Before Easter gets too far away from us, I want  to blog about the amazing time we had with family.  I meant to write a blog like this for Thanksgiving, which we spent with the same lovely people, but I never got around to it, so I might cheat and add pics from both Thanksgiving AND Easter to this post... So Micah and I are extremely blessed that my aunt and uncle live in the Phoenix area, as well as my cousin, Leah (their daughter), her husband Jason, and their two extremely cute children (I am slightly obsessed with them...). Jason and Micah are both runners, and Micah is ALWAYS on the hunt for athletic friends that he can go burn some cals with, so he and Jason hit it off right away. (Disclaimer: I don't think Micah thinks about physical activity in terms of burning calories, seeing as he can eat whatever he wants and not gain a pound, so I think my language is reflective of my own mindset toward exercise...) We don't live super close to them - like 40 minutes away - but we usually get to see them every month or two. And they always invite us over for all the holidays that we can't go home to Seattle for - which basically means every holiday except Christmas. My other cousin (their son) lives down in Tucson with his wife and their two boys, so we get to see them every once in awhile too. Basically, we just love having them in the area. For Thanksgiving, Micah's mom was visiting us, and we took her out to my aunt's house for dinner and she said she felt so welcome right away. We had a great meal, scoured the ads with those in our group who were planning to wake up at 4am for shopping (Micah and I did not shop, but we were tempted by the ads....I think Micah might have even set his alarm for 4am, but seeing as we still don't have a TV, he must have turned off his alarm and gone back to sleep), watched the kids play ring-around-the-rosy, and ate lots of pie! It was just one of those lovely family holiday nights and I got to hold babies, which makes me happy. As long as they are not my own... For Easter, we went out to Leah and Jason's house. Jason grilled burger for us and we just hung out all day. We got there during nap time for all the kids, but as soon as they woke up, the action did not stop. There were cupcakes, painting, bubbles and a Easter egg hunt. This was the first year I hid the eggs instead of hunting for them (Am I slow to mature? I mean my mom puts money in the eggs at my house, so I feel participating is very financially wise). The whole day was fun, but the highlight of the afternoon was definitely playing tag out in the backyard. Jason, Chris and Micah taught Chris' two sons how to play freeze tag, and Cayman and Croix wanted everyone to play and everyone did! Leah and I joined in and they even convinced Grandma to play, even though she was recovering from being sick. Even little Devynn took a turn being "it" and her dad flew her through the air to tag people. The only person who couldn't play was baby Tyce who just hung out in the baby swing. At one point I took a break from playing to push Tyce on the swing (and because it was legitimately tiring). As I watched everyone playing in the early evening, as the sun was just dropping in the sky, I had one of those happy-innocent-American life feelings, like I was watching an episode of Full House or The Wonder Years or something... Kind of cheesy, but I really did have that feeling. Like we were acting the way a family is supposed to act. And it was so joyful. So anyway, we love my family. I especially love getting to be around the kids. It's a nice healthy dose of baby, since I definitely don't want my own kids anytime soon. Usually the term "other people's children" denotes something negative - those kids who were raised poorly by their own parents and whom you don't have authority to train or discipline. But in this case, "other people's children" are my cousins' kids, and I just love them... I get to take lots of fun mommy-esque pictures without having to be a mommy. Beware, this is the most pictures I have ever added to a post... Okay, these are not even from Thanksgiving or Easter. This is  Devynn and Tyce when Tyce was five days old. Anytime Micah holds a baby it just melts my heart... Okay, now it's Thanksgiving and I am feeding cute little two and a half month Tyce. Micah and I got kick out of photographing his funny faces. Poor kid... Sharing pie with Devynn... Easter. Look at Tyce's big, cute grin! What are you doing to me??? Cayman and Croix hunting for eggs. They are dressed like twins and we all know I am firm believer in this!  Egg hunt meltdown. She just turned two... The boys hanging out on the swing set... Painting with Miss Devynn Hey cute thang... Cupcakes are good. Bubble time... Freeze tag tutorial Hot hubs on Easter  This was Easter and it was wonderful. However, despite Micah's happy, healthy look in the picture above, he caught the flu from one of the kids and was puking his guts out 36 hours after this picture was taken (as were Cayman and Croix). Oh, the joys of being a close family! ... Read more