Stephens Fam Bracket Throwdown

Each year we do a March Madness NCAA brackett challenge in our household.  In past years we have even included the NIT, CBI, Women's NCAA, and the Cricket World Cup (ok, not really) to see who gets basketball bragging rights in our household.  Apparently it all comes down to luck because I vaguely remember Savannah winning or nearly winning one year when she couldn't even say basketball yet - just "back-e-shaw".  I will say she had VCU either in the Final Four or Elite Eight last year so perhaps she is the resident college basketball guru in our house.  Sue has also won in past years with the only one still to not win the family bracket challenge is Isaiah, and its not looking good for him this year either. 

Now for the brackets...

I generally prefer mid-majors just because I don't like the name brand schools.  This year I went with minimal upsets but only had one #1 seed in the Final Four. My four are Baylor, Missouri, Ohio State and North Carolina with Ohio State beating Missouri for the title.

I'm not sure about Sue's reasoning for her picks though I think it includes minimal over analysis.  It must work because its a toss up each year for who will win. Her final four are Kentucky, Marquette, Ohio State and Kansas with Kansas winning it all.

Isaiah's brackrt philosophy is "I only have a 5 second attention span".  Surprisingly he started off strong and picked all the better seeds except Alabama.  Interestingly, when asked about a list or series of names he usually picks the last name stated not the first. So maybe he really knows what he is doing. Isaiah's four teams...TBD.

Savannah's bracket process usually involves a lot of word association, home team bias, and record setting runs from teams with long or interesting names.  A couple years ago she was big on Duke and Butler (because of Uncle Jim and Aunt Andrea's dog named Duke and Butler's location in Indiana). As mentioned she foresaw VCU's run last year (as did her smart dad by the way). Well this year she is all in on VCU.  Why might you ask? Because they are from Richmond just like her. And why did she pick St. Mary's for the Final Four? Because apparently she remembers the name of the hospital she was born in. Now the Marquette and UNC-Asheville connections are murkier but just remember if she's right we are all witnesses. Surprisingly she went against Virginia even though she already got her UVa tshirt out to wear. I'm sure if Georgia or Ball State can ever manage to get in they will be highly regarded as well.  And if Savannah State ever gets in (oh so close this year) then Savannah might just pencil in their NCAA Championship without bothering with the rest. 

We'll report back in April with the final point tally for all four brackets, plus the baby's belated Final Four picks.

What's to come....

As I sit here and listen to Isaiah singing beautifully instead of napping in the "baby bed" as he calls it, aka the crib (he chose to play in Savannah's room rather than nap in there today, a growing trend), I am wondering what 3 will hold. We have 2 weeks left until my official due date with this sweet baby and I am wondering how you survive on no sleep with 3 kids. I have been waking up early lately and this morning I got up around 5:30 or 6 to do some work for nursery things at church. I am tired but holding my own. Our kids have always been good sleepers but lately naps are evasive and some days just don't happen. Usually its no biggie, we head outside to get tired out and head to bed early that night. Well, lets just say I have been praying for good naps for the first month or so to allow mommy to get a nap or some sort of rest after this baby comes. Yikes, we are in for it aren't we! I have several friends who have said the transition from 2-3 is tough and probably the hardest so here we go! I love my sweet little babies and look forward to the challenge!!! Here are some belly pics for you to peruse!

 Savannah at 35 weeks

 Savannah at 40 weeks

 Isaiah at 36 weeks

Baby Stephens at 38 weeks (ignore the bad hair day)

I love to comapre the belly, so what do you think boy or girl???

Created

"For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse."
Romans 1:20

Praise God for His creation - that we are a part of it, that we can enjoy it, and that we can know Him through it.  Spring provides such amazing evidence to the reality of God.  So we are all without excuse and cannot deny God as revealed through his creation and his revealed Word.

We love the fact that we have the great privelege enjoying the beauty of Savannah and seeing our kids continue to grow, and grow and grow.  Sue wanted to make sure we got out and got new pictures of the kids (and this year's azaleas) before baby three comes along. 

Reenactment

Savannah has an awesome memory. I mean awesome. She can remember things that were 2 years ago that we have forgotten about! I pray that continues in her life and the Lord allows her to remember all the great things He has and will do in her life!  One things she loves to do is look at pictures of herself as a baby. A while ago we were looking at her pictures and she found some cute ones from right after she was born. The other night she told Tom she wanted to curl up on him like she did when she was a baby. Who would refuse that. Here is the pictures of her as a baby and the picture reenactment.

She has changed a little bit but we are still as in love with her as the day she was born. I love looking back at my babies and remembering when they were born and the flood of emotions. They are beautiful and so precious to me. We can't wait to meet the next one in a few short week!

Brown Hair?

Well it's official. All of the members in our family now have brown hair. No we didn't die the kids hair, but we did cut it. If you know us at all this usually means a slight trim of a half inch to an inch. Not this time. We REALLY cut their hair. Savannah has been asking for awhile to cut her hair short to about her shoulders. We did it. Isaiah has needed a haircut for a while (esp. since he gets called a girl quite often). We did it. Now don't be too shocked, ok maybe be shocked because we still are. We went over to Hilton Head on Tuesday morning to our favorite barber shop called "The Barber Shop" and then the kids and I headed to the beach for a picnic lunch and some play time. It was pretty windy but the kids had a blast and just love being outdoors no matter where we are!

This is Savannah in the car right before we went in.

Mimi cutting her hair. She loves Mimi, which is part of the reason we drive all the way to Hilton Head for haircuts!

And after. We LOVE LOVE LOVE it and so does she. There are a few layers in the front to frame her face since her old bangs are still growing out.

Isaiah in the car before, look at those blond hairs, i love them!

Just look at those long hairs that were cut off. He did so great. He just sat there still and quiet the whole time. I thought he was going to fall asleep and at one point I was holding his head up. My mom said I used to fall asleep getting my hair cut too! Jesse who is cutting his hair is the other reason we drive all the way to Hilton Head. He did a great job and he and his wife January are good friends from our church!

Like I said, we still look at him across the table and say "he sounds like Isaiah so he must be". He looks SOOO different! We do like it though!

Sailing the Seas, Saving Savannah & Scoring for SCAD

Our kids have wonderful imaginations and spend lots of time playing pretend, especially Savannah.  Isaiah meanwhile may be very imaginative but he doesn't separate from Savannah's shadow long enough for us to really know. 

We have had a couple of great weekends spending time together and enjoying the mild winter weather of February.  We've been riding the river, dressing up at home, and watching college baseball at Grayson Stadium in preparation for the Sand Gnats' season.

Isaiah has the hair to play a great lead role in a pirate ship movie.

It has been windy lately, especially on the water.

The rest of us just come along for the ride with Isaiah

If you remember a recent post from Super Museum Sunday we enjoyed the day at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum.  Savannah was really asking a lot of questions that day about who was fighting, why they were fighting and if the U.S. was helping to protect the other people.  Since then Savannah has been interested (and Isaiah by extension) in having battles to protect Georgia and Savannah.  Last weekend she wanted to make some "battle gear" to have a battle upstairs.  Now, I'm no war hawk personally and we actually have been pretty opposed to Savannah and Isaiah "playing guns" in general.  I know its a popular past time for little boys every where (including myself growing up) but in the context of where we live in the city "playing guns" can have a much more sinister and real life meaning. 

Nevertheless when it's a rainy Saturday and the "battle" is in the context of defending your home town Savannah, Georgia from invading Canadians and Iranians (an interesting alliance to be sure but Savannah has picked up on a lot of geography and current events) then I say fight on.  She really gets the idea that when she play fights she is a protector. This is especially true when Daddy is the opposition and she has to help protect her little brother. This weekend however we were all on the same team.  We rounded up some gear, made some armor and prepared for battle. As you will see we were a fearsome bunch.

We spent a good amount of time forging our shields out of trusty cardboard. Like any good warrior we decorated with sponge paint markers. Then I did the unthinkable by chopping up one of our soccer goals to make arms - don't worry, I already replaced the goal with stronger pvc pipe.  Savannah rounded up battle helmets for everyone and we were soon ready to defend our turf and set the captives free.

Band of Brothers, Sisters and Daddies.

Battle really brings out a range of emotions apparently...

...or in Isaiah's case a range of blank stares and indifference.

Savannah mostly decorated her own shield,

including coming up with the Romans 1:16 reference.

It turned in to a great lesson on the armor of God from Ephesians 6.

Isaiah may not look enthused but when the lights went off upstairs

and the flashlights came out he was totally in to full battle mode. 

And in case you're wondering, at the end of the day the invaders were turned back and Savannah was saved. 

Sand Gnats baseball doesn't get underway until April, at which point we'll likely be too sleepy to care.  Plus we have a friend from church who is a grad student at SCAD and plays baseball for them (plus its free)! So we've watched several of their games recently and every time we come home and get the bat and ball out in the back yard.  This time Isaiah dressed up as Mr. Carson and Savannah said she was Matt Zajak.  Who is Matt Zajak? I couldn't have told you until yesterday either. Then he hit a home run for SCAD and suddenly he was the favorite baseball player in our household. I guess even 2 and 4 year olds like the long ball.

Carson Parker and Matt Zajak (courtesy SCAD baseball)

The last picture is what happens when our kids get bored while Mommy and Daddy are talking with people - find a wall to lean on and pick the unknown homeowners flowers.  We were walking to River Street downtown (to catch the ferry of course) and saw friends from church on their bikes.  After getting tired and laying on the sidewalk Isaiah was convinced to find a better place to relax and wait.  At least it ended with a good photo opportunity. 

We really have enjoyed having time to see these two grow and develop and are excited to see what the next one adds to the mix. They truly are a blessing.

2 WEEKS??

Ok, yes it has been 2 weeksish since we updated our blog. Yikes, where has the time gone? We are in super busy mode trying to do LOTS of things at church. Our church went from 2 to 3 services at the beginning of January and now we are about to add Sunday Schools/ABF (Adult Bible Fellowship) during 2 out of those 3 services next weekend. This means lots of planning, organizing, rearranging, buying and preparing for all that goes along with that. I am the Nursery Director and I am in charge of all the nursery times during the services as well as the rooms and volunteers. I am also trying to plan how to keep things going when this little one arrives in approximately 5ish weeks. We also do a lot with Cross Culture (the neighborhood ministry at our church that Tom runs) which has tutoring on Tuesday afternoons and dinner and Bible time on Thursday nights. Myself and a few other ladies handle the meal on Thursday for about 75-80 people so I am trying to figure out how this is going to keep running again when the little one arrives. I usually do the planning, ocassionally do the shopping and then prepare and serve the food. Let's just say when you are busy it's hard to plan to drop it all for a while! We love how the Lord has placed us at CBC (Community Bible Church) and given us such a great chance to serve! Anyway, let's just say it has been busy!

Tom had the day off on Monday and we enjoyed some family time while trying to also get some things done. Savannah and Isaiah have both been to the dentist recently (first time for each) and they did pretty well. Isaiah cried and I had to hold him down into the chair but he just wasn't too sure about it and calmed down and was ok. Savannah was SUPER skeptical of the dentist and went with us as isaiah's helper then went again this morning and did AWESOME. She has been telling everyone how brave she was and how well she did.

I don't have any picture, the camera is in the car and I don't really feel like going to get it right now so hopefully we will have some soon! I hope everyone is well and look for another update soon (hopefully sooner than 2 weeks!)