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!

Monday, June 30, 2008

Understanding the Quick & the Hungry!!!!


Not sure if you were like Darrin and I growing up, but we both heard the stories from our father's about growing up in a full house. I don't necessarily think of our house as a "full" house, but tonight at supper, I understood our father's stories.

"In our house, there was the quick and the hungry!"

In a very real way, this was lived out at our table tonight!

I know I have mentioned that my boys can eat a ton, one more than the others, but tonight all 3 of their appetites was HUGE!!!!

There was some tasty pasta that everyone enjoyed. Kye had asked for seconds and so had Kru, when Dakota realized that there wasn't a whole lot of pasta left. He quickly poured the rest on his plate making the statement, "I better get some before Kye gets the rest!"

Darrin and I just looked at each other and almost simultaneously it hit us!

We understood our fathers!! :)

Sunday, June 29, 2008

June in Review!

Lots of things went on in June, but we've been busy so I haven't posted about them all!

So I thought I would post a review of our busy month!

There has been sleeping over at friends, watching $ movies on Wednesday, staying in our pjs until we go swimming.

We swim almost everyday!

Yep, almost everyday! We love the water and really here in Texas, it is the only thing (in my mid-western opinion) that you can do during the day to stay cool and sane!!!! Usually we meet up with friends from church which is a great way of getting to know new people and catching up with people I don't really get to hang with through the school year! Kru loves to go off the diving board, did last summer too, and Kye has learned that he loves it too! It's always a great day at the pool and my little men are so so brown!!! (They get that from their dad and Uncle!)

The second week of June was VBS! It is a great time, but extremely tiring! We are at the church all week long from at least 7:30-1:00. But we wouldn't have it any other way! This year's theme was The Greatest Treasure Ever Known. Pirates were to be found about the church! I was one of the Bible Time teachers; my name was Anchor Annie! My class was held in the bilge! Daily I was transformed into a slightly gypsy like pirate with a strange piraty Irish accent! Really, it was pretty bad, but I played it up well regardless!!! I had the privilege of sharing The Gospel to children everyday!!! It was exciting to see these little people listening and being sensitive to the Spirit! Amazing time! There are pictures out there of me as Anchor Annie, but I don't have any on my laptop yet, but I will add them when I get them! I loved my costume!!! :)

The week following VBS, Kye started a summer enrichment program through the ISD. He was a bit overwhelmed the first day, but has been enjoying it off and on. He goes from 8-Noon everyday. He will finish that this Wednesday. Not sure if it has accomplished all I hoped it would, but it has given him something to do on any given day.

Probably the biggest news of the summer so far has been that....

KRU IS POTTY TRAINED!!!!!

It really happened so easily after VBS. He hasn't (knock on wood) had an accident at all, except during nap time! So very begrudgingly so, he wears a diaper for nap and bed time. He loves wearing his big boy underwear and tells me when he has to go! His only problem is saying he is done before he really is done and then we have to repeat within minutes. So I say, "Think about it, ask it if it's really done." If I do that at least twice we are good to go for a hour or so! Yeah Kru-man!!!!


Then, Papa came for a whole week to visit! We were very excited to have him here for so long! But, I know we wore Papa out!!!! He was a trooper and went to the pool with us and just assimilated into our family routine! We love it when he comes because we only get to see him once or twice a year! And we love it when he comes because he spoils all of us!!! Thanks Papa! We love you!
While Papa was here there was a festival down in Bryan. It was a scorcher of a day, but here in Texas you do regardless of the heat, just like when we lived in Oregon, you do regardless of the rain!! We headed to downtown Bryan and found lots to do!

Here we are fishing for catfish! The boys liked it and Kru and Dakota caught one! Of course they had to put them right back for the next group to come give it a try! We got free NAPA hats out of it with the Nascar logo too! Darrin liked that! And it was free, even better!

They had a great free petting zoo! The usual goats and sheep were to be found, but there was a calf, which I loved & wanted to bring home, bunnies, geese, ducks, a donkey, a pig, who looked like he was going to die!!!

They had many activities around to do. We did leathercraft, which Darrin got WAY in to!!! Played in sand that stuck to us because we were sticky hot, yuk! Looked at some cool insects, drank really expensive fresh squeezed lemonade, and got wore out!!! Phew, we were tired!!!

Our week with Papa wrapped up with Kru's 3rd Birthday party. Kru invited 3 of his favorite people and their families; Jack, Sydni and Jalie! We had cake and ice cream and a good time visiting with friends!



And then Whit came to visit for a few days before leaving for Youth Camp. We were so excited!!!

The boys would not leave her alone!!!! They love her so! It was so fun to have her back even for a short time! She is a part of our family and we have missed her!! We went swimming and went to a drive-in movie down in Hockley, which was so cool!!! Whitney has more pictures on her camera, so I will have to add them later!

So that was our June! July will bring more swimming, spending time with friends, staying up late and sleeping in, I hope! But I'll try to be more consistent with the posting! Have a good last day of June tomorrow!

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Monday, June 23, 2008

Happy Birthday Kru-man


Happy number 3 Kru!!!!

It blows my mind that you are 3 already!
Seems like yesterday that you appeared into our lives
smiling and delightful, completing our family!

You are such a joy!
I love you in so many ways and for so many reasons.
I LOVE your laugh! It is contagious!
I love your smile!
I love how you say, "Sydni & Jalie"
I love to hear you sing!
I love seeing you get so excited that you shake!
Catching you off of the diving board and slide is great!
You are so brave!
I love that you love to snuggle and cuddle!

You have blessed me and made me a better mother!
You are your own little person, unique to the core.

You are such a big little man!
Occasionally I have to stop and remind myself that you are saying things
that you say, doing things that you are doing, because I want to keep
you my baby forever! But you are getting big!
Going potty now!
Feeding yourself!
Dressing yourself!
"I want to do it myself!" often escapes your lips!

I love you so much and I'm so thankful that God gave you to me.
I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for your life.
As you continue to fall more in love with Jesus,
I pray that He will become more important to you than anything else!

Love you my sweet little Kru-man!
Happy Birthday!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Child Like Faith

Sunday night I was blessed.

We went to church for KidShine and Bible study and afterward, Kathryn came up to tell me about Kye. My first reaction was, "Oh no, what did he do?" She assured me it wasn't anything like that and it was good.

She told me that during worship in KidShine that she looked over to my Kye and he was raising his hands and worshiping the Lord. His eyes were closed and he was singing to the Lord.

That blessed me!!!

Kye loves to sing, and I believe that music will affect him like it does me. But it made me so thankful that my little guy KNOWS how to worship, even if he fully doesn't understand why we raise our hands to our heavenly Father, he still does it!!!!

Precious!

And speaking of child-like faith, Dakota in response to Abby's death said, "That's really sad, but at least she is in Heaven with Jesus."

Child-like faith!

Thank you Jesus!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

In Remembrance

Today I'm posting because a dear friend of mine at church lost her 9 day old baby Thursday. Abby had a congenital heart condition.

I know that God brought Becky into my life for many reasons. She has taught me much in the year that I have known her! We have laughed together, shared, prayed, cut felts together! :) And now we are mourning together. I ache for Becky greatly!

Tomorrow, Rayin, the little girl we lost, would be 8. I can't believe that it has been that long! Becky's and my situation is not exactly the same, but the feelings are the same. She had her little girl for 9 days and I never got to hear mine cry. But I know what it is to carry a baby for 9 months with great expectation, with dreams and hopes for your daughter, and I know what it's like to have that taken away! To have empty arms that ache in a way that nothing ever has or ever will.

Becky and I and so many others who have lost babies at Living Hope are standing firm on what we know to be true! That God IS Good...That God IS in Control, That God IS SOVEREIGN, that His ways are high above ours and that we can trust in Him!!!

This song is very meaningful to me, it's Glory Baby by Watermark. They too lost a baby and wrote this after that. Here are the lyrics:

Glory baby you slipped away as fast as we could say baby…baby..
You were growing, what happened dear?
You disappeared on us baby…baby..
Heaven will hold you before we do
Heaven will keep you safe until we’re home with you…
Until we’re home with you…

Miss you everyday
Miss you in every way
But we know there’s a
day when we will hold you
We will hold you
You’ll kiss our tears away
When we’re home to stay
Can’t wait for the day when we will see you
We will see you
But baby let sweet Jesus hold you
‘till mom and dad can hold you…
You’ll just have heaven before we do
You’ll just have heaven before we do

Sweet little babies, it’s hard to
understand it ‘cause we’re hurting
We are hurting
But there is healing
And we know we’re stronger people through the growing
And in knowing-
That all things work together for our good
And God works His purposes just like He said He would…
Just like He said He would…

BRIDGE:
I can’t imagine heaven’s lullabies
and what they must sound like
But I will rest in knowing, heaven is your home
And it’s all you’ll ever know…all you’ll ever know


Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Summer Vacation


Yesterday was officially our first day of summer
vacation for everyone!
It was great!!!
I love summer!!!

Here are a few reasons that we, the Stephens, love summer:

* sleeping in

* going to the pool everyday

* seeing friends everyday that we don't get to see everyday during the school year

* making new friends

* being worn out!! (that's really mine)

* getting to read

* $1 movies

* VBS ( next week!!!)

* not having to wear so much makeup cuz I'm tan!! :) (ok, mine again!)

* no "real" schedule

* family time!

I hope y'all have a great summer!!!!

We'll be updating you on our goings on throughout these next 80 some days!!!

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Little Kru Man!!!

2 weeks ago, we began our summer routine of going to the pool almost everyday!

Bryce was there on one of these days and had some really cool Superman goggles. Kru didn't wear goggles last season, but he really wanted to try Bryce's. He was kind to share and Kru LOVED them!

We had to run to HEB to buy a pair for us!




















He choose a Nemo pair and he wears them ALL the time!

Here are a few shots of him with the hose in the front yard!

He is going to literally wear them out! :)



We were at the pool earlier today after church.
Kru-man was so tired that this is where and how he fell asleep!