Visitors

We had both of our grandparents come out to visit us in the month of October.  Actually we got them both on the same week - overlapping for two days - so it was quite a treat.

 

We had a lot of fun with my mom.  It was just perfect having her here.  I had a lot of appointments with the kids I had to go to - so she was able to watch my other kids while I checked a bunch of annoying things off my list.  One hard thing about moving to a new place is the lack of babysitters - ESPECIALLY day time babysitters, so having her their I just stacked my appointments and it was perfect.  She also had a lot of fun with us - we went to Chuck E Cheese, parks, and she took ALL of us out to dinner - which was fun and scary because we haven't even taken all of our kids out to dinner yet.  Plus we would make really yummy lunches (chicken salad, tortilla soup, etc) and enjoyed them while watching our favorite TV shows during nap times - which is exactly what I wanted to do.  Then in the evenings when the kids went to bed we went shopping and she bought me some cute new things for my house!  We also went to the temple together one night.  It was just wonderful.  I think I might like living away since now when my mom comes I get her all to myself.  I can't wait for her to come back - and neither can the kids.

Then my in-laws came during Debby's fall break (she teaches middle school).  They came and saved my whole life.  These two are amazing.  Every problem I had with my house and yard they came and fixed.  Our back yard is so so small and useless and was really really overgrown.  We had been living there for almost a month before they came and neither I nor the kids had ever gone out there.  They came and worked - hard - for 3 days and got my backyard looking wonderful.  They cut trees and branches, tour out bushes and plants, moved grass, built us a sand box and a little climbing fort out of some extra wood.  On top of that they installed several new lighting fixtures (several of the rooms in our house did not have lights - only lamps - that is unacceptable to me), and changed our deck/stairs in our garage so our mini van could fit.  All in 3 days!  On top of that they had so much fun with the kids: going on bike rides, the book fair, buying them new toys at Target, and of course ice cream.  I promised them that every time they come out they don't have to work like that - but boy do I appreciate when they do!  Plus it is so fun to watch these two work together - they make a great team and it really shows what 35 plus years of marriage can do - they were an inspiration!