Three Nieces and a Nephew

I fell in love four separate times on this Idaho trip -- and boy did I fall hard. I'm talking of course about our three nieces, and one nephew on my side of the family. I haven't seen the three oldest for four years because they used to live in Iowa and our vacations to Idaho never coincided. They have since moved to Idaho, so each time we visit home in the future I'll get to see them. In fact, I'd never met any of my nieces in person until this trip. I Skype with them all the time, but I always wonder how much they know me just from that. Long distance relationships are hard!

Carson, Kaylee, and Sophia are my sister Jamie's children. They are so cute, smart, funny, and silly. Carson is the one that I'm the closest to, because he is the oldest and the one that I Skype with the most. He was so excited that Aunt "Jeksa" and Uncle Brian were coming to visit that he started marking days off the calendar the week before we got there. Melted my heart.

When we first stopped by their house, they all were a little shy except for baby Sophia. Kaylee actually ran away to her room crying! They all warmed up pretty fast though, and now we are all the best of friends.

I also got to meet the newest member of our family -- baby Sadie! My sister Kiley and brother-in-law Scott just adopted this little sweetheart. In fact, it was made official while we were there. She is just a doll and I've never seen Kiley and Scott happier.

This was my first time holding her. It was just before we were leaving to go to Annie's Endowment session on July 30th, so it was a very quick visit. I think I held her for about 10 minutes. I didn't want to give her back.

Brian and I spent most of our down time playing with these two little cuties. Oh my word they are hilarious. 

  

I just melted every time one of them would throw their little arms around my neck and give me "huggies," as Carson calls them. We got to know Kaylee so much during the trip, and she is just the biggest sweetheart ever...and funny. Oh, is she the little comic.

We were sitting outside one evening when she started playing duck, duck, goose with us. She started out saying duck, duck, goose...but by the end of the game she was saying quack-quack, quack-quack, goose. Hilarious!

Kaylee started doing this thing where we would ask her to make a sad face and she would stick her little lip out and frown. Then we would ask her to make a happy face and she would smile. She started throwing mad face in the mix too. Kelsey got a video of her doing it. It was the cutest and funniest thing ever.

Miss Sophia was always smiling at us and talking to us. I love her flyaway curls. She's a cutie. However, you have to watch out for her grasp. She likes to grab a handful of your face and just squeeze. She left Brian with a pretty impressive scratch beside his nose after one such encounter.

Brian and I aren't the only ones that love these little humans. Grandma is always playing with them outside and letting them help her in her yard.

Grandpa is wrapped around little Kaylee's finger. They are best friends. I've never seen him like this before. They hold hands, and she sits on his lap while he tells her stories about sheep, horses, and the infamous grizzly bear "Three Toes" that we always heard about when we were little. If you know my Dad, you know that he is a reserved person, and he never really hugged us a lot or blatantly expressed his love. He would play with us, joke around, and give us advice, and that is how he showed his love. He has softened up quite a bit in his old age. It's so funny to see him with Kaylee. One day while we were there, he took her with him to do chores down at the milk barn -- just Dad and Kaylee feeding the cows. They were both as happy as clams when they got home.

If you ask my brother Luke, he'll tell you that these little guys all drive him crazy, but his actions tell a different story. It's the cutest thing to see him hold little Sadie. And more than once I found him reading books to Carson and Kaylee, and rough housing with them. He's just a really big softy.

Kelsey is just amazing with all of the kids. They love their Aunt Kelsey so much. Every time Kelsey walked into the house, little Kaylee would perk up and run over and give her a hug. Kelsey got the kids little rubber work boots so they can go help her milk her goats, and feed the dogs, rabbits, and other farm animals. Those little boots are the cutest things, and I wish I would have taken a picture of the kids wearing them.

Seeing Brian hold little Sadie, read to Kaylee, play Legos with Carson, and peekaboo with Sophie was one of the sweetest things of the whole trip. He is going to be such a good Dad to our kids. Watching him be so patient, loving, and silly with these kids made me fall that much more in love with him. Boy am I a lucky lady!

Tyler loves the kids as well. He agreed to hold Sadie one night, and Kelsey almost couldn't believe it...apparently he is a bit scared of babies. Haha! I took a picture for Kelsey to prove that he actually held her. He is always rough housing with Carson, and talking to Kaylee. He even took Kaylee on her first horse ride. 

One of the favorite pastimes at Grandma's house is jumping on the trampoline. I swear Carson would live out there if he could. Every time I went to play with him, and asked him what he wanted to do, his answer was the trampoline.

Oh how I love that kid. He was my best buddy during the whole trip. He even spent the night at Grandma's when his parents went home, because he wanted to stay with us.

He is such a little trickster. Brian and I had a water balloon fight with him one day. He held out a balloon to me and said "Here, this one's for you." When I got close enough to get it from him, he threw it at me and got me really good! 

I was trying to teach him the "chicken butt" joke, but he wasn't really getting it. A couple days later he asked me, "Guess what?" I said, "What?" Then he responds, "There is a chicken in your butt!" Hahaha! I died laughing.

My mom was the BEST mom, and she is such an awesome Grandma.

These two were our little shadows for the week. I loved every minute of it. 

My heart broke when we had to say goodbye. Every day since we've been back in NYC, Brian and I have told each other how much we miss their little faces. I'm so grateful that we were able to go and spend so much time with them, and get to know them more. And thanks to Jamie and Danny for letting us spend so much time with your kids and basically letting us be their surrogate parents for a week!