Belated Spring Break

We actually had our Spring Break right on time, I am just now getting around to posting about it!

It all started off with a bang when my sister, Kirsten, had her baby 2 weeks early!

Surprised, but so excited I went to visit and take pictures the day she was born:

The first question she asked me after I saw her was, "So, what do you think? Do you think she has Fragile X Syndrome?"

It's crazy that we even have to ask that question each time we sisters bring a new little one into the world. (To learn more about how Fragile X is passed on you can read HERE.)

I had to honestly tell her that I had no idea this time. The only thing I could tell her for sure was that she is adorable and I admire her for having the faith to have another baby.

We are excited that baby Liz made her appearance just in time for our brother and his family coming to visit from Illinois during our Spring Break. Having them here all through Spring Break was also a big help in distracting Sister that there was no school for a week.

We even got to celebrate Easter with them all (even though it was late) and have our traditional Easter Egg hunt at Jessie's:

Sister was REALLY into it and we had to make her give some of her eggs away... she was so proud!

Baby actually seemed to be getting the hang of it this year.

Last year Jessie started a treasure hunt at the Easter Party and our brother, Aaron, was so good at writing the clues that he was in charge of it again this year.

We had to caption the dad's "socializing" Tee hee!

Another highlight of that evening was when my siblings, my parents and I gathered around Jessie's piano to sing the song, "Gethsemane." It brought tears to my eyes and makes my heart happy.

Most of us slept over so that we could have as much time together as possible.

It was so fun to see all the girl cousins playing together and I was actually able to sneak a picture of when they were playing school:

The highlight of that night, though, was when LittleMr, Daniel's 3rd and age 3 (almost 4?) was so excited about sleeping out in the trailer with all the boy cousins that he could hardly contain his excitement. He was so excited he started running the wrong way when I walked him outside, it gave me a good chuckle.

But my heart was also happy as my kids got to have "regular" peer time with their cousins—Brother sleeping out in the trailer with the boys, Sister and Baby playing school and all sleeping in one room—it makes me so happy that my family is so accepting of our kids and love them regardless of the Fragile X gene or not!

We always try to get in as much time with Daniel and his family as we possibly can so we snuck more activities in here and there. I didn't get as much time as I would have liked since I was involved with my play rehearsal still.

The day after our big party we met up with Daniel and the fam to go swimming.

The picture doesn't really show it, but they had a great time and even last a little over an entire hour!!!

My mom always goes all out and makes all her specialty foods while Daniel is here. One of the days she made us her homemade chicken noodle soup. She makes the noodles like her mom did. I got thinking how I would have loved to have a picture of my grandma making one of her specialties in the kitchen, so I grabbed a few pictures of my mom.

I'm sure these will be treasured images.

I'm all of a sudden all nostalgic about my parents and wanting to capture everything about my parents.

It's either because they are getting older before my very eyes, or the fact that my dad got really, really sick and it gave me a bit of a scare/reality check.

We're all getting older.

I find myself treasuring the little moments even more than I used to and wanting to make those moments last as long as possible.

I am sure that is why we are so happy when our family is ALL together at the same time and we get to make those memories as a whole.