Tanner, Lukey, Mimi and Pop Pop!!....

....in Oklahoma!!

In April we had the rare treat of having cousins actually visit us...at our house...in OKLAHOMA!!  

Who comes to Altus Oklahoma for vacation??

Well, Tanner does!

 and Lukey does!

and so do Mimi 

 and Pop Pop!

If it's cool enough for them, maybe it's cool enough for you;)

The arrival:

after a long drive they were all smiles! 

 Straight back to the bedroom for storytime with Mimi!

 Silly faces easter egg hunt!

Face Painting and a Jump Castle

Isaac and Luke found Star Wars buddies in each other while Tanner always threw BYU and sports in on the scene.  Thank you Tanner!  I'm not passionate enough about sports or my alma mater to do the brainwashing!  I need all the help I can get (and we all know Joey is no help...with BYU that is;) 

They stayed up late goofing off and talking in bed,

Dyed Easter eggs

Teased the heck out of each other and had an all around good time!  

I didn't get pictures of the hike or the bike rides, the shooting of birds with Nerf guns 

or the night after night of Uno.   I couldn't keep up with these guys!

We were so grateful to Jake and Ash for sending them down and to Mimi and Pop pop for bringing them.  I think kids can tell when someone is family.  Somehow there's that sixth sense and everyone lets their guard down.   I love that.  By the end of the trip Tanner was teasing Joey and I and we were razzing him right back.  Lukey was sitting in my lap and whined a bit when I had to get up to get something for Georgie.  I raced right back for this rare opportunity of getting snuggles from a nephew!  We love these boys!  And Mimi and Pop Pop too!  

xoxo

A, J, I, G and Ju

Juliets Blessing

Juliet's Baby Blessing

The day was sweet.  The weekend perfect.  

On Sunday afternoon we blessed Juliet at my parents home in Houston.  She woke up from an after church nap to a house full of friends and family that love her.  I spent some time alone with my sweet little girl, dressing her in a gown that I had worn for my own baby blessing.  The gown was worn by my Mother, her siblings, my siblings and all of my cousins on my Moms side.  Isaac and Georgie were blessed in it and I believe that Liam, Arie and Ryder were as well.  The bonnet was my Fathers.  I felt connected with all the Mothers that had done this before me...dressed their children in this gown (and bonnet) for a beautiful occasion.  I felt connected with a moment that seemed fleeting but also with history that was with us.  I felt my Gran, my Mother, my Aunt, my Grandmother, my cousins and my children.  We shared a special moment with all of them...Juliet and I.  

My most precious possessions 

A special moment with Papa.

The Men in my circle;)

Q:  Who drives 3 1/2 hours with 6 children during a residency program for a 24 hour stay to see friends?

A:  Special People.  People that you love.  People that you love.  The Bahrs

We soooo enjoyed having them there and appreciated so much their sacrifice in coming to meet Juliet.

Silly Faces

The Boys

My Babes

The kids sang "I Am A Child Of God" before Jet's blessing, then "I Know Heavenly Father Loves Me" after the blessing.  They set the beautiful mood.

Gaga and Papa kisses.

Dad with "The Nina's" (We're missing Jill)

Gaga with Juliets special cupcakes.  They were delicious!!  

Complete with pink J's on top of them!!

Arie back from Guam.  

I'm dying to get these two together again!!

After a tearful goodbye to The Bahrs and the Monsons the kids carved a pumpkin with Papa and Gaga...a smiley one.  Isn't that fitting!

I love people!!  Especially my people!  Thanks so much for being there friends.  It meant a lot to us!

xoxo

Utah: Family

the greatest part of vacationing, for me, is the spending time with family part. i love just talking and being with people that share my history. i love being with people that, when you're with them, a huge part of you is home. those words describe exactly the way i felt on this night that the following images are from. i'm used to feeling this way when i'm with my immediate family because i see them somewhat regularly. but i almost never see the mccann cousins anymore. i didn't know how much i missed them until we were all together again. seeing my children playing with their children brought a familiarity, a smile to my face that i hadn't anticipated. i expected being happy to see everyone but i hadn't anticipated how deeply i would feel it. it made me wish that we all lived in texas again...all of us together. so that our children could be close and play as we had. its sad that we all have to grow up and go our own way.

generation 3...double third cousins;)

boys being boys

gorgeous abby and greg

my gorgeous jinny, barbie and precious moments coloring companion extraordinaire!, a happy me, and richard who always made me feel beautiful.

sarah the beautiful and wise and richard

smiling faces

don't they look carefree! soak it up kiddos, soak it up!

i love you guys!

Christmas...the second time around

 Christmas #2:

Our second Christmas was spent at Lake Tahoe with the Merbacks.  We had a lot of fun doing things and just being together...I guess I'll just let the pictures tell the story!

We did a lot of this:

And this:

(I'm not lying when I say they did a lot of this...i.e. wrestling...when all else fails for two four year old boys, resort to wrestling!)

And this:

And this: (okay, okay...we only built a snowman once;)

And this:

( we woke up to find that the kids had moved their bed underneath the table in the middle of the night)

And this:

(we went to a casino to eat dinner one night and watch the Utah Alabama game.  We had to come home before it was over to put the kids to bed and guess what they guys were doing while the girls put the kids to bed!...GO UTAH!)

And this:

(Dancing together)

And this:

(Isaac set himself up with a book before the fire...see, it just comes naturally!)

Yes and this too!

We even helped Meems in the kitchen!

No family vacation is complete without banging our silverware on the table and chanting 

"Feed me NOW!"

Oh yes, we did all of these things but we did even more.  I have no pictures of Isaac tearing up the bunny hill at Diamond Peak!  He was such a great skier.  Joey and I were so proud of his good little attitude and his ability to snow plow and even make some turns in the span of one day!  I enjoyed skiing with him more than I enjoyed skiing the black diamonds!  Another great day we spent at the Rec Center swimming and then playing some fun games in a deserted aerobics room.  We played Dodge ball, soccer....ummm I can't remember what else...But whatever it was it was fun!

And yes...once again we are grateful!  But just let me say my peace and move on!  We are so grateful for family!  Mimi and Poppop provided us with a great vacation and Bob and Laurie provided us with the perfect, cozy little cabin!  Thanks to all.  My favorite thing about the Merback family is that we talk.  We talk for hours and hours about politics, relationships, people, parenting, problems, sports and all of the above.  I came home more tired than before because we stayed up so late almost every night just talking.  Thanks for talking to me guys!  I miss you already!