Future Rock Stars

Music definitely runs deep in these boys' veins... but it didn't come from me!  Aaron has been giving some lessons to the boys lately and it seems we might have a little drummer on our hands.

 This boy can keep a beat!  Now, I know how hard this is.  Aaron has made futile attempts at teaching me to play the drums over the years.  I can do 2 beats at once, but try for a 3rd and I gotta throw in the towel.  I just can't do it to save my life!  But here my 7 year old hops on and with about 20 minutes of instruction, he masters it!  We say, do it faster... he does it faster. On beat. Amazing.

And who can resist the cuteness of this?  The guitar is about the size of him! Landon is learning a little as well, but he's just not quite big enough yet!  I love this next shot.  It makes me think of how the rock stars play with their guitars slung really low past their waist.

The only bummer about this post is that I don't have an audio clip to accurately portray the noise level during this photo sequence.  Earplugs and Excedrin please.

Look Mom, It's Our Fort!

Today the boys wanted to give me a tour of their fort behind our house.  They spend quite a bit of time back there, and honestly I try NOT to go back there due to the plethora of spiders and other creepy crawlies. But today I humored them. I figure a mother of boys needs to learn to be a little less squeamish. 

The boys actually found these wooden benches somewhere back in the woods.  I guess maybe the people who lived here before us might have made them.  So when they needed a table to complete their setup, I thought it the perfect opportunity to get rid of our well-loved, now hated Ikea end table.  That thing had seen its way through too many Jones family moves and I think it only cost $10 brand new.  I was done and it was done.  (Side note: I don't actually let the boys eat at this table because this is about 10 feet away from where Aaron saw the bear last spring.)

The branches above Levi's head are strategically placed and are the roof, so I'm told.

 "Come on, Mom, just climb over this big mountain."

And this, my dear blog friends, is the fort's bathroom.  What, you might ask, is that wheel rim doing in the bathroom?  Yep, you guessed it.  It's the pot. The "Pee Pot" is what they have dubbed it.  And because he is so kind, Landon had to demonstrate for me that, yes, he really does pee in it.  Nice.  Well, maybe that'll ward off the bears.

And of course they had to show me how they could climb all the trees. I really like this shot I captured!

Finally this above shot is their "hammocks."  They pull the bottom tree branches down and then lay on them before they can spring back up.  Pretty creative, I thought. Not so comfy though!

And here they are.  The fort masterminds. They're all boy.  And I love them.

Love These Boys

I consider it a privilege to get to mother these boys every day.  They are my joy and they have certainly been a blessing in my life!

Happy Mother's Day to all you Mommies out there in blog land.  I hope you're letting your loved ones spoil you today! You deserve it!

California Dreamin'

That's what I'm doing this morning after returning to this miserable weather.  We had such an amazing time on our vacation.  The weather was perfect and the kids had a blast.  And I took A LOT of pictures.  710 to be exact.  I will spare you the most of them and share a few of my favorites, though it will be rough to narrow it down.  I plan to upload a few more to my facebook page. 

We picked a great time to visit.  We never waited longer than 25 minutes for a ride with the average wait time being less than that and sometimes no wait at all! 

The kids were chosen out of a group of about 100 to participate in the Star Wars Jedi Academy training.  This could not have been more perfect for them, since they are obsessed with Star Wars!  They first received group training from the Jedi Master and then were invited up on stage to individually battle Darth Vader himself!  They received their own Certificate of Completion for the program and then had perma-smiles on their faces as they came off stage! Of course I have the whole thing on video!

California Adventure was a hit as well.  A few favorite memories for me were screaming in Aaron's ear on the giant California Screamin' roller coaster pictured in the background above, as well as being stuck at the top of the Mickey Ferris Wheel where it was WAY more windy than on the ground and we were all freezing to death!

On Saturday we rented an SUV and drove to the coast.  This picture was at Huntington Beach where they were having a surfing competition.  Aaron was pretty excited to get to see that.  About five seconds after this picture was taken, a giant wave came in and took Landon out, leaving him soaked, sandy and crying on the beach.  Of course I had to take a picture of that! 

We continued down the coast and hit up Newport Beach and Laguna Beach as well.  We saw the tidepools at Crystal Cove Beach, but frankly they paled in comparison to the Washington coast tidepools. 

But it was all fine by me because those beaches are amazing. I could've spent the whole 5 days laying there!  I can't wait to go back!

A Taste of Summer

You'd never know it was April by the looks of things around here yesterday! It was an amazingly beautiful spring day and we took full advantage of it!  The boys insisted on swimming trunks and even retrieved the flip flops from the depths of the closet.

Of course we had to break out the new water guns Levi got for his birthday last month.  They were a hit!

Then the boys spent some time on the swingset showing me some "cool tricks".  Levi's latest is swinging as high as he can and then jumping off into the grass.  (This of course gave me a heart attack the first time he did it, but then I remembered doing it as a kid and chilled out a little!)

And we attempted a family bike ride, but about a quarter of the way through, my tire popped.  So that ended that and we went back home.  But it was a super fun day and we LOVED the sun!

It's someone's special day...

Happy 7th Birthday Levi!

We're countin' the days!

We have two pretty excited boys around here these days...

(Well... and maybe one pretty excited Mommy.)

PS. The coloring picture on the wall is what Landon says he is going to give Mickey Mouse when he sees him.  He says, "When I see him, I'll give it to him and then say, 'Mickey, I'd like to shake your hand."

Sweethearts in Seattle

coffee. sleeping in. shopping. antiques. crumpets. sunshine. piroshkys. hot tub. wine. market spice tea. blue skies. crepes. laughs. memories. 

12 years. 

many more to come....

I ♥ this man!

This weekend marks 12 years of marriage to the man of my dreams!  Here are some of my favorite memories...

1997

 

1997

 

March 7th, 1998

1998

Honeymoon in Puerta Vallarta

 

2000

 

2001

 

 

2001

Greenlake

 

2002

6 months pregnant w/Levi

 

 

2003

 

2004

7 months pregnant w/Landon

 

2005

Completing our family!

 

2006

Sara's High School Reunion

2007*

Portland, OR

*Side note:  Some of you may have recently heard about the above pictured shirt.  Let me reiterate.  I love you Babe.  I do not love that shirt.

 

2008

Dancing at the Century Ballroom for my birthday

 

2009

We've been through a lot in 12 years.  Here's a recap:

• Number of different homes: 7
• Number of cars owned: 10
• Number of years of schooling: 2
• Number of jobs combined: 10
• Number of states visited: 8

I cannot imagine what the past 12 years would have been like if I didn't get to spend it with my best friend.  He's more than I ever wanted.   I can hardly wait to find out what God has in store for our future.

Happy Anniversary Babe!

I ♥ YOU!!!