spy kids

My date night on Friday with the boys consisted of activities and food tailored to their active lifestyle :) They wanted to enjoy the fine fare of a McDonald's Happy Meal...why do those meals make kids so happy?....I was hoping for something a little more along the lines of Cafe Rio(!), but a good french fry is hard to turn down...unfortunately! :/

They then ran and ran up and down the play area and got out a lot of energy. And yet - there is always more energy built up in these boy bodies...how DO they do that?!

We came home and had movie night watching 'Mars Needs Moms' - the message of that show is tender & I'm hoping they got the message that moms that ask their children to do things, do it for that crazy LOVE thing....the female martian in the show that says that line over and over is my favorite :)

The next day we split into groups - I took Madeleine to dance and then we had lunch with the Lord girls. The boys got haircuts and went and bought a new toilet seat as Jacob broke the seat when he was in time out. That boy is 98% sweet - it's the 2% that is an intense storm!

We all came home mid-afternoon to finish our Saturday jobs and play Legos....the latter wasn't exactly on the list of work for the afternoon but the 3 kiddos are in serious Lego building moods lately.

We finally had everything finished for the day & started to get ready to go to Grandma Joy's for her Valentine's Party with the Utah grandkids. The boys came decked out in their Spy Kids gear --- this is their other joy besides Legos it's to dress up and play spies and it's hilarious what they come up with. Such as Bryson's disguise of the yellow wig!

These boys crack me up - they are becoming such great friends and playing together super well for the majority of the time. When they don't get along it's intense and fireworks definitely shoot out from their personalities...but overall I love how much they can play and entertain one another and that they get so excited to show one another things that they have done. Throughout the day I hear Jacob talking about "Bryson will be so excited that I found this for him" (usually something to do with a Lego piece) or "When will the kids be home so that I can play with Bryson?"

I love my Spy Boys!

{here's a little video of Spy Boy Jacob doing a little dance with his spy get-up....I did actually watch this on the blog so I know it was up at some point - but if you can't see it please state in the comments...I can see it on one of our computers and not the other! }

it's tradition....

Thinking about the bedding situation - I shouldn't be so surprised that we are testing out bedding and that I'm considering it's on loan....until I really make up my mind. 

I tend to do that with other purchases.  Big or small - there are just some things I don't want to commit to, until I know that I'm going to really love it and it's going to work for us. 

Example being - new camera.  I've asked for a new camera for....well, a long long time for the kind I have wanted.  I told Bryson it would be my present for every holiday and whatever this year if I could just get a camera!  And....he finally said yes.  And then he told me that it doesn't have to count for every present - but honestly, I'd rather it be this way....I like knowing that what I get is what I really want and will like. 

The problem with a camera - I didn't know what one I really wanted.  I've dreamed so long about having one, but I had no idea which kind to get.  I ended up at Costco getting groceries the Thursday night that Bryson's parents came in town, and I looked at the cameras.  And I asked about their return/exchange policy.  And I walked out with a camera....and a really big box that housed everything. 

And since then I've had fun trying out a few different shots.  I haven't had as much time as I had thought I would to read through the manual, watch the tutorial and really try it out.  However, I do know that I love taking pictures again with something bigger than an iphone, and although I don't know all the ins and outs - there are some great features on little Nikki (short for Nikon whatever version I got).  

The crepe post was one of the first group of photos I took - which was back last Saturday (the 5th) after we watched Bryson Jr.'s basketball practice, which I took pictures of as well, but I wanted to post these pictures of the boys. 

Bryson (Sr.) has been working really, really long hours lately.  I still need to catch up on the post about Virginia, but his intense work came back that week of President's Day when the kiddos had their Mid-Winter Break.  He worked all week - long hours.  we worked the following week - even longer hours.  He miraculously was able to get off some time while his parents were here....not like time off, but he worked what  we joke was a regular work schedule back in the day - he got off at 6pm that Friday and he was able to get off on Saturday and Sunday and do things with us, and even Monday night he was able to get off at 6:30pm and join us for Mary Poppins - although he did have to go back in the office for a wee bit after the show.  

This past week was more brutal than the past two weeks.  The last two nights, I finally had to go to bed around 1-1:30am as I was falling asleep waiting for him to come home....I think he said it was between 3 and 4am he got home....he honestly couldn't remember with last night he was so tired.  

Anyway - the point to this....the boys love when he walks through the door!  Today after church we dropped him off so he could do some things for a few hours and when he walked in the door the boys ran to him and did not stop talking to him or let him out of their sight for very long.  It's tradition to play and wrestle around with daddy and Jacob just couldn't get enough of daddy time tonight...