Cousins Unite!

My older sister, Jenny(to the left), is visiting from Montana this week! I am very excited to have her here. We only get to see each other twice a year (if we are lucky). Jenny has an (almost) three year old, Madeline Rose. She is a beautiful little girl..looks just like her Mama. The kids and I went down on Tuesday and have been staying at my parent's house so we can get as much Jenny-Maddie time as possible. We all arrived at my parent's house on Tuesday and Papa C had a big meal all ready for us. My dad is an amazing cook...if only I had cared enough to pay attention growing up. My niece, Lily (10), came down with my big brother, Jer (aka Uncle Worm), and is also staying at Mama and Papa C (also known as G'ma and Popeye)'s house. To the right is a picture of Lily reading a Pooh book to Judah, Maddie, and Mayah.

Below is a photo of Mayah cuddled up to my Mama's leg on Tuesday. I added it because I think she is just that cute. I mean, look at those curls!

The three middle cousins finished the night off with a shared bath. I was going to upload a photo, but couldn't find one that covered Judah appropriately. We went into this adventure not knowing where everyone would sleep. My parents only have two bedrooms at their house and this week, we had nine people who needed sleeping quarters. Tuesday night, we attempted to put Judah and Maddie together in a bed. It was adorable. The plan was to have them watch cartoons in Gma's bed until it was time to sleep and Gma would come in when she was ready to sleep. After the tv was off, they talked off and on for about an hour. Favorite moment of the night: Gma went in and told them that if they didn't quit talking and go to sleep, she was going to take one of them downstairs. They were both quiet for a moment, and Maddie piped in saying, "Don't take me...take Judah." Judah looked heartbroken and replied, "But I'm a good boy. I never fight. I always share. I say please..." My mom had to leave because she was going to break up. Talk about throwing your cousin under the bus!

Wednesday we took the kids to a tea room in Prarie City. They had boas and hats for us to fancy ourselves up with. I was terrified the whole time that one of my toddlers would break free and run a rampage through the antiques. Luckily, we left the tea party without being required to buy a $40 broken tea pot or a $35 ceramic butterfly.

After that, we spent a sweltering hot day at the zoo. My favorite part of the zoo was all of the sweet hand-holding that went on.

Judah's favorite part of the zoo is the giraffes. We have a season pass, so Judah is quite the tour guide when we head into his
territory. He loves to be able to
show everyone what is what. The
one downfall of this is that he spends
all of five minutes at each exhibit. Above are pictures of Judah and Mayah with the flamingos.

Below are pictures of the aforementioned handholding. Also featured is a picture of Mayah with the river otters. She was cracking up as they swam around. She has such a contagious laugh.

Right now I am feeling overwhelmed. My kids need to be put down (not like a horse..although..), and I need to stop using my brain. I have blogged as much as I can blog today. My children and nieces have used up all of my energy. It is going to take me the whole weekend to recover.