Lovin' on Grandma!

We LOVE it when Grandma comes to town and it NEVER happens enough! This weekend we got to see Grandma for a whole day and a half! She lives in Phoenix and flew home for her family Christmas party on Sat. night, then flew home on Sunday night (she works for Southwest Airlines so this is easy for her to do...and FREE!) She even came to church with us on Sunday, what a TREAT! Gabe said "mom 'tay home, Maa-ma take me chooch" which translates to "mom can stay home, grandma will take me to church!" :) It was really nice to have an extra set of hands there to help. HOWEVER...during Sunday School when we are all supposed to be reverent and listening...what is Grandma doing??? Playing with the baby (and not very quietly, I might add..) and what does the baby decide to do??? Reward her with an all-out GIGGLE!! The little stinker, giving Grandma his FIRST laugh when he's supposed to be setting an example and being quiet! Those two were in CaHOOTS I tell you! It was SO STINKIN' cute! He really did laugh out loud at least TWICE! So, being the jealous mom that I am and not very happy that he didn't laugh for me first I immediately took him into the nursing room with the excuse that he was hungry and tried and TRIED to get him to laugh for me to no avail, not even a squeal. Has he laughed since??? NOPE...nothing. I remember telling Mom that Will smiled for the first time and she said that she couldn't believe how fast he was growing up and how sad she is that she is missing it and I said, "Hey, he hasn't laughed yet, maybe he's saving that for you!" I had no idea that I would be right!! He really just loved her to pieces and smiled at her like he smiles at Mark and I, and he doesn't smile so freely to just anyone so it was really really sweet! When we got home we broke our fast with a FANTASTIC lunch of leftovers from the Christmas party that mom brought home and then Grandma broke out the goods and shared wonderful cookies and caramel popcorn with us. The boys were in HEAVEN! Joshua wanted to show her how to play the game "Apples to Apples" it is one of Joshua's favorite games and it was so funny to see what she came up with until she realized you have to put down the cards you think the JUDGE will pick, not necessarily the best definition...this is very crucial when playing with an 8 and 5 year old...for example, no matter WHAT the word is you are trying to describe, if you have a card that says something like "Pokemon, Batman, Egg Nog...etc"...THAT is the card you play when Josh or Sam are the judge, since it matters not what the word is, but the word they get to PICK , and the cooler THAT word is, the better your chances are of getting YOUR card picked. She cracked up everytime she put down a perfectly good card only to get trumped by a totally ridiculous card that the boys liked instead. He,he,he...fun times! She always brings the boys treasures from her thrift store excursions and this trip was no different. She brought them each a book, and some fun halloween costumes from Target. Now they can add a ninja and a swamp monster to their dress-up tote. She has also been making the baby some of the CUTEST little pacifier holders, and this time brought a darling little snowman for Will to wear when he's out on the town. Lucky, lucky boy! I'll try to take and post a picture of them soon. Here are the boys and grandma at the table playing games. The one of Mom and Will is very blurry but still so cute that I posted it anyway. Thanks for coming, Mom! We LOVED seeing you, even if it was for too short a time!