A Visit from Auntie Jen

After each of my children was born, Emmett's sister has come out - by herself - to visit and help with the baby. Jen came when Evan was a few months old, when Corrie was little, and now for Ben. Her husband has generously kept their children each time.

It's been so good to see her, to talk, and to watch her love on our kids. We try to take advantage of her visits - I get to take extra naps and I run errands by myself. Jen and Emmett go out for a sibling lunch or dinner. The kids have some special outings.

The special outing from this visit was a trip to the zoo. I was there, too, even if I'm not in any of the pictures! :) I take that back - when you see the picture of the three kids together, my arm is the one holding Ben on Corrie's lap. The boys are both looking at me instead of the camera. Sigh ... It's hard to get a picture with everybody looking in the right direction!

We had a great time at the zoo! Evan was our map guy. He kept us moving in the right direction. He was most excited about the tigers.

Ben's favorite part was this big metal turtle. Auntie Jen, Ben and I sat outside the reptile house while Emmett, Evan and Corrie checked out all the snakes. You can kind of see the turtle shell underneath Evan and Corrie.

Corrie loved hanging out with her daddy, and Evan ran - ran - ran everywhere. We all slept well on Saturday night.

Corrie liked the flamingos - pink!

It was Ben's first trip to the zoo. Good times!

Happy Valentine's Day!

This is a day late, but I thought we'd share anyway:

We took these photos to decorate Emmett's door at work. Last year, we made a lot of hearts and stuck them to his door. We called it a "heart attack" for Valentine's Day. This year ... I did not have the energy to make a whole lot of anything, so we opted for photos instead. :)

This is also what we did for the kids' school valentines:

My friend Jen made super cute photo valentines a few years ago. She had her kids hold out their hands like they were holding something, then stuck a lollipop in the printed picture. I had planned to do something similar ... then Corrie's school said you couldn't send hard candy (including lollipops) or chocolate (because it could melt). And I realized that you can't send candy to Evan's school either. I refused to buy little party favors, partly because I was doing it all at the last minute and partly because my house is overflowing with small plastic toys. We need no more.

Corrie added some foam heart stickers to her pictures, but Evan didn't care to embellish his.

We had a fun family dinner by candlelight, read I Corinthians 13 together, and ate strawberries with chocolate sauce for dessert. Everybody took a turn to say what we love about the other people in our family. That's what we did for Valentine's Day last year, too. I think it's a good tradition!

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Corinthians 13:4-7