pictures, pictures, pictures and....pictures!

Mara and Jade came to visit! Yay! I pretend they came to visit me but really they came to see grandma and papa.  It's okay though, because I just tagged along and showed up constantly and bugged them as much as I could. :)

Mara decided to surprise my mom this time.  So everyone knew except for her.  Usually Brennan, Tatum, and I will go over to my parents for dinner on Sundays.  It's a nice way to make sure we see each other regularly.  But we needed to pick Mara up in Moline on a Sunday night. This required me to lie to my mom, which I am not very good at, and it caused me to be convinced that my mom knew.  Something I said or did had given it away and she knew Mara was coming.  But she didn't! I didn't ruin it!  So on the way from the airport to my parents' house we came up with all sorts of clever ways to execute the actual surprise part. We played around with the idea of involving Skype, since Mara will typically Skype with my parents on Sunday. But by the time we got to their house it was after 10 pm (a result of a missed landing, long wait for luggage, and stupid construction).  So we threw out all of our good ideas and just decided to knock on the front door, which is virtually never used.  Of course my dad answers.  He tells us we are crazy to think that mom might actually come to answer the front door that late at night. Genius that I am, I say tell her it's the cops.  Really Rachel? The cops? I don't know what I was thinking.  But it worked and she came to the door, looking quite scared I might add.  It was worth a laugh or two.

The rest of the week we spent a lot of time visiting and enjoying being outside.  Mara and I made some headbands for our girls, and by "Mara and I" I mean mostly Mara. :) It was a lot of fun to spend time with the two of them and to watch Jade with Tatum.  We are excited for their newest family member to come in August!

So without further ado, here are all those pictures I promised in the title.

With the missed landing and all, we ended up spending a good deal of timing waiting in the car.


One day they came down to visit us at our place.  Jade had a blast pushing Tatum in the swing as hard as she could.  She was also sure that Tatum wanted ALL of her toys.  At the same time. So she piled them on top of her, one at time, while giving her a good push in between each one. Quite the grin she has.

 

Jade enjoyed cuddling with some Curious Georges while we were shopping.

 

Tatum now prefers to ride in the stroller without the car seat.  And this picture is also showcasing one of the headbands "we" made.

 

Jade loved to love on Tatum. It was pretty cute.  But as soon as Tatum would reach out and touch her she would tell her to go away. Apparently she only likes when she initiates the affection.  Sounds a little like her mother wouldn't you say Ben? Here she is hugging her and then getting grossed out when Tatum tried to kiss her back. :)


Good times at the park. Tatum enjoyed her first time swinging.

 

We were sure to play a lot of games. Playing games is the best. Here Jade was helping Mara in Oodles of Doodles.

 

Apparently Jade is in a don't-photograph-me phase.  So usually when a camera came out she would turn away and smile because she thought she was oh-so-funny.  She was in a crazy mood one night and I got this great "cheese" out of her.

 

Please just enjoy this next series of pictures.  They were just too cute to weed any out.

Apparently something is interesting over there.

 

So interesting that we must open our mouths wide in fact.

 

Jade has lost interest, but not Tatum.

 

 

A favorite game of Jade's was to give Tatum her binky and pull it back out repeatedly.

 

So satisfied when she as completed the task.

 

One day the girls happened to have similar outfits on so we put the same headband on them and snapped a few photos. I didn't get any great ones, but they are still cute. :)

 

 

Well I think I have shared enough pictures haha.  We had a great week. It has been an adjustment to go back to our lonely life.  Come and visit us again soon guys!