A restful Sunday

I decided that Graesen and I would go to the late service at church today so we could go for a morning run.  It was so pretty out this morning.  I stopped to take Graesen's picture by my favorite kind of tree.  I want to have a house with one of these trees in my yard someday:

On the way home from church Graesen fell asleep and napped for 3 1/2 hours!  (even though he slept for almost 12 hours last night).  I laid down with him and it felt sooo good to nap.
I got up a little before Graesen and was eating a little bit of ice cream.  Graesen came out and caught me eating it, so he of course had to have some too.  I love the bed head :)

We headed to my parents' house for dinner.  My mom has been working on the kids' corner of the yard.  She know has a digging area to play with construction trucks and a big sand/dirt kitchen.

Phoebe did a little dressing up for us after she finished her dinner :)

After dinner Graesen and I went on a walk with my parents and their dog.  Once we got back on the trails I got Graesen out of the stroller so he could run.  He is such a boy and insisted on stopping to pick up sticks and rocks :)

A full Saturday

Graesen and I had a busy day.  We started off the day by getting up early and heading to church.  It was community in action day.  We started off eating breakfast at the church then headed out into the community to help others.  Graesen and I went to a childcare center for low income families.  We did some raking.

We had to leave community action day early, because Graesen had swim lessons. 
After swim lessons we headed to my parents' house.  Their neighborhood has an annual garage sale that is huge.  My friend Erin and her baby, Jayney, came to look around and we spent some time visiting.  Graesen even got to feed Jayney, although he only lasted for about 10 seconds :)

We walked around a bit, and Graesen decided to spend some of his allowance on a Bob the Builder hat. We ran into some friends from my old job at the gym. 

 
We also found the ice cream truck, and Graesen got his very first treat from the ice cream man.

Tonight we went to my aunt's house.  She watched Graesen while I ran and then we had dinner.  It was a busy day for a Saturday, but a good one :)

First allowance

Graesen earned his first allowance today.  He "helped" me sweep with his own little broom, picked up his toys, and even helped me clean the bathroom (he insisted on using a paper towel and "scrubbing" things down).  He was so proud of himself :)  He earned 10 dimes this week.  He put 1 in his "For God" jar, 1 in his "For the future" jar, and 8 in his "For Graesen" jar. 

I also got a couple of pictures of Graesen playing during gym today. 

So awesome

Three awesome things today:
1. Graesen and I joined the YMCA yesterday.  Since they have an income adjusted membership plan it was ridiculously cheap AND comes with free childcare!  Today after work we used our membership for the first time.  I went upstairs to workout  while Graesen played in the nursery.  After I got done we went swimming together.  Here is my brave boy who walked right into the nursery to play and didn't cry at all!

2. I asked Graesen what he wanted to pray for tonight and he started listing off his classmates :)  He also tried to invite some to the gym with us earlier today!

3.  My grandma has a facebook account.  Seriously, I have to coolest grandparents ever!

Cheese!

Today was picture day at school.  Graesen totally cheesed it up.  Even for my camera:

Tonight Graesen and I had dinner with my parents.  They had Phoebe over too.  The kids took turns wearing my mom's glasses, and I have come to the conclusion that if either of them ever need glasses they will look quite cute with them on :)

Not cranky

This morning Graesen was cracking me up.  We were in the car and out of nowhere he said, "I'm not cranky this morning, Mommy.  I am cranky lots of times, but I'm not cranky this morning."  He was right, he really wasn't cranky :)

Rough and tumble

It was in the 80s today!  This is NOT normal for us in April, but I am definitely enjoying the sun.  Graesen has been playing outside so much the last couple of days.  He is just covered in scrapes!  The funny thing is, he rarely ever reacts to getting hurt.  It is only later when he slows down that I see that that he is such a mess.  He is such a rough and tumble boy!
When I went to pick up Graesen from Evan today they were working on putting together a new bike for Graesen.  Graesen was just so excited about it that we had to stay until they finished so that he could try it out.  I played with him on the swing set until Evan was done assembling the bike.

He rode around the driveway a few times before we left.  The poor kid was so sad to leave his bike :(  I honestly felt bad for him, because he just couldn't understand why we couldn't just all stay there together and let him ride.  Luckily, he will be back in the morning and will get to ride to his heart's content.

Treasures in heaven

Our pastor did a sermon on tithing today.  It was a really good reminder of how tithing is really storing up our treasure in heaven.  I want to get better about tithing myself.  I give to the church, but tend to do so just when I have extra money rather than making it a routine part of my budget.  I also want to teach Graesen to give to God.  I have been planning this for a while, but today's sermon gave me the motivation to really get it going.  I am going to have Graesen "help" me each week with a couple of chores.  Given the fact that he is only two, this will be things like setting the table, cleaning up toys, maybe "helping" me sweep with his little broom, etc.  He can then earn $1 per week.  I am going to give him the money in dimes.  He will put one dime (or 10%) into a jar for offering money to God, one dime into a jar for saving, and the rest into a jar for fun.  At this age it's not like he needs to buy much, but I figure if he earns 80 cents a week then I can take him to the dollar section at Target once or twice a month to pick something out.  I really want him to grow up understanding what it means to give and to be responsible with him money.  Here are the jars we will be using:

The weather today was amazing (almost 80!)!  We rarely get this kind of weather in April.  I'm sure it won't last long, so we really have to soak it up while it's here.  After church we headed to my parents' house.  Graesen "helped" my mom garden and loved finding worms for his bucket.

Gr

Graesen insists that monkeys say "roar" :)

He also got to play in the sprinkler and a bucket of water.

Tonight we headed with my parents to take some of Phoebe's stuff to her new house.  My aunt has been storing a bunch of stuff in her basement.  We stopped there and in the 10 minutes we were there Graesen was spoiled with a bowl of ice cream :)

Graesen played so hard with Phoebe and Zach tonight.  He met their new baby chicks and ran around outside.  Graesen and Phoebe played hide and seek while was hilarious.  They would count for three seconds and say, "Ready or not, here I come!"  The one who was hiding would hide in the same place every time :) 
While we were there we roasted hotdogs and made s'mores on their fire pit.  It was such a nice day!