This is what we've been doing...

We've been busy lately. I figured I ought to share about our current events now, so they didn't get overlooked. I've been doing a handful of portrait sessions lately, and I feel like they are taking over our blog. Soon, very soon, Andrea Stratton Photography will make its official debut and will have its own domain, but for now, I'm still sharing amidst our family stuff.
Probably the biggest thing that's been going on is Chase's recent departure. He left for his mission this last week and we couldn't be prouder. The "three amigos" were proudly sporting their own "Future Missionary" badges at church in honor of their awesome uncle.
Marshall is taking great strides when it comes to swimming. I'm sure there's someone out there that will be quick to remind me about a time that I talked about my anti-floaties stance on learning to swim. Well, as with all kids, Marshall has made me eat my words. Each year, Marshall has gotten progressively more FREAKED OUT about swimming. He loves to be in the water, but he has to be frantically clinging to a parent's neck. A couple weeks ago we got him to quit the tears when he had a life jacket on and he'd cross the pool without any one holding him. So this week he graduated to floaties. He swims around so proud of himself and his "independent" state in the pool. He still won't let us more than an arms length away without a small freak out. -Not like we swim away, but you know... testing his limits-
The boys are growing into a great friendship. They love to play together and it makes me so happy. I love having two boys. I even hope to have another boy or two before any daughters come to our family. These two crack me up. At least once a day, when Ty wakes up, Marshall will go into their bedroom (as I'm informed I cannot go get him) and get Tyler all riled up. They both will jump and scream in the crib and play, play, play. It is SO funny.
Another big milestone: Grandma & Grandpa Tomkinson celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary. We had a fun celebration at their house and we had a fun time visiting with family and friends.
They are such an inspiration. We love you Grandma & Grandpa.
This was a good one! Right before the anniversary party I had the kids in the tub and I was curling my hair. I got them out and told Marshall to go get some underwear while I finished curling my hair. After a few minutes I realized he never made it back so I went to find him. The back door was open and when I asked Marshall what they were doing he said, "We are naked bums playing in the dirt, naked bums!" That was one of the funniest things I've seen these kids do in a while. You can't really see it, but Tyler had a diaper on. But being naked hasn't stopped him since from crawling out to that pile of dirt.

Another thing we've been up to is working on our yard. We laid all these block along our back patio and we're going to bring in a bunch of dirt so the grass is at the level of the top of the block. The back of our lot is just a bit higher than our foundation, so its helped us create a fun, unique oasis in our backyard. We used the same block to build a small retaining wall in the front too. The real slope to our lot is in front of our house so we wanted our front grass to be more level and not such a pain to mow. We're making progress, slowly but surely.
Here's another classic Marshall moment. I was vacuuming the boys' bedroom and working my way down the hall toward the toy room. Marshall was busy playing and got it in his head that if there was anything on the floor I'd suck it all up with the vacuum. (I must admit, I have threatened that before, but not this day.) Well I kept noticing him running back and forth and when I got to the door I realized what he'd been up to. He got EVERYTHING off of the floor and piled it into his play house. We have a collection of larger trucks that park on the floor next to the play house and each boy has a special box for their special things. Then there's a basket for animals, one for legos, and so on... He dumped them all (along with the containers) into the play house. He even went as far to put Tyler's rocking horse (at least the size of Marshall) into the toy box and then tried to shut it. This kid cracks me up. All three of my boys make me smile from day to day (I love you Colby, my oldest child). I dare say I have the best life ever. The only thing that would make it better would be to have an extra few hours per day (that magically didn't deplete my energy stores) to accomplish all of my daily tasks or a special helper that would put my clean laundry away and wash the dishes. Oh yeah, and organize various drawers and boxes.