Randomly...

I woke up WAY too early this morning - well I should say that Ari woke up way too early at 4:40 am!!  Yikes...but to his credit the poor buddy was soaking wet.  Every night I put him in two overnight diapers and sometimes he still leaks through.  Oh well.  I changed him and he snuggled down in my bed with me for a little bit and by 6 we were up for the day.  Anything after 5 am has always been respectable in my house.  Anything before 5 is still night time and we go back to bed if possible.

Anyway, I looked outside at my rather large backyard I realized that my darling husband would be getting home from his business trip to what seemed like every leaf on the planet in our yard.  I decided to forgo our morning lessons to rake the yard with the children so that my husband didn't have to.  It took us 4 hours - and thank goodness Ari woke early because he slept for the entire time!!  YAY!!  We're all sore and tired but the yard looks amazing and we took a huge burden off of Ian.  It's a win win for sure.  The kids were amazing.  They did not complain...not.even.once.  I was very proud of them.  They kept saying how excited they were for Daddy to see the yard and how happy they were that he didn't have to do all this work!  I love that they love and respect him SO much.

As we were putting rakes away, folding up the tarp that carries piles of leaves into our back woods, and checking for ticks, Ari woke up.  I decided as a reward that we'd all go out to lunch.  It was a very well deserved treat - for all of us!

Yes, that's a double cheeseburger AND he added onion rings on top!!  Such a foodie this kid...LOVE it!

YUM!  =)

Seriously, he has hidden pouches in his cheeks!

For real?  And yes, they each got one!  (the older children - they shared with Ari, of course)

We came home and the children did pretend played for a couple of hours and then Ari went back down for about an hour and the children and I read a book we've been working on for a while.  Kendall then went off to continue typing her research paper and Tyler did a bit more work toward finishing his rough draft.

#bliss

It was an exhausting and very rewarding day.  We ended it with movie night in my bed - with candy. Jeez these kids have it good while Daddy is away!

Back to business tomorrow!!