left, had a glorious 50 minutes of no one talking to me except for the hair dresser who wanted to know my life story, and was home in time for the chaos that is bedtime.
After we got the kids down, Pat informed me that there was a moment of pure pandemonium while I was gone. He had just gotten Fin in the shower, and was changing Lilah when he heard a panicked shriek coming from Cole in the living room. Before we go any further, you need to know where our tree is located in our living room...



So Pat runs out as he hears Cole shrill screaming "HELP! I'm stuck!!" over and over again. We have a tiny living room but he could NOT find Cole and it sounded like it was coming from the direction of our Christmas tree. He said he kept saying, "Where are you??" but Cole would only answer back saying he was stuck. In the midst of this, Fin shot like a bat out of hell out of our shower b/c he had heard screams. Naked and dripping wet and starts yelling, "Dad! He's in the tree!! He's stuck in the tree!", so Pat's frantically searching through the tree trying to find Cole with Cole still crying. The common sense of how could a three year old hide inside a small Christmas tree apparently did not come into to play in this scenario :o)
Pat said he was really panicked until he noticed the cries coming actually from the couch. Our coach is pushed up against the wall but Cole had apparently wiggled his way behind it and got halfway across the back before his head got stuck pinned between the wall and the couch and he didn't think to move backwards :o)
Once Pat moved him and calmed him down, he said he was fine. But I was laughing SO hard at Pat telling me this story b/c I could just picture him and naked Fin searching through the Christmas tree branches for Cole. I mean seriously people, this is the type of situation three men get themselves in without the help of a woman...

Split 'Em up Date night: Frozen edition

One of my favorite things we do as a family is intentional split em up date nights. I've blogged about several before but tonight was such a fun one.
Usually Pat will take Fin or Cole and I'll take the other two and we'll take them on individual errands or little fun dates to Barnes and Nobles to read books or something like that. I never do just the boys because let's be honest...a nursing babe and mom are not soon parted.
But for awhile I've been DYING to see the new Disney movie 'Frozen' because I have such sweet memories of going to see the new Disney movie every year as a kid with my parents. The Lion King...Little Mermaid...love them all.
Spur of the moment I bought tickets today for this afternoon to go see the movie with the boys and Aunt Banans. It was rainy and freezing today and I knew if we all stayed at home we would drive each other crazy. I nursed Lilah before we left and off we went.
True to tradition of growing up, when we met Anna there she immediately stuffed two bags of candy in my purse to sneak into the movie theater. We found our seats and Cole immediately folded in half in his and then either sat on the edge of his seat with a scared look or stood up for the next twenty minutes before he settled into Anna's lap for the movie.
The boys loooove going to the movies and are so tickled at everything but bless them, they CANNOT whisper to save their lives. Every comment of "WHEN IS THE MOVIE STARTING?" or "I DROPPED MY WATER CUP" is whispered at a loud roar which made Anna and I die laughing. After the first preview, Cole looked at me and said, "I liked that movie!". I think he thought that was it :o) He watched the whole move with no expression on his face, neither getting happy or scared and then at the end hopped out of Anna's lap and said, "I love that movie". Hilarious.
Fin felt every crescendo in music, intense moment, and hilarious jokes. He jumped from busting out laughing at the snowman to crawling in my lap at the scary parts to hopping into his chair when the bad guy got beaten. True to his classic old man outlook on life, when he left he said, "You know, I thought that movie was just going to be like "meh" but it was ah.may.ziiiing!". You always know where you stand with him.
The sweetest moments of the evening for me were when we got to the movie theater, Fin announced, "Before we get out of the car let's say, "Thank you mommy for taking us to the movies" on the count of three". Then when we were leaving the movie theater, Cole spontaneously said, "Frank you mom for that movie". Melt. My. Heart.
Had such a sweet time with my boys and Pat took Lilah girl to his parents where his mom could cook him dinner :o) He loved his time with her too and send me a pic of Grandma and Lilah who were coincidentally wearing matching Jammies when they showed up. So funny.

Fin and Cole-isms

The boys have been cracking me up lately and I wanted to record a few down before I forget...

We've been doing a "thankful" paper chain every morning where I made a paper chain and every link is something that we are thankful for and then every morning during morning devotions, the boys get to go tear one off and we pray and thank God for whatever is written on that chain. Regardless of what the chain says, Cole starts every one of his prayers by saying, "Frank you Jesus for this bootiful sunny day...". It doesn't matter if it's pouring rainy, he always says the same thing. I love it so much I hope he never learns to say "thank you" the right way :o)
Fin tore a chain off one morning and asked what it said. I said it said "brothers" and that we should thank God for our brothers. He looked at me skeptically and said, "Um, can I trade this chain in for another one, because Cole is kind of a knucklehead..". I laughed SO hard and told him no he could not trade it in. He is such a grumpy old man sometimes.

Every morning when I help Cole get dressed, I pull down his jammie pants and always exclaim "AH WEENIES!". (I know, really mature). I did this like normal and normally Cole giggles but when I did it one morning he knit his eyebrows together and said, "Ummmm Mom, please don't say "AH WEENIES" anymore b/c....Weenies are my friends". Understood.

Fin ran in from his basketball the other day and was So excited. He immediately said, "MOM...I Played SO good. Like SO SO good" and was so proud. I love his confidence. He thinks when he makes a basket that it's called dunking so he said, "I dunked like SO so many times". He tells other people how much he dunks too and they always look so confused :o)

When I went to pick up Cole from the Y this morning, his teacher said that during circle time Cole kept leaning over to the boy next to him (who is is friend from church) and kissing him on the cheek. Finally after 3 kisses, the teacher said, "Ok Cole,that's enough kisses" and he said Cole got SUCH a mad look on his face and said, "TEACHER, I have to kiss my friend!". We're hoping he either phases this stage out...or becomes a Quaker :o)

Pat was talking to Fin after his game the other day and said, "Fin there are three things I want to tell you... 1) You played your hardest and that makes me so proud of you. 2) You listened so well to your coach and that makes me very proud too. And 3).." And Fin interrupted him giggling so excited and said, "I LOVE number three...it's always the best one". Kind of threw Pat off and I'm pretty sure he forgot what number 3 was in the first place...


These boys always keep us on our toes. Heaven help us when Lilah starts talking...

Facts of Life

I thought it would be fun to write down some random facts about our family in this stage of life, to look back at one day and remember. Goodness knows it's all a diapers, water cups, naptime blur most days :o)




We live on a cash budget, but nothing makes me happier (and Pat too I suspect) then when he doesn't use our cash on the weekends when he goes and gets us Starbucks. It may sound silly but its like a forbidden splurge that we're not counting or acknowledging. Makes that peppermint mocha taste that much better...


My most frustrating time of the day is getting in the car to go somewhere. God bless my minivan, it has made things a lot easier, BUT for some reason it takes my boys 3 hours to walk 5 feet from the house to the van. There route will include circling the tree a few times, wandering around looking for rolly poley's, walking with one shoe on while the other is in their hand, and just general things to make me want to throw a toddler fit. I admit, I start out calm in the house telling each one directly to walk straight to the car, get in and buckle but it all usually ends with me saying, "SERIOUSLY you have three seconds to get in the car. We are LATE. Buckle yourself and you're not allowed to talk until your buckled and NO I will not help you with your shoe right now, we will just do it when we get there".


Almost every evening ends with the kids in bed and then Fin sneaking out to tell us that Cole won't stop talking to him. We then go in and either spank or threaten to spank and then peace is restored. It's a sweet little family tradition we have ;o)


Pat gets up with Lilah when she wakes up at 6am and hangs with her for a half hour before he has to go to work. He said he turns the lamp on and she will just lay on his chest while he scratches her back. She will NEVER lay on me like this because she's always on the hunt for some nummies. I would be jealous but let's be honest, I'm in my sweet sweet warm bed while this is going down, so they can have their moment :o)


Most days the kids have "room time" while I get dinner ready. They go in their rooms (Lilah included) and can play whatever they want as long as they aren't leaping off the top bunk and they know they're cleaning it up later. I spread a line on the floor of the hall using a spongebob blanket and tell them they are not allowed to cross that line but can play anywhere up to that line. This includes no yelling tattles to me OVER the line. It's blissful and peaceful, but all hell breaks loose if Daddy walks in the door during that time. That line is quickly hurdled over in an effort for tackle hugs.

This fall weather has been so beautiful that we've been outside as much as possible trying to store away Vitamin D for the dreary months. The only way I can do a decent long walk with the kids is I load up Cole and Lilah in the double jogging stroller that has a half flat tire and then Fin drives ahead of us in his gator. It's kind of hilarious to see as we are our own parade, but that gator is awesome; we can do a 3 mile loop with. It's quite the workout for me between pushing the stroller and telling Fin when to stop and start when crossing the streets.

There's a million more random things I can think of but I think these tidbits pretty well sum up where we are at right now. I purposefully did not record stories of Poop-explosions and why on earth can boys not pee in a straight line. Your welcome, kids.

Daylight Devastation

These kids...they look so innocent. But there is a day once a year that is bound to throw them off their game for at least 2 weeks. It is not a holiday (although it once was one in my mind). It's Daylight Savings. While everyone without young children gain an hour, my kids are up an hour early in the new clock time. Which means breakfast at 6am new time...which means filling time 3 hours before church...which means Mama better start learning to like coffee because it is not acceptable to eat chocolate before the sun is up, so says Ms. Manners.
I thought I was prepared. I knew it would be bad but this is my 5th Daylight Savings with children...I'm no rookie. But no my friends, yesterday everything and everyone were gunning for us.
It started out pretty good, minus the boys protesting loudly from their room because they were awake but the time on their alarm was not letting them get up yet. We had waffles, we cuddled, and I even let Pat sleep 15 minutes later than usual on his morning to sleep in. Because I was in this generous "can't touch me" Daylight Savings spirit. But then Pat got dressed and looked for his wallet and the stuff hit the fan...
Wallet...gone. His Iphone...gone. And we were all over town the day before so he had no idea where he could have left it. He darted out the door at 7:30 am to try to retrack his steps and be home in time to leave for church at 8:30. I got the boys playing and told them I was putting Lilah down for her nap. Right as she falls asleep, Fin kicks in the door to tell me that Cole was gone and running around outside. People...this child does not go out by himself and it was a solid 45 degrees outside and...oh yea, he was running around neighborhood without a parent. I put a now fully awake and crying Lilah in her crib and flew outside with no bra, wearing XXL shirt of Pat's and my pink Santa pajama pants, O yes I did!
I see Cole at the stop sign with a grin on his face...DANCING...until he saw my face and hauled his little soon-to-be-spanked butt home. One spanking, several tears, and a napped Lilah later we were ready to leave for church. Except Pat still couldn't find his wallet that had a lot of valuable things in it. And his phone. And while we tried to figure out a game plan I swear my children multiplied from 3 to 76 because everyone was talking at once and I could.not. form a thought in my head. So I took the kids to church while he stayed behind to keep looking.
Just as I arrived at church, a thought popped into my head of where it could be. But I had no way of letting Pat know because he had no phone. So my saint of a sister Sarah took the kids into Sunday School while I raced 20 min back home to try to find Pat and let him know. I drove around and found him in the Target parking lot where I ripped open the top of the canopy on the stroller and....there was his wallet and phone. People...moments like these can make or break a marriage. Luckily we were both so relieved we hugged it out, I told him he owed me big time, and we rushed back to church before Sunday School let out. We even made it back in time for the end of the sermon.
Except...When I went to take Lilah out of her carseat I realized she had had a poop-explosion allllllll over herself. So we christened the new minivan by changing her in there. And we made it to pick up the kids on time just to hear from Fins Sunday School teachers that Fin came in and immediately announced, "My brother ran away and my mom is really overwhelmed". Thanks Fin, thanks :o)

We survived. We all apologized to each other from stressful reactions and we ate bagels and had a merry ol' time. But I've learned a lesson. You cannot beat Daylight Savings. It will always win. Don't get cocky...and for goodness sake, always lock the doors when putting the baby down for her nap.

O Fall

We just love you so much...












Yes Kids, Grandma is this limber at the age of 59. Yes, we were all impressed.




















Please stay forever.

Lilah at 6 months

Can we just please kick off her 6 month post with this awesome pic?



I'm sorry Lilah (but I'm not sorry). I love those rolls so very much. They are kissable, and dimpled and I nibble them everyday and they are some kind of soft baby drug to me.
Moving on...
Our Janie is 6 almost 7 months now. Still so so happy, still so sweet, trying new things now like...
A pumpkin waffle and sitting in a highchair for the first time.


Hanging in an icecream shop with the bros.


Cooking with Mama (dream come true for me!). I have such sweet memories cooking in my moms kitchen and I cannot wait to do the same with her.


Snuggling on the couch with Fin like she's fifteen years old or something.


Cat naps in the car. That's not new both this is a really cute pic of her and her foot :o)


Still crashing mom and dads date night. She's about to get the boot soon though because while always giggling, she's become a little bit of a wiggle worm and she competes with me for her daddy's affections.


Still one of the cutest monkeys I've ever seen.


Lilah seems so big to me lately. She's sleeping better, while still not all the way through the night. That's ok though, Mama's been broken by the other two and now the expectations are very very low. Basically if she's not trying to climb out of her crib or waking up every half hour, anything else goes!
She's tried some oatmeal and I've given her little crusts, fruits and waffles to suck on. We're going to do the same route that we did with Cole and do minimal pureed foods and mainly breastfeed with a little bit of food in its true form. I loved this with Cole (partly because of how easy it was) and it worked great so if it ain't broke, don't fix it!
Lilah is LOUD with the vocals. She's a growler, a shrieker and a singer. I joke and say she's the most masculine baby we've ever had b/c she has the funniest deep throated growls. She rarely fusses though and mainly is just training to be as vocal as her brothers. We're very excited about this....actually we're very scared of adding another talker into the bunch. We can only take so much.

Lilah is doted on by her brothers. Her daddy smothers with kisses and when he's walks into the room and sees her, he always say, "well well well, if it isn't little Miss Holly Springs", which cracks me up everytime. She's my bestie and such a joy to us.



Lilah, You.are.Loved.

Chicken Butt

Oh Cole.
So, a few weeks back, Pat taught the boys all of the Chicken jokes. The "Guess what...chicken butt" one and the "Guess why...Chicken Pie" one...You know, all important intelligent things you want to pass onto your children. I clearly was not in the room when this was going down and as soon as they both ran into Lilahs room to ask me, "Guess what?" with giant smiles on their face....I knew the damage had been done.
So they incessantly asked these jokes until we put the kabosh on the whole thing aboooouuuut one hour later. Fin, like any reasonable 5 year old, saw a spanking in his future and obeyed. Cole, not so much. He kept on with the Chicken Butt joke until he was punished.




As time went on, he would stop telling the joke altogether but would just randomnly yell out "CHICKEN BUTT" regardless of if it was to a family or stranger, at home or in a restaurant. This.had.to.stop.
SO we told Cole anytime he said "Chicken butt", he would get a spanking. And mostly he can contain himself. But at least a few times a day he cannot and he will run into the room I'm in, whisper (chicken butt), get a TERRIFIED look on his face and run out of the room with his little butt covered with both hands.
It takes ALL of our will power not to burst out laughing at the sheer terror on his face because he seriously cannot help himself. I really feel like we are weaning him off of crack cocaine or something, he just loves saying those words so dang much.
So again, husband, Muchos gracias for the nuggets of wisdom you are passing along to our offspring :o)

Community

It's one of those perfect cozy afternoons where the 2 little are still sleeping, I got a nap myself (GLORY) and Fin and I are cuddling watching Tom and Jerry while he tells me every detail of his morning in preschool :o)
I have been filled to the brim lately in a good way, where I look around and am so dang grateful for where we are and who we are surrounded by. In Bible Study last week we talked about community and what that looks like being a part of a church body. To be honest, community has never been something I've sought out. Living so close to both of our extended famlies, I've always felt content with our little family, hanging out with our extended families and having 5 built in best friends in my sisters...










I've never been super social and I'm content to be a nester and just chill at home with my homies.


But we finally caved to JD's weekly encouragement to get in a bible study. The Epp's started one in our neighborhood that met after bedtime, so really, our excuses had run out at that point :o) Not that we didn't try to look for more...
But man is there blessing in community outside the family. In the past several months just by getting to know and hang out with several young mothers in Summit and then beginning to get to know the woman in our bible study, I have been so blessed by those friendships and just the day to day "doing life" together.
From bible study cookouts with a million sweaty kids running around and jumping on the trampoline...


To an impromptu "fall food" cookout with good friends; it feels nice to be able to be social with our three young kids because everyone is at the same stage of life as us and tantrums and snotty noses are as common as sippy cups and the sharing of highchairs all around.


It just feels like a very sweet time for our family and I'm so glad to be investing in these friendships. Because really, what friendship is not solid when based on a common love of Jesus and s'mores?

That I don't want to forget...

There's going to be a time soon, when all of these everyday quirks that seem routine right now are going to be something that I don't even remember without a prompt. In my always healthy way of clinging to the moment, I want to record some of those little things that I can look back on when I'm not in this season of babyhood and remember with a glad heart.
Like the way that the boys are only allowed in the trunk of my car when I'm nursing Lilah. So whenever we are on the go and she's hungry, I'll park and let them unbuckle and climb into the trunk to play while I cram Lilah and I into the front seat and I feed her while she kicks the steering wheel repeatedly.
Or the way that everytime we approach a stoplight, Cole says, "Red means stop and green means go and yellow means SLOW DOWN!".




Or how every morning I'll grab Lilah and whisper to Fin to come hide in my bed and snuggle until Cole finds us. So we lie with Lilah in between us and take turns kissing her soft cheeks until Cole tears himself away from Mickey Mouse to yell "HEY! Where are you guys?". Then we pull the covers over us and try to be as still as possible until Cole yanks the covers back with his big toothy grin peering in.
And how we like to pop into Pats office to surprise him with a treat and I tell the boys to tiptoe like mice so he won't hear us coming. But inevitably someone drops the drink we're bringing him, or a hand gets shut in the door so Pat and all of his office mates are more than aware that the Stephensons have arrived.
I love how when I'm getting my dietvanillacokethankyouverymuch at Sonic that Cole will yell from the back seat "AND RASPBERRY TEA" so loud that it always confuses the person taking my order when I have to say no we actually are not getting that. He gets a warning everytime and everytime he does it. At least he's consistant.
And It may frustrate the heck of my right now that everytime I'm having a serious conversation with Fin and correcting him that he starts dancing his way around me. Like literally Michael Jackson dancing as he looks at me with a totally straight face as if he's soaking in every word. Have you ever had to spank someone for dancing in defiance? Well I never thought I would have to either. But I know I'll miss those parental quandaries.




And soon my sweet Lilah will be toddling around and pulling up on things but right now I love that anytime I call her name she will start kicking her legs furiously and craning her whole body around to see where I am in the room. And if she lives to see the age of 1 it is by Gods mercy because today I caught Cole mid-hammer before he started giving her a check up with a wooden mallet.
And in those Oh-emm-gee moments in the car when I'm driving in traffic and Fin is asking me repeatedly to look at a trick he is doing in the back seat and Cole is telling me that Fin is leaning on his carseat and Lilah doing her happy shriek that sounds like a dozen witches being boiled in a vat of oil, I know that all too soon I'll be driving in silence in my clean-ish car one day and missing those distractions and frustrations.
Because in this chaos there is so much joy. And hilarity and head banging. And letting Fin stay up late to tell me about his day while he sits cross legged on the table dipping his banana into the brownie batter I'm making is one of the many mundanes right now that I want to remember later.
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Coley Bear is 3!

Our sweet bear turned three this week. But not without closing out being 2 with a bang!
Monday night we heard Cole crying in his room and found him face down on the floor. One look at his arm and we KNEW that bad boy was broken. He told us he fell off his little toddler stool that's like 3 inches from the ground. Such a bizarre fall that resulted in 2 broken bones in the forearm of his right arm.
Poor babe at the hospital. He was SUCH a trooper. When we left after all those horrible tests, he looked at me and said, "Did we have a fun times at the doctors?". Poor buddy. Always looking for the party.


Sleep deprived and still on some pain meds. If you want to see something funny, put a toddler on morphine. Holy cow, he was saying some funny things to us. We were dying laughing.


He went from a growling bear because of the pain he was in to bouncing back to his chipper, living out loud, funny self. Yes, thats a turkey on his head.


Yes those are Pat's glasses on his face. Its totally normal for him to put Pat's glasses on when he gets up in the morning and walk around the house like it's no big deal. The thing is is Pat's blind as a bat so I wonder how he can even walk around and see with those glasses on.


Cole said for his birthday that he wanted a "bananaaaah" Party which means a minion from Despicable Me party. Noooot easy to find these things but we pulled it together to decorate the house and he was thrilled. He woke up and said, "Am I three now???" and then ran to Lilah's crib and said, "Lilah...it's a minion birthday time".



After cinnamon rolls for breakfast and dropping Fin off at preschool, we hit up the Y where Cole can now go in the game room because he's three. This is like...the dream of his life. He's like a crazy bird let out of it's cage when he gets in this room. Running around the room, saying hi to everyone, it's so funny. After the Y, I took Coley to a special one on one lunch to Chickfila. We let Lilah tag along.





That night most of my family gathered at Anna's Pizzeria. Cole was thrilled to death to have most of his favorite people in one room. He was so excited and Nanny made the most amazing minion cake. Seriously Nanny, you're hired for all future cake making...whether you like it or not :o)














After cake and family time walking around on Salem Street, we headed home with Uncle Will and Sarah to hit the pinata. Because nothing says "wind down for bed" like hitting the heck out of something with a baseball bat.


Of course we had to put the minion feet on Lilah. Clearly she thought it was hilarious.


I mean, I just could not love this boy anymore. He is chock full of SO much personality. Since he got his terrible twos out of the way at 18 months, we have found this past year to be delightful. EVERYONE is this guys friend. He runs into rooms, restaurants, stores and yells, "Hi guys! Whatre we doing?". He is almost always bouncing around happy but if his blood sugar gets low, you better duck and grab the closest Snickers bar b/c homeboy can growl. He loves Baby Einstein, Mickey Mouse, walks to the stop sign every evening to say hi to the moon, wearing socks, his three blankies, blowing bubbles, riding in the gator next to Fin, taking tubby's, going to Nanny's house and so much more. My favorite story of him the past year is my parents took him to Camp Willow Run to visit my sisters. The whole camp was singing, 'Holy, Holy, Holy' and when the song ended, Cole was the only one who kept singing and they realized he was singing, 'Toley, Toley, Toley'. He thought the whole song was about him and that everyone was singing his name :o)
Cole, may you always feel and assume love from everyone, even strangers. You have the gift of quirk and friendliness and your dad and I pray God uses that to draw people to Him. We love you with the fullest hearts.