Some Of Our Favorite People...

...were here this weekend. It was so, so, so good to see and spend some time with my sister Jacque, her husband Asher, and their son Ari. (Even though we never seem to have long enough.)

We spent a little time trying to get a picture of our two families together; this was one of the most decent of them (on our camera, at least).

This one cracked me up, with the kids all looking in different directions.

And this one.

Oh, and this one's great too.

But this one, with Cubby, was by far the best of all. Our patriarch and our lucky charm--what a guy!

(Okay, now that facial expressions aren't quite as important, I'll go back to doing smaller pictures.)

We also tried to get a picture of the three babies together, but... Meg wasn't feeling posey, I guess.

Oh, and Ari?

Forget it! He is a man on the move.

So that left Matthew posing pretty much all by his lonesome.

How do you feel about that, Matthew? (Hold on, he's thinking. He'll get back to you later.)

This is my impossibly cute mom, surveying her yard as her grandchildren frolicked. (Umm... OK, so that verb is probably less accurate than picturesque.)

Here is my lovely sister Jacqua, who is, I am happy to report, such a happy mama. Whew, does she love that little Ari-boy!

Here are our two little guys, just four months apart:

"Playing" together, which for now mostly means tugging on each other's clothes:

And one last shot, taken just before the very first (of many, probably) Cousin Bath.

Speaking of which, by the middle of Friday afternoon, Meg, who is always on the prowl for new vocabulary, was looking adoringly at Ari and announcing, "Cuuuuuu-zin." We are grateful that she won't have to wait too long to see her cousin again; later this month, when Dave and my dad go to Louisville to attend Together for the Gospel, we girls will be gathering at my mom's place for a semi-retreat (with the kids) and girl time. We can't wait!