A day of no labor

I had so much fun on Labor Day, I was too busy to take pictures.  My family came to our house for the day.  We:

• Put our chest freezer in the basement.  Technically, we've owned this freezer for almost 6 years, but this is the first time it has lived in our home.  It was a (very generous) wedding gift from Trevor's grandma, and Trevor's parents kept it in their basement until we moved out of student housing (because we had no room for it).  We thought we could fit it on our balcony at our last apartment, but after Trevor's parents loaded in their suburban, drove it to us, and tried everything possible to get it onto our balcony, we finally succumbed to the fact that it wasn't going to fit through our sliding glass door (Or our window.  Or be lifted via pulley system over our 2nd floor railing.)  One of Trevor's co-workers kindly stored it in his unfinished basement until further notice.  Then, when my brother and sister-in-law were pregnant with twins, they asked if they could borrow it and could stock it with freezer meals so they could still eat decent meals after the twins came.  The twins are now 8 months old, and the freezer meals are finished, so they brought the freezer to us on Labor Day.  The men had to take the lid off the freezer in order to fit it through all the doors, but it is successfully sitting in our basement, just waiting to be filled with food storage.
• Saw Renae's ring!  My little brother is finally engaged to his awesome girlfriend, and we are SO excited!  We absolutely love her and we have been looking forward to this for a long time.  I told Trevor about 10 months ago that I wanted to host a bridal shower for her at our new house.  So yeah, we are ready for this to happen.  I really wish I had a picture of them, they are such a cute couple!
• Went swimming!  My mom stayed home with the babies, and Dad and Christie stayed in the shade on the side of the pool, so it was just me, Trevor, Robert, Renae, Vaughn, and little Lexi and Cassie in the pool.  We have loved visiting our neighborhood pool all summer, and we went early enough on Labor Day that we had the pool mostly to ourselves.  Cassie was wearing her life jacket and playing with Lexi, so I actually got to (gasp) play in the water!  Robert, Renae, Trevor, and I played keep away and some variations of fly's up, and I had so much fun!  I need to get out more...
• Ate lunch.  Mom did most of the work, but we all contributed a little bit and had a delicious meal.
• Played games.  Mom and Dad beat us all on Apples to Apples, and I think Dad won the tiebreaker at the end.  Our game of Uno Attack sort of failed when all the kids melted down, but Trevor, Mom, and Dad played some Bananagrams.
• Took naps, relaxed, vegged, etc.  This is when I finally got out the camera:

 Aw.  Uncle Vaughn and Cassie snuggling and watching A Bug's Life.

Bananagrams!

Mom and Dad stayed for dinner, then we spent the evening outside talking with our neighbors while the kids rode bikes.  It was wonderful to have a long, relaxing day!

Weekend trip

We went to our nephew's baby blessing in Rexburg a few weeks ago.  We headed out on Saturday morning, stopped in Centerville and ate lunch with my parents, then stopped in Idaho Falls to play with Trevor's brother's family and some other family that stopped to visit.  Cassie loves playing with her cousins!

Saturday evening:

Our kids were pooped after playing for hours with their cousins, but of course it took a few hours for them to fall asleep once we got to the hotel in Rexburg.  And then they woke up super early on Sunday...

Sunday morning:

Baby Emmitt and his fan club

At the park:

Cassie started feeling really sick on Sunday (as you can see in the picture above- she wrapped up in a blanket after lunch and fell asleep).  She had a fever, no appetite, and was lethargic and sad.  She slept for most of the drive home, but when she wasn't sleeping, she cried because she wanted to be lying down in a bed.  Poor baby.  We just tried to keep her hydrated and get home as quickly as we could.  So the drive home was a little stressful, and felt pretty long without all the stops we made on the way to Rexburg, but we made it home and Cassie felt much better on Monday.

Portraits of a mommy

"Hey mom, can I take a picture of you?"  I've heard Cassie ask this about a dozen times, and I've caved a few times.  Since I'm usually the one behind the camera, I thought I would show you her latest work.  You know, in case you've forgotten what I look like...

She also enjoys photographing Benson:

 (I know.  The work of a master, right?)

And the "volleyball net" she made after watching the Olympics:

Ready to play!  (Okay, I took this one.)

What makes me happy...

I love seeing my kids play well with each other. It melts my heart when Cassie is sweet and patient with Benson, and it makes me giggle to watch Benson understand what Cassie says and try to follow her lead.  Although he understands everything we say, Benson isn't much of a talker, so most of his communication is in the form of head nods and shakes in response to yes/no questions.  Cassie uses a high-pitched baby voice when she talks to Benson, which sounds like it might get annoying, but it's actually really sweet.  Sometimes, when Benson wakes up from his nap and I can't go get him right away, Cassie goes and plays with him in his crib.  I love hearing her little voice ask "Do you want me to read you a book?" and her cute "okay!" when he nods his head.  They also do a lot of wresting/tickling/rolling around on the floor over each other and giggling.  It makes me so happy to see them having fun together.  They seem to have some inside jokes, because sometimes they start into laughing fits just from looking at each other.  I am so, so glad they get along.  (Usually.  We have plenty of not-so-heavenly moments as well.  But I don't take pictures of those.)

One day, Benson was patient enough to let Cassie dress him up with a "scarf" (long-sleeved shirt tied around his neck) and hat (yes, an actual hat, but it belongs on a teddy bear, so it has ear holes...), then she led him by the hand to visit the "neighbors" (across the hall in Cassie's bedroom).

"He let me dress him up!"

Off to visit the "neighbors"

Cassie made a bed of pillows and blankets and convinced Benson to play "bedtime" with her.  Here they are, fast asleep...