One night the missionaries were over for dinner. Eathyn was begging to go on a bike ride but it was already bedtime. The elder's said, "how about we come over in a couple days and go on a bike ride with you?" O my goodness, Eathyn was exstatic!!!" Sure enough, one afternoon they show up and Eathyn went on a rather long bike ride with the elders. I felt like a first time mom again. I actually started to worry because they were gone so long. It was easily a hundred degrees out side and they didn't take any water. I couldn't imagine how Eathyn was surviving. Then my worry was put to rest when they came home and Eathyn had a slurpee in one hand and a bag full of sweets and a slurpee for his little brother Ryan in the other hand. They thought it was so cute how he had to have one for his little brother too.
One day shortly after the campaign ended, we decided to drop everything and get out of town. We decided just minutes before getting in the car. We all quickly packed a bag and left for the weekend. We drove to Dallas. We arrived around 11pm. We stayed at a hotel right in the middle of the heart of Dallas. The buildings were lit up all around us. Rachel and Ryan were especially cute to watch as they were taking in the bright lights of the buildings. It was a rather magical moment. They were both equally excited even though they are 9 years apart.
One day, Brandon called me from work. He was working at Brett's office down in Killeen. He told me he had an appointment to go see some rabbits. I said, "okay" and didn't think another thing about it. A little while later he walked in the door with not one rabbit, but four. FOUR rabbits!!! Two males and two females. They were all in different boxes. He was so excited to show us all these cute little rabbits. Pretty soon they were all out in the piano room and bouncing all over the place. Within seconds the rabbits were all mating. We discovered really quickly where the saying, "they mated like rabbits," came from. We couldn't get these rabbits off each other. We were all laughing our heads off. The laughter got even louder when Brett started to flip out!!! He said, "do you have any idea how many rabbits we're going to have a couple weeks from now!?" I was fine with the mating that was going on. Brett thought I'd lost it for sure. I loved the idea of my kids seeing brand new baby rabbits. We were laughing so hard!!! It was so much fun to see all my kids from my 17 year old all the way down to my one year old get so excited! Marilyn was there and she seemed perfectly content to be taking in all of the kids excitement and more so, to watch Ryan who she practically raised with me while she was in our home. Oh how we miss her and Mariela!
Finger Painting Time!!!!! What a joy it is for our family to be raising these two cute little boys!
Eathyn took the experience rather seriously....
Okay, so I thought, "alright, he's one of my more creative children." Just when I thought I'd seen it all... I had no idea the mess a child could make and I've been a mommy for 18 years!!
I have enjoyed watching the age differences in our home this summer. Rebekah's been working almost full time this summer. The second she walks in from work she'll say, "Eathyn and Ryan, do you want to go swimming?" Or she'll say, "do you want to go to the lake?" The boys get so excited! They go out for hours with her. What a treat it's been for me to see how perfectly Heavenly Fathers plan has worked out. I really questioned His wisdom on the idea of bringing two more little boys to our home seven years apart from my first 4 children. But, Heavenly Father never ceases to amaze me. One day after they got home from swimming, Rebekah asked them if they wanted to take a bubble bath. Of course that's one of their favorite things to do and she knew it! These two little boys are so lucky to have their older brothers and sisters. I don't have enough pictures to even come close to pro traying just how close all seven of these children are. They are all best friends. Eathyn says quite frequently to Austin, "Austin, you're my best friend." Eathyn is three years old. That's a very strong, sweet emotion coming from someone that young. No one has taught him what that term means, he just knows it because he has a big brother like Austin. Austin wasn't just given that title, he earned it! He is Eathyn's play mate in every sense of the word. Austin just came home from church. He went to our ward today and then he went to our old ward that's in the same building. They love all the youth in that ward so much!! They were like family before the ward was split. The first thing he said was, "where's Eathyn?" Austin's 14 years old. He starts his freshman year of high school in 3 weeks.
These next couple pictures capture Eathyn and Ryan's very close friendship quite well. It's very rare to see one in a room without the other. The day we were forced to take off Ryan's crib side was a very exciting time for these two little boys. Bed time is now PLAY TIME!! Unfortunately, Rachel thought it was important for her to share her big sister wisdom with Ryan and taught him how to crawl out of his crib.
The first picture show's Ryan looking at Eathyn and the second picture shows Ryan scaling the two cribs to get closer to his big brother. I found it to be a perfect example of their sweet relationship.
On to the older kids- One of the 16 year old girls in the other ward was having a sweet 16 birthday party and of course she invited nearly all the youth since they are all so close. It was a mask party. How fun to see them all dressed up and headed out to have another great night together! Cullen Pistole, Austin's best friend was in the picture with them. He's also still in the other ward.
