New Year Visitors

2012 got started in grand fashion!  We had visitors!

Granna and Paw came for a bit and right after they left Monk Monk came back.  She had already planned to come see us in January. Planned as in taken time off of work and plane tickets purchased.  Then she and Mom decided to make that crazy awesome SURPRISE Christmas trip out to be with us.  So we got to see Monk in December and January.  

Anyway, here are the highlights from time with our fam.

Highlight number 1....

 Granna and Paw delivered Chick-Fil-A!!!!

That chicken sandwich flown in all the way from Little Rock, Arkansas was a yummy as could be!

Granna and Paw also delivered a couple of suitcases full of clothes from cousins Brandon and Taylor.  Thank you Southwest for letting bags fly free!!!   Kade was thrilled to go through all of his "new" clothes from Brandon.  He found a nice new tie that he really wanted to wear to church on Sunday.

 He inspired all the rest of the guys to wear ties, too!!

Are they handsome or what????

 Tesa wasn't sporting a tie, but since we hadn't had any pictures with the babies and Daddy in a while, I thought she deserved a pic, too.

 And since we had a Daddy and the boys picture....Tesa and I needed a girls picture.  Yes we are WAY out numbered!!!!  But, hey, at least I have somebody on my team now.

And I couldn't resist a pic of Paw with the littlest fella.

Now as for pics of Paw with my fellas...this has to be my favorite....

 I really wish it were video, though.  Kade and Ryne were trying to teach Paw how to play Angry Birds on the tablet.  It was priceless.  Kyle and I were sitting in the kitchen working on a puzzle or something and were just listening in as Kade and Ryne explained in great detail just how to work it all.  It was great!!

Something else great about Granna and Paw being here....

 I got to spend some extra time with these guys when we traveled!

 Paw sat up front with Kyle, Granna took care of the babies in the middle, and I got to hang out with my big boys in the back.

 See?  Fun times!

 Aren't they cool?

We mostly just hung out at the house a lot and enjoyed each others company while Granna and Paw were here.  But we did get out a few times.  Once to go shopping....

 This is what the boys thought about shopping.

 At least Tyce was looking cool in his Razorback shirt, even if he wasn't much into the shopping scene.

Because Granna was willing to hang out with the babies at the house we got to bundle up and go for a walk/ride....

 And hang out at the park for a bit....

One day Kade, Ryne and Kyle took Granna and Paw to see Snoqualmie Falls.

 And then over to Snoqualmie pass for a little bit of snow tubing action....

The word from the boys is that it was LOTS of fun.  Since the babies were just getting over being sick I figured there wasn't much point in taking them on the trip just to hang out in the cold all day, so we stayed home that day and did something fun like laundry or dishes or something. Ha!

 Don't even look like they knew they were missing anything, huh?

Just waiting patiently for somebody to shovel some food into their mouths.

 And boy was it nice to have a couple of extra sets of hands around to help out with that job!

 While Granna and Paw were here, Tesa and Tyce celebrated their first half birthday.  Six months old!

And look what they got for their half birthday...

 SNOW!!!

 Here are the six month old darlings in their cute name shirts that our sweet friend Sarah made for them.

 They got all dressed up for looking at the snow from the inside while the big boys bundled up to go outside and play....

 You can see that what little snow that we had got mostly used up to build Frosty.

 But I have to admit, he is one good looking Frosty.

 Thanks Aunt Kim for hooking us up with that cool snowman kit!  We sure made good use of it this year.

 The boys really did enjoy getting to play in the snow this year.

 They especially liked throwing snowballs.  What kid doesn't right?

 Our sweet little neighbor dog Mattie even came out to play!  Isn't she cute??

With all the snow about gone in our front yard, we set out to find a sledding hill.  Wouldn't you know it, most of the sledding hills had been all sledded out with little snow left behind. But we found one that would work and made the best of it.....

 We let them sled long enough to get nice and chilly and then headed to the coffee shop to warm up and hang out a bit.

 And that was the last bit of fun we got to have with Paw and Granna.  Before we knew it, it was already time for them to head back to Oklahoma.  But we sure did enjoy having them around for a while.

The left one day and look what we got the next....

 Some serious SNOW!!!

 That was lots of fun to play in...

 Only this time, since they had already built a snowman, it was time to build a snow tunnel....

 What else would you do when there was that much snow????

 Stay inside and work puzzles, of course.  So we did that too.

We only had one problem with all of this snow.  Monk Monk was supposed to be flying in the next day!!!!

They had been shutting down lots of flights at the airport but we held on to hope that she would still make it.

The next day Kyle dressed JB (our 4runner) up in his snow chains and headed to the airport.  There were VERY few flights that came in to Seattle that day.  Guess who was on one of those flights????

 This is a "SHE's REALLY HERE!!!" face!!!

 Monk made it!!!

And seriously I believe it is because I prayed so hard that she would be able to get here.

They shut the airport down completely soon after her flight arrived. 

By the next day our beautiful snow had turned into an ugly ice storm....

 Lots of people lost trees and power.  We were blessed to not have lost either of those things.

And by the next day the roads were slushy enough that Monk and I ventured out for a girls day...

 We accidentally stumbled upon a Five Guys Burgers on its opening day.  Good accident on our part.  YUMMY!

 And we not so accidentally stumbled in to Cold Stone Creamery to enjoy one of our favorite treats!

We also did a little grocery shopping while we were out.  Not the most fun but, hey, I love spending time with my sister even if it is at the grocery store!

And you might remember that Monk was here for Kade's birthday party....

 He planned it that way!  Yep, said he wanted to wait til Monk Monk was here to have his party.  So he waited until the week after his birthday to celebrate with his friends. 

 Tyce enjoyed spending a lot of time with his Monk Monk at the party.  Can't you tell how happy he is?

The other boys were quite happy as well....

 Ryne spent lots of time getting Monk to play games on her iPad with him.

And Kade convinced her to help him put together the lego set that he got at his birthday party.

And how it happened, I do not know, but I didn't get one single picture of Tesa with Monk...so here's one from Christmas....

And just like a flash, Monk's visit was over and Arkansas was calling her back.  And unfortunately the snow had cleared and the airport was open for business so I reluctantly took her to catch a plane.  But how does that saying go?  Something about not being sad for what comes to an end but instead be happy that it happened.  Well, that was me!  I was SO happy that I got to spend a few days with my kid sister...my bestest friend!  I wish everyone could have a sister like her, if they did then the world would be a much better place.

So, that all took place back in January.  What have we been up to since then????

Stay tuned......