Cousins!

 It has been a BUSY couple of weeks for us and it’s not stopping anytime soon! We had fun last Friday with the kiddos cousins from Ben’s side of the family. We got to see “Inside Out” with them and Ben’s mom and we loved it!! (go see it!) Afterwards we ate pizza and played games. We love family time!

This week 2 of the kiddos Colorado cousins (my side of the fam) are in town. They are staying with my mom until tomorrow when they move over to our house! Wow, can we say 3 1/2 day long slumber party??? (I am already tired!!)

I have been doing cleaning jobs and then going to pick up my nephews to give my mom a break and let the cousins hang out. Yesterday we went swimming!

The boys are having an absolute blast together!

This was during rest time so they migrated to the splash pad part to stay wet while they were waiting:)

Eliana just jumps right in with all these boys! You can definitely tell she has brothers;)

Um, yes, the boys were being…boys!

Double floaties! She couldn’t decide which one to use;) She had SO much fun swimming with me while the boys were off playing together! I wish I could’ve gotten pictures while in the water. The boys were having jumping contest and the smiles on their faces made me so happy!

Getting dumped on!

Today after my cleaning, I picked the boys up and we all went to the Anthony Thomas factory for a tour! Turns out, it’s really close to where we live. Who knew?

Dylan being sweet for his mom:)

Samuel decided to copy Dylan for Father’s Day!

 Goofy Jackson!

Posing with the 235 pound Buckeye!! It only costs $3500…..

Eliana found a chocolate cross and wanted me to take a pic:) No pictures were allowed on the tour but we all enjoyed it! It takes about 20-25 minutes and you learn about how the company started, how chocolate is made and get to watch the workers and machines from above! Very cool. And you get treated with a free Buckeye;) (not a 200 lb one though!)

Afterwards, I attempted to wear them out at my mom’s with the slip n’ slide.

So thankful for sunshine!!

Eliana slips very easily!

Wipeout!

My kiddos stuck with it quite a bit longer than their cousins until I had to make them call it quits so we could clean up and go home. Eliana was SO exhausted tonight from all the fun and sun so she got to sleep early. The boys are tired, too, but a bit wound up from all the cousin fun!

Now I have to clean my own house and get ready for a house full of BOYS! Ah!

Hot, humid and happy!

 Today was a much better day! I admit, I do not usually look forward to grocery shopping with all three kiddos in tow but they were very well behaved today. We accomplished two grocery stores, a gas tank fill up and stopping to get our city sticker all in 2 hours. Not bad!

Later Samuel said, “Mommy, have we been really good today?” I said, “definitely!” A relief:)

What isn’t a relief is the very hot, humid weather! We decided to break out Little Miss’s baby pool today. 84 bucket trips later, she was cooling off on the back porch after nap. She was very excited to get her bathing suit on and splash around!

As you can see:)

And after Mr Z finished cleaning up his share of their atrociously messy room (read: I threatened to go in with a trash bag and throw away any toys and “treasures” left on the floor by bedtime!), he joined his little sis. He has always loved bathtime with her and just sitting and filling up cups and bottles, whereas Samuel outgrew that awhile ago.

I snuck my feet in a few times because it was so tempting! Eliana has already decided she is wearing her pink bathing suit tomorrow…

Tonight, I put her to bed and raced to get ready for Zumba and I heard her calling for me. “Mommy! Mommy, I need to talk to you! Mommy!”

So I went in there to find her sitting up (undoing all the tucking in I already did, of course;) and I asked her what she needed. She mumbled something really softly and I couldn’t hear her at first and then she said, “I jis’ missed you a wittle bit, Mommy.”

Could she be any sweeter?!