A Happy Weekend

This past weekend we had a visit from Chloe and Avery! Their nieces were most delighted to see them.
It was Hope's idea to have Joy on top of her while she was in the bouncer. Not sure how good 33 pounds of child is for the bouncer, but she hasn't asked again either. :o)
Uncle Ave talkin' to the wee one while she gets some Vit D. The spring sunshine is finally starting to break through here in Spruce Grove!!!
Me and my babes. :o) Joy had colic that day, so she really liked having a blanket around her most of the day and took lots of short naps.
Like this one, with Uncle Avery keeping her tummy nice and warm. Joy doesn't get colic very often, but she sure had it that day. I was grateful to have Chloe and Avery around. The extra arms helped a lot!
Working on Joy's hand-eye coordination. She likes the plastic measuring spoons just like Hope used to. :o)
Wearing her new sleeper from Cam and Lisa.
The fist. Always the fist, and the thumb on the end of it. Chew-chew-yum-yum. It's a baby's life!
"Cheers." Hope learns something new from Auntie Chloe. They had so many tea parties when Chloe was here! What a joy for our little gal! (to read about it from Chloe's perspective go to http://chloecollin.blogspot.com/2011/04/lessons-from-tea-party.html)
Come 7:00 that evening the sun was still shining and it was still plus 7 outside, so I asked Chlo and Ave if they'd take Hope out for a bit!
Chloe would make snow balls for her and Hope would "crash" them into the snow bank.
Hope was thrilled!
Then they took her to the back yard and started building her a snow house. Boy was that ever a hit!!!
Saturday morning our "guests" slept in, but the girls they came to see didn't! However, I did manage to get Hope dressed before Joy woke up to nurse, so Hope snacked on Cheerios in our bed while I fed Joy.

Hope wanted to play with Joy after, so I snuggled the little one into our pillow and we were away!
Once Uncle Avery got up it was playtime with the girls... oh yeah!
This was Avery's idea. Hope didn't quite want to lie down long enough for the picture, though it would have been cute. :o)
Now on to the real adventure of Saturday - re-arranging the nursery to put up Hope's big girl bed! I wanted to do it when Chloe was around, since she has a good eye for arranging furniture and such.
Hope thinks the new bed rail is a perfect place for playing peek-a-boo.
Don't ask how she got this idea, but Hope started tussling Chloe's hair then Hope would say to Chloe "hair messy!"
Cute kid on her new bed with a cute quilt made by her Great-Grandma Collin.
Hanging pictures....
With a little advice and help from Chloe I re-did the bookshelf a bit, adding the recently acquired Peter Rabbit letters to Joy's name.
The change table just fits between the heat vent on the floor and the space needed to open the closet door. Whew! That was close.
Hope's new bed.
Joy's "new" bed. :o) Hope says "Joy sleep in Hopey's crib? Yeah. Mmmhmmm." Really. That's what she says. :o) Joy's not sleeping in it quite yet... just giving Hope a bit of time to adjust to her new bed before adding baby sister to the equation.
And while she was here, I had Chloe trim Hope's hair just a bit as the ends were getting tangly again.
Joy looking on while Hope gets her hair trimmed.
"Tada. This is me pulling on my bib for all its worth!"
"Sigh. Since I couldn't get it off, I guess I'll just chew on my fingers instead."
Josh was away at a Promise Keepers Conference all day Saturday. We bathed the girls late in the afternoon so we could have time all together with in the evening.
The other side of the shot. Hope playing her Kazoo and Joy watching intently.
And then, Joy fell asleep. :o)
Thought we'd lay her in the crib for a supper-time nap. Worked okay until she moved and banged her head on the edge. Need to do a few minor fix-ups on the bumper pads before I put them back on...
While I bathed the girls Chloe made awesome GF pizza and broccoli salad for supper. Yum yum!
Avery wasn't the only one who got Joy time, though I did almost have to take Joy out of his arms and give her to Chloe!
Little miss Joyful!
Thinking...
Sunday morning. Little girls in pink, and the one was more interested in serving Uncle Avery "tea" than in having her pictures taken.
"Cheers." She learns quick and remembers well.
Ave was in his glory. Youngest siblings have a uniquely close bond with kids younger than them. I find the same is true with Amy. So wonderful to see them lovin' on the little ones, just like they would have if they'd had younger siblings themselves. Someone's gotta be last born, eh? :o)

After church and a nice lunch together, Chloe and Avery went home. Monday was Ave's 16th birthday. Chloe wrote a beautiful testimony of his birth on her blog: http://chloecollin.blogspot.com/2011/04/birthday-letters.html