Who are the Stephens?

If you find yourself asking that question, you should probably watch this video.



(I actually made this video for our upcoming family reunion, and Ryan requested it be put on the blog. Huzzah!)

Comfort Food

Ryan eats a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at least once a day. It is his staple, go-to meal.

A couple weeks ago, I made a meal after church. He looked at me and said a little hesitantly, "Is it okay if I still eat one pb&j? I'll still eat some of your food."

I was kind of expecting this, so I told him I wouldn't be offended.

"It's my comfort food, y'know?" he replied.

I had to laugh at the irony because this is what I was serving.

Roast and cooked carrots.
Comfort food at it's finest.

Spots

Sometimes during the day, I mentally start writing a blog in my head. I always plan on actually typing it out, but I never do. At least there is some effort, right?

Jackson is quite the busy bee. He is very curious about the world around him, and he probably asks me, "What's this?" ten times a day. They are usually simple things, like carpet, a hem of a blanket, a zipper, electrical outlet, etc. One time I put a shirt on him, and he said, "What's this?" pointing at the cute little pocket on his shirt. It's fun to see the wheels in his head turning. Sometimes I will see him studying things trying to see how they work. Can you say engineer in the making?

Yesterday, I had just picked up my dry cleaning, and I asked Jackson what he wanted to do. "Do you want to go see books and legos? Or should we go to the store and play toys?"

He thought for a second and said, "ZOO! Tiger! Rawr!" This kid loves the zoo. He asks to go all the time, but we can only go on Saturday when Ryan can come with us.

Speaking of zoos...

Last week, Jackson came down with the chicken pox. It was a rough week for everyone. Luckily it was Ryan's one week off, so we teamed up to help Jackson. I don't know if Jackson would consider it helping. He HATED taking his medicine! We would have to hold him down and force him to swallow. In his defense, he is usually not that difficult, but he had sores all over the inside of his mouth, tongue, and throat. Poor guy. He didn't eat or drink anything for two days straight, except for the milk and pedialyte we forced him to have. On the fourth day, we got a Smoothie King, and his eyes lit up, and he drank the whole thing. This was a huge relief. You should have seen Ryan and my silly, happy grin as we watched Jackson scarf the smoothie. *Phew*

We definitely learned patience that week.

*Warning: The pictures you are about to see will pull at your heartstrings and make you feel sad for this little boy*

Day 1

Spots. Why are there spots?

Day 2 

Finally asleep after a rough night. Poor guy had blisters in his mouth and down his throat.

Swollen lips, fever, and crazy cool hair

We could've played "Connect-the-Spots"

"Fix it," he said.

Day 3

Grandpa brought Mr. Fu to help Jackson feel better. He also brought pudding, popsicles, and yogurt, but only Ryan and I ate it.

Day 4

Drank a smoothie FINALLY and zonked out.

That blessed smoothie

Day 5

This pretty much summed up our day...and week.

The only place that made him happy was Grandma and Grandpa's house. Guess where we went that weekend?

Just in case you were wondering, this is Jackson on Day 8. So much better. We couldn't find his shoes, so he got to wear his Holland shoes. This is the classic smile we would get since it hurt too bad to smile for real.

I wish I could say he is back to his regular 'ol self, but he actually has a bad cold/fever right now. This poor kid can't catch a break!

At least he is building up his immune system!

And Jackson has this book.

I think that animal can relate to Jackson.

And we did end up taking him to the zoo.

Easter Egg Hunt with a Twist!

Jackson had a blast on Easter.

He loved finding the Easter eggs and getting presents. What kid doesn't? For Easter, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house and ate a delicious meal of ham, potatoes, veggies, and more. It was scrumptious! We then had an Easter egg hunt and hid all of Jackson's eggs with Mickey stuffed animals. He thought it was great fun!

He was too lazy to hold his basket, so I'm the one trailing behind him.

The proud parents

 

My parents had a great idea to put tiny glow sticks in some of the eggs. We had a glow-in-the-dark egg hunt, and it was really cool!

 

 

 

Jackson was so excited and was literally running from egg to egg, chucking them into his basket. When he got all the eggs, he looked around and said, "More? More eggs?" He had me hide them 3 times.

 

For dessert, I made vanilla bean buttermilk cupcakes and Oreo cupcakes. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but they were really good. I wish I had thought to take a picture of them. Thank you, Pinterest!

 

It was really fun to watch Jackson get into egg hunting this year. Of course, Easter isn't just about the eggs and chocolate. I appreciate all that Christ has done for me. He has given me hope that I too may live again. #Becauseofhim I can live with my family forever.

 

If you have time, watch this cool video.

 







Confessions of a Recovering Chocoholic

FALSE!

Ha, just kidding. I'm not really a recovering chocoholic, but that would be a cool story.

TRUTH!

Due to my fun stomach problems, I was forced to give up chocolate. In October, we made yummy, yummy s'mores with ooey gooey, sweet, delectable, delicious, drool-worthy chocolate.

Why is it in the bathtub you ask? Because it was Kid's Day. That's why.

I paid for the s'mores indulgence for about a week. I was in bed swearing I would never eat chocolate again. And I haven't. I admit to eating an occasional nibble here and there (probably only 3 times) from Jackson's chocolatey treats, but overall, I have held firm.

I made it through Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, MY BIRTHDAY without chocolate.(RIP my beloved Baskin Robbins Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream. Oh how I miss thee.)

But by far, the hardest holiday to not eat chocolate is EASTER. CURSE YOU CADBURY FOR HAVING SUCH DELICIOUS CHOCOLATE EGGS.

Jackson was snacking on one today, and I'm pretty sure I was watching him with drool trickling down my chin.

Can. Not. Wait. For Chocolate. Season. To. Be. Over.

The End.

On a side note: Is it sad that I have referenced these delectable eggs every year since this blog has been born? Probably.

I hope you all have a Happy Easter!

What a Week.

Warning: This post is just of me complaining. That is it.

--

My oh my. I just had a doozy of a week. It ranges from not getting $40 worth of groceries I paid for ($30 of which was frozen burritos. Don't judge. They're really good!) and not being able to change my middle name on my driver's license because my signature wasn't legible (what???), to being the only leader in the YW presidency for the next couple months, among other things. Poor Ryan has to deal with me, his stressed out wife, on a daily basis.

I was not a happy camper when dinner was half way done and I discovered I didn't have the rest of the ingredients because Target apparently lost not 1 but 2 of my bags. I was too preoccupied with the whole frozen burrito fiasco to notice the other items missing. I actually went BACK to Target literally 5 minutes after I called to get my frozen burritos. A lady there said she had it for me at the Customer Service desk. When I got there, they had mysteriously disappeared and the lady had gone home. IN 5 MINUTES! The poor guy that replaced her had no idea what I was talking about, and I was almost in tears thinking $30 was down the drain. Luckily he refunded my money. I know someone out there is snacking on my burritos.

But on the bright side, Jackson's been exceptionally good today. Smart kid.

Update: Do you know what happens when you complain about your week? You have a worse one! I can now add stomach flu and cold to this list. Blah! My poor child hasn't left the house in days. To get through, I just keep telling myself that if this is our biggest problems in life right now, things aren't bad at all. There are worse things in life to be dealing with!

Short Stories, Part II

Jackson found my old drivers license from when I was 16. He held it up and exclaimed, "Mama!" and cooed over it for awhile. Later, Ryan found one of his old school IDs from high school and said, "I bet Jackson won't recognize me." In the picture, Ryan's hair was longer and curly and he definitely looked younger. Jackson took the ID and studied it for awhile. Finally, with uncertainty, he said, "Mama?" in which Ryan responded, "That was probably the best thing you could have said."

---

My parents, Jackson, and I were at Walmart the other day. We bought Jackson letters and numbers to go in the bathtub. Jackson was too excited to wait until home to open the package up and tore it open in the shopping cart. He played with them a little bit until we got to the car. We started loading the bags, when frantically Jackson started yelling, "WAIT! Wait, wait wait!" and started shoving the letters into the package as fast as he could. I think he was afraid we were going to leave them in the cart!

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Jackson pretty much knows all his letters. He identifies letters all the time on buildings, buses, walls, you name it. One day, I brought him inside from the parking garage and he exclaimed, "5!" Sure enough there was a 5 on the wall because we were on the fifth floor. I never really taught him his numbers and was curious how much he knew. We stopped outside our apartment--#5110.

Me: What number is this?
Jackson: 5!
Me: What number is this?
Jackson: 1!
Me: What number is this?
Jackson: 10!
Me: What! You know the number 10!?

This little boy is smarter than I give him credit for!

--

We showed Jackson a picture of himself when he was a baby. "Baby!" Jackson said. We told him it was baby JACKSON. He thought it was so funny. He held the picture with a proud look on his face.

--

Jackson was in his high chair playing with Playdough. He likes to make little Playdough balls. Sometimes to get my attention, he'll throw some on the ground. This time was no difference. "Oh no!" Jackson moaned. "Balls! Oh no!"

I asked him, "Jackson, did you do that on purpose?"

"On purpose." Jackson repeated.

"I knew it!"

Jackson just grinned.

"You have no idea what you just said, do you Jackson?"

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Love my little boy!