A Full Tank!

Oh, me.  I'm sitting in bed with my laptop, exhausted but not spent.  I'm exhausted but full.  Today was a good day, a full, busy, happy day, and I am thankful.  Erik was out of town this weekend, so it was just me and the guys!

We went to Wally World, and the little mister sat in the big boy seat for the very first time!  I think he liked it...

I bought a lot of bins to help organize the boys clothes.  This is an on going effort for me.  I organize, and then I reorganize, and then we have to change seasons and sizes and on and on and on...

But, on a more enjoyable note, I bought these items for "movie night with mom" as the boys call it.

Joshua said Bambi was a girl movie.  Erik told me to tell him it was about hunters, but that just seemed wrong to me.  Anyway, it all turned out okay, except that I didn't remember that Bambi really doesn't have a whole lot of plot to it.  But, the boys didn't seem to notice, so all was well.

After Jack and Eriky went down for naps, the boys and I filled our Operation Christmas Child boxes.  This is always so much fun!!!

I love OCC!!!  Our church is a relay center for OCC, so it is a very big deal to us. Every year the boys do a musical to promote it.  The congregation brings their boxes and at the end of the performance the children collect all the boxes and bring them to the front.  They've been working hard preparing for the performance, and I can't wait to see it tomorrow night!

After we filled our boxes, the boys went to jump on the trampoline, a.k.a. their second home. :-)  I followed them outside and began raking a pile of leaves for them.  They quickly realized what I was up to, and from the trampoline they encouraged me, "Wow!  That is awesome, Mom! Keep it up!!"  "Just a little taller, Mom!! You can do it!!"  "That is the best pile ever!  Keep going ~ just a little bigger!!"  Finally I finished up, and they could not wait to dive in!  Here they are waiting for me to say, "1,2,3, GO!!!"

They tried different things like running all the way from the house to the pile down by the pond!

Then, they would dive in like it was a swimming pool!!  Cannon ball!!!

Joshua...

James...

Elijah, wait, where is he???

Oh, yes, there he is!!!!

I had so much fun watching them play!  I just sat criss cross applesauce and took pictures and laughed a good bit, too!!

Sweet friends.

 Then, Eriky woke up, and I really started snapping pictures...

Good old fashioned fall fun...

I remember loving leaf piles as a child!

 As I watched them play, I wondered if years from now they will remember this...

I hope they do.

I know that I will never forget...

their laughter mingled with the sound of crunching leaves...

It was a good day, full and busy, but, oh, so good!  After they had played to their heart's content, I took them in and bathed them.  They put on their pj's, and then off we went to pick up carry out Mexican food!  We watched Bambi, ate Mexican, and baked our cupcakes.  Here is Lije icing his...

and eating it!!

My goal for the weekend was to finish swapping winter and summer clothes.  I am so behind, and I am tired of grabbing clothes out of bins!!!  I did get a good bit accomplished, but I didn't get the job done!  Oh, well, maybe next weekend.  As I was organizing, the boys were literally at my feet.  I was using the guest bed as my organizing headquarters, and they decided to play hide and seek... in the guest room!!!  My first reaction was frustration.  It is hard to work in a small space when four little boys are moving around, running from one another, hiding, squealing, etc.  But, then, I thought about the fact that they wanted to play where I was.  They wanted to be where I was.  They didn't want to be downstairs or outside.  They wanted to be near me.  That may not always be the case?  So, for today, I am thankful for the nuisance.  I am thankful for the little bodies in my way.

Some days, days like today, I wish that these little men would never grow up, that they would stay little, stay with me forever.  But, I know that is not what God has planned, so, for today, I am thankful.  I am thankful that they think pancakes for breakfast and Mexican for dinner are awesome meals!  I'm thankful for leaves that crackle and crunch and are broken up in little pieces all over my house serving as reminders of the fun we've had.  I'm thankful for little green, blue, and brown eyes that look to me for help with shoelaces and shoulder pads. I'm thankful for smiles with icing mustaches.  I'm thankful for bathtime and clean boys tucked sweetly in beds.  I'm thankful for movie nights with mom.  I'm thankful that Elijah "loves me more than a shark," and "more than 16,000 monkeys."  I'm thankful that Oregon won, even if my sweet son was too tired to stay awake and see it.  I'm thankful that not only are my boys good friends with each other, but the older they get the more my heart sees them as my best friends, too.  I'm thankful that they still think my ideas are fun and not cheesy.  I'm thankful that as I shut my computer down and lay my head upon my pillow, I can say that today was a good day.  I am exhausted, but it is the good kind of exhausted.  The kind of exhausted that comes from spending yourself wholeheartedly for those you love.  As my sister in love would say, my love tank is full.