Caught red handed...stealing AGAIN!

I am a blog criminal. I steal. I steal ideas. I steal stories. I steal complete blog posts. Why am I a blog-clepto? Call me jealous or call me lazy, but I want a record of another one of Jen's posts. So, I copied it and voila...here it is...her account of all the fun we had the past few days. I love you, Jen! Thanks for letting us hang out with you and your cute family, and thanks for forgiving me for stealing...again.

For the past week and a half I've had a lot of family in town... and I am Blissfully Exhausted!! It really is the best form of exhaustion. I love being with my family and seeing my kids interact with their aunts, uncles and cousins. But being off my schedule (and I say "my" because I think I need it more then my kids) and always on the go has left me super tired, ready for a relaxing week... but at the same time leaving me completely rejuvenated.

Rejuvenated, say what?!? Seriously, the rejuvenations starts with watching Ava and Nolan get some good cousin time. Ava just adores her cousins and calls them 'my friends'.... for those 5 days all I heard was "Mom, when are we going to see my friends again!?" or "Are we going to go play with my friends?" or "When are we going to go eat with my friends?" Ava and Carter have their own special bond and Nolan just adores Eden. He got giddy excited when he'd see her and would reach for her. Which he doesn't do too often at all. But the rejuvenation ends with me being able to hang out with Jami and soak up her - love for life, her creative juices, talking projects and Mom stuff with her... and it leaves me completely rejuvenated.

With my brother and Ruth leaving, my Mom and Dad skipping town, Damian in Houston working, Shayne working... we still had 5 days to hang out with them!!! So what do we do but hit up the parks, Let's Jump, hang out around the house, eat and play some Wii.

Jami and I took the kids to Let's Jump bounce house and I don't know who had more fun - the kids or us?!Nolan wasn't too excited about it at first, but after we went to Chick-fil-A to grab some lunch and came back for more bouncing - he was all over that. Huh... imagine that - food changing his mood?! And a run up and down the slide with Aunt Jami made him all about the slides. He'd even climb up them himself, reach the top, plop himself down and take off down the slide. The kid ain't scared!!
Jami and I tried to hide out for a while in one of the obstacle courses to escape our children - didn't work for long... but we sure had fun bouncing each other, chatting and being well - dumb and childish. I told the dude that took our money at the beginning that they really should start charging for adults because I think we'll have more fun then the kids!! {Though I hope he doesn't take me up on that offer!!}

SO good to talk to a Mom that has the same love for what she does but yet has the same trials and frustrations while doing it. You know in high school when the really cool and fun chick wanted to hang out with you?!? Well, my brother married the fun, really cool chick... and I'm just glad that she's forced into hanging out with me sometimes - thank you Hurricane Ike!

We also did a little Wii Fit... and I swear, that thing is the best form of entertainment. It's hilarious to see the concentration in faces, the intensity these games are played at and the violent thrashing of heads, limbs and torsos while trying to compete. And if your part of the family, check these out {they're videos, and I don't know if I have permission to post them on this blog... so I'll play it safe, keep the love in my family and post them on our family blog. Let's just say that Damian's hips don't lie and that Jami got major whiplash from headbutting soccer balls}.

I was so "blissfully exhausted" that on Saturday afternoon when the kids were napping or having quite time - I was napping too. And I was so dead asleep that I didn't hear them both crying/screaming and Ava peeing in her pants {not that I'd normally hear that} because I didn't hear her banging on the door to go to the bathroom {and yes, I feel terribly bad about that!!}. And that it was so bad that it was a good thing that Shayne was working from home and just coming home from an inspection - and could hear them both crying even outside. Now that's exhausted!!

I love, love, LOVE my family and am so glad that they were able to come up and hang for a while... And CUTE park pictures - coming soon...right Jami!?!?