Michigan Cousins

The day after Christmas, we got a visit from Chris's cousin Liz and her family. The girls love their older cousins Johnny and Heidi, and all the kids had a great time playing together.

 

 

 

Heidi reads to Emily and Addie while Johnny prepares for a surprise attack from behind!

 Family Pictures

Uncle Mike had a special stuffed toy that attached to his camera lens designed to hold the attention of little ones. Hold their attention it did, (and it might have been just a little freaky looking at their expressions!)

The Jackson Family and 4 Palte Families

The next day, we got a visit from Chris's cousin Kay, her husband Todd and their new baby, Annabelle. Of course, Addie was overjoyed to see a little baby!

 

Sweet Annabelle

 

 

 

 

Sugar Cookies...Annabelle wants one too!

 

 

Current Events

We had so much fun at the park today with our friends Rose and Dale, I just have to post these pictures now, even though later tonight, you'll be hearing about events from back in December. 

Lunch was a hurried affair without much eating.  These kids were ready to hit the playground.

Who is that big girl in the striped pants over there playing with those other big kids? Oh! It's my baby Addie!

Emily is pretty darn excited about this slide!

Peek!

Rose showed off her climbing skills and then admired her view from up high.

Yes, Addison is carrying a ball around in her mouth.

Didn't quite get her fill at the picnic table, so it's time for some more sandwich.

Emily and her new little friend held up the line for the slides for quite some time. They were really getting a kick out of hearing everyone cheer for them to come on down!

After her second little lunch break on the bench, Addie decided it would just be most efficient to carry the sandwiches around with her while playing. The tupperware container was a bit cumbersome at times, but since she's used to carrying objects around with her wherever she goes all day long, she did pretty well.

Now this is one fun spinning whirligig. We heard lots of Emily giggles while Mama spun her around and around.

Wee!!

Spin Spin Spin!

Then Emily had to go and scare the daylights out of me by climbing to the top of the big kid playground after seeing Dale do it again and again. Luckily, there were lots of bars to prevent falling, but there were also lots of extremely steep slides and this little monkey is becoming quite the daredevil so I didn't quite trust her to stay on the bridges.

She was quite gleeful when she sensed my apprehension.

When Addison saw the attention Emily got for climbing so high, she had to follow. She made it up several flights of stairs with her sandwich box in hand.

Imagine a Tarzan yell here. Soon all four kids were high above us, and we ended up climbing up to surround them and heard them back down.

Good ol' close-to-the-ground fun!

Now, while all this playing has been going on, Dale has been collecting "treasures" in the treasure bag that Auntie Abbey gave him for the sole purpose of treasure hunting. I guess I was imagining rocks and maybe an occasional bottlecap. 

But instead, Dale's prize treasure of the day...a cigar butt. Hmmmm, sorry about that Mark and Wendy!

Sweet girl and her Mama (oh, sorry Dale, I told you I'd never call your Mommy a Mama again!)

 Can't wait to do it all again soon!

Christmas in Michigan

Before the girls went down for their nap on Christmas, they got to open a couple of presents from CeeCee and PopPop. A drill and a doctor kit, just perfect for our pretend play loving girls!

PopPop shows Emily how the new drill works

CeeCee helps Addie with the doctor kit

 On Christmas evening, there was more fun to be had when all the aunts and uncles came over.

 

 

Addie shows off her quick unwrap trick

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of Laughs...Addie collected paper in her new cat purse, and I got the wonderful gift of Sanford and Son favorites from Eric after asking for the new Mumford and Sons album

Before heading to bed, Addie says goodnight to Sally

Emily stayed up late with the big people, playing with the Nano bug set Mike got for Chris

Devising ways to catch the little critters

Christmas Eve in Michigan

Our first full day at CeeCee and PopPop's house was on Christmas Eve. During our stay, the girls had a great time playing with the new play kitchen.

 

They also had a great time helping CeeCee in the real kitchen! 

 

That evening, we headed to church after a quick snapshot of our Christmas cuties by the tree.

 

Michigan Presents, Round 1

The moment the girls saw the presents under Eric and Cathy's tree when we arrived, they were fascinated by a giant pink box and kept trying to sneak little rip. So when Eric and Cathy decided it was time to open presents, and Aunt Cathy let the girls open her big box, there was quite a bit of excitement!

Oooo! It's a steamer!

 Emily and Addison got awesome presents from Eric and Cathy...

Backpacks complete with stuffed animal backpack buddies!

Emily got a fuzzy duck

Addie got a little monkey

 Kind of reminded us of their first Halloween...

Thanks Aunt Cathy and Uncle Eric!!