Keeping Up with Family Abroad

We have some globe-trotting family members right now;)

Brian's brother, Scott, and his wife, Bea, are livivng out their dream of traveling around the world.

Earlier this year they spent months in Brazil. You might remember when we got to welcome them home this summer!

And now they are in Asia... traveling to tons of exotic locations that we see in National Geographic or watching Where in the World is Matt Lauer? this week:) LOL!!!

Thursday evening we had a chance to catch up with them via Skype:)

And of course it turns into a geography "lesson"... hunting for the places they have been and have planned to visit:)

It was hard not think about how easy it has become to stay connected with family while traveling... even to some of these far, far away countries. Thankful that we can keeping and check up with them via Skype, Flickr and FB:) And that they can have a taste of "home" by keeping up with us;)

Welcoming Home Uncle Scott & Aunt Bea

While visiting Grandma and Grandaddy we got to welcome home Scott and Bea. They had temporarily moved to Buenos Aires to "check it out" and fulfill some of their dreams of traveling. They were glad to be back home and it was fun for us all to have a crowd at the airport to welcome them back home!!

The Sign makers at work;)


Watching airplanes to take up some time... they had an hour delay :(




When watching airplanes got old, Nate just went into hyper mode... climbing everything in sight and running around like an animal on the loose!


And the moment arrived;) They're here;)

Welcome back, Uncle Scott & Aunt Bea!!

Hanging Out at the Mall

While we had company we ventured out to meet up with Scott and Bea... can you believe they have already been married 1 year??? Here are some memories:)
Happy belated Anniversary Scott and Bea!!!

The kids LOVE their uncle and aunt and really enjoyed the visit.

















Anna really took to Aunt Bea quickly, even going "shopping" for jeans with her. Poor Bea was stuck in the changing room with an armload of jeans and a very opinionated 5 yr old...LOL

Here is Chris..... the one providing the entertainment... as usual!! He later told us that he spent his time at the mall reading books at Barnes & Noble with Uncle Scott!!

Grandma in all her glory:) Snuggling (even in public) with her grandbaby!!! And poor little Lydi-Bug was complaining about a hurting tooth (I think those 2 yr molars are finally poking through) and so she slept through supper and didn't eat until she could get some oatmeal at home:)

Believe it or not but that trip was our only adventure with Brian's parents visiting. On Friday we were hit with a cold and didn't feel like doing a thing... Brian rested and I did what I could. Grandma and Grandaddy kept the kids busy or did the kids keep Grandma and Grandaddy busy... LOL

We all had a great time with Grandma and Grandaddy and hated to see them go so quickly!! And we hope that they stay well... with three kids with the sniffles and two adults sick, it will be a miracle for them to not have some cold symptoms.

Company is Gone:(

We had a FULL house this weekend... the five of us with Grandma, Grandaddy, Uncle Scott and Aunt Bea. While we enjoy having family visit, the house is super busy and loud!! The kids love having the extra attention and are that much sillier and louder!!

We had plenty of fun playing outside and watching the kids get muddy. I had Grandma and Daddy help to clean up the kids... one of the benefits of having more people is more help:) Even in the kitchen, while we cook bigger meals, it's nice to have 3 ladies and our husbands helping when we ask!!

The house is "quiet" again. The kids slept in until 7:30am this moring... so nice!! They must have been exhausted too from all the weekend fun! The laundry is getting washed, folded and put away. And the floors are cleaned from all the wet grass we all dragged in (it was a wet weekend... no trampoline... sad, we wanted to show everyone their tricks).

As usual, I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted to. There is just AWAYS something to do when we have company:) We did get a lot done though... we got Gran-grandma's 100th birthday book completed! We did a light Harris Teeter run Friday night.... I think with Grandma and my orders we saved close to $67+ !!

Sunday after church we went outside to get a picture of the kids with Grandma and Grandaddy!! Here's the best one:)


Thank you to Grandma, Grandaddy, Uncle Scott and Aunt Bea for coming to see us. We enjoyed our visit with you! We hope to see you soon!

Preparation Cleanup

You haven't hear too much from us this weekend!! Or maybe I haven't posted everything I've wanted to!!! We've had company!!! Yep, Uncle Scott and our "new" Aunt Beatriz have been with us since Friday night:)

Before they came we had some preparartions!! One of the biggest things that needed to be done was the crib in the girls' room. Lydia has been out of the crib since August!!! Finally it was TIME!!!

Actually disassembling it and putting it upstairs took no time but there was some sadness it putting it up! I know, I know.... I'm CRAZY!!! But my husband is just as crazy as I am.... so maybe, just maybe we're not too crazy.

Anyway, the crib went up to the attic for the time being and I'm loving the amount of space that is in the girls'room now. The openess is great, I felt like i could breathe when I went in:)

And I'm sure our guests have enjoyed the space and our new mattresses:)

Funny story: Lydia is sleeping on a "bed" made on our room. During naptime today, Lydia fell asleep fine but must have woken up sometime.... anyway, Brian went to check on her and couldn't find her. Since she was in our bedroom there is plenty for a little girl to get into..... but she wasn't even in our room. She had woken from her nap, got up, walked into her normal bedroom, climbed into her bed and went back to sleep.... aha haaaa....