VISITORS!

We have had AWESOME visitors these past couple of weeks. Heidi, my best friend since I was 4, came to visit with her beautiful baby, Abigail. Heidi was an angel- always loving my children, doing my dishes, and serving in any way she could think of. I loved her visit, but saying good-bye made me cry as I realized how desperately I wished we lived closer. I keep hoping that our paths land us as next door neighbors one day.

Bottega Louie visit!

Sweet baby- just woke up and getting oriented in her mama's arms.

Bonding over delicious fancy food. Abigail is eating edible gold flakes here :)

We love that little baby finger testing the waters!

Around the house...

Watching the gardeners. We loved how they were lined up by height!

So adorable!

It's the little moments, like seeing all the girls brush their teeth in the hall, that are my favorite

Abigail LOVED the trampoline, and the balls. It was darling to see Max dote on her and try to be so gentle. "Abigail, do you want to go on the tramp with just me?" he asked her one morning.

I love Jonas' face in this one- he loved Heidi (well, they all did). She left them with the 'Little Red Box' song... if you don't know it, ask me and I'll teach you. This simple little song is magic.

(Doesn't Ali look old here?)

Next we had Michael and Danielle (our brother and sister-in-law) visit us for literally only 24 hours. I had worried it wouldn't be enough time to feel like we had even said hello. I don't know what magic it was, but it felt like we had more time together- and it was heaven! I love this family so much- their children are dear, and parents just the same. Maybe next time we can steal them for longer!

We set the kids up to eat under the tramp in their "fort"... they loved it and we half-wished we could eat under there too!

Who could not adore them?

At one moment in the day, I decided to grab the camera and document what everyone was doing... this is what I got:

Jordan and Megan helping make cookie pies

Max and Tommy creating with Legos

Christian with oh-so-many options

Jonas pretending to be a puppy waiting for me to notice him and adopt him. If I had a dog, I probably would end up feeding him hot dogs. Spot on there, Jonas.

Babies happily eating their crackers (until I learned that sweet Rhea doesn't eat her crackers whole, so I basically could have choked a baby here... gratefully, awesome Jordan caught it before it was trouble!)