quilting cuties...

We were so excited to get Eden and Carter home! After our 24 hours on the road together I didn’t think I would miss them quite as much as I did, but their sweetness melts me! Poor Uncle Shayne had an eventful ride bringing them home. He left at rush hour, got stuck in traffic, had to make a pit stop for dinner, and then take two more detours for potty breaks. Obviously, he doesn’t know our road trip potty rules…so I will fill him in just in case there is a next time.

You hold it until: 1. you don’t have to go anymore, 2. you start to cry hysterically (kids), 3. you start to swear (me), 4. there is a generous shoulder and you can stand on the ledge of the car and pee out, 5. someone empties out a wide mouth plastic bottle (Damian), 6. we run out of gas.

After being in the car an extra two hours, they arrived with enough hugs to go around. Landon was clearly the most excited of us all squealing like a little girl, sitting on Carter’s lap, and smiles from ear to ear. Too cute! I wish I would have got it on video…never mind, touchy subject.

Almost before we even got hugs, Eden was proudly showing off the quilt that she made while she was with her grandma. She has been working on this quilt now for a few months. Kris let Eden pick out the fabric and said Eden sewed 99% of it herself. What was even MORE impressive is that Kris had an appointment for her to use a long-arm machine at a local quilt shop so that Eden could even quilt it herself!

Carter stayed at Jen & Shayne’s house two of the three days they were there, but on the last day Eden went to Jen’s and Carter stayed with Grandmother. When Kris asked Carter what he wanted to do, his answer surprised her. She thought he would say go get ice cream, play at the park, etc. But he told her he wanted to sew with her! So, he came home with a football quilt of his own and a pillowcase to match. Talk about being spoiled at Grandmas!

Jen and Shayne had their own way of spoiling them too! They love playing with their cousins, and Jen let Eden cook and Carter play with playdoh to top it off. It takes a whole village to raise a child, right? Thank you so much Kris and Jen for letting the kids stay! I am surprised they wanted to come home!

I stole thie rest of this post off of Jen’s blog!!!

I would have just linked to it, but she went all private on me! I had to have a copy because I thought it was so sweet, and if you don't know Jen you are in for a treat...she always cracks me up! Jen, I hope you don't mind!

Ava was in heaven. For the next2 days Carter and Ava played really well together... and have the cutest cousin connection with each other. I seriously swear that they knew each other before they came to earth.
They had fun wrestling, hiding from the camera, watching The Bee Movie, playing in the sand and on the the "swing sweat", playing with play-do, went to Tyler's for a playdate (and some sanity for me - thanks Carried!) on the Leapster (how cute are they cuddling?!!), throwing balls at each other... like I said, their little friendship is totally the cutest.

What I learned from my 4 year old nephew...

- 4 year old boys like, but only lick pickles
- pickles are "too expensive" for my sister in law to buy
- had my first experience with wiping pee off of a toilet in my own house - little boys will be little boys...
- learned that I am going to be giving birth to a transformer
- bribing with treats works - I could get Ava and Carter to do anything... even go to bed - in the same bed - with a promise of a treat the next day (of course, after lunch - I didn't let up on all of my rules)
- my sister in law, Megan, is "the most beautiful girl in the world!"
- big boys-boys still miss their mommy and daddy at night... either that or he was trying to milk his "uptime" for longer.

Then the night before they left, Eden came over to spend the night with us and play the next day while Carter went to Mimi's house. She stayed up "late" (9am) with Shayne and I watching the girls Olympics. And it was so cute of her because the commentators were totally critiquing them... and Eden was like "it's okay if they're not perfect, sometimes you can't do everything perfectly... they did really good." It was so cute to see and defiantly something that we need to be teaching our little kids at that age... but a different spin on it because after all, it is the Olympics.

The next morning Eden and Ava had fun playing and putting their creativity to the test. They played salon (and had all of Ava's little hair things in it's own cup) and kitchen. Then during Ava and Nolan's nap time we baked a sour cream coffee cake and she watched my cooking shows with me. We had fun drooling over Rachael Ray (appetizers and dinner) and Ellie Krieger's concoctions. It was so much fun to watch with her because she really appreciates good food - like me and her mom. And then we decided that the next time we got together, we could make those meals. And I got excited because I found something that Eden and I can do together that we both love.

What I learned from my 6 year old niece...

- i feel like I'm a better Mom to a 1st grader... i love that we were able to do more advanced things together and she was able to help me out. {{The baby/toddler thing is hard for me, but I'm sure I'll say this stage I'm at now is easier once they're all in school.}} - i had to learn to give up control because she can access any ole thing she wants in the house. {it's a good thing we are eased into this as parents - i love my control, and it's only good for me to give it up gradually}
- the creativity of this girl is mind boggling
- she could get my son to smile at her with the most googly eyes ever (top right picture)... and she got him to not grunt like crazy... i asked her if she'd move in with us just for that!
- even 6 year olds miss their mommy and daddy at night time (it made me wonder if Ava would ever miss me like that if we were gone)