I must admit that legos are one of my all-time favorite toys. My six year old loves playing with them.

My two-year-old loves to join in.

And even steal his creations.

Which leaves him with “It’s not fair!!” face.

The little boy runs away and makes faces of his own. There’s crying and yelling and sometimes even a bit of shoving (which I get seriously mad about and shut down right away.)

But then within minutes they are playing together and laughing again.

Showing me their stickers, which they lovingly put on all their clothes.

And they are so cute. So edible. I think my lucky lucky stars that I get to spend my days, my minutes, my life with them.

Jake’s making dinner for the kids right now and I am relaxing and organizing a bit. I have some ideas brewing for tonight but many of them involve watching TV and being on the couch!

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for no more gray hairs. Woot!
2. I am grateful for feeling calm. I rarely ever feel calm. I’m hanging on to this as long as I can.
3. I am grateful for a difficult decision I made today. I don’t mean to be cryptic, it wasn’t important what it was, just that I walked away from something I’ve been struggling with. I am a people-pleaser and have a really hard time disappointing anyone and I am very loyal to keeping my commitments so it’s hard for me to walk away from things but today I did and I am grateful I did it.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I played legos with my brother * {his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I watched some lego comic books .
3. I am grateful that I played cars with my brother.

So we’ve been having quieter and more relaxed days here where things are consistently moving forward and getting done. Nathaniel is learning to communicate more.

He looks up to his brother with awe.

And is still super-cute.

In the afternoon, once all the math and walking and reading and napping was done, I put on another movie for them.

I love how focused he is (only for a few minutes though, he has no patience for these movies.) I love the way David’s sitting with is hand on his chin, too.

Here’s the only shot David let me have today.

We get to go out on date night again tonight. I am so excited. I love going to the movies.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am still grateful for our quiet, calm, productive days.
2. I am grateful that I will hopefully get my hair dyed soon.
3. I am grateful for another date night.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I watched a movie * {his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I am building a lego project.
3. I am grateful that I got extra computer time today.

Happy Monday. We had a relatively productive and also pretty quiet day here. I tried to take some photos of Nathaniel.

But he just wasn’t having it.

He kept showing me other things instead.

So I got one of my sweet David.

I tried Nathaniel again.

But all I got was a blur.

After my meeting in the afternoon, I put on a movie for the kids and took a photo while they watched.

Now they are getting ready for bed. And I am feeling calm and full of gratitude for the ordinary day. I still have two blog posts gnawing at me for today but I’ll get to them eventually.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for our quiet, calm, productive days.
2. I am grateful for kids who know how to keep quiet during a meeting and for video chat.
3. I am grateful for Christy’s new class. She never stops inspiring me.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I played with Nathaniel * {his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I watched Because of Winn-Dixie.
3. I am grateful that I played with my Star Wars ideas.

Well, as this week comes to a close, we had a sweet and lovely day here. It started with exercise of course and then some family photos.

My sweet husband made me laugh today. He makes me laugh so often and so much. I adore him for that.

Then we tried to get one with all four of us looking at the camera.

Alas, that never happens.

See the zit I have? I didn’t photoshop it out. This is about life. Real life.

And then tickle time. Nathaniel’s started kicking and headbutting during tickle time recently hence me holding his head.

And in case you think I don’t laugh during tickle time too. I do.

I love tickle time with my heart and soul.

I wanted to do something for family-time so we decided to go to San Jose Children’s Discovery Museum. We drove all the way there only to discover it was closed for another two hours. After feeling terrible we changed route and went to Happy Hallow Zoo instead. We saw the lemurs.

Fed some sheep.

had a little attitude.

climbed.

ate a yummy lunch and watched more animals.

on the way out, the kids held hands.

inspected all the dinosaur paw prints on the ground.

There were many many many.

And the boys touched every single one. (Until I had enough and we aborted the project. But it was super cute seeing them holding hands and laughing.)

Then we came home and it was naptime for the little boy. David played on the computer a bit and then with his legos. I sketched, art journaled, and journaled. I also prepared most of my newsletter which will hopefully go out tonight. Then we played and laughed a bit more. David and I started a new book. Ate dinner, watched a bit of TV, and read stories for bedtime. The boys are in their beds, both reading now. I cannot think of a lovelier way to end the day.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for our family photos. If you’re not doing this, I cannot recommend it enough. It has become my very favorite project.
2. I am grateful for a wonderful family trip to the zoo and some great time with the kids.
3. I am grateful for a few more quiet hours before the day is over.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that we went to Happy Hallow Zoo. * {his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I played with my legos.
3. I am grateful that Nathaniel and I touched all the paw prints.