April: Take three

April 15th:
Me and the kiddos stayed home while Zac went to church.  The boys have been coughing a ton & although I know it's mostly allergies, I didn't want to fight it.  And, Beckham's pink eyeish stuff in nursery wouldn't be good, either.  Zac came home to a field of forts in the living room.

We ate lunch at G&G Pete's-BBQ style & delicious-and the boys had a blast riding in the gator & playing with Jaeger.  Becca saw this Darth Vader shirt & thought of Grayson, so she grabbed it for him.  He was speechless when she brought it by.  So sweet that my friends think of my kids!

That evening we visited Cleaver's for a second & then were headed home when Zac saw T&T's car at L&K's.  He said we'd just stop for a minute, but we ended up crashing their BBQ.  We stayed and ate and built a little fire, too.  The boys were frozen because we were unprepared {no jackets & shoes is how we roll}, so Kels helped us improvise.  I love the relationships we all share.

April 16th:
Papa Newell came over for dinner and the boys were in Heaven.  He played with them, read books, and listened to their babbling.  He stayed for family prayer and one of our children behaved horrifically.  I was embarrassed and upset afterward, but didn't make a big deal out of it.  He just chuckled and said, "I've been there.  I totally remember nights like this."  It made me feel a bit better & relax a little, too.

April 17th:
Working on trying to separate work from home time so that when the boys are here, I'm being mommy more than health coach.  It's a fine line and a balance.  Today I played in their room with them and you'd have thought I'd taken them to Disneyland.  They showed off their toys like I hadn't seen them before & Grayson dressed up in the 18 month dog costume. We had ice cream after dinner & before bed.  They loved it.

April 18th:
Beautiful day!  We played outside & Aunt Taylor came to play & nap.  Grayson also got some play time alone at Grami's which he always loves.

April 19th:
I went to the eye doctor.  Dr. Iwasa is the best, seriously.  I love him.  My eyes are the same.  I used to want lasik more than anything & now I'm beginning to think that since I do so well with contacts, I shouldn't mess with a good thing.

Did I mention I sometimes live with two Spidermen at my house?

April 20th:
Enjoyed some delicious play-doh ice cream that Grayson made.

Visited the grandparents houses for a bit.  Beautiful warm day!  Grayson is now a huge fan of Lyla, which is cute.  She is his little shadow and he loves it.  They played in the boat which is always a great joy.

The boys love having Friday night picnics & movies in the living room.

April 21st:
This was a much anticipated day for Grayson.  Max's birthday & party!  He woke up early {teaches me to tell him about something before it happens}, and was in superhero mode all day.  Beckham just loves to emulate anything Gray does, so he followed along.

Finally, 3:00 came & we dropped Gray at the awesome party.  He was giddy.  He insisted on dressing up & I was fine with that.  When we got there he was the only kid dressed up & I wondered if he'd be embarrassed, but he didn't seem to be, & Courtney said later that when the kids saw him in costume, they all wanted to dress up.

While Gray was enjoying his very first friends party, I took Beckham for his very first real tractor ride with Zac.  He LOVED the whole experience.  We saw Jeff first and he immediately reached for him to sit on the 4 wheeler.  Then he wandered in the dirt.  He followed Zac to the tractor, loved riding, made appropriate oohing & awwing sounds, and loved it.  He was very good.  I know Zac loved it, too.

We picked Grayson up & Bex got to play for a minute, too.  He screamed-and that's putting it lightly-when it was time to go.  Grayson and I were laughing at him. (:  Max got a motorcycle!  Grayson is our cautious kid for sure & didn't really care to ever try it out for himself.  Hopefully Max will continue to balance him out as they grow and help him become a bit more brave.  They said he didn't want to go in the bounce house either, but Troy finally got him in there by going in with him and then he loved it.  He has to be talked into trying things, but usually likes them afterward.

That night we had a BBQ with L&K and T&T at T&T's house.  We laughed and hosted it outside which was nice.  We built a fire, turned on some music, let the boys play in some dirty tires & eat as much s'more stuff as they wanted, and just enjoyed the night.

April 22nd:
Happy birthday Lancey!  Even though I realize that I'm getting older, it's weird that Lance is too.  He is the best brother I could have had growing up and continues to be one of my dearest friends.  He treats me with respect, is a great friend to Zac, and a fun and attentive uncle to my boys.  I love him to pieces and we all think "Ance!" is pretty great around here.

We celebrated him for a while after church at Grami's.  I had had a pretty tough & emotional morning with ward council & some primary stuff, along with some other high emotion issues that had my heart hurting, and T&T were asking me if I was okay.  I just lost it.  Got over it quickly, but felt pretty burdened all day.  I could never be a counselor for a profession.  Too taxing.  The boys played well together & loved riding the gator til Grayson drove it under the swings and one whacked Jaeger hard right in the mouth-poor little man!  It took a while to get Grayson to apologize, but Jaeger is very forgiving.  Zac & Bex enjoyed homemade birthday ice cream & we left a while after to chill.

April 23rd:
Kels asked if we could get the boys together today & of course we were happy to oblige.  We waited til after preschool & naptime and then had them come over for the first pool/hose experience.  It was hilarious.
-Beckham is the funniest kid ever & will laugh at Grayson & Jaeger until you think he won't breathe anymore.  Literally like he was about to cry he was laughing so hard.  Love it!
-We need a bigger pool; they looked so silly all in that tiny pool
-They don't care how big the pool is and are happy with the hose
-I was impressed that G&J just let B have the hose the entire time
-They play so well together and have a fun time laughing
I'm glad the boys have cousins so close to grow up with and learn new things with.

April 25th:
This morning Beckham was running through the house to get outside while carrying his sippy cup.  He bit it on the floor & got up crying.  Because he usually doesn't cry about being hurt, I looked closer & saw he had a big gash on his cheek that was bleeding.  I cleaned it up, decided it didn't need stitches, got bandaids on it {with Taylor's help} and he settled down and took a nap.  Poor little bruiser!

Grayson had Cowboy day at preschool and had a lot of fun.  I felt awful because we own NOTHING that is cowboy {Zac's not a fan}, so he didn't even have a hat or anything to wear.  And, he didn't want to ride the horse.  He was the only kid that didn't and he was fine with it {you can't talk this kid into doing something he doesn't want to do}, but I felt bad I wasn't there to make him try. (:

Beckham went to Taylor's & Gray went to Grami's while Z & I ran some last minute errands before our trip in Nampa.  We spent about an hour in Kohl's trying on clothes, sharing a dressing room & laughing a lot.  I love being with him.  I love dressing him.  He is so hot. (:  I love that he likes shopping only when he's with me.  We grabbed the boys when we got home & spent the evening making a fort, watching Toy Story, reading books, and loving on them before we left.  After they went to bed, we finished packing & wrapped their daily gifts to open while we were gone.