Easter

We had a really nice Easter Sunday.  The boys had to get baths before they could hunt for eggs.  We weren't able to get them done the night before due to a huge tantrum thrown by Isaac.  He was happy as could be the next morning so hunting for eggs we go.

Ben was a little confused at first.  He loved his basket but it took Jacob helping him with a few eggs before he got it.  And then he couldn't be stopped.  He loved finding the eggs.  I guess the only thing that slowed him down was when he saw Isaac open on and realized there was candy in the eggs.  Then, the contents became much more important.

Isaac was excited from the get go.  Before the bath I found him downstairs running around looking at all the eggs but telling me, "I haven't touched any of them."  Awesome.  He was also really nice about helping Ben get a few eggs and sharing the hunting.  I was proud of him.

With their baskets full of goodness.  So happy.

Then, before leaving for church, I made everyone pause for pictures.  I bought the boys some tan pants and these green ties for Easter Sunday.  The ties were at the dollar spot at Target and the pants were from the used kid store.  I guess I couldn't really justify new church clothes when they weren't really needed.  I think they are cute though.  And Isaac really probably did need new pants.

As always, getting pictures of these two at the same time is funny.

And that is the best it gets.  Cuties.

Now some with Mom.

Isaac was totally eating a robin egg.  Yeah, that's how we roll.

And some with Dad.  And now the boys are actually wearing shoes too.

Church that day was a little bit of a joke.  We are in kind of a hard place when it comes to Sacrament meeting.  We have it at the end of the block and the boys are just spent.  I didn't know if I should laugh or cry when we were just 10 minutes into the meeting, the opening prayer, and a bag of gold fish crackers was launched by Ben into the man behind us, Isaac was squirming and making noise (I can't remember if he was singing or just talking loudly), and it felt like our little row was in full blown chaos already.  Ridiculous.  Needless to say, things were rough.  We were in the lobby a lot.  Every time one of us leaves with Isaac Ben cries because he feels he's being left behind.  So the whole family ends up in the lobby.  Ugh.  I can tell you that our choir did a great job.  Aside from that I can't remember much from the speakers.  So it goes.

We were invited to dinner at the Joyals.  They are in the ward and live down the street from us.  They have three kids, the youngest the same age as Isaac.  I really enjoy their family and appreciated the invitation.  It was a fun night.  The food was good and so was the company.

All in all it was a good day.  Hopefully more of the meaning of Easter has sunk in with Isaac.  I know I am extremely grateful for the resurrection of our Savior and the chance I have to live with my family forever.  What a blessing!

Far Too Long

This post is far too long because it has been far too long since the last one. I guess I've been having trouble uploading pictures easily and then I don't like to post when there aren't any pictures.  So, whatever.

We've had a stretch of not fun days at our house.  Ben has been a little sick and Isaac has been on a tear.  Remember how I said we were in a good place where things were going so well.  I guess all good things must come to an end eventually.  :)  I'm sure I've not helped the situation as I have also been more cranky, probably due to the lack of sleep caused by Ben waking at night.  It's a bad cycle.  It's almost not fair that I can't get good sleep when the kids need a patient and kind mom the most.  I suppose that is part of the challenge of mothering, being patient and kind at the times that are the hardest.  I've failed that challenge the past few weeks.  But, in good news, I think we are on the upswing again.  And, even in the bad weeks my kids are still adorable.

Ben often gets frustrated by Isaac not making room or kicking him out of the place he wants to be.  Having a brother is hard for both of them I'm sure.  Hard but also really good.  They are so funny together.  I love how Ben imitates Isaac and how Isaac tries to include Ben in his play (at least sometimes).  They are cute.

Ben loves books.  He doesn't always have the patience to sit on a lap and be read to, though he does have moments where that is his preferred activity, but he loves looking at books by himself.  He spends a good chunk of his day looking at books by himself.  I especially think it's adorable when he lays down with a book. 

And Isaac still chooses to spend a good chunk of his time playing with train tracks.  Though lately it's become a little more annoying because he tries to get me to build the tracks and then doesn't even play with the track after I spent all the time to build it.  So the tracks have been put up for a bit.  He still asks every day "do you want to build trains?"

I thought this morning was especially cute.  Ben grabbed one of his favorite books, the Charlie Brown Halloween book that makes noise, and climbed on the couch to get comfortable with it.  I used my zoom on the camera to take these pictures from across the room so as not to disturb his solitude.

He spotted me just the same and gave me a little smile.

The other day I was baking some muffins to take to a sister I visit teach.  The boys were eager to help so we all put on our aprons and got to work.  But not without snapping a few photos first.

We're a little blurry int his one but I love it just the same.  I haven't been in photos with my boys in a while so I wanted to sneak in.

And now I'm in focus but the poor boys aren't.  What can you do?

And then there were beaters to lick.  And Ben was certainly excited by that.

When Isaac was about Ben's age he was a model for one of Grandma Brunson's patterns.  Turns out it is one of her better selling patterns.  My friend Lori brought by a catalog from the quilt shop she frequents to show us Isaac's pattern was in the catalog.  I told Lori I'd take a picture of Isaac with the magazine so she could show one of her quilting friends who didn't believe she knew the kid from the pattern.  I think it's all pretty funny and weird.  I guess I didn't quite realize when Isaac was going to be on a pattern cover that it would end up in catalogs.  Not sure what I was thinking...but it wasn't really this.  So it was weird and fun all at the same time.

And Ben is not on a pattern cover but he wanted pictures while holding the magazine just like Isaac.  Seriously, everything Isaac does Ben wants to do.  

And then Isaac and I dyed Easter eggs while Ben napped.  Jacob said he didn't care if he was around for it and we had a pretty busy weekend planned so I took care of it on Thursday.

Jacob had Friday off work since they decided to float a holiday to Good Friday.  So we took advantage of that and headed to Denver.  Jacob did a session at the temple while I spent time with the boys.  We explored the temple grounds first and then went for a little treat at Krispy Kreme.

The boys loved the flowers and the water fountain.  The flowers were pretty and it was a really gorgeous day.  The weather was perfect, almost 80 degrees.  It actually felt really hot when we finished up at a park near by the temple.

I think it's awesome that the best picture I could get of the two of them together was this.  Isaac's face is funny and Ben isn't looking anywhere near the camera.  

And two seconds later they found ants.

What cute boys!

Oh March, Where Did You Go?

I suppose we've been partly distracted and busy with all this entails:

Yep.  The boys and I were in a car accident.  A 16 or 17 year old girl who has only been driving since December, hit us.  She was stopped at a stop sign while I was driving on a street where I had no stop sign or light, clearly the right of way.  She proceeded through her stop sign to take her left turn right into us.  Luckily and thankfully, no one was hurt.  We are now just waiting for our little red Subaru to get fixed.  Man do I miss it.  I'm driving a little 4 door Hyundai.  I don't love it.  Neither does Jacob.  I think Isaac thinks it's pretty cool.  At least until he tries to see out the window.  He can't so much.

This is the passenger door shut.  It doesn't close all the way at the top.  I drove it like this one day in the rain and snow to some visiting teaching appointments.  Not good.

But then we had a visit from Grandma Brunson.  The boys loved all the attention from her.  They especially loved some time outside.  They made up a new game where they were returning the pine cones to where they belonged.  They spent a long time throwing pine cones into the trees.

(I think I need to clean off my lens...)

And this is Isaac "being cranky."  He would move his arms like gears.  I'm not sure exactly how this came to be but now anytime I tell him he needs to rest because he's acting cranky he says "no, this is cranky"  and moves his arms.

He really did LOVE all that time with Grandma.  He was such a happy boy all week long.

Grandma left on St Patrick's day.  The boys wore green, found some leprechaun treasure, and played with green play dough.  It was a good day.  We also had green shamrock pancakes and green grapes for dinner.  Apparently I wanted to go all out for St Patrick's day this year.  Probably won't happen again.  I can't live up to that level of awesome all the time.  :)

This was Ben's first play dough experience.  I think he liked it.  Unfortunately it never lasts too long because they start eating it and that bothers me so I put it away the minute it hits their mouths.  Silly boys.

I'm not sure what else happened in the past few weeks.  I guess we've probably just been our boring, routined selves.  But, I wanted to post the few pictures I have none the less.  I just look at these pictures and can't believe how big these boys of mine are getting.  I was telling Jacob today that I feel like we are in a really good place right now.  The boys typically play well together and I have found myself with a few times in this week where I don't have anything to do.  The chores of the day are done, the boys are content with each other, so I picked up a book to start reading. I get a few 10 minute bursts and then I am pulled away but I haven't even thought of reading during the day in ages.  I hope this trend continues.  I like seeing the boys play well.  Ben is hilarious when he copies Isaac.  And boy does he!  He copies the way Isaac plays and will even sit or roll or lie on the floor exactly the same as his big brother is.  So cute.  And Isaac is being more helpful and kind with Ben.  There is less pushing and fighting, still some, but less.  I'm loving this stage in both of their lives right now.

And now I will stop rambling and call it a night.