Grandma & Tena

So they may have missed the birth, but they made up for it for the next 10 days.  My kids were in heaven with all the attention, and I was ever so grateful to not make a meal or do the dishes for all 10 days.  I feel so blessed that they made the sacrifice to come and take care of us all because seriously we live so.far.away.  It was a full day of travel for them getting up at 3am to drive to the airport to catch their flight to get into Chicago and then take a taxi to catch the train which pulled into Kalamazoo at 7pm.  Seriously - it really doesn't help that we all live in the middle of no where so far from major airports!  These pictures are not in the right order but you get the idea anyways. :)

Raking up our fall leaves - we have a HUGE yard with a HUGE amount of leaves.

Every kids dream right?

We ventured out to Lake Michigan via South Haven.  They couldn't come visit us without seeing one of our favorite places.  Although, it was a c.c.c.cold Lake Michigan.

We stopped at the famous Sherman's Ice Cream Parlor because we just weren't cold enough.

There was an older gentleman there who asked if I ran a babysitting business or something.  I laughed and said, "Oh no these are all mine!"  He then said I must be a "Proud Protestant" or a "Crazy Catholic."  Mark piped up and said, "Nope, she's a Marvelous Mormon!"  

It was pretty funny and then multiple people came over to our table to tell us what a beautiful family we had and how nice it was to see such a cute little family.
It made me smile.

 

The timing could not have been better for fall colors!

I had to go to a Dr. apt. at the hospital so I met Mark there for a lunch date.  While I was gone the kids made fall sugar cookies with Tena and Grandma and a giant wall mural.

The Friday they arrived I begged my midwife to discharge me from the hospital.  She was a little hesitant.  With 3 other kids at home she was worried I wouldn't get the rest I needed.  When I told her all the women in my family were converging on my home she relented.  I doubt she had in mind for me to get up the next day and go to Zina's 8am soccer game and Wilson's 10am game, but at least I stayed in the warm van.  After the games I sent everyone to Gull Meadow to pick apples for us.  I stayed home and made homemade carmel and when we were all back together we watched conference and ate fresh picked apples with carmel sauce!! My pregnant brain had been dreaming of that for weeks and weeks!  (although i totally thought I would still be pregnant instead of snuggling my newborn!)

 Sammy was so confused.  He thought conference BINGO involved a real dog!  But he was happy with the BINGO candy instead. :)

I think probably the highlight for the kids was when Liz, Grandma and Tena acted out a Magic Treehouse book with them.  

 Grandma as the Woolly Mammoth, Tena as the Saber tooth tiger, Zina as Annie, Wilson as Jack, Aunty Liz as Morgan Le Fey, and Sammy as Peanut the Mouse.  Mark, Davey, and I were the audience.  It was pretty cute and Zina and Wilson were SO into it.  They loved it!

 Cute little naked bums and awesome forts courtesy of Sammy and Zina (respectively)

 And last but not least, we bottled 38 quarts of applesauce!! Yum.

Mark bought me a Victorio Strainer for my birthday and we put it to good use.  

I LOVE canning and I LOVE the bottles sitting beautiful on my foot storage shelves waiting for a cold winter even more. :)  Wilson was the "masher", Zina the "turner" and Sammy the "guts patrol."  He kept running into the kitchen yelling, "GUTS GUTS GUTS!"

We drove Grandma and Tena back to Chicago Friday night and had fun being tourists on Navy Pier.  Can't wait to get those pictures from Grandma so I can post about it!