Family

In contrast to my last post, I'll share what we love around our children.

Family!

I love that our children are aware that having the status of Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt, Uncle, & Cousin has meaning. They even try to give the title of "cousin" to their best friends. Gavin doesn't care what I say, because he loves his friends they ARE his cousins!

I love the way Nana is the kid's favorite person in the world besides Mommy & Daddy. They love when she comes over and hates when she leaves. She knows their ends and outs, lets them wrestle all over her and most importantly, they trust her. I didn't grow up near my family, so being best friends with a grandparent is fun thing to witness!

Levi's parents live in San Antonio, so we only see them a couple of times a year, but the kids love when we do. We've had the rare privilege of seeing Grandpa 3 weekends in a row. They had gotten quite comfortable with him and Carrigan enjoyed several games of Hide and Go seek! I've always loved the fact that even though G'ma & G'pa don't get to see them as often as they'd like, they still love them as if they do. Grandparents are the only people who think your kids are as cool as you, and that's pretty awesome!

Aunts and Uncles are great too! I sat and talked with Uncle Zeke for a while and even though it's sad, it's very nice to hear the Uncles who live 4 hours a way miss them! Zeke is such a sweet Uncle! Levi's cousin Derrick has been in town a few times recently and Gavin & Carrigan are thrilled when he stops by for dinner. Gavin begged me if he could PLEASE be Uncle Derrick instead of cousin Derrick.
Levi has a lot of family in NWA, and hopefully by next year, Carrigan will be easier to travel with, and we can make the drive up!
Carrigan has really become as girl's girl. She loves talking and playing with girls. She loved, loved her alone time playing with Aunt Alicia (Aunt Eca) at Gavin's birthday party!

Cousins are also great! Gavin has always loved playing with bigger kids, so he does great with his two older cousins. Hopefully they can get to know their two younger cousins as they get older and traveling becomes easier.

Gavin is very interested in Heaven because of my Dad. He has cried because he knows PaPaw misses us. He gets excited to join him one day. I LOVE the way he loves his PaPaw. Madi always had a large interest in him, and I am thrilled Gavin does too!

It is our plan in the next few years to move out of Searcy, (probably Arkansas all together) and and I know I'll be so homesick for family when we leave. I never thought I wouldn't want to leave my hometown, but it's terribly hard to take your children away from the people who love them most. Family!