Keeping the Cousins

Our summers are generally packed with all sorts of fun things. One of our summer traditions is having our cousins, JT and Kaylee, come stay with us for a few days. They live in Tennessee, so this is a special treat for everyone. 

This year, my brother and my dad conducted a Marriage and Family seminar at the church where my parents are members. We had already planned to go up there for the weekend to be part of the seminar, so the timing worked out great for us to just bring JT & Kaylee home with us. 

As a side-note: The seminar was July 26th and 27th, less than a week after our miscarriage began. We debated a bit about going and about bringing the kids back home with us, but decided that a distraction of every day life would be nice. We had a great time with the kids, but I was certainly still wading through those dark days of grief. 

So, this year we ended up only having three full days with the kids at our house. One of those days, we decided to go swimming in our friends' pool. They are always so generous to let us use their pool, and it's always been without incident UNTIL this year. This year, I mistakingly set off their house alarm when we first got there. The security company called and I gave them the password, but they still contacted Ross at work. He didn't know we were going to be there (I had told Tia), so he told them to dispatch the police. Luckily, Tia called him and cleared everything up and he was able to cancel the request BEFORE the police were dispatched. Yikes!

Anyway, we had a great time swimming. It was the perfect activity to get everyone out of the house and active!

It took Bren a little while to warm up to the water, but he had a good time once he did.

Brianna adores JT . . . look at how she's looking at him.

The girls having fun:

So, so, so thankful for my little girl.

She's such a sweetie!

AND a wild woman, haha!

Even in the midst of deep grief, her smile lit up my world.

Brenson was so timid in the water . . . I was really surprised!

He was more content to sit on the side of pool, splash his feet in the water, and hold a ball or two.

We spent a lot of time at splash pads this summer, but not too much time at pools. Maybe that was why he didn't really want to be in the water too much?

Cutie.

He loved splashing those feet!

I love this photo!

He carried these two balls with him alllllll afternoon.

We also had other fun with JT and Kaylee besides just playing at the pool. One morning, we made cookies.

My kids are watching that egg so closely . . . wondering what she's going to do with it.

Mixing the dough . . .

This was Brianna's first time to use the electric mixer. She was excited!

Everyone took a turn pouring in the chocolate chips.

I love how Bren is looking at K . . . just not sure if she's supposed to be in charge or not :-).

My kiddos LOVE to lick the beaters, but JT and K weren't interested. They don't know what they're missing!

So serious about eating that dough (I only let him have what's on the beater since there are raw ingredients in the dough, but that's a perfect amount for him).

Everyone, however, joined in on eating the cookies!

Brianna and Brenson loved having a big sister and big brother for a few days!

After the kids went to bed each night, we played a few games with JT and Kay. TriBond was a BIG hit for JT! Kaylee preferred playing Life.

We're so thankful for these precious memories we're making with our nephew and niece.