We've had hours of fun on...

the Jeep!!

The boys have been driving around all over the yard on the Jeep the past few weeks.  What a great way to enjoy this BEAUTIFUL weather!!   The most exciting part about this is that Levi has successfully learned how to drive the Jeep and is getting pretty good at stearing it too! 

Often times Isaiah will drive around on the "fast tractor" and Levi will drive around on the Jeep and they will chase each other.  (horrible picture - but it's the best I've got!)

Then I'll watch Isaiah run over to Levi and jump in as his passenger and let Levi give him a ride.  Then they will switch and Isaiah will drive... or one of them will run to the tractor and they will chase each other again.  I am so happy to say that rarely are there any fights involved in all of this!  (even when Caiden's here and there are 3 little boys and only two vehicles -- they just all ride around together!)

 

 And the latest thing is that Isaiah likes to ride on the back while Levi drives around.  Not exactly the safest thing, but it makes them laugh and the Jeep doesn't go all that fast if he falls off! :)

 If you need some entertainment, come watch the Jeep show in our back yard! :)

no shirt day.

When Mark picked Isaiah up from preschool the other day he told him he didn't feel like wearing a shirt anymore.  Mark being the accomidating parent that he is told him that he didn't have to wear one if he didn't want to.  When I got home from work a few hours later, Isaiah was still shirtless and then when Levi woke up from his nap I found him to be shirtless too! :)  We (well, I guess I mean THEY) decided to spend the rest of the day shirtless.  I couldn't help but to take some pictures of them playing outside - they just looked so darn cute!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

by the way - Levi can be found wearing this shoe combination at least every few days! :)

the BFG

Kammy has been a wonderful friend to our little Isaiah since the day he was born (litterally).  I've mentioned Kammy several times on my blog; you can go here to read a little more about who she is.  For Isaiah's birthday Kammy's family bought Isaiah a ticket to see the play the BFG (Big Friendly Giant) at the community children's theater.  (What a great idea, huh?)

They were so creative that they gave him the book of the BFG so he could read it before the play (which he refused to do -- it's a bigger chapter book and I think it intimidated him! haha maybe he'll want to read it now that he knows what it's all about) and a bunch of snacks (did you know they make granola bars with sprinkles in them? or what about crackers with chocolate in the middle instead of peanutbutter???).  He was so focused on the snacks that he didn't really realize that he got to go to a play with her.  Well, a couple weeks ago I reminded him about the play and he was SOOOOOOO excited and asked daily for the next 12 days when he got to go.  We were doing a count down (which was hard because he doesn't really understand the concept of days/weeks/etc yet).  But the countdown finally ended yesterday afternoon!! 

He was so excited all morning - I told him that we the plan was to go to church, make lunch, eat lunch and then they'd come get him -- so he wanted to go to church IMMEDIATELY after waking up (which didn't happen)  he wanted to make lunch RIGHT when we got home (didn't happen again - we don't normally eat lunch before 11am:) and then he expected them to be there as soon as we were done eating (again - not the case)...so it was a L . O . N . G . morning for him.  but they finally came (right on time) and off they went to the play.  He came home so happy, so excited!  Sounds like he was completely mesmerized by the whole play and watched intently the ENTIRE time. I'm not surprised either - I tried to explain to him what to expect, but he kept asking if it would be like a movie.  (He asked if it was at the same theater as the one by the mall, if the people in the play would be up on a big screen, etc).  

What fun!! He already has plans to go to 4 more plays -- we were looking at the program from the play and it listed the upcoming plays and he decided we are going to ALL of them! :)  Hopefully we will make it to at least one more of them, I'll keep you posted!

Austin & Isaiah after the play.

I couldn't seem to get them (aka Isaiah) to cooperate.

sweet buddies.

hanging out with grandpa and grandma

We've been over at Mark's parents a few times in the last few weeks - it's always fun to spend time with family!! Isaiah and Dakota are such good buddies. Check out all that we did - Cindy did some art projects and helped the kids make bird feeders (peanutbutter and then birdseed on pinecones), we went on a few walks, checked out Uncle Justin's motorcycle--Isaiah thought it was way cool, Levi screamed when we tried to get him to sit on it-- and just hung out.  Can you  believe how big these four kids are already?  Dakota - 5, Isaiah - 4, Khia - 2.5 and Levi 2.  Oh and I can't help but laugh when I see the picture of Mark, his dad and me on a walk - it was cold and the only thing I had in my car was Caiden's 4T sweatshirt - so that's what I'm wearing :) HAHA.  Here's to some family time.

 

 

 

mud

Mud is a main source of entertianment at our house.  The boys (mainly Isaiah and Levi just follows along)have created several mud/dirt based "games" that they love to play.

Isaiah LOVES to sit out and dig in the dirt and mud.  He has a few bigger dump trucks and several little construction trucks (Thanks Great Grandma!!) that he will play with to create his own little work sites.  This is an activity that he does at least 5 days a week!  Many times he is "working" for 30+ minutes all by himself! (A win-win for everyone, right?!:)

Isaiah and Caiden love to create a "car wash" out of mud.  Rather than washing their outside tractors in water, they wash them with mud.  They get their hands completely muddy and then rub the mud all over the tractors/cars to get them clean :) 

We've also had several outdoor projects that we've been working on all spring and summer that have created mounds of mud in our driveway and in our yard.  The boys have loved to get on top of them and dance, dig, and just about anything else to be in the mud.  A few times this ended up in a mud fight!  (Thanks mom!:)

My grandma was over just the other day and she said mentioned that her friend always talks about how kids just aren't what they used to be because they never get to go out and play in the mud - mainly because their parents just don't want to hassle with the cleanup.  Well, I don't know if she's right, but she sure isn't right about what goes on around here! :)  What about you, do you let your kids get down and dirty?

rain, rain go away...

My little boys were getting so restless with all the rainy weather.  They were longing to get outside (and so was I!)  We decided to take a trip to the library.  Just before we were leaving, Isaiah says, "We must take our umbrellas!" Great idea! So out we went...

Levi was loving it so much he did NOT want to stop walking around.  So it took us about 20 minutes to get in the car for the library! :)

 They looked so cute!  Although, I'll take the sunshine and the park anyday over the rain - it was still a fun way to get outside on a wet Saturday morning!

even in preschool.

Our small group (5 couples from church who meet a couple times a month) started a new topic this fall on positive parenting.  One topic that came up last week was silly bandz.  (If you have kids, you probably know what they are - basically a rubber band formed into all kinds of shapes that kids are wearing as bracelets.)  Most of our small group has young kids around Isaiah and Levi's age, but one couple has a daughter just a little older in elementary school.  They mentioned silly bandz and how she always wants to wear them to school,  but it is their rule that she doesn't get to, however, she often comes home with one on that a friend has given to her.  As we had this conversation in group, I was thinking about the fun I had to look forward to in a few YEARS -- well turns out I was wrong - it was a few DAYS. 

Wednesday Isaiah, Levi and I were outside playing and Isaiah says, "OHHHH I almost forgot to show you...let me go get it!!!!" he goes inside and comes back out with .... you guessed it -- a silly band.  He says, "look what my friend at school gave me!!!!"

So... I guess the fun begins - Isaiah is one of the cool kids now because he has a silly band.  (I'm afraid to ask him about it again because I think it may be lost! :) For the record, it was shaped like an umbrella.

This post is for you Mindy! :)