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.