Zac's Visit

As I mentioned before we watched our nephew Zac for a couple of days while Sydni and Jake went to Las Vegas. We had a lot of fun with the boys. Saturday was a nice day so we got to take them outside a lot.

They both loved playing with the cars in the play area in back of our apartment complex. Debbie and I also took them to the park that's close to our house, and they had a lot of fun there too.

When we were inside they really enjoyed playing with Lincoln's toys and the leftover bits and pieces of the Halloween costumes.

Taking care of two energetic little toddlers is a lot of work! I'm glad Debbie was staying with us and so willing to help out with them. They loved being able to spend time with their grandma too! Debbie and I took turns changing diapers, cooking meals, cleaning dishes, picking up toys, and playing with the boys. Aaron helped out a lot too when he was home. It's amazing how much energy little kids have. But they kept us laughing the whole time with the things they would come up with.

One of my favorite (maybe not at the time, but now) things they did...when Debbie or I were in the kitchen and wanted to keep the boys out we would stack the banana chairs in the doorway as a barricade. Well, this particular night, I was in the kitchen cooking dinner, and Debbie was playing with the boys in the living room. Ryan called from the back room and needed something, so Debbie went to see him. Lincoln and Zac decided it would be a fun game to take all the toys in the living room and throw them over the barricade into the kitchen...so that's just what they did! There were so many toys in the kitchen.

Other things I loved...their random "need to hug" modes where they would go around giving everyone hugs. Usually Zac started these, he's such a sweetheart, and then Lincoln would see what he was doing, and not wanting to be outdone would copy Zac. One other funny thing, one morning Aaron went into to get Zac out of bed and when Aaron picked Zac up, Zac gave Aaron a huge (and unexpected) kiss on the neck. It was really cute. Zac really attached himself to Aaron, if Aaron was home, that's who he wanted.

There were some victories worth mentioning as well. We took both boys to church and survived all three hours. Not a small feat, mind you. We also successfully got Lincoln and Zac to sleep in the same room two of the nights together. Sleeping arrangements were a little tricky all week because there were 4 adults and 2 kids most of the nights and two of the nights there were 6 adults and two kids. Our apartment only has three bedrooms. But luckily we got that steal of a deal on the second crib awhile ago, so we put the two cribs in the same room, hung a blanket between them, put Lincoln to sleep first (he's the harder of the two to get to sleep) and then put Zac to sleep. And it worked! We should have done that every night.

Even if it was a little crazy at times, we enjoyed having everyone stay with us, and we are very grateful that we have the ability to give our family members a place to stay when they need it. We are looking forward to doing it again over Thanksgiving Break! But I think we'll have everyone bring their own towels and bed linens this time ;)