Simple Pleasures

• Don't you love it when your kids do something without being asked?  This morning I woke up late to the sound of 2 of my kids practicing their piano pieces without being asked to do it.  This is one of the things that I love most in life because I hate to feel like I am nagging my boys.  And then I do not even hear any complaining about practicing.  That is awesome!
• Kisses from Nathan.  Nathan is one of those kids who loves to be hugged and kissed.  I probably receive a kiss and an "I love you" from him 20 times each day. 
• Kids playing games or made up activities for hours at a time.  Yesterday, Nathan and Eric played for hours.  They came up with all sorts of fun things to do and just had a blast together.
• Little girls who call their mom cute.  The other day I was changing Reagan's diaper and getting her dressed for the day.  I was still in my PJ's with my hair hanging crazy all over the place and Reagan pipes up, "you're cute."  Now I know I was not looking cute at all, but it was nice to hear and I will take that compliment anyday.
• Good Christmas presents.  Santa gave Eric a pogo stick for Christmas and when he opened it up, he said, "Why did you get me this? - kind of with a disgusted tone.  Eric probably has spent at least 30 minutes on that thing everyday since he got it.  Many days, even more.  He has a record of about 900 jumps in a row.  He has incredible balance.  We have let him do it in the house and we just hear that lovely bouncing sound all day long.  Even though Eric did not think it was a great gift to start, I knew that he would love it and he does.
• Good games.  We got a couple of fun games for Christmas and we have been having many hours of family fun together.  I love a good game!
• Door locks.  Reagan started coming out of her little port a crib (her big crib broke a while ago) around Christmas.  It became a real chore to put her to sleep.  She would keep coming out of her room over and over again.  If was funny because she could climb out of her crib for months, but she just usually did not.  So Jake switched the door lock to the other side so that we can lock her in.  This works very effectively and we have done it with all of our kids.  Reagan will cry for a couple of minutes, but now she knows she can't come out and she actually stays in bed.  She is sleeping on the floor while Jake works on completing her new murphy bed.  I love kids who know how to sleep well!