Thursday, May 24, 2012

Sweet Memories

We got back earlier this week from an amazing weekend vacation with Dusk's brother, his wife Missy and their sweet girls, Hannah and Amelia. The last time we saw them, the kids looked like this:

What a difference 16 months can make, right? 

Oh my goodness, we had SO MUCH FUN. The kids swam their little hearts out... 

(seriously, my kids must have been fishes in another life, because that's ALL they wanted to do - and these Puddle Jumpers were a HUGE lifesaver for us - they allowed Sierra to swim independently with Hannah and Amelia - and allowed me to not have to have my hand on Bodie every second he was in the pool. Before the Puddle Jumpers, Dusk and I would pretty much treat Bodie like a hot potato, constantly passing him back and forth because being on "Bodie duty" in the pool was so stressful, just waiting for him to injure himself/jump in the pool - neither one of us wanted to be on "Bodie duty." But with these awesome lifevests, we can actually sit next to him and watch him - and relax - a bit.)

And Sierra mostly did a lot of this - jumping into the pool and "swimming" from one end to the other. Clearly, her swimming lessons are paying off! Yay!
I just love this sweet pic of my beautiful sister-in-law with Amelia

...and we did A LOT of sleeping... 

(this was how they slept all weekend - Bodie is officially so.OVER.the pack and play, apparently. He was all about sleeping in the same bed as Sierra - and really, it was way toooo cute to resist - and she's way more amenable to his kicks and punches than we are. Saturday night, I walked in to find them both snoozing peacefully, her elbowing him and him spooning her butt. Seriously.)

...and we did A LOT of giggling with our cousins...
Bodie and Hannah, who doubles as an AMAZING babysitter!
Bodie and Amelia
Sierra and Amelia - SO fun to have a cousin just a few weeks younger than you!

And we just plain relaxed...
Seriously, HOW are these kids not biologically related to each other? They could be siblings, right?!? And Bodie LOVED Hannah (actually, both my kids were pretty obsessed with her - nothing like an amazing older cousin to adore, right???) - he went right to her and let her carry him around almost immediately, which is pretty much unheard of for him!

As always, when we have an opportunity to slow down and spend time with friends and family, I am reminded how lucky we are to share these moments with both of our children. When we started this journey with Bodie, we had no idea how many of these moments we would have with him. We still don't. We are reminded of that as our heart buddy Olivia (Bodie's age) recovers from the Fontan at a Children's Hospital in Chicago right now. We are minded of that as we read an article this morning about a 3 year-old little girl that passed away following her Fontan surgery. So, as my chest starts to tighten and I get nauseas thinking about the uncertain future our family has been given, I choose to focus on God, and celebrate each little moment. We had A LOT of moments to celebrate this weekend!
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3 comments:

  1. Reminds me of all the cousins at Grandma & Grandpa's house for Thanksgiving every year!
    Such good times that everyone remembers.
    What cute pics! Glad you guys got some time to relax.

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  2. Love this post! Made me smile big looking at all the fun you guys had!! And those swimming vests...I must check them out for Liam - we need one of those! Aren't cousins the best? Glad to see yall are doing great!

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