March 28, 2014

The boys are all out playing in the backyard, and I had a quiet, sunny moment, so I wanted to write down some thoughts about it before the bedtime chaos breaks it all up!

Earlier today there was a thunderstorm.  The whole sky went dark and run started pouring down.  BK was off work early, and so the whole family was in the van--the two babies had fallen asleep on our way to pick up Landon at school, so we were thinking of errands to do to prolong their nap a little longer.  We drove to the bank to deposit a check, and then took the long way home, as we watched the lightning fill the clouds, and felt the thunder rumble our car.

We got home, and BK decided to go into his other, more optional, job to get some extra $$.  (Probably to pay for all the new clothes I keep buying myself.  I'm turning thirty in a couple months!  New decade!  New wardrobe!  Right?!) I put a movie on for the boys, and almost sat down to read a book, but then I thought of all the cleaning I had completely neglected this week.  Literally, I did NOTHING this week.  Weird mix of energy, hormones and emotions all over the place, getting back to normal after a baby starts weaning and your body tries to balance out.  Basically nothing anybody in my house understands because I'm the only girl... But anyway, I was just going to start over fresh on Monday, and then I thought, no, I can do this!  And I proceeded to get 5 loads of laundry done AND put away... and vacuumed and picked up the entire house.  And as I did that, the storm started to dissipate, and I watched the sky start turning lighter and lighter until I could turn off all the light bulbs in the house again because my windows were filled with sunlight again.

And I tell you, there is really nothing prettier than sunlight streaming through my windows onto a clean floor and mess-free house.  Of course that only lasts for like 5 minutes before Spencer starts building forts again, but that's beautiful in its own way, too.  We got pizza for dinner, as we usually do on Fridays, and now the boys are in the backyard playing soccer with BK.  He's holding Owen while he teaches Landon something called a "one-touch" or something.  Spencer is... building a fort out of lawn chairs.  Surprise, surprise.  And I'm just sitting at the desk, in a completely silent house, except for the sound of the dryer going.  (We're waiting for the dryer to be done before we put Owen to bed because it has his bunny and blanky in it.)

I think it's moments like this that I'll remember when, in ten years, I'm turning 40 and think back on what life was like with small kids.  I'm sure I'll remember the chaos, too, but I think ultimately the memories that will hold fast in my mind are my boys outside laughing and playing soccer in the golden sunshine in our first house.

March 1, 2014

 Lunch date with Landon.

 Yogurt and checkers and buying new "afletic" shoes date with Landon.

 Baby bird.

 Owen's first NBA game. Jazz vs. Mavericks.

 My view at the grocery store.

Owen has decided he likes baths.

Those are a few highlights of February! Today was a pretty great day.  I went to Dallas to go to the temple with some girlfriends.  We left all the kids home with husbands and enjoyed a road trip.  We went out to lunch afterward and then headed home.  I went to a baptism at the church afterward.  And then after that we (finally, we've had to reschedule like 3 times because of my kids taking turns being sick) took the kids to Peter Piper Pizza to celebrate yet another perfect report card from Landon!  It definitely wouldn't have been my first choice, but we let him choose, and that's what he chose!  We invited another family to come with us, and so that definitely made hanging out at such a madhouse more bearable.  Spencer hit the "jackpot" on one of the games and ended up with 580 tickets (literally)... so he came home with quite a bag of treasures! (junk) We came home and I put the kids to bed and I let them keep their reading light on for awhile to inspect their prizes.  They stayed up for about an hour enjoying those together.  I'm sure I'll regret my decision to let them stay up until 9 when they're grumpy at church tomorrow, but it was just so cute the way that they were excitedly playing with their prizes together on Landon's bed that I didn't want to break up the party!  All in all, a good day! :)