Kids are everywhere!

We had a house full of kids and family and happiness a few weekends ago.
Lance and Kayla came up because Lance was taking a Crossfit Instructor class, and Jenny and the kids came up because Jenny was going wedding dress shopping with her sister in law.
We anxiously awaited their arrivals and were thrilled to have so much quality time with all the cousins and siblings.

Yes, it was a little a lot hectic. And there was chaos. But there was also laughter and memories...and wine :)

On Saturday when Lance was gone at class and Jenny was doing wedding stuff, we had 5 kids between me, Brian, and Kayla. Halfway through the morning I was already running out of patience with my kids so Brian swooped up the three oldest and went shopping.

He took them to the mall where they found vampire vests and capes on sale, he told them he would buy them on one condition: They were them throughout the mall.
Obviously they obliged happily and it was quite the little scene.

They of course had a blast and behaved so well.

He also went to a few other stores, Costco being one of them. So yeah, he's super Dad and earned a million points.
While Brian was out being awesome, Kayla and I took Ames and Zoey out for some shopping and lunch.
On the one hand it was actually easier to have just one baby each. No kids talking back and asking for things and having to go to the bathroom. No one was hiding inside the clothing racks or requesting water. So that was glorious. But man, I forgot how much stuff you have to lug around for little ones! We whipped out the double BOB and got some shopping done. When we got hungry we picked a place WE wanted to eat, as opposed to something my picky eaters would possibly eat 2 bites of.
And the best part of lunch?

 WINE. No judging us, it was a really late lunch so it's totally fine.

My Zoey girl, she looks exactly like my baby pictures so really I was just toting an adorable baby me around

We all gathered back home after our successful adventures and attempted to relax. But really just played and tried to keep the exhausted older kids from fighting.
This little guy knows how to make us all smile and laugh:

Bria proves to be pretty helpful and nurturing with the little ones.

 She gets so excited when they learn new sounds or words and wants to carry them around everywhere.

I must squeeze those cheeks!!!

There were cousin bath times and kissing cousins...

"I just peed."

Cousin loves

We survived the day and evening and even bedtime! In fact, bedtime was a huge success. Zoey and Jax went down in .2 seconds, our girls went down quickly (but got up a few times for water and other pointless stall tactics), and Ames eventually curled up and zonked out too.
We attempted to watch a movie, which worked for the most part. Lance fell asleep and we all got tired so headed to bed.
Sunday was the superbowl. We didn't have big plans, so I just put out a bunch of food and beer and called it good.

We actually had decent weather so we got to play outside for a little bit which the kids loved.
So that sums up our awesome family weekend.
Grateful beyond words for silly cousins, awesome Aunts and Uncles, and a fabulous hubby.