It's not that hard, Anne Geddes

After his bath Jonah climbed up on his dresser and decided to take a rest.  I couldn't resist a picture even if I could only find my phone. 

All I needed was a cabbage to put on his head and it would be true art.

It's official, though it's been unofficial for months

Last week I asked Lucas to play with JB outside while I fixed dinner.  A few minutes pass and he comes in and asks if he could pull weeds and prepare the garden for seeds. 

Hmmm.  Let me think. Of course, young man.  Weed away.

Jonah helped by walking around menacingly with a log, keeping Lucas on task.

We're officially ready for spring.

Happy Easter!

Ok. I forgot to take pictures on actual Easter. I had even bought matching outfits for the boys and I still forgot. I've never bought anything special for Easter before but then I thought  to myself if these kids were girls, they would be having Easter dresses galore with hats, purses and matching gloves! Okay, maybe not that crazy, but they would have matching something. So this year I bought matching shirts and pants. Lucas was just barely in the size range of actually having matching sibling clothes. Next year I will have much more difficulty finding clothes that coordinate with a toddler.   He'll be disappointed, I know.

For the very first time in his life I took Lucas to a professional to get his haircut.  Oh-so-many years ago when we were engaged, a friend taught me how to cut Aaron's hair and so I have always been the barber in our household.  Everyone comes out looking like Aaron but so far that hasn't been a problem.  At least I don't think so.  But then Jonah came along and I am lost and his hair is out of control. 

So I thought I'd take both boys someplace to get tips and tricks to cut their hair better.  The first thing Lucas said after the cut was, "Wow.  It's never been so straight before."   I guess he's right.  I never professed to know what I was doing!   But now that I look at his new haircut I realized that I tend to cut it a little "shaggier" in the front because...well...I think his straight haircut...is not my favorite...as Grandpa J would say.  Sorry, Lucas.  I know you like it and won't let me "fix" it my way now. You have difficult hair to cut, super thick and a huge cowlick that makes your hair go straight down in front.  I thought I could get a new idea of how to cut it but...nope.  I've been doing the best job so far.  I'll let you keep the "straight" look until the next cut but since I'm holding the scissors, I get to choose the style.  :) 

{Unless you ask me nicely and then really I'll do almost anything you want.}

"To the beach!"

"We're going to the beach?  We're going to the beach!"  
This was literally repeated 50 times as we were getting our gear together one morning during spring break.  {We cannot tell Jonah we are leaving until we're ready to walk out the door or he will drive you cah-razy trying to get his shoes on or yelling for his coat for hours.}  We hadn't been to the beach in at least a year and I knew Jonah had NO idea what the beach was. 
So I asked, "Jonah, what's the beach?"
He thought for a moment and then just as estatically he replied, "Outside the door!"
This kid truly doesn't care where we're going or what we're doing, as long as he's outside.
It turned into a great morning, cold and windy, but beautiful.

The boys built log forts...

 
 
Created sandcastles...

Explored the woods...

And played in {near} the water.

I tried to recreate one on my fav Seattle pictures of Lucas...

We have always loved Richmond Beach.

JB Quote #1

Sacrament meetings can be difficult with this little escape artist.  I bring books, paper and crayons, treats, toys, threats, but very little seems to work to keep Jonah quiet the whole hour of sacrament meeting.  Like I said, he's an explorer.  So I had him out in the foyer for the second time trying to keep him quiet on my lap.  (I'm trying to teach him it's much more fun to quietly play in the chapel than sitting still on my lap out in the hall.  So far...not working.)  This Sunday we were sitting on the couch underneath the picture of the rescurrected Christ.  Jonah had run out with two toy figures and while we sat on the couch, they, of course, had a fight.  Growling and fighting one of the figures who was apparently losing, yelled out, "Help me, Jesus! Help me!"  I couldn't tell if his plea worked or not. I was too busy laughing.

It reminded me of our "famous" Lucas quote from when he was 5.  We had been trying to teach him how to be a good winner and so made up a saying to help him.  Grandpa overheard this gem while Lucas was playing alone with his figures.  "Great job!  You played well...wienerhead."   It is now unreverently quoted after each game played by the family.

Gotta love boys.

It's the little things...

Last Friday morning I opened my eyes at 8am. I heard the last bits of family prayer being said in the living room and then rounds of kisses. "Love you Lucas. Have a great day." "Love you too, Dad." "BYE LUCAS! BYE!! Bnamshm...sijdand...SCHOOL!" Exclaimed by Jonah.

My back had been giving me issues a few days last week and so I hadn't been sleeping well. My sweet husband had let me sleep in while he took care of the morning routine and got Lucas off to school. (Love the working from home thing!) I woke up feeling so blessed and loving my little family. It's a great way to wake up.

That morning Jonah and I took off to run errands and then stopped at the playground to get some energy out. The rain has been daily and plentiful this spring so with a morning cold but somewhat dry, I wanted to take advantage. Jonah is an explororer. He climbs the playground for a while, loves the slides, quickly tires of the swings. Then he's done, he must explore. He leaves the playground for the adventure of the trees armed with stick-weapons and possibilities of danger. We chased "back hoes" or black crows from the field and raced each other to the mud puddles. He never met a mud puddle he didn't like and didn't think needed to be stomped in. He kept squirming into the low branches of the pine trees and whispering "Thank you. Thank you." (?!? I would love to know what was going on inside his head.) He's at home outside and loves to get out there any chance he can get. From "makin' castles" which is literally filling up a bucket with dirt, dumping it out and starting over or whacking trees with sticks (this one keeps him entertained forever.) This kid truly loves life and is thrilled by every little thing. He in turn reminds me to find joy in the little things. Like waking up to my boys saying how much they love each other and playing in the park with sticks. It was a wonderful morning.

"Jonah was here"

Seriously. You would think his parents would learn to put away all their pens and markers. All I can say is this kid's got sneaky skills and the heart of a graffiti artist.

Ugh.

The past few days I haven't been able to upload pictures to the blog.  "Server rejected"  Aaron looked at it for a few minutes last night but neither of us could figure it out.  Uploads work on the other computer but all the pics are kept on the laptop.  And I actually been wanting to post lately.  It's frustrating especially since I'm not sure how to fix it and all posts need a picture, right?  That's how I roll at least.

Stay tuned and hopefully Aaron, my man and family computer tech, will come through for me as usual.