We survived! Barely!

Well, we start before all the kids were at the house. Josh had a cold which he so kindly passed on to his grandparents and Matt. Thankfully, I have not gotten sick.

Josh is a rock-star. Everywhere we go someone knows him either from the gym or the library. It is not unusual to get stopped once whenever we are out running errands. At the gym many of the other parents know who he is even though we have no idea who they are.

Here Josh is pulling around his two cases to hold his cars and yes he needs both cases to hold his cars. We have overflow of the bigger cars in his dump truck.

Josh and Matt are reworking the train track in preparation of his cousins coming. Josh loved digging in the box for track pieces and did a good job of putting them together to.

O.K. I took this picture because Josh does this all the time when he plays with the train table in his room. He is always the monkey!


Playing with my cousins!

Mariana and Alex came to stay with us on Thursday 2/6 to Sunday 2/8. We all took turns watching the kids and they stayed both at Uncle Matt and Aunt Jenny's house and grandma and grandpa's house. Grandma and grandpa even kept Josh on Saturday night with the other two kids. Of course, we had a few battles over toys, but for the most part the kids did great. Some of the things we did were stopping at the fire house, playing with the train a lot, using the bath crayons on the walls, tub and each other, visiting great-grandpa, and romping outside.

All snuggled together for a bedtime story after a soaking good time of romping in the bathtub.

Marianna holding our snake. She couldn't wait for Uncle Matt to get home on Friday to get her out.

Our band! At the library Josh loves to march to the drum so we do it at home too. I had to stop and change Alex so Matt took over the flutophone, xylophone, and drum. Marianna was banging on a pan with a wooden spoon. Josh just wanted to march.

Although we do have one lasting nasty effect from the weekend - Josh is now terribly afraid of dark and going to sleep. We're not sure if the monsters subject was brought up again or what, but it has been a real challenge getting Josh to sleep. Today for example he won't lay down for a nap he just screams and cries. We are resorting to a drive to see if he'll fall asleep.

As far as we are concerned, Matt is enjoying his HazMat class. It looks like Matt's dad has decided that he wants to go to Alaska next year on a fishing trip with Matt. The plan is for Josh and I to meet them in Anchorage and tour Alaska for a week. Sounds like fun! I'm still just working and somehow have been roped into an Infection Control Committee. I didn't even volunteer for it, I was simply chosen. Mom is working very had at finding us a good hotel rate for our reunion and we should be deciding soon. So far she has gotten some good deals and a couple not so good deals.

Happy Valentines!

Love, M, J, and J