Three Men & a baby (or two)

Uncle Kyle recently spent a week with our crew & as I sorted through the pictures I realized that I never posted about a visit with my Dad & with Uncle Scott.  So, here we are, months past those first two visits & not wanting to forget how enjoyable they were for our family.

These three men are so very special to me & along with Robby will provide a great example to my children of what a godly man looks like.  It brings great delight to my heart to see them spend time with Charlotte, Eloise, Owen & Anson.

My Dad surprised us in mid April with an early morning phone call to my mom saying he was flying into town for the weekend that evening! It was a great surprise for my mom as she was approaching four months of being away from home & a great surprise for the rest of us that always enjoy a visit from Paw Paw.

If you remember correctly, his last visit was when the boys were born & the girls shared the stomach bug with him which forced him to extend his stay to recover fully before flying back home.  He visited the boys in the NICU but never got to hold them so I could hardly wait to place his first grandsons in his arms.

Here he is holding Anson for the first time....

 

and the first time to hold both of the little guys....Owen on the left, Anson on the right.

Thankfully Charlotte was nearby to help Paw Paw just in case he didn't know what to do ; ) 

I'm pretty sure we stayed home all weekend although this period of time is a bit of a blur in my mind...not sure why ; ) I do know that we loved his company & three days went by way too fast! We get to Face Time with him & are now in countdown mode for his next visit over Labor Day weekend.

My mom left at the end of April, we had a week alone & then visitor number one, Uncle Scott arrived just in time for the Kentucky Derby which we watched with mint juleps in hand.

He was the first person to buy a gift for the boys (so sweet), shortly after me finding out it was two boys around 14 weeks into the pregnancy. He is a sucker for Janie & Jack which has some pretty adorable things for little ones. We opened the gift at Christmas & I looked at it frequently between the then & March 8th imagining what O & A would look like in it.

They decided to wear their hippo onesies on the day Uncle Scott arrived...

Anson on left, Owen on right

Uncle Scott gave the boys lots of snuggles even providing a comfy place for a nap on his chest for Anson on Sunday afternoon.  Even though he jumped into the crazy house when NO one was sleeping, he still mustered up enough energy to play with his nieces non stop all day long. I was thankful for this since I was completely exhausted & unable to do any Cirque du Soleil moves with my post cesarean body. 

One thing that got a good laugh while he was there was that I decided in the morning before his arrival that I would list Eloise's crib & dresser on Craigslist to see if there was any interest. Within an hour, I had an interested buyer & ended up getting Eloise out of her crib during her nap to have it ready when they arrived. It was not the best parenting move to kick Eloise out of her crib less than a month after the boys arrived home from the NICU.  Scott got to be there for the rapid transition from crib to mattress on the floor in the corner which actually went better than anticipated. I guess we were just keeping with the tradition of helping Scott have a realistic view of being a parent following his previous visit over Christmas. As we already knew, he was a great sport & super helpful the whole time.

Kyle was the last of my immediate family to meet the boys just a couple weeks ago. He could have come for a quick weekend visit earlier but decided to wait until July so he could take an entire week off to spend with us. We were SO excited about his decision and loved having him here. The boys even saved up their first synchronized smile to be caught on camera for when Uncle Kyle was holding them! I guess it is worth smiling about when you can see the world from a much higher altitude than when held by mommy!

I had to laugh when I went back through the pictures taken when visitors were in town. They progressively increased in number as the months went on & I was feeling more rested/engaged with daily happenings. So, I had lots of Kyle & the kiddos!

We celebrated Kyle's birthday a week late, Charlotte's birthday on her special day, picked up dinner from a couple favorite restaurants & relaxed all week. It was fun to have a live in buddy to tag team the kids with for an entire week...especially an uncle that the girls think is so fun.  He slept in the office & the girls would ask every morning at 6am "Can we go surprise Uncle Kyle?" We would make them wait till at least 7 but sometimes they would sneak in prior to that time. He, like Uncle Scott was a good sport & jumped right into our morning routine. 

Here he is with his favorite nieces....

and the whole crew....

The next picture cracks me up. The boys love to stand & stretch while you hold their hands so he was playing with Anson & I could not get over how tall he looked! It is hard to believe these little babes could grow to be as tall as their uncles!

and here he is with Owen...

I am amazed at how comfortable both of my brothers are with the kids. They are so confident! Kyle even sent me to the grocery store alone one afternoon!  I LOVE my brothers more with each passing year. I am so thankful to have such a great friendship with each of them & look forward to Charlotte & Eloise having a special friendship with Owen & Anson.                                                                                                                                                                               I have referred to my brothers as "the boys" my entire life so it is fun to have my own little pair to call "the boys" now. So, the boys & the boys had a great time meeting one another & I foresee many a fun visit in the future!                                                                                                                               Great thanks to these three men for spending their time, money & energy on a visit to the Valentine Nest. We hope you will come back! Your bedroom (the office) awaits you with it's reinforced door to help drown out the early morning racket ; )