Thankful Little Hearts

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It's starting to become a Thanksgiving tradition to take our family Christmas pictures on that day (or the day after).  This year we ventured outside my parent's house down a little path that is a protected nature habitat. The problem was, Jaden was not happy.  To make matters worse, Micah had thrown a tantrum for over 30 minutes before the photos about the fact that we were making him wear jeans, and he wanted to wear shorts.  He was still getting over that, so we had 2 very unhappy boys on our hands.  PERFECT timing for family Christmas pictures.

As I wrote about yesterday, this was another one of those things that was just out of my control.  After they got running around, they mellowed out a bit. However, Jaden is already tired of having a photographer mama and so he is not amused by my efforts to take even more photos of him.

The boys thought it would be funny to mess around during our photo shoot after they had finally calmed down.  We got a few cute pictures after bribing them with a treat if they behaved (did I just admit that?), but it was still frustrating at times.

Here is one where they were not listening and decided to run instead of walk with us:

It's funny, if you didn't know the story, you might think this was planned.  "How cute! They're running in front of their parents!" NOT CUTE. I am in the background shouting, "Get back here right now!  1-2-3!"  (Yes, I count too!  So sue me) ;)

Here's another winner:

Here's one of Jaden when we told him to "Smile" -

And when we told Micah to "Smile"-

And then in this one we finally got Jaden to smile (a little), only to have Micah start messing around:

Sometimes I wonder if we are the only ones with difficult children.  No matter how hard we try, I feel like they get mad, frustrated, talk back, or have attitudes.  They also feed off of each other, so one could be in a great mood, only to have the other one spoil it.  I think it's good to be honest with each other about these things, because sometimes I read other blogs and feel like I'm the only one whose kids have issues.  So, there is some honesty for you.

Another issue we have is at dinner every night when there is a big argument about who gets to PRAY.  The boys fight over whose night it is, and before you know it there are tears and time-outs.  Tonight I let them each choose 2 nights of the week they can pray, and we will cover the rest.  That seemed to work out well.   They both pray pretty much the same prayers every night.

Micah:  "Thank you God for our dinner, and our house, and our cat.  Amen."

Jaden:  "Thank you God for our dinner, and for our house, and our cat, and our driveway.  Amen."

We always stifle a laugh when he says "driveway" because it's so cute, but tonight I asked him about it.  Micah replied, "He thanks God for that because we get to ride our scooters up and down our driveway when we play outside." Jaden nodded affirmatively.  It's the little things.

It got me thinking - am I thankful for the little things like that?  Am I thankful when my boys argue and fight?  Am I thankful when they throw tantrums and won't smile for pictures?  Am I thankful that they are brothers who love each other still, and have the privilege of growing up together?  Am I thankful that even when things aren't going according to plan, they might still be having fun?

Am I thankful for the things that normally go unnoticed, like our driveway?

I'm thankful that little eyes see things that big eyes don't see, and little hearts feel things that big hearts overlook.

I'm thankful that even though our photo shoot didn't go as planned, we still had some fun and ended up with smiles on all of our faces.

Mama just needs to be thankful, and take a chill pill.


P.S. A special thank you to my sister for her patience and photography skills!!