My life with the 3stephensboys is exciting, trying, fulfilling, entertaining, amazing, tiring, inspiring... what God made me for & what I love. Therefore, you may not see many pictures of Darrin or me, but you will get an eye full of my 3stephensboys in all of their glory, amazement and cuteness! Thanks for visiting! Enjoy!

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Super Sized Kye!

Kye oh Kye!

I say that so often... sometimes smiling, sometimes not!!!:)

God gave Kye to me for many reasons, some of which I have yet to learn. Kye makes me smile, laugh, and wonder. God is using Kye in my life to teach me patience, to remind me that every person, little or big, is an individual and that not every person, big or little, has to march to the beat of the same drummer.

Kye for sure has his own drum! And I am thankful for that, but honestly sometimes that frustrates me! Help me, Jesus! Kye is so different from me that I am trying to learn from him and learn what God would teach me through His precious child, my Kye!!!

Kye is growing up in so many ways and I had to post about 1!

Kye is officially no longer a child, but a little man at the age of 5 and 11 months! Almost 6!!!

I have said this before, I know, but it deserves to be repeated.....

I have no idea how we will be able to afford groceries in a few years!!!!

Kye is now eating extra value meals at McDonalds!!! A #9 to be exact! He eats all 10 pieces of chicken, and all the fries, and occasionally can be seen nabbing some of Kru's fries!

"Mom, can I get a big meal?"

Tonight, we stopped by Subway to pick up sandwiches. When I went to order his 6" roast beef, he said,
"Mom, I want a foot one too!"

And.... he ate the whole thing plus a bag of chips!!!!

I have told Darrin on numerous occasions that he will have to get a 2nd job soon to pay for food!!!!

That child can eat!!!!

I Love You Kye-Kye!!!!

Monday, March 24, 2008

The Rest of Our Easter Story

So now.... here's the rest of the story....

We had had a wonderful day and the weather was still nice. The boys were in the backyard playing when we noticed Shadow, the cat, playing with something in grass. Darrin all of a sudden freaked out when he realized it was a snake!!!

The coloring of the snake made Darrin think it was a Coral Snake, which is very venomous, but Darrin knew that the Milk Snake has very similar striping. He hollered at me to check the internet for the differences between them. He was attempting to keep the cat, dog and children away from the snake until we knew for sure what kind it was.


We eventually realized it was a Milk Snake.

Red touch yellow, kill a fellow
Red touch black, venom lack


So we were OK!!!

Darrin was considering keeping the thing for a pet for Kye, but I had other ideas. We obviously didn't want to harm the thing, so we called our snake friend, Fernando!!!


Darrin caught him on Kru's toy rake, while we waited to Fernando and his family to come over.




Last time we found a snake, Fernando was very disappointed that we didn't call him, so I was not going to make that mistake again!!!

He was very excited and said it was very rare to find one of these in the wild. We ended up putting the snake it a sand pail with a basketball on top of it! Wouldn't want it to escape!! For Sure!!!



When the Aquirres arrived, excitement was thick!
Of course the snake came out and everyone, well almost everyone touched him!

Thinking ahead, Fernando had brought his snake identifying book along! YEAH!!

We established that we had a Louisiana Milk Snake. Again, being very rare, Fernando , our snake expert, recommended that we release the snake back into nature so that we could have more snakes for people to enjoy, of course you would have to be one of those people who like to enjoy snakes!!!


So after everyone, who wanted a turn, had a turn petting the snake. We all packed up to go out to Lick Creek Park to release the snake.

We had never been out there! Yeah! A new place to go!




Fernando, having had snakes for pets and handling them often, was great with the snake and the kids!











I think Kye would enjoy having a pet for a snake, but after hearing how and what you have to do in order to feed the snake, we aren't up for that yet and my children aren't old enough yet to be that responsible. Mom is NOT going to be dethawing mice on the kitchen counter to feed to a snake!

Sorry boys!!! I hope that you will survive this mean mother who doesn't want a snake in her house right now! :)






So with expertise precision, we put the snake into a sock for his journey to the park.














When we arrived at the park, Fernando in his Fernando-way, made sure everyone understood what we were doing and why. We even had a little lesson in cold-blooded vs warm blooded!!

Thanks Fernando!!!









Here comes the snake!!!!!




















Fernando had never seen one of these in the wild and asked to have a photo with the snake!!!!!

What a snake charmer!













Dakota was chosen to release the snake! But of course, Kye, Mia and Isabella wanted to too!










And there he or she went!













Good bye, Louisiana Milk Snake!


Kye missed it almost immediately!

Kru wanted to know where the swings were!?!






It was late and to end a wonderful Easter, we all went to Double Daves for some yummy pizza!

We hadn't planned on this ending to our Easter, but it was so nice to end the day with friends!!

A Blessed Easter!

Easter was beautiful in so many ways this year!
* the weather was gorgeous
* Easter Kids' Church was powerful
* it was relaxing
* it was blessed
It was a great weekend!!!!

We began Friday at the park with a big egg hunt with some friends.
This was our 2nd year participating and the boys had fun!


There was even an egg toss, but they were hard-boiled.


Early Saturday morning, we arrived at Kroger for their egg hunt!



Kye found 55 eggs, Kru 33 and Dakota had 44.
Isn't that odd!?!
Needless to say, I have a TON of eggs around the house!

The weather was gorgeous and we worked outside
almost the rest of the day.
Planting, mowing, laying mulch, pulling weeds!

Later that day, Whitney came over and we colored almost 6 dozen eggs!
Remember, Darrin LOVES to color eggs!








Everyone had a great time and Kru's hands are still stained!

Sunday morning came, and of course Dakota was up way too early and
convinced Kye to get up as well to search for their baskets.
Kru eventually wandered out of his bedroom to find his as well.

Then it was off to church. I had the privilege to help with Kids' church. We sang amazing worship songs, and learned a few new ones!
(My favorites... Supernatural and Superhero!)
We made bookmarks of the Resurrection
and Crosses to remind us of Jesus' sacrifice for us.
It was a great service and I was so happy to be with kids
on this special day!

I hope you had a blessed Easter as well!
P.S.
There is more to this Easter story, but it deserves a post of its own....

Friday, March 21, 2008

My Little Stud Muffin!!!!

Do you recognize this child????
It's hard, I know, but look close and you may recognize him!


Oh my!!

It's Dakota!

And YES, it is SHORT!!!!



Apparently, a mother of boys should always allow the father to have a say in the process of boys getting their haircut and how their hair should be cut! If I had adhered to this, say a week or so ago, Dakota's hair would have looked this wonderful for the professional pictures that we took last week! When will I learn!

He looks so handsome!!! And I haven't seen this child's eyebrows,ears or neck for years! literally!!!
He likes it, a lot! He was nervous, but we knew he was ready.
Soccer begins next week and this will make him so much cooler.
Dakota said his head feels so much lighter! I bet!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Spring Break 2008

For Spring Break, we didn't get to go to DC as originally planned due to the taxes we have to pay soon, but we wanted to feel as though we had a little vacation at least. So we went to Galveston for a few days.
Having never been there before, we were excited to go to the beach, Kru's 1st time! Although many locals here told us that it wasn't a nice place to visit, we were thrilled with our couple of days there and hope to do it again maybe this summer.

The pluses of going to Galveston:
* our van can make it! (for the time being)
we weren't sure about the long trip to DC
* not too expensive, because of the beach
* not too far - 2 1/2 hours,
but our drive home turned into 4 with traffic!!
couldn't pay me to live in Houston!!

* feeding seagulls from your hotel balcony
* swimming in the hotel hot tub! A highlight of my family!
the pool was frigid!
* watching all 4 (yes, Darrin especially) playing at the beach
* Moody Gardens
* seeing Dolphins in the wild - YES that is one in the blue circle
I know, they were so fast!!! Hey a pelican too!
* seeing Pelicans!!!!! I LOVED THAT!!! Check out this cool shot!!!
never been that close to one!

My 4 boys didn't care if the waves weren't the biggest, they only went out to their belly buttons anyhow! And they didn't care what kind or color the sand was, they built sand castles any way!


We ate at some yummy!!!! restaurants and ate a bunch!!!
Yikes! And no exercising! :(


So here are some other pictures of the fun we had!!!

Kye loved posing with the dolphins!

This is right after we arrived. We went straight to the beach and the kids got straight wet!
After running into and along the water, Kye tells me, "AHHH, I think I'm seasick!"
Yes, it is a Kyeism! One of his many! :)

Miss Whitney met us on Thursday for a fun day at Moody Gardens!
YEAH!!!! We ALL love Miss Whitney!
Here is a great shot!
Let's watch some 4D!!!!!
So Kru really hated the whole 4D experience! This is before it began!
We had a great time and Dakota was heard saying that this was his "best Spring Break ever, well after going to Uncle and Shel Shel's of course." So that is quite the compliment seeing that it ranked up there with his trips to Uncle's house! WOW!

Let us know if you want to come with us this summer!!!!

Friday, March 07, 2008

SNOW!!!!

YES!!!!

It actually snowed in College Station, Texas.
Early this morning
It wasn't much, BUT, it was snow!!! Made me homesick!

It melted once it hit the ground, so no accumulation! BUT it was snow!

I know the pictures aren't the best! My friend,
Heather, who lives in Bryan has better ones!
And they got more than we did here!