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.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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.

Fin starts Preschool

Well we did it. Almost one month into Fin being in preschool and we are all adjusted and I don't cry myself to sleep every night :o) In all honesty this boy was READY to start his big boy school. He was...I wasn't. I kept thinking to myself, "I don't want to hop on this train". Once the school train starts, it doesn't stop until...I can't even say how it stops b/c it makes me feel like someone punched me in the stomach. But the word starts with a "g" and then it flows into a word starting with a "c" and then I end up whispering in the kids ears as they sleep, "You never have to leave home. You can live here always". Anyways, it's not about me, right?



Preschool morning started as any good morning should start...with doughnuts.


Fin was so excited to dress "sharp" for his big day and kept asking me how many more minutes until we leave. Which then morphed into the conversation of "how long is a minute?" and I"m really hoping Mrs. Amy can help us figure out concepts about time before I pull my hair out from the questions :o)





Don't think this boy let me off easy. The night before preschool, he told me he was going to miss me a lot to which I had to respond in a fake squeaky voice, "No you won't, you'll be having too much fun!". And then the next morning he made me a bracelet to remember him by and asked if we could cuddle in bed before preschool to look at the photo album of his baby pictures. Are.You.Kidding.Me? Apparently we were doing this the most painful way possible. Again, not about me....
That night Pat talked Fin into requesting Waffle House for dinner which was totally suspicious b/c Fin has never been to the Waffle House. The puke in the parking lot should have been our first warning.


Lilah sensed this was a casual establishment and put her feet up.


Even though we're at preschool 3 days a week now, we are still squeezing the heck out of the last summer days.
We're hitting up Jordan Lake...


Working in the yard with dad...


Doing Cousin Park dates...


And eating lots of s'more still.


So I guess we're on the train now. And I would say something positive about that except I'm still kind of struggling with letting any of my chicks out of my sight for three mornings a week like that. Growing pains certainly are painful but I guess they're necessary to avoid having my balding fourty year old son living in my basement. I'm not gonna lie though, I'd totally love.
No I wouldn't.
(Yes I would).