Cousins

My mother is an only child
and my father has one sister.

From my dad's side,
I have four first cousins.

They are all older than I am
and I never saw them much
growing up.

We lived in different states
and quite frankly,
they were often in different
stages of life than I was.

I have some memories
here and there
(like Wayne falling backward
out of a chair...I was scarred!)
but overall they are blurry.

Fortunately for me,
I see them every year now
and they have children
around Kate's age or a little older.

My kids have more experience seeing
my cousins than I did growing up!

What really makes me happy,
super, duper happy
is that my kids have a very close
relationship with THEIR cousins.

I love that.

I can't even tell you how much I love that.

It makes me happy
the way Christmas morning makes me happy.

Tonight the kids and I
were invited over to
"Aunt Beth and Uncle David's house."

Beth and Dave have two precious children:
Lauren is 3 and Johnny is 8 months.

I think you will be able to see from these pictures
that they adore each other.

Kate and Johnny: good babysitting practice!

Kissing cousins.
Truly.
It's scary.
We have to watch them or they'll have to move to West Virginia.

Chris with two arms full of sweetness!