Weekend of cousins, St Patrick's Day, and Women at the Well

This one was on my camera, but it's from a couple weeks ago at the baptism.

This Friday,  my brother McKay who is moving to Virginia, asked if they could stay with us until they left because all of their furniture had been packed.  We loved having them here.  I love people being around.  Remember that book about love languages?  I think that my love language is time.  When people give me their time I feel loved.  The first night, Janelle had them all over to sleep at her house as a niece and nephew sleepover.  That had so much fun and came back chatty and happy.  Sam woke up at 4:30 and chatted with Janelle, woke up Jordan and then eventually woke up every one else too. McKay and I stayed up late talking.  Jer had TERT training on Saturday and McKay was still cleaning the house up there, so I  took the kids and we just hung out all day.  The Bronleys were visiting their grandparents, so they came to play too.  I had 11 kids for most of the day.  It was fun to see Sam loving baseball and cousins.  Evelyn and Ada playing dolls with Michelle and Lizzie.  Aubrey asking to cook all day and Jordan getting out games to play.  I have a hard time loving Hannah, my friend's 6 year old, but everything was so fun.  It was such a nice day outside.  I asked the kids to pick up dog poop and then they played out there for most of the day.  After asking the kids to put away the same game three times, I put everyone in our two cars and Jer and I took them to the park.  That was fun despite Sam and Ada falling and getting scraped up.  

On Sunday, we got kids up and dressed for church.  It was cute to see Jordan hugging his Dad all through sacrament meeting.  Evelyn and Seth were particularly wiggly.  I'm guessing that they were tired.  We've been going to bed late.  Sophie had flown in from Virginia to Las Vegas to see her sister and parents before meeting up with McKay and the kids to drive out there.  She took the shuttle up from St George and got up to Orem about the time that church got out.  It was fun to chat with her.  Sunday was St Patrick's Day.  Janelle made and brought all of an amazing Irish dinner with fun green veggies and desserts.  It was delicious corned beef and potatoes with brussel sprouts.  Monday we got to spend the afternoon and evening together before they drove out on Tuesday morning.  

Tuesday morning, Ada and I got up to go to our barre class before she had to leave for school.  She's such a trooper.  We usually go in the evening, which is easier for me physically, but she wanted to spend more time with cousins so we opted to go the next morning.  She never complained once about having to wake up at 5:30 am.  She did have some problems with some of the exercises, but I think that's more to do with the fact that I have to modify some of the exercises because my plantar is still inflamed.  She sees me modify and doesn't push herself as hard.  It's hard for me to tell her to work harder so that her feet get stronger when I'm just proud that she's there at all.  Jer would be a better work out companion for her, but I need these same exercises for my own feet so she's stuck with me.  I enjoy the time with her too.  It's fun to get one on one time with her.  I think her love language is time as well.  

Two weeks ago I was asked to play the Women at the Well program on the piano for our next Relief Society meeting.  It was fun.  I made lots of mistakes, even going back to the wrong coda.  It was pretty funny.  But my favorite thing that came out of it was Ada.  I would practice and she would come and watch me play.  Sometimes even asking to sing along with me.  I LOVED it.  

Aubrey gets a little anxious with all the chaos, so she always asked to do the cooking or do something by but not with everyone.  She loves my camera because she's part of everything but not directly involved.  She took all these gems and many more.  

She had a million pictures of our cat on in the trailer with the stuff that was waiting to get hauled to the dump.  That was pretty funny.

She even took a selfie in the window.

She took pictures of the messy rooms after days of cousins too.  I thought that was pretty funny.

We were trying to get a picture of everyone smiling... Each one had someone with a funny face, like Evelyn and Isaiah here.

We did finally get one though....

Me, Jeremy, Sophie, McKay, Janelle, Seth

Ada, Michelle, Devin, Aubrey, Jordan, Sam, Isaiah

Evelyn and Seth

Way home from church

Watching Into the Spider-verse with Uncle Seth and Aunt Nellie

We had an expired fire extinguisher.  Jer took the kids out and taught them how to use it. (Not cousins, just neighbors).  I think being prepared it a good thing and hopefully none of them will need it.

This is the cousins playing baseball in the cul-de-sac.  They used a soft ball so it wouldn't get hit as far and hurt anything.  Sam LOVED it.

We did a taste testing experiment too.  That was really cute.

The girls after church.  I loved doing our home scripture study with our Wilcox family.  They all are very eager participators and it was easy to feel the Holy Ghost.  So much fun.  We're still working on getting our youngest one to be an eager participator.  One step at a time.