family

 started our saturday with joshua and bailey playing their basketball games at the SAME time on courts right next to each other! the nice thing was that they played alternating periods - so they were never both playing at the same time.

grandmommy and granddad came to cheer them on! we have the BEST parents and grandparents to our kids!

 saturday evening we headed to my parents house to celebrate my mom's birthday (that was a week ago).
i got to make her cake! she requested my grandma's (my dad's mom's) pound cake. i have this cake EVERY year for my birthday cake. a favorite for sure! 

all decorated :-)

 i didn't take many pictures. we were just enjoying all being together. it always goes by WAY too fast. hannah and john brought their wedding video and we watched it together. oh, that was such an amazing day! i asked pat on the way home, "is it weird that my sister's wedding day is one of my favorite days of my life?" he said no, that it's a pretty special thing that that is the case. i agree!

 my mom opening her gifts. (and levi running through the picture). that is a REAL fire! it was such a peaceful, sweet evening (yes, even with 6 kids. well...maybe it didn't feel peaceful to some that don't have lots of little kids around all the time...but for me it was peaceful :-) no crazy extra drama or anything, which i never take for granted with my crew!)

 and THEN, hannah and john took joshua with THEM when they left! they kept him overnight and he had the BEST time with them. they did the same with rebekah a few months ago. (ha! ok. it was close to a year ago! time flies...) we sure missed him like crazy! but were SO glad for him to have that time with them. i can't believe with all they have going on in their lives, that they make having RELATIONSHIP with our kids a priority! pretty amazing.

we are so VERY blessed with our families. and how they love us and our kids in such REAL, tangible ways.