The boys were so very excited for grandma Jo and grandpa Dave to come visit. Aiden would have played games with them 24 hrs a day if we let him. Grandma and grandpa were great sports and played quite a few games with him. Here is grandpa playing Spot It! with Aiden.
Eli wanted to play Sneaky Squirrel so we did play that and I was excited Eli actually wanted to play a game. I guess I don't have to include that Eli quit playing after a game but at least he played a whole game. 
We put up the tent in the living room sitting area and the boys enjoyed playing in that. They even got grandma to come and sit under the tent for a while. The boys were awfully quite at one point so I checked on them and this is what I found (picture to the left). The little stinkers climbed up on the cat gym. Good thing grandma Jo and I built that so strong that it could withstand 2 toddlers on top of it.
Here is Aiden getting ready to open a second birthday present from grandma and grandpa. I didn't take any picture of him playing with it so I'll have to get on that. Below you can see Aiden opening his card. Grandma Jo made it and it was a colorful dragon.
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The picture on the right is priceless. That look of Eli's ... TROUBLE!! He's so stinkin cute which is good because I think we will see this look from him quite often over the next 20 years.
Brad's parents like to stay busy so we saved up some projects for them :) Actually we didn't originally plan on help but it was great to have help. My mission for Brad when we got to Jacksonville was to build Aiden a loft bed. We were going to have the boys share a room again but we have decided to put them in their own rooms instead. Aiden is reaching a point where when he breaks down and will not/cannot communicate, he needs his own space and we have a hard time telling Eli he either can't go in his bedroom or the toy room (depending on where Aiden is at) because his brother is having a complete breakdown and is being ridiculous. I wanted to do a loft bed so that he still has space in his room for toys and such. After much searching on the internet, I gathered a few pictures and showed Brad what I wanted. Essentially, I wanted a loft bed with lots of storage space on the ends. I originally wanted a desk built in but after he got the bed framed, I realized it was a tight fit to have a desk area and cubbies. I decided we'll just get a desk/table for Aiden's room instead. The key to this loft bed though is that I need it to be in three sections. With as much as we move, it wouldn't survive too many moves if we had to keep unscrewing things and putting it back together. I wanted two end pieces and the bed part. Brad and his dad sketched out some ideas, decided on what they needed and went off the the hardware store. They came back 2 hrs later with a ton of lumber and ready to build. Over the course of three days, Brad and his dad built the bed. Brad got a new drill and an impact wrench/drill too from his parents for graduation. That helped quite a bit to speed things up since they really needed 3 drills: one to make holes using a drill bit, one to use as a countersink, and one to use with screws. Brad learned about notches for the first time to make the shelves. He's got it down now I think. One of the really cool things they built is a little special tissue box compartment (3rd row, far left). The poor kid is always blowing his nose and sneezing at night so he has a tissue box with clean tissues and one for yucky tissues, and then he has a small box for his stuffed animals or toys. This compartment will make a huge difference when I change the bed because I don't have to take all that stuff off the bed. One end of the bed has 9 large cubbies and the other side has 6 small cubbies (that fit the standard fabric squares) and 3 large ones for some bigger toys.
Of the boys wanted to help so this is their contribution. Aiden really did help move some boards. Eli tried out what the space would be like once the bed was lofted. It was very hot out the first two days the boys worked on it and the little boys were just sweating sitting in chairs watching the big boys work.
I took the boys to the store to pick out paint for Aiden's new bed. The boys had fun picking out paint. The only problem is that I was just planning on painting Aiden's bed. I was going to stain it but then thought that since we can only rent right now (which means no painting walls), adding some color to the bed. Aiden picked out blue and green and said he wanted strips. Yikes. Eli then said he wanted his bed painted so I let him pick out a color. He chose orange and blue (no I didn't influence that choice). I will start painting Aiden's bed this week. The boys had a blast watching how the colors were made and the woman at the store was so nice to them.
On Friday night, we all went to Sweet Frogs for dessert. Aiden can't eat anything there because it's frozen yogurt and made with cow's milk so we take something for him to eat. The rest of us had some yummy dessert. Aiden got all done with his and then was doing this (see picture to the left) for a while. He finally put his arm down and told me he was still hungry. His lack of ability to tell me his needs and/or fear of telling me drives me nuts sometimes. This is an important skill he needs to figure out or he will allow himself to be in some miserable situations. I pray a lot for this little sweet boy.
Eli's yogurt was melting because he had a hard time staying in his seat because he wanted to dance to the music. 
It was time to say bye. We all hugged and then parted ways.
The boys were sad to see grandma and grandpa leave. It was a great visit with them.
in the next day or so. I even made super hero capes and masks for the boys. It was our first time doing photos not in a studio with multiple wardrobe changes and stuff. The location was pretty neat. I'll post some pictures when I get them.
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