A totally random and long post

I feel bad that I haven't kept my blog up to date, because so many things have happened lately. For starters, I have a beautiful new niece, Reece. She was born on June 26th.

We had a wonderful time visiting with family at the hospital, after waiting for Reese's arrival back in the room for more than an hour. It's so wonderful to see our family growing. It makes me all that more excited to have our baby. I'm 1/4 of the way there, 10 weeks out of 40!

This picture was just priceless. Malachi sure loves Uncle Andrew, which makes Aaron sad because Malachi cries everytime Aaron laughs, especially at the same time as his daddy, Tony. It must be too loud. :) So, Malachi's not so sure what to think of Aaron, because he laughs a lot when he's with Tony.

This is Malachi "being gentle." He's rubbing his new sister's head. I think it's because Bridget always tells him to be gentle when he pulls her hair, so now he must associate "gentle" with hair.

A long awaited visit

My Aunt Kristen and her boys finally got to come up and visit. I missed them so much and it was such a blessing to have them stay for so long. It was fun to visit and catch up with my Aunt (more like an older sister to me, she's younger than my hubby, which really weirds her out), and to play with her boys (my cousins, but they feel more like nephews). And yet, I didn't get any pictures with them. I'm a dork. But, I love you guys and miss you, again! Please move to Idaho!?!?!

Fourth of July

Well, we hung out with the family on the 4th. Only this time we were actually patriotic about it. My mom just decided that she wanted to decorate and be all festive, something she usually saves up for Christmas time. So, we made red-white-and-blue bunting and hung it from the trees, and we painted little pots red and blue, and planted red geraniums in them with little flags.

Since my mom had just had my Aunt Kristen and her two adorable boys visiting, she had a bit of a "kid-hangover," so we made this an adults only party. My Dad and Mom, Vanessa, Aaron, my mother-in-law Susan, and me. We ate, played games, lit sparklers and California candles (BIG sparklers), and then climbed up on the roof to spot everyone else's fireworks. It was lovely. And, of course, the food was yummy. My mother-in-law always says yes to our invitations because we "always make such good food!"

It's true. I didn't get a picture of dessert though. Black and white angel food cake with chocolate ganache. Yeah, it was so good!

Me, playing Quiddler, one of our favorite new word games.

And of course there was ping-pong. My dad and my Hubby just can't beat eachother enough at this game. There is a raging on-going competition between them. Notice too, that even our ping-pong table is dressed for the holiday. :)