Family and Santa

Last Saturday my brother and his 3 kids came in town to stay for a couple nights on their way from Florida to Ohio to visit my parents for Christmas. My oldest niece had never met Adalyn before and she was so sweet with her. My other niece and nephew were around last summer when we went to their house in Florida so they had already met Adalyn. They were also very sweet with Adalyn.  Pretty much she didn't know what to do with all of the attention.

My nieces and nephew are so very well behaved and are so fun to be around that we didn't want to see them leave. Our house was loud and lively but I loved it. It was a good loud - everyone enjoying each other and playing games together.

The kids swapped presents and they were so excited about the gift they had picked out for Adalyn. It was sweet. They showed her how to play with it and helped her get the pieces in the openings. Precious. Dakota seemed to enjoy all the extra attention too!

One of the things that I had yet to do this season was to get a picture of Adalyn with Santa so I thought what better time than when her cousins were with her.  So we got one picture with just Adalyn and Santa and one picture with all of the cousins. Of course Caleb needed to know why this Santa was a different Santa than the one he had already seen this year and knew one had to be an impostor. But since it's difficult to know which one was an impostor he went ahead and told this Santa what he wanted for Christmas too.

We went to the same Santa we saw last year who happens to be outside a bookstore in town (instead of fighting the mall traffic and lines). We got on a call-ahead list for Santa so that we could go hang out in Joseph Beth. (That bookstore is pretty much the coolest thing ever and has a whole toy section so we stayed busy for the hour we would have been waiting in line.) The kids played so nicely while we were waiting.

Santa!! (She was just curious...no tears!)

After waiting for her cousins to get in the picture, the tears started coming. :(

This big tree was outside the store. Great picture-op for the family:)

We had an awesome weekend!  Adalyn and I were actually able to meet up with the whole crew on their way back down to Florida today for lunch. It was a nice surprise to get a call that they were able to meet up on the road! Adalyn was reaching for my brother while she was in the high chair at Chick-fil-a. I'm pretty sure she loves her family!! I just hope that we can see them more often than once a year!