Thankful...

Today I feel like I have SO much to be thankful for...

As I laid in bed with Phoenix and Quincy, I found myself looking over at Phoenix and feeling so happy...
So thankful that he's here with us, so thankful to be able to call him our son.
And Quincy? That little guy is just too easy to love!
He's very snuggley and squishy and is almost always smiling...

Is it because he (Phoenix) didn't have one single "blow up" today? Maybe.
Is it because it was such a beautiful day today? Maybe.
Because he took a nap happily AND went to bed with NO problem? Maybe.

or

Maybe it's because last night I decided I wasn't going to let attitude issues of the "little people" control how I felt today... I decided not to be "affected" by how I was treated. I decided I would calmly tell the child that I was going to have a happy day today and I was not going to let their actions make my day not happy. I would tell them I was going to love them whether they decided to obey or not, whether they were happy or grumpy, but it was not going to control my day.

When Phoenix woke up, the first thing he did was attempt to pick a fight about changing out of his wet pull up. So I gave him my little speech and smiled, gave him a kiss, told him we'd miss him at breakfast and we'd be so glad to have him join us when he was ready to be happy... and went to get breakfast for the other kiddos.
*Ahem, may I add, I took a deep breath and sent up a flare prayer for strength*
To my complete shock, he went and laid back down in bed.
About 10 minutes later he poked his {smiling} head out the door and said "Mommy, I am ready to be happy, could you please come help me get dressed?"

:O

Oh. My. Goodness.

What a happy little boy he was today. Luke even commented about the sparkle in his eyes...

And it worked quite well with Riley's attitude soon after that. ;)
And Quincy's too!

And mine, for that matter.

Did I get any more sleep than normal? Umm... no.
Any more caffeine than normal? Umm... no.

True, two wonderful girls came this morning to clean my very messy house...
so maybe that was the issue.

But really, I think not.

So I am just incredibly thankful for a wonderful day.
And quite hopeful tomorrow too, will be good.

At least in the since of me taking control of my attitude.

On a side note, the weather was BEAUTIFUL today!!
We went for a L-O-N-G ride in Mater the Gator...
All the way over to see Grandpa and Grandma Deaton!

And I got to spend some de-stressing time pulling up weeds. I told Luke it felt quite therapeutic to be able to accomplish so much so easily! I told him I was just pretending each weed was one of the behaviors or attitudes in my life or my children's lives that I'd like to get rid of. And what accomplishment! After about 20 minutes or so, the whole area was free of all those "behaviors and bad attitudes" and my, my, my, so quickly and easily.
*Sigh*, back to real life! ;)

Luke built quite the little rack for the back of the Gator that has vinyl covered padded seats complete with the old 5 point seat belts from the airplane! We need 2 more lap belts for the big boys but it's now MUCH more comfortable to go cruising around in... and you know, at 25 mph, it's much nicer to have the 2 littles buckled safely in! ;)

Last evening after dinner, Luke kept the 3 boys and I took Halli and ran to the grocery. It felt so surreal. It was SO quiet. I felt like as I drove thru town {yes, really} I just kept looking out the window in awe. Like I'd never seen town before! I was seriously questioning my sanity at this point. Since when has spending a half hour grocery shopping, of all things, been so relaxing?!
Halli and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, even treating us to a strawberry dried fruit bar. ;) Oh my, was she thrilled. On the way home tho, she started to wonder about her "boys". Daddy, Riley, Phoenix and Quincy. I wish you could hear her say the boy's names... :) More like, I-ee, Eee-nik and Ki-hee.
She's developed quite a little bossy streak that is going to need a little toning down, I'm afraid.

Riley is quite the "prayer warrior" around here... He's first to offer regardless when or what we're praying for. He's started saying all sorts of flowery things we have no idea where they came from. With out fail, every single prayer includes Benton and our 93 year old atheist neighbor, Glen.
Today was:
"Our wonderful Father who is in Heaven, thank you for healing Benton, kind of, and please make him all better and help him to be brave when he has shots and stuff that is scary. Help Glen to love God and us to bring him food. Thank you for our brothers and now can we have 2 more brothers and 4 more sisters? Help us to have happy attitudes a lot.
In Jesus our Lord's name who is my sweety Savior and I just love him so much, Amen."

Sometimes Luke and I just look at each other and crack up. He's just so funny.
And NO, we're not praying for 2 more brothers and 4 more sisters... Ahem.
That is Riley and Riley only praying that at this point! ;)

And now for the pictures...

2 little monkey's jumping on the Gator...

Lovin' on her Rockefeller...

Our almost-daily-dairy-just-for-fun-run...

Ahh, beautiful.

Huh?! Rolling along...

Chill-axin' on a Gator ride...

Well, what would you do if you had 4 kiddos who all wanted to hold your hand?
And no, this was NOT planned or staged...

Our first family of six picture...
Windy hair and all!