Hello, my dear readers! I'm sorry to have left you alone this past week but goodness me, it's been Grand Central Station around here!! It all started last weekend with my sister, Gracie's, baby shower here at our house. I'll be sharing pics from that little event soon, but wanted to catch you up on all the other happenings from this week first.
After the shower, my sister, Diann's, kiddos -- all 4 of them -- got to stay with us for 3 days. Let me just preface all this by saying that they are ages 5 months, 1 1/2, 3 and 4 years old. Needless to say, we had our hands full! lol!
This is Miss Lainey. She is a veeeery happy girl. All you have to do is look at her or say something to her and you get these huge smiles....again and again. Kinda melts me!
She's super sweet and is perfectly content to lay on her little play mat and chill out or maybe even fall asleep on her own. Such a good baby!
And this sweetie-pants is little Miss Zoey....or Zo.....or ZoZo.....whichever you prefer. She is a TOtal girly-girl already! I got each of the kids some surprises before they came -- just little toys and such to pull out as needed (otherwise known as bribes!)....this isn't my first rodeo, you know! Haha! So for Zoey, I got things like little plastic rings and bracelets and flowers for her hair and a cute little purse with "lipstick" (the plastic kind!) and she loooooved it.
Every night, I'd make her take off all of her accessories and leave them downstairs for bed. Then first thing in the morning, she'd have to pile it all on again, and she'd wear it allllllll day long! Haha....she looked like such a fancy little lady swinging with her little coat on and her bracelets and flower in her hair. :)
She had so much fun one day, she fell asleep at the lunch table! Haaaa. And seriously, can we just talk about those cheeks?!! I LOVE them. A lot.
Ahhh, Malachi. The only boy in the bunch. He LOVES to swing! We have some really sweet neighbors next door that have a swing set in their back yard that doesn't get much use any more now that their kids are grown, so they graciously let us use it whenever the littles come to town. The first thing the kids ask us when they come over, is if they can go to 'the park'! Haha.....apparently any swing set in a large open yard, is considered 'the park'!
Malachi is the sweetest boy ever! He's got the best big brown eyes and he can't say his l's right yet. If a word starts with an L, it comes out as a Y. For instance, he says, "I yove you, Yainey" and it's just about the cutest thing you've ever heard! He's very tender-hearted and loving and I adore that about him.
And here's Ally....big sister. This photo of her is rather appropriate -- she's ALWAYS in motion! She kept us on our toes, probably as much as the other three combined! Ha!
I didn't go anywhere except for church, while they were here, because we couldn't fit all 4 of their carseats in either of our cars!!! Haha! So when we went to church on Sunday, we had to take two cars. LOL.
That also meant that when it was time to take them home, we had a little vehicular issue to work out. My mom graciously offered to drive us/them home in their minivan so Grace, my Mom and I road-tripped to Diann's house with all 4 kiddos. Thank goodness for Mom & Dad's minivan!
The only trouble with this plan was that in order to get all the carseats in, the only seat left for dear old Auntie Dawn (since Auntie Grace is very pregnant!), was on the back row wedged in between 'the bigs'! Haha! (Yes, the littles are now the bigs and the new littles are technically still babies......so there are 2 bigs and 2 babies?) Anyway....
To pass the time in the van, those of us on the back row played games (I Spy) and sang songs and made up songs (haha) and snapped a few fun photos on the iPhone. :)
On the way, we had to stop at my parents' house to see their puppies! One of their dogs had babies, so they've got 4 of these little cuties! I couldn't resist snapping pics of a couple of them. ADORABLE! I think they're about 7 weeks old now.
The day after the kiddos went home, my mother-in-law came to stay with us for a few days for Thanksgiving. And the day after she got here, was the actual holiday so my family (those that were in town) came for the day. We had lots of good food and laughter! It was a great day!
And today, my mother-in-law went home so tonight, we're planning on putting the Christmas tree up. Tomorrow, after church, we'll get it decorated. It's a big tree, so it takes us awhile.
This sweet boy will be SO happy to get things back to a peaceful normal around here! He's been so tired this week, with all of the kids/people coming and going!! Haha. When the kids were here, he didn't know which kid he should follow, if they went in different directions! lol. Poor boy! He's likely to sleep for a week now!
I'll be back soon to share some baby shower photos. In the meantime, I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
love,
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