Painting

This week was crazy busy for us. We had things going everyday. But we had a friend who needed a painting job, so we cancelled a couple of appointments and cleared out the living room (as much as we could) and painted. Now I have to say we have been talking about painting for months. But taking the time to actually do it is a very hard thing to do. So, both my hubby and I were glad for the motivation of "helping" a friend.
I didn't know what color I wanted to do. And we set the appointment to paint only 24 hours before we were actually going to paint. So, I hadn't taken the time to mull over the color and really think about what I wanted. So, I got to the store (I had Sage and Puppy with me so we had to make it quick. Sage has a tendency to destroy stores.) I looked at my options and five minutes later I was taking home green paint.
I really like the color, it goes well with our brown furniture and I will accent with deep reds. When I get the whole room put together again I will post a pic or two.
We only did a couple of walls during the day. (Painting with my boys around is not my favorite way to paint.) So, that evening after we put the boys in bed we finished the painting. YEA! Before devotional the next morning we had the boys help us put all of the furniture back. And now we have a newly painted room.
We went from a pretty pale orange to an apple green. Both colors remind me of our Angel away at college. I was already thinking about her, maybe that is why I chose green...hmmmm.
I love our new room.

What a Happy Mothers Day!

Well, today didn't go quite as I expected, but I can't imagine it being better. I loved it.

I got to talk with my own Mom. An experience I take for granted, but try to do more often than not. I feel badly that I don't call her more. She means so much to me and I miss her continually as we are so many hundreds of miles apart. I loved talking to her and I hope she knows just how grateful I am that God saw fit to allow me to be her daughter.

As for me well, first thing this morning Blue Tiger pulled out the things he made me for Mothers Day at school. I loved the wonderful thoughts he wrote for me. He even let me tell him that I love him. (Something he usually avoids at all costs.)

Due to my sweet hubby not feeling well, I left him with the little kids and took the easy kids to church with me. Wow! Are Sacrament Meeting talks always so wonderful? Star rubbed my arms and nestled in to me, and I loved that extra attention during the meeting. I even got to actually watch him pass the sacrament. Oh, what a treasure to me.

Spike and Blue Tiger filled out some questionnaires for Mother's Day.

Here are some of their RIGHT answers.

Blue Tiger: If your mom had one hour to herself what would she do? READ.

Spike: What is your mom always doing for you? Make me food.

Blue Tiger: Would your mom rather have a candy bar or chocolate cake? Neither

Spike:What is your mom really good at? E-mail

Blue Tiger: Does your mom know how to change a flat tire? Yes

Spike: Does your mom wear perfume? Yes

Here are some of the...not right answers.

Blue Tiger: Does your mom love to swim? No

Spike: What is your mom's favorite song? All songs

Blue Tiger: Does your mom dye her hair? No

Spike: Would your mom rather have a candy bar or chocolate cake? Both

And here are some just cute answers.

Blue Tiger: Would your mom rather go to a party or stay home. I have no idea

Spike: Where is your mother's favorite place to eat out? a picnic

Blue Tiger: Would your mom rather go camping or go shopping? Girls don't like to go camping.

Spike: What is your favorite thing to do with your mom? Something.

Those were fun for me to read. It's kind of fun to see things from their perspective.

I have to also mention that almost every day this week I have gotten flowers from my sweet little puppy. And usually a crafty picture or some creation made with paper as well. All presented with an enthusiastic, "Happy Mother's Day." as well as a kiss and a hug.

And this week I went to Sage's school for a Mother's celebration. We got to watch our little ones do their circle time and before we had gotten there, they made snake crackers, and washed strawberries for us so we had a little picnic with them as well as getting hand made flowers and a lot of love.

Ez also made me stuff at school, but hasn't given them to me yet...maybe tomorrow as he packs up for school. I know what they are due to the fact that sometimes he has work from school that he has to finish at home. But I love them all the same. He wrote me a little book "My Mom" and each page has something that he likes about me. I love it!

After church we went over to the Crimsons house where our children made "dinner" of pancakes, ham and eggs, and fruit. It was delightful and wonderful and I loved every moment we were there. I even got a present from Sunshine. What a sweetie she is.

One last note, lest you think me neglected by my good husband. He bought me several outfits and one VERY lovely hat. Thank you my sweet. I didn't want this particular celebration for myself when we met, thank you for not giving up on me and for your wisdom that steered me in the direction of Motherhood. I love it and wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

Family Fun

This afternoon my hubby called me and suggested that we go to a movie tonight for Family Home Evening. After picking up the boys from school we headed over to the theater and saw How to Train Your Dragon. (Sorry Sunshine, I know I said you could come with us, but it just sort of happened, and I knew you were rehearsing.)
We loved it!
Although next time I don't think I will take the boys to IMAX. It would have been just as cool for them in 3D without the IMAX and I wouldn't have had to pay IMAX prices. However....I have to say that it was worth it. We all had fun and that is what counts.

Fun with little ones.

We got to babysit a couple of DARLING kids last night. My boys loved having them around. They all mauled the baby and wanted to feed and hold her. While her older brother spent the night following around the boys. Here are some pics from the night.

Blue Tiger is going to be the best Dad. He LOVES babies. He loves to hold them, and to talk to them, he talks about babies all of the time. He is a natural and will be a great Dad.

From the time he could speak Star has been asking for a baby sister. How he would love to have a little girl around. I tell him he will have to do with times like this until he is a father.Puppy loved holding the baby. She was so good natured about being passed around, and held in weird positions.

Sage wasn't as interested in the baby as he was in her stuff. He liked to carry around her chair and sit in it. He was always trying to check out her bottle, and he kept saying "Baby" all night.

This morning several of the boys expressed their disappointment that the kids were gone. We will just have to convince their parents to let us take them again. It was a fun night.

Without Computers

On the morning following our locking up of the computers EZ asked if he could play on his. I explained again how we talked about our week without computers. His response was, "Oh No! What are we going to do?!"
What did we do with all of our time off of the computer. Well, me, I read. Oh it was so wonderful. I read four books (okay one spilled over into this week, but I couldn't sleep last night until I finished it). The boys played outside a TON! They love their bikes. And I love that they like to be outside so much. I was also REALLY grateful for the good weather.
One thing that REALLY surprised me was the fact that not one of them tried to turn on a computer. WOW! We put away all of the laptops, but the other ones I just unplugged. It would have been really easy for one of them to just plug it in and turn on the switch. But no one even tried. We had made a pact and we all kept it. YEA.
Here is a pic of Spike practicing. We really worked on form last week. Here is my Sage spelunking in the cupboards again. If there is a will there is a way. He cleaned out the whole cupboard before he crawled in and closed the door. I put a few back in, but he was just as happy.

Cups, cups, cups, cups, cups.

We cleaned out a couple of spaces and in one of them I found all of these little paper cups. I thought maybe the boys would like to drink out of them for fun. NOPE! Building is so much more fun. They are still playing with the cups days later.

You can't really see it in this pic, but EZ had a way of stacking them that he could make them collapse really easily into one another and took his "buildings" down really fast. A couple of the other boys tried to mimic it, but EZ is really the master of it.

One morning Puppy got up extra early just to see how many buildings he could make in the kitchen. EZ also liked to play the cups game. You know the one. Usually played with 3 cups and you hide a little toy under one, mix them all up and then find the toy. Well, that was WAY too easy for EZ. He decided he needed a lot more cups for the game. I never won.

They also had fun making them into "Telescopes" and "Glasses" too funny! We are trying to teach Sage emotions. We have emotion band-aids and put a ton of them on him. He ended up taking most of them off right away, but he couldn't get this angry one off of his arm, so we took a pic. Spike made a robot one day at school. He calls him Roger and talks about his personality and what he likes and doesn't. He doesn't like Sage or Puppy getting near to him. (LOL like THAT is going to stop them.) I am sorry I didn't take pics of the boys outside. It was a fun week and I think we all felt pretty good about it when it was done.

A Puppy Kiss

Last week I needed a babysitter, one of the Sisters from church was willing so I gladly accepted her offer and dropped off my two little boys. When I came to pick them up the first thing that my Puppy says is, "Mom, I love playing with these kids, they need to come to our house." Wow, okay. Puppy is a friendly guy and makes friends very easily but doesn't often have this reaction.
As I drove the boys home Puppy made a little confession. "Mom, I kissed her."
"Are you supposed to kiss people outside of our family?"
"No." (He knows this because we have had a few talks about it ever since he planted a good one on our Angel babysitter.)
Well, I kind of let the issue drop since I didn't know the whole story. But the next day I got to hear it all. Her Mom told me that it went kind of like this.
They were dancing to classical music and her little girl is very dramatic and theatrical in her dancing. While they were dancing she decided she was Sleeping Beauty and after dancing around for a while dropped to the floor expressing that he would need to kiss her for her to awaken. Well, Puppy didn't see a problem with that. Hence the kiss.
Well, I have to say that I think he's got good taste. She is quite adorable, don't you think? And she is just about as girly as you can get. And since Puppy is just about as much boy as you can get, put them together and they sure are cute.