And you thought my LAST post had a lot of pictures...

It's just that we had a really fun week and I felt like I needed to document it.

First, the day Oma left, Megan came! Yippeeeee!!! There is nothing like having a good friend with you in a foreign land to lie around, eat good food, shop, and laugh at your kids with. We feel SO blessed that Megan made the effort to come all the way and see us. Although we just made her read books the whole time.

I wasn't kidding.
One time we did let her leave the house, to come to the land of more kids. And a rousing game of "Shoot the dart gun at the ceiling fan."

To help ease the sadness of her leaving, I got to go join some friends at the beach for a day. Look at this cute little munchkin going all old man on us. Nate went to fix his suit but not before I could snap a shot of the cuteness.
I thought this was so cute-sisters in the background, brothers in the foreground. :)
My little free spirit...
I am of the belief that nothing warms a mothers heart more fiercely than siblings loving each other to pieces. It almost hurts it makes me so happy.
My beautiful friends!

To top off a fabulous beach day-our dear friends the Johnsons have the most amazing parents, who offered to watch ALL FIVE of our kids-ages 5 weeks to 3, so we could go out to dinner. What a treat! (also a treat: Kilwin's toasted coconut ice cream. Hello Samoa in a cone. I love you.)

I love dancing in the minefields with this guy. Seriously, my heart skips a beat just looking at this picture. I'm a total nerd. And fine with it.

The VERY next day (see? fabulous week!) we got to go see Grandma Betsy, the most precious person on the planet. I will argue with anyone on this point. She was visiting her sister in Florida, lucky for us!

Reese currently does the "reverse into your lap" thing. All my girls have done this and it kills me with cuteness.
Love.
The girls had a great time with the old fashioned "Little People". The narrower bodies they used to have were perfect for attaching to fingers. I miss old school Little People stuff.
Gram trying her hand at the people placing. :)
This was one of those Normal Rockwell moments...Gram playing the piano soon to be joined by my enthralled chickies singing along with her.

Reesey and Grandma's sister, Aunt Helen
Three precious sisters! I told them I sure would have loved to have known their parents! They were 3 of 8 kids, and every one of them are/were fabulous people!

I love this picture, such classic Grandma. So genuinely loving on everyone.

Also classic, anyone who has ever met her has been in this pose-
Mark and Gram
We came home and went straight to a pool party. I highly recommend having 5 nieces in the pool if you have 3 kids 3 and under. :)
Alternately-you can take one kid out and just sit them with a bowl of food. (and maybe next time bring a suit that fits)
Kaiya wasn't in this picture...
she was too busy doing this-quietly shuffling herself around the exterior of the pool, over and over :)
Dinner!
Whew. I'm tired just looking at all these pictures. Thankful for such a blessed April in Florida so far. My heart is full!

(Three hundred and twenty) FIVE HOUR ENERGY

Oma came to visit us last week. I am pretty sure I can almost hear the Hallelujah Chorus when my sweet mother in law enters my home. She has more energy than I ever will, is more productive than I've been in my whole 32 years put together, and is a fabulous Oma to our kids-playing with them, and reading to them, and all sorts of other wonderful things that I don't do. :) WE MISS YOU OMA!

Teaching Ava some good life lessons. (I have never vacuumed stairs. Feel free to de-friend me.)

More important life lessons.
She takes LOTS of pictures. I didn't touch my camera all week, she had it covered!
Her main goal was to try and get a picture of all 3 smiling. It never happened. My sister in law has oodles of pictures of her kids smiling and looking perfectly. Not sure what I've done wrong.
Kind of close. Just imagine palm trees and ocean in the backyard.





We have begun a tradition of going to Cracker Barrel on Saturday nights. Partly it reminds us of Taylor, and partly it's .2 seconds from home and we don't have to cook or clean.


Can I get a witness Moms?!
Family picture at church. Good thing it isn't for the directory!
All 8 of our girls.

What beautiful girls!

Another attempt at a picture.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture and how happy my parents look. I will treasure this one. :)
Sunday afternoon nap---interrupted. Maybe when I'm a Grandma I can sleep through kids?


Mark and his Mom doing P90X. See? More energy than me. I will NEVER do p90x.

Softball!
We babysat Buddy for a week. The girls loved feeding him Clementines.
Bubbles!
The last night she fixed the classic Funfetti cake and had a little birthday party for me. So sweet!
One last try at a picture before the airport. My middle child is still on a posing strike.
We are so blessed with a fun, Godly, helpful, youthful Oma!