Thankful Thursday (a day late!)

So, I was reading my friend Jillian blog today and she recommended doing a Thankful Thursday post and I thought I'd try it even though it is now Friday.
1. I am thankful it is Friday and this weekend I am off! We will be going to dinner for Lowell's dad's birthday and playing as a family.
2. I am thankful for all the amazing babysitting helpers we have. My darling sis Cyndel will be tending the boys so we can go to dinner. We are eating at Chuck-A-Rama (why do so many buffets have the word "chuck" in them???) and it is such a bummer to go to a buffet and have to leave after one plate. Lowell's mom and sis, his bro and his wife, my 2 sisters--they all do so much to help with the munchkins and always do it for free. I am so spoiled! My kids too, they are very lucky to be so close to so many good people who care about them, I'd have to add my bro Robbie to the above list on that one, he doesn't care to babysit them but he does come over almost every week just to visit with them.
3. I am thankful for good food even if my figure is not. It has been a never ending battle since I finished breastfeeding the boys, but honestly considering how I eat sometimes I am grateful I have kept a steady weight for so long. I wish it would go the other way, but at least it isn't going up.
4. I am grateful for MOM (moms of multiples)'s night outs. Wednesday I got to go out with the girls and play wii until the wee hours of the morning (well, past midnight but that is quite late for this little mama). It was fun to get out, visit, eat, goof off on rock band, and gave me the peace of mind the next day to not beat my children after they picked all my tomatoes off the plants--they were of course green still and the only ones I have gotten to grow all year :(.
5. I think Thankful Thursday is supposed to be 4 things, but I cannot list #4 without being thankful for Lowell. He is such a sweetie to let me go to mom's nights out. He rarely gets to go out but always even encourages me to go. He puts the boys down on his own almost every night (since I am usually at work), cleans the whole house--it is always so clean when I get home, and gets up with the kids when they fuss in the night. There are many more reasons I am grateful for Lowell, but for today I am thankful he lets me go to mom's night out.

Thanks Jillian, that was fun to do. So here's my new favorite shots of the kiddos, I actually put these in place of the other 2 side shots on their birthday invite (ordered today, woohoo! I still love Artscow, I got 50 4X6s, 50 5x7s, 3 8X10s, 2 photo dog tags, and a hard cover 20 page photo book for under $30). This was taken after shopping last week, I let the boys choose a donut if they were good (they unloaded the whole cart for me, so they got their treat). Carter chose chocolate of course and Davis actually chose something else, but Carter's (and my) donut leaked onto his.

Carter
Davis
This is what I found when I went to unload the groceries. I had a rotisserie chicken in the trunk and Oscar and Maddy were sniffing it out. I just thought they were too cute!

Let's see, congrats to my cousin Chelsea and her fiance today on their wedding reception. I am here so I can't go but I am excited for them nonetheless. They are actually getting married next week, but had a reception today. Good luck to the Cougar football team tomorrow! We went to Farm Country on Wednesday night and it was so nice. The weather has been perfect and we were the only ones there. I love the feed the little goats, and Lowell loves the ducks. The boys like everything, but especially like the chickens and rabbits (there were 6 little white baby rabbits, so cute!). Today I wanted to go to a different park than usual so we took a blast to the past and went to the park I always took them to as little guys. We have now lived in our new house for almost a year and a half, so they were 18 months when we moved. I am surprised how often we still went to the park considering their age, but we did go quite often and were lucky in our old neighborhood to have so many options for parks. Our new neighborhood actually has just as many, we are still lucky! It made me reflect on our time there and how much I miss my old neighbors, they were just the best. The boys took off running on me, one of my biggest pet peeves, but it turned out to be a nice walk. The weather again was so delightful and I love to watch those silly boys run. Just looking at their backs as they ran off made me smile today, I am so grateful for their health and strength and their friendship with each other and with me. Everyone who knows them comments on how loving and cuddly they are. That is just how it is in our house, lots of hugs and kisses. It was a good moment, almost made up for Carter getting up and wanting to stay up at 6:30 this morning (less than an hour after I got home from work).

T-10 days until Ba-pa returns. I have been showing the boys pics of him to remind them and today Davis gave the picture a big hug and talked about how he wants to play with grandpa. It makes me want to cry and be bitter about those who have deprived my kids of 32 months of their grandpa, but I will try to instead be so happy that he is coming home and will have many more months ahead with them and other grandkids that come into our family (meaning to my siblings, we'll see about us). I am just so excited! I think I'll get to some work I ought to do (or check up on some blogs :p ). Happy weekend to you all, I hope the weather is as lovely for you as it is here (and blessings to those in Ike's path).