One more set of company coming

With Grandma and Lydia on the road for Lethbridge as of 8:45 Monday morning, it was just me and the kids...for a few days. :o)

A sweet moment.

I'm just starting to put Philip in the Bumbo. He really likes being with his sisters and seeing them at their play.

Siblings are such natural entertainment for each other. God has a beautiful design!

I think I had changed a diaper, and then the girls got a hold of a wipe each and wanted to "clean" for me. Music to my ears!!! :o) As Hope pointed out - "Oh Mommy - your cupboards have so many spots on them." Yes, thank you, Hope. :o) Thankfully, they had a few less spots when she was done.

Joy thought her Winnie the Pooh house needed washing.

I caught them taking care of their dollies in the recliner one morning. First they fed them bottles...

...then they "nursed" them. Ah yes. The great times we have here. :o)

Philip pops a big grin whenever he sees Hope coming close to him and he's starting to get that way with Joy too, as Joy starts to learn how to interact with him. She has always loved him, but as to how to show that love... we're just getting there. :o) She mostly let Hope dote on him before, but now that she realizes he is a little person with personality and not "just a baby" I think she's more inclined towards him. :o)

He follows them with his eyes, and head.

We had another special blessing that weekend - my Mum and Chloe came up just to see the kids.

It was an extra blessing that weekend, as Josh had worked every evening of the week and was working Saturday too.

It relieved me to have someone else help entertain and care for the children.

Look at that - they match... on top. :o)

A little set of the little man:

Oh yes - texting Reid - Auntie Chloe was kind enough to "share" with Joy. :o)

Love how she uses her bear as a pillow sometimes. :o) She's my little hot-house when it comes to sleeping, and if she has any blanket on at all she pretty much wakes up damp. :o)

Drumming on the baby chub....

....and the baby enjoying the sound. :o)
In some ways, she is such a "big girl" already, like her speaking ability, and then in other ways she is such a baby still - her long afternoon naps, and diapers, and desire to be held. :o)

That boy loves his blue blanket. He calms almost instantly when he feels it round his hands and arms. Poor lad had a bout of colic that weekend... it happens when I don't watch my chocolate intake. I'm also finding he gets bubble trouble from me eating bacon. Ah well. It's good for me not to have too much of those foods anyways. :o)

Josh wasn't the only one working extra... Matthew had a last minute work trip up here too, and of course we couldn't pass up the chance to have him stay with us. :o) Hope and Joy enjoyed the videos he had of his kids on his recently acquired iPhone. :o)

Happy times.

Not sure what she was doing...

...but I just love that shirt on her. I don't think of wine purple and sage green for little kids, but she wears it well.

Just love her head of curls. :o) When she's fresh out of the tub, it ringlets even better in the back, and her piggy tails always have natural curl to them. :o) Her hair is very coarse - easy to brush. :o)

And thus we came to an end of that season of company. 18 people spending 33 nights in our home in the 57 days between January 24-March 17. That's guests with us over 50% of the time. WAHOO! We love it! We thank the Lord for this home He has entrusted to us, and for the strength and provision to open its doors and have our families visit us. We love having other guests too - so if you're reading this and you're not family, don't let that keep you from coming!!!

It was such a blessing to be able to have so many in our home on so many different weeks/weekends - helped pass the long winter days for the kids and I. The girls' most common question became, "Mom - who's our next company going to be?" :o) And I was always happy to tell them. It felt weird when Hope asked me that question the other day and I had to answer, "I don't know!" But God does. And we'll find out soon.

And in the meantime, I'm blogging, cleaning, cooking, and doing activities with the kids... and keeping up on laundry (13 loads in one week was my record with switching guest linens, finding time to do our sheets, plus regular laundry) and kids' baths and shovelling snow or ice, and all those other Mommy kinds of things. :o) Oh yeah - I got the flu too, the last one of us to get it, so I had to take time to recover from that. :o) While resting in the recliner one day, I noticed I was accumulating a large pile of teddy bears on top of me, courtesy of the girls. :o) They said they wanted me to have something to cuddle with to help me feel better. :o) God takes care of us - He does. :o)