Cousin Time

Aunt Lala, Ben, and Alex made the trek up to McKinney to see us just before New Year's.  It was so much fun to catch up and see them.  As soon as all the bags were inside, the first question was, "Can we open presents??"

Reid had memorized who a couple of the presents were going to (he even tried to "help Alex open" one of his...but that was before Alex had arrived!) and began to pass them out, but quickly got sidetracked when Ben gave him one for himself.

Ben was politely watching and I realized Reid had slipped up on the job!  We remedied that right quick ;)

 

I think everyone was quite happy with their new goodies and they began to play.  Surprisingly, Reid even took a nap, despite being thrilled with our new visitors.  

While Reid napped and Jason caught up on some work before returning after the holidays, Laura and I took Ben and Alex to Toys 'R Us to spend their new gift cards.  It was really fun to see what they picked out.  Alex went with Laura and picked two Mario Bros. dvds, and I took Ben to look at the cars.  He chose ever so carefully and selected one special car.  Then, they agreed to combine the rest of their cards to get this neat car parking garage with slides.  Alex and Reid enjoyed racing Goldfish down the slides later at snack time.

Each time the boys are here, we suggest going to play at a park, which they like, but all three of the boys would rather hike.  So even though it was a mere 25 or 30 degrees outside, everyone wanted to hike!  It actually felt pretty nice because there wasn't much of a breeze (odd for Dallas) and the sun made it feel warmer than it actually was.

Back at home, the boys all had fun doing boy things... Cars, tickle fights, playing with the play kitchen, etc.

And what fun would a cousin visit be without the obligatory bath picture??  I'm pretty sure this might be the last one because they've all grown too long-legged to really fit into the tub together comfortably.  Guess baby Carter will miss out on these photo ops!

We loved seeing Laura and the boys and Reid loved playing with his cousins.  It was a fun, normal visit...and I'm already looking forward to Laura's next visit, but I have a feeling it'll be a little less 'normal' since it will be for baby Carter's arrival.  There's nothing like sister time for me, and cousin time for Reid!