Singing in the rain

This was after we got home from the pool. It started down pouring and Hayes was SO excited to play in the rain, I'm pretty sure he thought it was another splash pad. Him and Gator ran around on the front lawn until they were both just dripping wet. It really was a great day!  

Pool day

Sam and I took Hayes to the Washington City Community Center for a swim day last Saturday. Hayes liked to swim, but LOVED the splash pad. He ran around and screamed and played and literally just wore himself out. It was a really fun family day. Sam loves to take Hayes swimming and so I even got a chance to lay out for a little while! It was AWESOME! A little while after we left the pool, it started down pouring, so we felt like we had some great timing! 

Painting

I've seen a lot of moms on social media paint with their little ones, I always looked at that and thought "Wow, that's REALLY brave!" I also thought they might be a little bit crazy, but I found this cute little painting kit at Target and decided it was time to try it out. Much to my surprise Hayes did great! At first he was really good about using the brush and the eventually he just used his fingers, but he did really good to paint only on his paper. I actually feel kind of bad that I haven't let him do it before. I was so proud of him that I hung his painting on our fridge and haven't taken it down yet. This was a really fun activity, and I'm excited to do it with him again. 

Days with Hayes

Some days, my days off are so much fun and I could literally cry when they end. Other days, they are really hard and I find myself all kinds of stressed, overwhelmed, impatient, and constantly pushed to my limits. I don't like to remember the latter version of my days off, so when we have REALLY good days, I feel like I must document them. Focus so much on the fun days, that hopefully I can forget about the bad ones all together. 

Last week Hayes and I had a great day. We got up and went to the park and shopping and playing and running and the weather even cooperated with us and was warm, but tolerable. Hayes did so good listening and I felt like I stayed patient when he didn't. We both were on our A game. I love days like this. They make being a mom so much fun, they make me feel like a fun mom, they literally just lift you up. In the same respect, fantastic days like this make me wish I stayed home everyday. I know not every day is this good, but I still can't help my self of dreaming about a few years of fun days with my Hayesie without work days shoving themselves in the middle of our fun. 

I'm learning to find motivation in longing for more time home. It makes me spend less and save more. It makes me want to get myself in the a position where I can stay at home with him and that it's actually enjoyable and not so stressful. I'm slowly learning to harness my frustration with feeling so torn between my work life and my home life and using that to push myself to where I really want to be, and that's home. It's hard to wait for something like that, but hopefully that will mean when I actually get it, I enjoy every last second of it, and if not, hopefully I'll read this post and be reminded what it was like to want it and be reminded to never take it for granted. So many times I think there is such a disconnect between working moms and stay at home moms. I know in talking to both categories I have learned that even though both groups have so much in common, they often times only see the differences. I know a lot of times stay at home moms feel less than working moms. I can't help but laugh at that, because in my head I look at stay at home moms and see what I wish I had, there is no less than there, jealousy is probably a closer description. I hope that stay at home moms realize how amazing it is that they can do that, and how much it means to their children. There really is no greater job. 

The Lake

Sam's friend Jonny invited our family out to the lake a couple of weeks ago. The same day he invited us to go, we had planned to have Stock and Stae come and stay with us. We were glad when Jonny said it would be awesome to bring the kids along too, so after I got off work, we changed into our suits and headed out. 

Stock and Stae had a blast! There were kids around their ages there and they both love to swim so much. Stock was THRILLED when we told him he could go surfing with Sam. All the kids that wanted to take a turn did, including HAYES! Yes, can you believe it, HAYES SURFED WITH SAM!!! and loved every. single. minute. He cried his eyes out when Sam handed him back into the boat. Hayes didn't do so well on the boat. He wanted to be more independent than he was able to and it left us with a power struggle that he did not want to loose. Luckily we made it through. 

I'm glad we could take the kids out and have some fun, even if Hayes was so hard. It really was fun family time and a good chance for me to see everyone Sam goes to the lake with and to hang out with their families. I need to just knuckle down and do it more often. 

Longboarding with dad

I don't know who gets more excited when Sam get's his long board out, Hayes or Gator. Every time he would go he would look back at me and wave and yell "Bye Mom! Bye!" HAHAHA Then every time they would get back from a ride, Hayes would yell "AGAIN AGAIN!!" He LOVES to ride with Sam, but what you can't see is Gator running laps around them. Gator loves the long board just as much as Hayes does, and gets SO excited every time Sam gets it out. Summer days, I tell you what, they are fun!!

Hose fun

I know, I know, I have a million pics of Hayes playing in his little pool and being crazy with the hose, but seriously, this is what our days look like. Sam was showing Hayes how to squirt the water with his hands, and Hayes tried to copy him, then Hayes showed Sam how he knows how to make the hose spray water everywhere (by put his hand over the opening). He thinks it is SO funny! This kid is wild, and crazy, and so much fun!

Fourth of July

After traveling so much for our anniversary and for quilt week, we were ready to spend some time at home, and I promised Hayes he wouldn't have to get into his car seat the whole weekend. That poor kid did SOOOOO good on our trip, especially for how long he had to be in the car. 

We got some fireworks and cut up some fruit and celebrated the holiday at home. Hayes loved to stomp on the popper things and we ended up with a bazillion sparklers. Hayes never really got interested in those. After we did that we watched the big fireworks go off. We turned on the radio and listened to the music that went a long with the show. We were all singing a long, including Hayes. He has turned into quite a singer lately. He sings a long with all of his favorite songs on movies, he'll sing to the radio, but we haven't really got him to sing at church yet. 

The fourth is such a fun holiday! Even though it's not the best pic, I love this one of my little family together. It's crazy how fast time goes by and I love have these memories to remind of fun times we are having together, it's crazy how fast time goes and how easily I forget. 

Playing with Grandpa

We were over at my parent's house the other day and my dad was nice enough to go in the kid's toy room and play with Hayes. We were in the living room just talking and I heard both my dad and Hayes just laughing.  I walked in the room and say them peeking through to each other on either side of this toy house. Hayes thought it was SO silly! I got a pretty sweet video but I have no idea how to add them to this blog. What a sweet memory!