Fun in our Courtyard

The other night while dinner was in the oven we all went into our "backyard" to play. It's a courtyard. Each apartment has a back door in the kitchen that leads to a stairwell. Outside the stairwell our back entrances face each other and form a little courtyard. It's a really nice area and this is the only time we have ever been down there. I'm not sure why. We need to use it more. You see, all these blog posts make it seem like we are having the time of our lives, spending every second together. But realistically, we only see Chris for a small amount of time during the day. On the weekends we usually get to hang out with him for a few hours. Sometimes he'll spend the day with us, but he usually suffers from the time lost studying. I don't have much time to blog about anything else, so I just blog according to the pictures I take. I don't take pictures of the massive fits and emotional outbursts that come from our kids (and yes, they come from me as well!!!) or the monotonous days where we are stuck in the house getting on each others nerves. I don't take pictures of the fact that we skipped school this week because 1 thing after another went wrong and I just couldn't handle putting my teacher hat on... or the long, exhausting errands that I have to run to keep our household going and can't run without kids because Chris isn't home to watch them. Those are the real days, and in between those days are beautiful moments and memories like this one. These are the things I hold on to and that keep me going each and every day. Moments like this one, where I was able to watch Chris teach Matthew how to hit a baseball.  Matthew wants to learn and Chris is happy to teach him. It's awesome.

Aaron, on the other hand, was being his stinker-self. He wanted so much to go splash in the nasty, muddy puddles outside but he didn't have rain boots on! He doesn't own a pair of boots that will keep his feet dry. I know, I'm no fun. But the shoes he was wearing are the only pair of shoes he has right now and we need to make them last. So I got the evil eye for a while until he got distracted with something else.

There are lots of little mushrooms everywhere here. I guess because it's so wet?

There are also acorns... EVERYWHERE! I probably see 5-6 squirrels a day. They are fun to watch! Aaron likes to pick up the acorns and try to "feed" the squirrels. When they run away from him, he tries to chase them down and gets so mad!

I just love my family. I am so thankful for them. I love that I am able to enjoy this special time with my boys. I hope in the next couple of years our family is graced with the presence of another female, but that is a long way off.