Visited by Pennsylvanians

Our million projects got cut down to a million minus 20 this week. We fixed up the front flower bed, dragged the kids through Home Depot and decided on some new flowers to put there, cleaned out the garage, Gary patched and painted all over the house, I steam cleaned the carpet and fixed the curtains . . . all on the list for a while, but people coming to our house meant GO. Always nice to knock down that list.

BUT, nicer to have our family from Pennsylvania come! Kids were so excited, parents, too. Violet immediately bonded with "The Lissy," and the boys were pumped to have more participants for kickball, football, trampoline-jumping, and every other thing they do. Actually, they really love Madeline's CF treatments, because they get read to for a long time. Bonus. Dave was awesome enough to watch all 6 kids while Sarah and I went to Utah county to get our hair cut and go wedding-outfit shopping. What an amazing thing, just talking to my Sarah all day.

Having Dave and Sarah over was fun, and then to add to it, my dad flew into town and met us at Iggy's in Salt Lake. Hooray, my dad, what fun we had! Kristen and Dylan came to pick him up, and enjoy a little dinner. Dylan discovered that kissing Lissy over and over is a wonderful activity, and squealed and did it again and again until Kristen pulled him away. She just sat there and took it, wet head and all. Afterward I ran around the mega-sales at City Creek looking for an outfit for my sister's wedding, and when everything was closing I finally bought something in desperation. Drama happened when the receipt fell into the actual City Creek. Gary is my hero for saving it. Pictures from the week are random, but that doesn't affect the cuteness.

Somebody has decided she's good at helping me cook.

These two not only look alike, but are the two most interested in helping me in the kitchen - coincidence?

Josh woke up too early for his level of exhaustion, and rather than go back to bed, he went out and laid on the trampoline until breakfast. At least he's having more fun than he would in his bed?

Violet and Lissy got right to playing dolls together. Lissy finally had a someone equally doll-minded!

My kids had all sorts of plans for when Madeline visited, one of which was to use the topping tornado. Madeline was on board - yes, she's eating sprinkles out of the tray.

This is how you know Lissy loves Violet - she gave Vi her unicorn to hold for a few seconds, which is huge for her. Also, Uncle Dave is the best.

After we sent Josh to bed on Sunday night, he came running downstairs, tooth in hand. He lost number five! Sadly, I guess the tooth fairy doesn't work on Sundays (I am awful at remembering), but on Monday she did drop by.

Have to give a shout-out to my visiting teachers, because they illustrated what visiting teaching is all about. I had a master plan for the day Sarah and Dave were to arrive - I had a health assessment in Salt Lake in the morning, so I thought I'd go, then take my kids to Seven Peaks for an hour to get them tired, then go home and clean until it was time to go to the airport. My visiting teachers had asked if they could visit me, and I thought I'd have everything accomplished, but warned them I may be folding towels when they got there. Well . . . we ended up meeting Cindy and Kristen and family at Seven Peaks, and having a really grand time. Also, taking a really long time. By the time I got home, it was waaay late. I didn't have time to change out of my swimsuit as I ran around crazily trying to get things cleaned up. When my visiting teachers came into my soggy-carpet swimsuit-wearing mess, they said, "What can I do?" In 20 minutes 3 rooms upstairs sparkled, and I was able to feel okay about the state of our house. What an amazing example those ladies are. They didn't blink, they didn't say nevermind, they just did it. Love them, hope to do that someday for someone.