Full Weekend with My Family!

Another selfie because I am loving this haircut! So easy to do and is different from how I always wear it. This is me, at almost 29 years old. 

We met Grandpa and Grandma for breakfast on Saturday. They had Jace and Rayne the night before so they came too! Quinny was so cute when she saw Rayne... she wanted to sit right beside her and just loved her. She has loved Rayne since the minute she met her! I love how so much time goes by (a whole year in this case!!!!) but she still just knows, even if she doesn't totally remember.

We spent the afternoon doing some shopping and driving all around, going to soccer games! When you watch one, you need to watch them all! And I had a whole year of catching up to do, and I love to watch my cousins doing things that they love. At one point we got stuck behind this massive train, and it made me laugh - welcome back to the prairies! The sound of the train is so comforting to me, it sounds like home. And look at that blue sky - it might be cold (REALLY REALLY COLD) but man oh man, do I ever love that blue sky and all that sunshine. I am soaking in all the vitamin D I can before heading back to the island!! It's been so dreary there lately, and I notice a big difference seeing the sun.

We ordered Rossco wings in for dinner that night (best wings ever, hands down) to celebrate Grandma Doris' and my birthdays. Maggie is really really sick and so is Tigger, so Neil decided with the vet that it was time to put them both down. Maggie has been around for so long - her and Archie were really the last reminders of what mine and Brandon's childhood was like, with mom and Neil together. Archie died two years ago, and now Maggie was the last string of that chapter of our lives. It was hard to say good-bye to her. But it was time for her to go. She is such a pretty dog

My little animal lover gave Maggie lots of love that evening, being so gentle and petting her carefully

All through dinner she kept asking when she could give Great Grandma Doris her present, she could hardly wait! She is such a sweet girl, so giving and excited for others. Her and Doris giggled lots together that night, they were pretty cute.

We sent this to Brandon and told him we missed him!! Can't wait until he gets here too!!!

Neil even had a birthday cake for us, in Christmas colors because he knows how much joy Christmas things bring me! So thoughtful. And delicious. Grandma just turned 84

I love being home with my mom because we spend the evenings playing cards or blokus together. We both really love playing games, and its nice to just sit together and talk. It's been a rough go lately, and she just brings me back to my roots and she makes me laugh. Sunday morning we got up early and went to the hockey rink to watch Gabriel and Lucas play, and then went over to the Rahn's for brunch. I really love brunch haha. Gabriel is SO GOOD with Quinny - he lets her boss him around and he plays whatever she wants. He is growing into such a kind, mature 10 year old. I've missed these boys!!

Ack! They are soon cute!!!!!! The boys just love her, and call her their niece (which she is, kind of!). I wish we could spend more time with them. These are the moments that my heart aches that we live so far away, and don't have family in our everyday life. I could get used to doing Sunday brunch with these people! We had such a good morning together.

Then off to Grandma's with all the grandkids for cookie decorating! The only ones missing were Brandon and Jenna, who both come home in a few days. So we were mostly all there! This Christmas eve will be so good - everyone is home this year!!! It made me laugh watching my Grandma - my entire life, she has decorated cookies with us, and she always does the icing, and then hands out the cookies and everyone gets to decorate them with the different sprinkles. Watching them, I can see that they have all grown up, but its like time has stood still, with Grandma still doing the same traditions. So much laughing around this table as they argued over sprinkles, and whose cookie was better, and sneaking bites when Grandma wasn't watching. This is family. This is what draws me home, this sense of closeness and love that exists here. Oh how I love these people!! I can feel inside of me already that it is going to be hard go for me when its time to leave to go back to the island.

Grandma fills all these little bowls with like 8 different types of sprinkles and there is about a 100 cookies to decorate. And this is just one out of probably 12 desserts she has spent time making for Christmas. She is amazing.

Quinny was attached to Alexis as soon as she saw her. So was I for that matter! Her and Brooke are having a rough go with the stuff with their parents these days, so it was really really good to see them and hug them tight and then laugh together and just be.

Love you Brookie!!!

Grandpa disappeared for a while and came back smirking his silly little grin and I knew he was up to to something. He is always such a jokester. He sat like this and then called Jon into the room so he could see his socks. haha!

You can't see Rayne very well, but she is in the fort with Quinny, who made yet another fort haha! Rayne is also so good with her and plays with her non-stop.

The girls told me that I need to start using snapchat more often, and so they sent me a whole bunch of funny ones. I told them I would, just to check up on them haha!

Grandma cooked us all dinner and Brooke and Alexis stayed the longest, playing cards with me and talking about what's going on with them. I mostly listened and realized that they don't talk much to the people around them and that they were trusting me with their hearts. I need to come back during the year and not stay away for as long, if possible, to be there for them as this all goes down. My heart hurts for them, I just love these girls so much and would do anything for them. After they left, we stayed and had a sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa. They have this cucko clock (I have no idea how to spell that) that Q has been crazy about ever since she was baby. The whole night (and next morning!) she kept running up to it on the hour and yelling excitedly, wanting to see the bird. Funny! She went to bed and we stayed up way too late, playing Wizard with the grandparents. Grandpa gets so funny when he's playing games... well actually he's just funny all the time. It was a really good night. Grandma made us a big, delicious breakfast the next morning and we just spent a few hours visiting. I love this one on one time with them. 

I did a ton of shopping this afternoon for stocking stuffers/dutch shoes (we are starting the dutch shoes tradition this year!) and then we headed to Courtney and Fleming's house for dinner. Court had a miscarriage about two months ago... and the weird thing is that we hadn't talked in probably about 3 months at that point (besides the odd text here and there), because life gets so busy, and I called her one evening out of the blue just to say hi, and it happened to be the day of her miscarriage. So over the past two months we have been talking a ton, as she processes all her emotions. So it was really good to see her. I hugged her tight and we both cried, and then spent the evening talking and chasing kids. She is such an excellent mom, I love seeing her with Easton. 

He just turned 2 a few days ago! Time really does fly by. It's so nice to see them, because Jon and Fleming get along so well, so it makes for a fun evening for everyone. Quinny was pretty tired because she didn't sleep great last night and didn't nap for long today, so she hit a wall and that was our cue to leave ha!

As I sit here reflecting on our past few days, I am struck with how jammed packs our days are, but how life-giving the time is. It is time well spent, and I am so grateful for this break. I am also grateful that it warmed right up today and was only -5! I no longer feel like I am going to die when I go outside haha. And the sun was shining, such a lovely, bright day! Soak in that prairie sunshine while I can!!