alice and her boys: Family Reunion

Here are a few pictures from the family reunion we attended in June! Getting all of Jeff's family together is no small task considering the size of this family! It was so good to be together. The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins nonstop. We are so blessed to have such a great family. These kids/cousins are pretty special. I am amazed at what great kids these are. They are so much fun! Jeff's parents left the day after the reunion to head to the MTC to prepare for their 18-month mission to Ghana! We sure are going to miss them. We were thankful that they got to stay with us for a few days after the MTC before their flight to Ghana. Jeff got to take them to the airport early Monday morning. We are so excited for their adventure and we know that they will touch many lives, but we sure are going to miss them. Jeff and I won't change much in 18 months (well, hopefully I will in that I will lose all this darn baby weight--still got to lose Coleman's baby weight too), but the kids will change a lot in 18 months. Our baby will be almost 1 1/2 (hard to believe seeming how she's not even born yet)! Coleman will be almost 4 years old (also hard to believe since he's a crazy toddler now). Tanner will be 6 and in kindergarten! Carter will be 7 1/2 getting to close to the magic EIGHT number. And, Braeden will be 9 1/2. Agh! When I think about it those terms, it kind of makes me freak out about how fast these kids are growing up!

Here's the darling grandkids! I'm sure you can understand why Grandma says the hardest part about going on a mission is leaving these cuties behind! You can't see in this picture, but all the kids have a number on the back of their shirts indicating which grandchild they are. The two newborns on the blanket are the twins' babies born only a week or two apart. There are 35 grandkids (the quads didn't get to come) and our new baby will be the 36th grandchild. We got a cute picture of all the grandkids standing in age order and facing backwards so we could see the backs of their shirts and their numbers--I opted not to post this as it has our last name on it! Jeff and his brothers and sisters also have their number on the back of their shirts (Jeff is the 2nd child so he has a #2 on the back of his shirt--the spouses had the same number so I had a #2 on my shirt). They also got a great picture of the 11 siblings in age order facing backwards with their #'s showing, but it also had the family name on it so I'm not posting it. The kids had so much fun talking about which number they were. It was pretty cute. They all know their number now! We thought it was funny when Braeden went up to Jeff and said "hey #2 the other #2 (meaning me) is looking for you".