Our week with Jerai

May in Oregon is infamous for fickle weather. One day we'll have weather in the high 70's, without a cloud in the sky, the next day I'll be wearing my goose down jacket (with a hood) to run my errands. Needless to say, as true Oregonians, we have been taking advantage of every minute of blue skies we can get our hands on. Jerai and Boyd came to town for a whole week (which didn't seem like long enough, actually), and we spent almost every day doing fun family activities. We had a barbeque at Jeremy and Kristin's, where even JaNea and Charlotte, Lucy, and Henry made it. I put Peyton on the grass to play with the kids and she did not like it! She didn't want it touching her body, so she would get on her hands and feet and monkey crawl (or is it bear crawl?) around the yard. I'm pretty confident she'll be walking soon. She is not so confident. She stands by herself but uses her hands because she's a little nervous about walking upright. Anyway, eventually she came to enjoy the grass, which let me enjoy my dinner.

The Bear/Monkey Crawl
We also celebrated Mother's Day together. It was quite a day. In leiu of breakfast in bed, I got a sleep-in, and Jade took Peyton from 7am to 9:30. It was so much better than breakfast. Each of my girls got me a big balloon, Peyton "wrote" me a card, and Jade bought me my favorite flowers, potted, so they won't die (my ever-practical husband) and a lotery ticket (I didn't win).

My babies

Also, Nipper blessed all 3 of his babies. It was really beautiful/spiritual/touching/heart-warming. Then we had a barbeque at JaNea's house for Mother's Day dinner. The other exciting event of Mother's Day was having all 13 of the cousins together under the same roof. This was a first, since the last time everyone was together, Taryn still was in-utero and the triplets were really newborn. Let me tell you, 13 kids 9 and under, including 6 babies under the age of 1, is madness. It was crazy; babies everywhere, kids running around! We managed to wrangle everyone down for a cousins-picture. Adorable. You can't really tell unless you look closely, but the girls (not counting Charlotte and Lucy, who were in their blessing outfits) are all matching. I love matching. It's actually a miracle I don't try to match Peyton every day.

From left to right: Ike (almost 2), Trenton (almost 3), Marley (6), Taryn (3 weeks), Macie (8), Henry (6 mo), Sam (9), Charlotte -although it could very well be Lucy and we'd never know- (6 mo), Boyd (8 mo), Max (4), Peyton (11 mo), Gabe (4), Lucy -or maybe Charlotte- (6 mo)

While Jerai was here we also went to the park, the zoo, and a swimming pool. We had Peyton and Boyd swing together and they actually liked it. And it made for a darling picture. We had a great week with Jerai, and we miss her and Boyd already. Come back soon!!