Company Coming

Well, company came, actually…but that didn’t make a very good title!

We started this new year off with a visit from Jim’s brother and his family. Yea! Cousins! We love getting to spend time with our cousins!

It wasn’t a long visit, but we enjoyed ringing in the New Year with Clay and Carey and seeing all the ways Tyler and Avery had grown since the last time we saw them. We celebrated Tyler’s 3rd birthday while there were here and got some great pics of him. It is so hard to get good shots of Tyler because he simply won’t be still long enough to catch him!

What a cutie!

And not to be outdone, Avery is super adorable too!

Reagan had a blast having “baby” Avery around! Avery wasn’t always so sure about Reagan’s generous devotion, but I think they’ll have a lot of fun together when she gets a little older!

Tyler, however, was just their speed! The kids may not always have shared well, but at least they all like to play the same things! There was a pretty steady parade of cars and trucks through the house for most of the weekend!

There were also lots of new games to play! JonZReaTom received a Zippity game system as their Christmas present from Uncle Clay and fam, and Tyler got a Smart Cycle as a birthday present! All the kids really enjoyed these games! There were sad to lose the Smart Cycle when Tyler went home, but continue to enjoy their Zippity! It’s a perfect game system for their age!

All the boys!

Jonathan, Zachary, Tyler, Avery, Reagan, Thomas

I don’t know what we’ll do when they outgrow the couch!

We also recently got to spend some time with our friends Josh and Cris and their kids, Carter and Kennedy. Carter is even harder to photograph than Tyler! Here’s the best I could do!

Kennedy was much more cooperative!

Isn’t she just beautiful?

AND we also had Big Dinner in January! So we got to spend time with longtime friends Michelle and Judah and their kids, David and Abby! We haven’t gotten to see nearly as much of them since we started preschool and have really missed playing with them every week!

(BTW, Big Dinner is a holiday tradition Michelle and I started back in 2000. We were both married and decided we needed to be capable of putting together a holiday meal, in preparation for the day when we were responsible for such a thing. That day has yet to come, but we continue to cook Big Dinner together each year because it’s just fun! We no longer focus on traditional holiday fare, having successfully baked turkeys and hams, and all the fixins, but tend to try out new foods. Big Dinner is worth a post all to itself. Maybe I’ll write one someday!)

Unfortunately, I was so busy cooking that I only took two pictures the whole evening, and neither of them was very good.

January was a full month for company! And we loved every bit of it! Our home may not be big, but we can always make some room for friends and family! Love you all! Come visit again soon!