Life as I know it. This past week.

This past week has felt busy.  But I just hate to use the word busy to describe my life. Why? Because when is it not busy and how do I then differentiate one kind of busy from the next? You know the cleaning, organizing, and clearing my head {and my nose} kind of busy, which at times can also sound relaxing. Not to mention we had some special visitors for four days, which means we had loads of fun and our house suffered in the process. Oh and the fact that we are in the works of recovering from a lot of snotty noses from two certain little people and one certain big person {me}. Which just explains itself right there.

To be honest, I felt exhausted just reading that above. So busy? If that's the word to best describe this past week, then there you have it.

But we have felt better. And we have been able to leave the house. And I honestly cannot type fast enough or long enough to truly express my excitement of: GOING TO THE STORE WITH THE KIDS WITHOUT COATS! It's a true miracle, and the greatest thing I have been missing these past 4 months. Getting kids out of the car seat, throwing hats on, coats on, and then trying to zip line it in the door to beat the wind is just not my kind of cup of tea. Not sure if it is ANYONE'S cup of tea, but I just know it's not mine.

Especially when it goes on for 120 days. Approximately.

Being able to just get in the car, and get out of the car, and enjoy the nice little stroll from parking lot to the opening doors is though {my cup of tea}.  In fact, I enjoy being out and about with the kids. I enjoy the thought of having to stop by multiple stores and run errands with them because I don't have to worry about the excess clothing and excess winter and just excess in general. I enjoy it, and I am stupid excited that I don't have to worry about cold weather for a little while {though not long enough}.

And parks. Can we just talk about the amazing feeling of watching your kids play at parks again. All of them. All different 8 of them.

Perfection.

Aside from great weather,  another one of my album books came in the mail the other day, which then resulted in me sitting on the couch and looking through all all of them. Does it ever get old? No. It only does {truthfully} get more and more exciting. The longer the time goes between pictures, the more fun it is to flip through the pages and to reminisce of when Elliana was little, when Graham was born, and even when it was just Andrew and I. Just the two of us.

Even that seems so distant.

My next photo album will include pictures of a two sweet girls that had a blast this weekend together and their parents who had equally {if not more} fun together. We did nothing but hang out, eat lots of good food {lots}, drink a few good drinks, and have some wonderful laughs that were probably more inappropriate than not. But that's us. And these two people get us, and I love that.

I love that there are other parents out there like us. And I miss this already.

One thing we did while they were here was go to an Easter egg hunt with the kids. We got there 20 minutes early, and the kids waited patiently. Excited. Anticipation at its finest. And then the countdown began, 3-2-1, and off they ran like scavengers. 20 seconds. That is about how long the hunt lasted. Thousand eggs on the ground and they were gone in a mere 20 second.

Needless to say, we had to tell the kids that this was just a practice run and that we would have one at home. We stopped by a candy shop after lunch and shopping and picked up some goodies, had the guys pick up eggs during nap time, and then Jody and I stuffed eggs {and our faces}, hid them outside, and surprised the girls {and Graham}.

I tell you what, kids innocent excitement is by far one of the greatest parts of being a parent. The things they say. The expressions on their face. The pure joy. It's all just too beautiful to even describe in words.

I want to have twenty hunts after that.

I won't. But it sure would be fun.

I know I have by far exceeded my word limit in this post. About 5 paragraphs ago. And yet I have not even covered the surface of "life," and that's okay. I don't plan to cover it all, as I don't expect anyone {but myself} to really even care.

That's life. Busy. Fun. Changing every day.

And to think we are in the middle of April, we have so many exciting trips ahead, and so many wonderful things to look forward to. 

That alone makes me happy.