The 4/4 of July

Monday {July 25}
-This morning the boys and I dropped Zac at the Caldwell store and headed to Winco for groceries.  They did remarkably well-especially after I gave them a small bag of mini reeces to keep them busy-and Grayson is always a good grocery helper.  The stressful part of Winco is bagging your own groceries, paying for it, keeping your kids from falling out of the cart {because I grabbed the one with the broken buckle}, and not holding up the line too long.  It all went fairly well though, and we headed out.  Grabbed the boys a kids meal and asked Gray what he wanted to drink.  "Just water Mom."  Awesome choice!  Got them home and put Beckham down for his nap and Grayson watched a movie while I laid beside him for an hour nap.  I swear the time change really got to me...and probably the lack of sleep the whole past weekend.  I got up while his movie was still going and got some work done.

 Zac got home {in his new ride} and he and Grayson worked on cleaning cars and a bit in the garage.  Zac is giddy about his bimmer and I am so happy that he finally has one-his dream car for his entire life!  It's 13 years old, but only has 60k miles on it and the owner kept it in incredible shape.  Turns out he was kind of OCD about his cars...kind of like someone else I know!  It's a great place to be OCD because we got this amazing car for an even more amazing deal.  I got Beckham up after three hours and he "helped" me in the kitchen while I prepared dinner.

Todd, Amber, and girls came out for dinner which was a lot of fun and the kids played fabulously together.  Grayson adores having Ella here and they are great little buddies.  The manicotti was delicious and the company & conversation were even better.  Zac and Todd swooned over the car for a while, too.  We love the Fischer family!

Tuesday {July 26th}
Spent the day organizing the paper piles that threaten to overtake us.  Grayson has done this thing lately when I tell him no or he's in trouble, he gets upset but doesn't want to cry so he runs in his room and hides on his bed.  Pretty dang cute.  While Beckham took his nap, Grayson got to play with playdoh while I kept working on papers.  He made me the greatest ice cream cones and I got major brownie points for allowing the playdoh mess.

 He helped me clean up and then he moved on...to making rocks.  His newest obsession.  He goes outside and picks several rocks.  Then he brings them in the kitchen, pushes a stool up to the sink, gets a wire whisk and a pot, puts the rocks in the pot, fills it with water, and swishes the rocks around with the whisk.  When they are done "boiling," he gets them out and dries/polishes them.  He calls it "making rocks" and he loves it.  It's not messy, keeps him buys for 15-30 minutes at a time, and uses his imagination, so I love it too.

Tonight I was super tired after getting the kids down about 8:15.  That is the time I have to myself for "selfish things" like reading for pleasure, blogging, pinterest, and hanging with Zac.  He could tell I was tired and encouraged me to just go to bed.  I kind of didn't want to because I wanted to use the time I had by myself...but he said, "one night a week, just go to bed a little earlier."  So I crawled into bed about 9:15 and went right to sleep.  And slept till 8:00 the next morning.  It was the most wonderful thing ever.  So grateful for a husband who is aware of me, cares about me, and takes care of me.  (:

Wednesday {July 27} &Thursday {July 28}
Taylor watched the boys both days for a few hours while I worked.  I was able to get caught up from being gone for four days and felt a little better about my sanity. (: 

Purdum's opened!  So happy to have my favorite fruit/veggies stand open!  Taylor is working there too, so it's fun to take the boys over.  We ran over there and grabbed some produce, visited with her, and then Grayson played at Ella's while I took Beckham to Walmart for a few errands.  When I asked Grayson if he wanted to play at Ella's he said, "SURE!  That would be so nice of you, Mom!"  He adores Ella and plays so well with her.

We also had our first sweet corn of the season thanks to Purdum's and it was DELICIOUS!  Add one more vegetable that Grayson will eat.  He ate through two ears in no time.  Yum!

Watched soul Surfer with Zac Thursday night since he hadn't watched it on the plane.  Grayson was struggling to fall asleep and we could hear him conversing with his animals {he sleeps with about 17 on his bed} and finally I went in to check on him.  Beckham was sound asleep and Grayson was like this.  A million pillows/blankets/animals, and a CHAIR on his bed.  I've found him with crazier things after he's asleep, too.  This kid cracks me up!

Friday {July 29}

 Becca called last minute and asked if Treyce and Preslie could come spend the night and it worked out fine to have them, so she dropped them off at 2:30 and they all played for a while till Beckham woke up.  We went swimming at Cleaver's and Zac brought home pizzas which was nice.  The kids watched movies in the evening and I got Beckham to bed.  It was Grayson's first real sleepover with friends and he was so cute to watch.  I made a big bed on the floor in the living room for the three of them and they all were having a hard time going to sleep, so I laid out on the couch and told them stories.  They were adorable.  Grayson kept raising his hand {do not know where he learned that} and would insert things when I acknowledged him such as, "that's my favorite part!, he was a fireman just like I want to be!," etc.  So cute!  They finally all started dozing off and Grayson climbed up by me on the couch and fell asleep.  And so did I apparently, because I woke up in the middle of the night and went into our room.

Saturday {July 30}
Knowing the kids were going to be here all day, I decided to get out of the house for a while.  We ran a couple errands {4 kids in Walmart-not bad} and then met Amber & girls at Carl's Junior for lunch.  It was fun visiting with her for an hour while the kids played.  Poor Grayson climbed up and then got scared and cried for me.  I ran up and he wouldn't budge-frozen in fear.  I had to climb up and rescue him-which he thanked me for later-and after eating he tried again and was fine.  I love that kid.  After we got home, I put Beckham down for a nap and the other three watched a movie and rested a bit.  Terren joined us around 2 and all the kids played outside for a while.  Five kids in our house makes it seem a bit too small, so Zac chilled at home with Terren and Beckham and I took the middle three to pick cherries and apricots at a friend's house.  They were good helpers and we got quite a haul of cherries.  They were delicious!  We got home and the kids played outside in the water for a while so I could fix dinner.  After dinner we all cuddled up on the couch and I read books for a while.  Becca got there around 7 to pick the kids up and stayed to chat for another hour or so.  We love those kids and had a fun time having them here.  It was definitely nice to go back to our two and get them to bed & enjoy the quiet time together, though! (: