I'm amazed it lasted this long

This truck has had amazing lasting power. For Easter of 2008, the Easter Bunny dropped off two of these Tonka Monster trucks. And just about every single day since then, they have been pounded on. The favorite games are:

1. Zoom them as fast as you can down the deck steps and laugh like crazy as they crash end over end and smash to a stop at the bottom.
2. Jack sits at one end of the room and Aidan sits at the other, and they race them towards each other at full speed and watch them crash and bang, and they laugh like crazy.

For Easter this year, they both got SO excited that the Easter bunny would bring them another, and they were pleasantly surprised to find 2 red Tonka trucks on Easter morning. That added two more trucks for crashing and banging.

The best part of these trucks? Only $10!! We got ours at Target. I haven't seen them at Walmart, and I don't know if they are anywhere else or not. If you need a great, durable, fun truck for a little boy, I highly recommend this truck!

We are Thankful For...

Abigail: I'm thankful for Aidan, for Jack, for family and food. Thankful for every single one of us and everything.

Aidan: I take you for Jesus, for my sister Ab-a-gail, thank you for a big house, a nice brother and mommy. And a nice Daddy. And thank you for a nice TV show we can watch every day and "The Great Train Chase" movie.

Jack: I'm thankful for Jesus and Daddy's cousin, Daddy, Mommy, Aidan, and Abigail. For our TV, and "The General and The Texas".

Desperate for a night out

Kydon and I had planned a date. I was a little nervous about the babysitter (as I always am). Mostly my nerves revolve around how will the babysitter get all 3 in bed??? Kydon and I together have great difficulty, so I can't help but worry how it will all go down.

Abigail and I had gone somewhere at 4, and the boys were at home. I got home at about 5:30, and both boys were asleep on the front room floor. Jack was naked except for the underpants, and Aidan was still in his swimming suit.

I started feeling sick- Kydon let them go to sleep and now the babysitter was DOOMED! I knew we would be out late, and I also knew how gosh darn hard it would be to get them to go to sleep when they nap at 5:30. So, I did what any desperate-for-a-night-out Mom would do. I wrapped them as-is in their blankets, and put them in their beds. No diapers, no clothing. I warned the babysitter that they might wake up... and if they did, they would most certainly be wet, cold, and disoriented. But I also knew there was a pretty good chance they would just sleep on through.

We had a great night! We got home, and all were sleeping- Jack and Aidan never woke up! I took the babysitter home, (just 3 min away), and when I got home, Aidan was at the top of the stairs, fully dressed. He figured it was wake up time! I got him down, and then it was Jack's turn. I got him cleaned up, dried off, dressed, and back to bed. Only to greet Abigail in the hall. Allergy medicine, humidifier, and a kiss put her back down, and then it was my turn. I laid in bed around 2:30, and of course the boys were up and going at 5:00. You can't blame them- they had slept about 13 hours by that point!

But it was still worth it!

Date Night

Kydon and I had one of our best dates ever on Saturday. (Much better than the last one).

We started out going to a CD release party for a good friend of mine, Ashley Harris. It was a packed house- wall to wall people, and I forgot how fun it is to go to something like that and just relax, listen to the music, and just enjoy yourself.

Oh, and I didn't even realize it, but she has an adoption song on her CD! It is called "Someday Somewhere Somebody", and is about a boy living in a home, hoping to be adopted. It was really touching. I also liked "Miracle in Me", and thought it had a great message for someone waiting to adopt (although it isn't specifically about adoption, but it is what the song connected to in me). The rest were just really great country songs! I had a blast, plus I felt like I was doing something cool for once- not just trying on khaki pants and stopping by the grocery store!

Afterward we twisted the arm of some friends that were there, and they went with us to grab some food. This was probably my favorite part of the night- great conversation and a lot of laughing! Something about Kydon drinking the wrong drink... and by the end we agreed to keep a dog. Not sure exactly how that happened!

And then we left, and joined the premier madness of New Moon. And I gotta say, I was quite solidly in the "team Edward" camp, but now I might have changed my mind... :) It was a great movie. And we got home at... 12:30! I know, we are total rebels.

Adoption Worries

I posted last week over at Deep South Moms about one of my post-adoption fears. Check it out, and happy adoption month!

This is what they do all day

When the kids get home from school, they have their set routines.
Jack and Aidan head outside and keep themselves busy until I call them for dinner. They have so many plots and schemes and ideas. They love racing their trucks, playing football, climbing on the swingset, and throwing things down the driveway hill.

Abigail comes home, eats her snack, then eats Jack and Aidan's snack, then she pulls out the "project bucket", a big box of papers, glue, scissors, etc that she can use to make little art projects.

She doesn't stop until I need the table set for dinner.

The amazing thing to me is that this is just what they do. Abigail goes outside sometimes, but she wants to be entertained, and played with, and she usually just ends up sitting on the porch watching. Jack and Aidan hate doing art projects. Occasionally we can get them to sit and try, but they require so much direction and help and encouragement. I'm sure it is a combination of personality and gender, and I'm just glad they are happy for a few hours!

The World's Smallest Swimming Pool

"Mom- can we put on our swimming suits and make a swimming pool on the deck?"

Um, make a swimming pool?

"Yeah, we won't make a mess."

Well, okay.
Getting in the pool- one body part at a time.

All that fun in such a small container.

They played for a good 30 minutes.

And yes, it was pretty warm today!

Sneak Preview

Tessa put a few of our family pictures on her website... you can see them here. Can I just say W.O.W??? They are so amazing- and I LOVE some of the crazy expressions she caught. So cute!

And thanks for all the input on the clothes! After reading everyone's input and the links people sent, I decided to put the boys in the brown sweaters. Except we put them on and the sleeves only came to the elbows, and a little tummy was showing! Oops- I guess last year's sweaters aren't cutting it this year! So we ended up with the maroon and blue, and Abigail threw a wildcard by digging up an old lavendar sweater that actually looked really good, so I let her wear it. Of course, when we got there, she wore it for 3 shots and then was done. So, I hope it isn't too weird having her in short sleeves and the rest in sweaters, but it is what it is, right? Also, most of the links recommended layering, so I tried to add a few layers here and there.

I think they turned out pretty great, from what I can see! Thanks for all who responded!