this is home

after william's blessing, I went home to arizona for a week. oh, what fun it was to see my family! I spent a few days with stephanie before she went into the hospital for surgery and it was very special to me. seeing her hold william was precious and I loved sharing motherhood delights with her. she really is a wonderful person and I am thankful to call her sister (even if it is by marriage).

it was so fun seeing william with his cousins. oliver loved him and every time he'd enter a room where william was he'd walk by, pat him on the head and say, "hi baby. you're so cute." the girls loved to hold him too and nicholas gave him lots of slobbery kisses.

I tried to help my mom with the children since she now has a whole full of people. so, I gave claire, jane, oliver and nicholas a "baking lesson". they sure love to cook and were enthralled with the "creaming" process, why eggs should be at room temperature and the purpose of a leavening agent.

of course, the decorating was a great time too!

one of the best parts of my trip was seeing my dear friend and second cousin, erin, and her little peanut, parker. I seriously love her (and yes, I stole a few pictures from her blog post about this little rendezvous - thanks erin).

parker and william are going to be excellent third cousin buddies, we've decided.

I'm already homesick again but I missed david terribly so it's good to be home.