One lucky girl

I've never considered myself a very lucky person as far as luck goes.  Yes, I have a very good life, but- for instance - I am not one of those people that put my name in a drawing and win the prize every time (like Maddie is) - some people are always very lucky like that... but the last month or so i have been thinking about what a lucky person I am, and this is why:  I have had FOUR of my siblings come and visit me this year! I know that we are a little out- of- the- way for everyone to come visit very often and it means so much to me that they would take some time to come all the way here to visit us. Because here's the thing:  Nobody has to come visit us, and they do it because they want to!  What could make me feel more loved than that?!

I read a book once about love languages and mine is definitely "quality time".  Maybe it's because I am a middle child...I have read a lot of books about birth order, and middle children often feel left out and/or tend to think that no one REALLY thinks they're worth while or wants to spend time with them.  I remember older siblings trying to "lose"me so that they could spend time with the younger ones.  The younger ones always wanted to be with the older ones. Now that I'm a mom I can see why this would be: younger children are more cute and older kids are more interesting  and that leaves the middle child trying way too hard and just ending up annoying.

But I digress... I am just trying to say that I feel super loved and super lucky that four of my siblings have come to visit this year.  First Katie with her husband Steve and eight kids at Easter, then Matt and Kelley and their kids on Father's Day, then Nathan and Leslie and their kids on the Fourth of July - I haven't added pictures of that visit yet so here they are!l-r: Elijah, Leslie, Nathan, Abram, Shawn and Kami:

Sadie and Maddie:

Kids at the fourth of July parade - l-r: Nolan, Jarom, Josiah, Madeline, Sadie, Isabelle.  This parade didn't seem like it was ever going to end, and after being there for two hours we finally left early:) It was HOT outside!

This was a float that our ward made for the parade - we were pretty proud of it!  The kids and I helped with the flowers on it.  All the stakes in the area made a float to celebrate our city's centennial.  It would be nice if it would rotate....

 It was so great to get to visit with Nathan and Leslie and for our kids to get re-acquainted! After staying for a couple of nights, the Kerns family left after the parade. The rest of us napped for a  couple of hours and then Shawn took all the kids but Abram (who was still sleeping) to the water park while I stayed home and made a yummy fourth of July dinner - potato salad, hamburgers, etc.  Later we set out to watch the fireworks, but ended up arriving just as they were ending:(

It was so great to get to visit with Nathan and Leslie and for our kids to get reacquainted!  After staying for a couple of nights, the Kerns family left after the parade.  The rest of us napped for a couple of hours and then Shawn took all the kids but Abram (who was sleeping) to the water park while I stayed home and made a yummy fourth of July dinner - Potato salad, hamburgers, etc.  Later we set out to watch fireworks at the rodeo grounds, but ended up arriving just as they were ending:(

Now Eli is here to visit for as long as he can before he has to go back. No, I am not one of those people that dreads having visitors.  I love every second of it, even if I start feeling really exhausted.  And boy have all of these visitors helped this pregnancy speed along!