Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Here in the Stephenson household, we have a pretty strict beautification process. My mornings getting ready usually consist of me throwing a t-shirt in the dryer to de-wrinkle while I take a quick shower and shave one leg before Cole finds me and becomes mortally offended that I would dare take any "me" time.

After I'm dressed, Fin usually begs to brush my hair. This is me getting the royal treatment.

I would be mortified at that dirty mirror except I actually clean it a lot. My little hoodlums just love to stare adoringly at themselves and sometimes give themselves kisses in the mirror. I'll take those kind of marks anyday.

While Fin brushes my hair, he also wanted to wet it with his Cars washcloth so that's why I look like I"m wearing a yamaka. Also for some reason he always brushes my hair straight down in my eyes. Amidst all this, Cole planted himself in my lap to try to put Fin's flip flop on his own foot.

And that my friends, is why I look the way I do in the mornings. Take it or leave it :o)

Fin has his own beautification process. Lately he's been stroking his chin in the morning and saying thoughtfully, "Hmmm I think I have a little peach fuzz going on here". Then he beeegggggs to shave. Here Aunt Cait is assisting this coming of age process. 

Smooth as a baby's bottom. Cole's beautification process basically consists of smearing yogurt on his face and hair and then loudly protesting when I try to wipe him down. It's messy, but it works for him.

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