Happy Family

I fell off the face of the blogplanet for a while there - sorry! We have just had so much excitement going on here!

My brother Ben, his wife Josephine and their 2 kids Ashley and Tyler came to visit us on their way to Colorado the beginning on January...and ended up staying! Yay!!! They had just gotten out of the military before Christmas and had employment lined up in CO, but a day after they got here they were job and apartment hunting. They found both and stayed with us for the last month while they were waiting for their household goods (that had been shipped to Colorado) to get here. We just had the most fun time!
Well, their things arrived and they moved into their new apartment last week and it has been so quiet around here! After all living together for a month, I was so used to us being all together all the time that I felt quite lost for the first few days they were gone...
Anyway, here are some pictures of some of the fun things we did while they were staying with us...

The kids LOVED feeding the birds. Tyler was fearless - he would let the swans snatch the bread right out of his hands.

We went to the 2nd Street Market. It's a really fun indoor farmer's market in downtown Dayton. They have local produce, foods and lots of fun things to see.

Tyler got 2 little finger puppets - a "tweet tweet" and a "rawwwr" (bird and tiger.) He had to have two because he has this "thing" where he always has to have one for each hand...cookies, grapes, toys, whatever. He just has to have one for each hand. Ben says it throws off his chi if he only has one!

Ashley got a little wooden rose scented with rose oil. She kept asking us to smell it!
OK, clowns usually scare the crap out of me. I do not like them at all. This one was pretty nice, though, and made a balloon flower for Ashley and a doggie for Tyler.

It was a fun day!

We went to the mall one day to let the kids play with the puppies at the pet store. As soon as we walked in, Tyler spotted some dog toys that were cars and that was it for him. He loves cars. I'm not sure he even knew there were puppies around. Ashley enjoyed playing with the puppy. The puppy enjoyed eating her shoe.

Doesn't my brother have the cutest family?Josephine and I had SO MUCH FUN doing some thrift shopping ... we found some awesome stuff! We got Ashley this little leopard print skirt and I couldn't resist matching her for church!

Besides going out and doing fun things, we spent a lot of time just hanging out at home. The kids loved climbing up on our "big bed" (it's a four-poster and really tall) and watching a movie on our little bedroom TV. Teddy liked to join them, especially when they had snacks.

Ashley fell asleep with her arm around Teddy, and he just stayed there letting her hold him while she slept! Awwwwwww!

Our family loves to play games together. One night after the kids were in bed, The Scrabble War started. Girls vs. Boys. It gets pretty competitive. So here is a picture for the boys!We've had a fun month and are just so thrilled to have these guys living here close to us. What fun a family is!