Our summer has started!

There is only about 2 weeks left of preschool for my guys, and I'm excited not to have to have them all dressed, fed, and out the door every morning, but I am going to miss my two mornings a week where I have a couple of hours to get stuff done!  The warm weather makes us all excited to get to spend more time outside, though.  The boys are just happier, and they seem to not want to wrestle quite as much when they can run around outside.  When they are inside, it's another story.  They seriously can NOT keep their hands off of each other.  They can't even walk by each other without giving a shove or a little slap.  They all out wrestle on the floor probably about 20 times a day, and often it's all four of them.  Someone always always comes up crying.  Then they come running to me and they say, "Micah (or whoever) did something to me!!!!!"  Then they go right back into the wrestle pile.  They can't stay away from the rowdiness!!  It is one part of boys I will never understand.  They are so physical!  We've tried to stop it, but it's like fighting their nature, so now we just warn them that if they play rough they're going to get hurt.  And we leave it at that.  They always still wrestle, and they always still get hurt. 

Here we are painting Easter eggs....they loved it!

 Derek has total concentration when he paints or does crafts (check out the tongue sticking out).  Such a cutie!  Derek's been playing really good by himself lately, and acts like he likes the alone time more than the other two do right now.  He'll go outside by himself and swing, or go downstairs and play, and he's just in a good mood most of the time.

 Tyler....he's turning into such a good painter and artist, and he actually cares how it turns out now.
He's a bit of a perfectionist, so that leads to lots of frustration when brothers don't play the game by the rules, or when they change something he's worked on, etc.  We're always working on how to deal with things around here!

Micah man.

I found them in our spare bedroom the other day with three of them halfway under the bed, just chatting and playing.  M, A, D, T

 I had them flip over and I stood on the bed to take a picture of them.  Micah and Tyler (on the right) we're yelling as loud as they could, and Andrew and Derek were cracking up about something.  They are so hilarious together, and if one starts yelling, all the rest start yelling.  If one starts makes up a word and starts saying it, the others do.  They all have something to say ALL. THE. TIME.  The volume in this house is unreal!  

We've been working on what it means to be a gentleman lately, so we're practicing holding open doors for girls, and talk often about being nice to girls and never hitting and playing more gentle with them.  The other day we were reading a book and Derek said, "Mommy, are ALL girls princesses?"  And I said, "what do you think?"  He said, "Yes.  I think they are."  :)  Evan is so amazing, and is teaching them to give me compliments, so they'll come up to me when my hair looks horrible and say, "Mommy, your hair looks beautiful!"  And they really mean it.  The other day I had my fingernails painted, and they couldn't get over how amazing that was (seriously -- probably the first time they've ever seen it!  ha!).  Micah especially tells me often that I'm the best mommy ever. One of their favorite pretend games to play is that we are inside a tent or fort and there are dragons or bad guys or something outside that they need to get.  They love to tell me, "Mommy we will protect you!  Don't worry!"  They really shower me with so much love and it's so amazing to see how it's just in boys to be the protector and providers....
My beautiful boys.  Derek, Andrew, Tyler, Micah

 And this just kind of sums up our life as soon as the weather gets warm!

 Andrew, Micah, Derek

 Andrew got himself all set up in his chair with his puppy on a stool right next to him.  He loves to take care of things, and was helping his sick puppy feel better this day.  This puppy is actually his "night time puppy" that he sleeps with.  He also has a "morning puppy" that he carries around during the day.  It's important to have a puppy for each time of the day, you know.

 Derek painting.  Intense!

 Naked little Micah man.  Why are they so cute without their shirts on??

And another favorite activity that we just can't get enough of:  digging for worms.  Anything dirty is super fun.

Tyler had to build a car out of a cardboard box for school, and here's the finished product. He has a Captain America shield on the front and side, 12 fire boosters (cups) on the back to make him go super fast, and 6 fire boosters on the front so he can even reverse fast.  Love it!  He was so proud...

The boy are loving tee ball right now, but only Tyler had a glove, so that of course wasn't working.  Evan took them on a daddy outing and got them all their own baseball glove, so we're excited to start practicing with them!  Micah, Andrew, Derek