Paige The Aunt

I’m an Aunt to six lovely people. This weekend I was able to hang out with two of them: my niece Lily, who lived with us from age 8 months to 14 months and is now living with my parents, and my nephew Thomas, who was born ON my birthday last year. I ONLY took pictures of these two while up in Virginia this weekend. Enjoy!

Lily woke up to ME in her bedroom and I was able to get her breakfast and milk. She knew exactly how to put on the TV and on what channel. I'm so glad she's thriving with my parents.

Baby Thomas. Lily rubs his head and says with her lisp "thomath ith tho hanthome"

Lily late Saturday night. Using the lightscoop.

playing in the laundry basket. Mema (my mom) says she does this all the time.

My sister and baby Thomas after a long day of (grownups) painting the guest cottage. Thomas had spent the day with his Nana, but was dropped off to us just in time for his nite time bottle. Lightscoop again here.

Thomas staring at Papa (my dad) with his own daddy Nathan in the background.

Lauren helps Thomas warm up to Papa with a few cuddles and tickles.

A great smile!

A few more tickles and Thomas was warmed up to Papa. No more tears!

Time for Thomas to have dinner.

Blueberries! Yummy!

Look at all those teeth~ He looks different depending on if you see his teeth or if you don't. Those blue eyes are CRAAAZZYYY.

Sunday morning before we all say goodbye. The painting was done and it was time for us kids to head home. Baby Thomas is perched on his daddies head, just the right spot to REACH for the ceiling fan.

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Christmas pictures/Inside

This is my dad. He was diagnosed in March with stage 4 primary liver cancer and was given no more than 6 months to live. I guess they FAILED on that one!?! The latest "time of death" is estimated to be about 30 months from now, and not from the cancer but from liver failure. But what do THEY know!?! They got it wrong the first time, they can get it wrong again. He could be around for EONS!! Don't you just love his Santa pajamas and Aussie hat and curly white hair! He's Santa Papa!

 

Dad and Mom, in the fairly dark hallway. I used my "lightscoop" on these pictures because it was after dark, and the otherwise sunny house was only lit by a few moderate lights. The lightscoop is a GREAT alternative to JUST using a flash OR keeping your shutter open so long that things are blurry no matter how still they stand.

 

Jack and hubby Scott, hanging out at my folks house. Again I used the lightscoop. A few tips, up your flash strength and make sure you're standing in front of a white or light wall. If you're standing in front of a dark wall, or other dark item, or in front of nothing, you won't have anything to bounce the light off of.

 

This one is a bit dark because I was in front of my parents HUGE, Black television. So the light from the flash didn't get bounced around as well as if I was just in front of a white or light wall. (see my daddies coin collection? Neat how he keeps it right where we can all see it.)

 

Max, dirty face from all the delicious food he'd had! Scott has secretly nicknamed him "chowhall' because that boy can eat!

 

Noah, playing with Lily's toy after she'd gone to bed. Silly Noah! He said he was blogging for her. Goofy guy, I sure do love him!

 

My grandmother used to live in an attached apartment behind my parents house but recently moved out. My mom told me to go through and gather up any thing I wanted. I picked these bowls and cofffee cups and a few kitchen tools I thought I could use. Lily saw my stash and said "hey Scott (that's what she calls me) let's haffa tea party!" And she proceeded to pour me tea, give me cereal and cut up pizza (all imaginary, of course) for me. What a sweetie!

 

Max had picked gloves from grandmas apartment, Lily plays with them here.

 

We really enjoyed our weekend and were so glad to spend time with family. Seeing my dad so healthy was the best Christmas gift I could have received this year.  I still have a few more pictures from this weekend to go, but I’ll post those later. For now I’ll leave you with this. I took it right before we pulled into our neighborhood.   Max just looked so peaceful in the back of the van, sleeping safely while Scott drove us home. p.s. he WAS buckled up!

so sweet and relaxed, knowing home was just a short drive to go.