About six weeks ago my brother Ben and my sister (in-law) Jamie had their third baby and first little girl. I was ecstatic. And sad. Sad because I had been right there in the same town with them when their second boy had been born and I felt like I just would miss out so much on all the things that I had such fond memories of that summer after Zach was born. I mentioned this a couple of times in passing to Tom. The second time I mentioned it, he jumped on the computer asked me when his spring break was and booked me a ticket all in the matter of a few minutes. I was shocked and elated! He would spend his whole spring break taking care of and playing with our kids so I could fly down to see Ben and Jamie and their family. Wow. He’s awesome.
I have to say I was a little anxious to go and leave my family behind. I knew that Tom would take great care of everyone while I was gone, but I was so used to doing so much for all of them that I didn’t know what I was going to do with myself, and I didn’t know how to just turn it all over to him because I had never done anything like it before. But I knew I wouldn’t be getting this opportunity for a long time so I just did the best I could to help prepare them (freezer meals, laundry all done up, a list/letter of important information etc.).
I flew into the Phoenix on Ben’s birthday. So I got to make Ben another lemon cake (he has a different lemon cake every year because he LOVES lemon cake or anything lemon or fruity, really). Jamie and I made a special trip to Walmart to get the last of his presents and turns out we got the wrong size.
The first day Zachy shoved a ball up his shirt pretending to be like Mommy just was before Reesie Roo was born. Typical kid stuff
Ikey boy- man I miss these boys. They took the place of my kids while I was gone. They eased my aching heart. I have never had these two boys take to me like they did this time. They kept telling me they loved me and would climb on my lap and hug me and Ikey also kept telling me I was sweet. So is he.
Sweet little Reese in pink. Love it! You could feel the difference having a little girl has done to this family. It is awesome. She is a keeper for sure!
Bonking Benny on the head with his present
Isaac’s homemade card. It is a picture of the cake with two candles and it says Happy Birthday!
And this is the wrong size gift. Kinda funny actually.
The next day Jamie and I went for a walk, and talked a lot and went to the grocery store for a few things. It was a lot like the old days. We stayed in our jammies for way too long and just had fun hanging out together. Oh, and forgot to mention that my sister Rachel, her husband Casey, and their two little kids came late that night to spend the Easter weekend with us.
Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that Tom decided that while he was home with the kids, they were going to do one fun thing with the kids each day. Thursday the 5th they went to the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum in Cody.
On Friday I had planned to meet my old friend Lucinda (yes, Lucy’s namesake)at the zoo. I hadn’t seen her in almost ten years and since she lived on the other side of the valley, we decided to meet up at the zoo. We had a great time together and it was so neat to meet her little boy who is only about four months older than Tommy. The whole crew, Ben, Jamie, Rachel, Casey, and all the kids also tagged along so we had a really fun time.
It snowed at home this day, so Tom took the kids to the library and picked out some fun books and movies, and taught Matthew and Jenny how to play Chess.
The next day we all went to Ben’s school where he is studying to be a dentist (he is in his third year) and took part in the Easter Egg hunt. Then after lunch, Jamie, Rachel, and I left all the kids with Ben and Casey and went shopping for four hours. I don’t know when that will happen again very soon!
Tom let the kids have friends over this day to jump on our new trampoline and break up the monotony a little. Oh. I forgot to mention that we were using Facetime to connect a couple times a day and the first time we did it, Tommy went berserk because he could see me but he couldn’t get to me. So Tom just had to make sure he was down for his nap or in bed so the other kids could see me. And because of that and that fact that I was used to doing everything for him, I missed that little boy a lot.
On Easter Sunday, Ben blessed little Reese Caroline. It was really neat to be there for that. I had worked on a little white afghan for that very purpose and had only finished it a couple of days before, so I guess it was good timing.
Everyone right after the blessing
Beautiful Baby Reese
The next day I flew out for home. I had had such an amazing visit, but was very excited to get home to my own little family. When I saw Tom and the kids waiting for me at the airport, I cried for a bit and held my baby and my kids and my husband. We sure learned to appreciate each other a lot more and had a fun time in our different adventures. I can tell now, almost a week from my return home, that Tom’s relationship with Tommy has really grown. He is gone for a couple of days for work and last night when he had finished packing, he went into Tommy’s room and picked him up and snuggled him because he knew he wasn’t going to be seeing him for a few days. Thankfully Tom will only be gone a couple more days. We have had enough of being apart lately, but in this case, absence has definitely made the heart grow fonder.