Hotdiggittydog that was fun!

Oh man, we had such a wonderful week with TubaDad's brother and his family that we hated like heck for them to leave. It was just a great, relaxing, funtastic week. The kids all got along like a house on fire, and the adults just smiled and smiled, took a few (hundred) pictures (a day), and thoroughly enjoyed our time together. Ro and Ree are going to miss their cousins so much. They really got used to waking up each morning and hearing a little knock at their nursery door. They'd grin like mad and watch eagerly as the door opened and tousled, pajama-clad William and Lauren trooped in so the fun could begin. They loved eating breakfast with their cousins, holding hands and sitting on laps, playing silly games, showing off their backyard toys, and a million other funny things. William and Lauren must feel the same way, because during naptime on that last day we said the girls were really going to miss their cousins when they woke up to find them gone, and little William said "I miss them already." And shortly after landing in Texas Lauren said "I miss my cousins so much." (Sob! How cute are they?) One funny thing that happened was near the end of the week. We were all lounging in the family room talking about Baby Julia and how cute she was and sort of offhandedly said something to the girls about how they used to be babies but were toddlers now. Well little Ree jumped up, toddle-ran to the kitchen and grabbed our referral photo announcement off fridge (the one that has the 1st pics we ever saw of Ro and Ree). Then she marched back toward us, holding the picture out stiff-armed in front of her and dropped it down in front of TubaDad. I just about died laughing imagining her thinking "Look! We were babies. See how cute?!" I swear these dang kids are too smart for my own good. We've already started spelling in front of them when we're trying to be a little sly. And to be honest that doesn't work all that well either. Ro has already learned that C-O-O-K is the start of "cookie" and starts yelling as soon as we get to the "K." Sigh... (If you think it was just a coincidence that Ree grabbed that picture, think again. TubaDad tested her the next day and asked her to get a picture of when they were babies and show it to Baby Julia, and knock me over with a feather she did it. This time we got it on film. so check out the photos.) View the pics all at once (click "next" to see the 2nd page), or view the auto slideshow (click "i" on the first slide if you want to turn on captions). I hope everyone had a fun-and-family-filled fourth. With love, from our house to yours. (Oh, and yes I WILL get my act together and actually dress the girls in some kind of cute red-white-and-blue outfits for the holiday next year. You'll see. It'll be spectacular.) * A huge thanks to our sister-in-law Kate for taking so many great photos this week!