Family Fun

Autumn & I slept in until 8:30 this morning, got dressed, cleaned up the house a little bit, and headed over to Mom & Dad’s house so we didn’t miss out on any of the fun.  We got there at 9:30 and everyone was still asleep!  We woke them all up w/ the amazing smell of Texas waffles.  Nate didn’t get to sleep in as long as he wanted, b/c everyone wanted to see him and spend time with him.

After eating breakfast, we were sitting around and talking about Mom & Dad’s trip to China and Dad was telling us about the jade terra cotta warrior statues he had ordered.  Not 5 minutes later, the doorbell rang and it was a big box from China w/ the jade warriors inside!  They look really cool but there were a few spots that were messed up so Mom & Dad weren’t too happy about that.

The kids wanted to go swimming, but we were busy cooking lunch so Lexie had them sit and do their “homework” at the table while we got lunch ready.  Andrew is super smart and was doing the math problems while Autumn took the more artistic approach and was drawing shapes.

Mom had me run to the store to get a few things we were missing.  I got back and she & Lexie & I made PF Chang lettuce wraps (Nate’s request) and fried rice (Lexie’s request).  We were going to do eggrolls, too, but were too tired.

The kids had so much fun with Uncle Nate and loved having him home.  They thought he was the coolest guy ever when he was able to lift them both off the ground w/ his arms.  We weighed the kids to see how much he had lifted and Andrew weighs 47 lbs and Autumn weighs 46.

Ashley & Avery & Jesse came over to see Nate and to swim.  The kids were thrilled to get to finally go swimming, since they had been asking since they woke up this morning.  I didn’t get any pictures, b/c I was busy playing and having fun in the pool with the kids.  Poor Andrew went to jump off the diving board (which Nate fixed by the way) and his foot slipped as he went to step up on it and he hit his nose and lip on the board.  It started bleeding and was hurting, so he was done with swimming for the day.  Autumn & I finally called it quits after a while b/c I was getting burned, even with sunscreen on.  We came back in the house and Autumn was out for the count after I got her to hold still for 15 minutes.

While she slept, Lexie & Mom & I finally made the eggrolls.  It was fun to work together and like Mom always says, “Many hands make light work.”  We woke Autumn up b/c we didn’t want her to sleep all evening and not go to bed tonight.  She was kind of grumpy and whiny but Mimi solved that problem fast by hand feeding her eggrolls!  Talk about spoiled to the max!

Lexie was enjoying her birthday dinner eggrolls so much.  I am glad she requested them for her birthday dinner b/c they really are insanely good.  We all agreed that the sweet & sour sauce is what completes the whole dish.  We ate and ate until our bellies couldn’t hold any more.

Nate has never seen Tangled, so we put that on.  He came over and sat on me and started bouncing up and down b/c I was complaining about how full my tummy was.  He just sat there for a minute and then Autumn came over and decided she wanted in on the fun, too.

Nate finally got off me and went and sat on the love seat.  Lexie didn’t have anywhere to sit so she sat down next to him and leaned back on him like she was going to squish him.  I love the look on his face…it’s as if she’s heavy b/c she’s pregnant, but she’s really not even hurting him at all.

Papa was feeling left out and needed some sugars from his grandkids.  I love it that we are such a touchy/feely/huggy family.  We are always telling each other how much we love each other.  I feel bad for families where they don’t express their love for each other very often.

After the movie, it was late and I needed to get home and into bed, especially b/c we have church in the morning.  I was packing up my stuff to leave and realized I won’t see Nate again for a while b/c he has to go back tomorrow morning.  So, we got a sibling picture.  I don’t know how I got to be so tall and fat and he’s so short and skinny, but we’re siblings and love each other so much.

Autumn gave him a big hug good bye and then Andrew wanted in on the action, too.

Nick showed up right before I left so we had to get a sibling picture, too.  He’s laughing like this in the picture b/c Nate was grabbing his side and trying to make him laugh.

We decided to re-inact the picture we took last year for our professional pictures where we hugged each other.  We have definitely had our times of sibling fighting and not getting along, but we really love being together now.

Here’s our self family portrait (but missing Jon).  What a good looking crew!  LOL.

Autumn and I left at 10:05 and we thought we had missed the fireworks that our city was putting on (they always do it the weekend before the 4th of July).  But, on our way home we heard them going off so we parked at a pharmacy by our house and sat on the sidewalk and watched them.

Our city always puts on an incredible fireworks show.  It lasted for at least 20 minutes and we just sat in awe.

The finale was insane!  I know this just looks like a big blob of white, but there had to be hundreds of multi-colored fireworks going off at once.  It was so loud that it set off car alarms!  We thoroughly enjoyed it and after it was over Autumn asked if we were going to watch the fireworks at the baseball park now!  LOL!  We came home and were both zonked out as soon as we got in bed.  It was a great day!