House Guests!

Well, the Aunties (and Burkie, Ty Ty, and Lala) have all been here at various times throughout the past two weeks and we have loved the time we've had to spend with them, however brief it may have been (Lala!).

Jenn and Burke were the first to show up. They were only here four days, but that was plenty of time in Drew's mind to decide that Auntie Jenn Jenn's way of doing just about anything was the only way to do it. He has made a point of telling us since Jenn and Burke left, that we're doing various things wrong. We now put his shoes on wrong, kiss him goodnight wrong, read his books wrong, fix his sandwiches wrong, and brush his teeth wrong (among other things). Never mind the fact that we've been doing these things for almost three years and had yet to be told it was wrong before. It has become Jenn's way or no way. I laughed the night Jenn and Burke left as I listened to Nathan brush Drew's teeth before bed. That was the first time we heard that we were doing things the wrong way. Apparently Auntie Jenn Jenn had sung a song while she brushed Drew's teeth. I listened to Drew try to describe the "brushy brushy" song to Nathan, and laughed as Nathan tried to make up his own song to please Drew. After the millionth time of Drew telling Nathan he still wasn't doing it right, Nathan gave up on the singing, made Drew brush his teeth and called it a night. Out of curiosity, I called Jenn to see what on earth the song was that she had sung. Turns out, it's the "Brusha, brusha, brusha" song that is sung on the commercial during the girls' night on the movie "Grease" (anyone know what I'm talking about, or did I loose you all here?). This totally made me laugh because I knew exactly what song it was (we used to mimic it when we were little), and tried to sing it to Nathan to see if he knew what it was as well. He looked at me like I was nuts (it might have made more sense if he had actually seen "Grease"). Oh well. In any case, Drew has somewhat begrudgingly let us brush his teeth like "normal" ever since.

We'll work on all the other things as they pop up, aaaaand, if we can't figure out what we're doing wrong, we'll call Auntie Jenn Jenn and make her come over! Yep, you read that right. Jenn and Burke will be living by us come the end of April thanks to Burkie's new job (insert appropriate freak out scream here!). I am SO so so excited about this. It's been six years since I last lived near my sisters and I can't wait to have some portion of my family close by again.

Christi and Tyler mostly just used our house as a resting point to break up the long drive down to and back from Orange County where Tyler's parents were throwing them a wedding shower. They hung out with us one night at the beginning of the week while Jenn and Burke were still here, and one night at the very end of the week. The time in between they spent hanging out with Tyler's family and friends in Orange County. Lucky for me, I got to see them not only at my house, but also at the shower, where I met up with my mom who flew in from Oregon, and my Grandma who drove up from San Diego. I brought Collin with me (and half of Christi's bridesmaids), and Nathan and Drew stayed home to hang out together. Tyler's mom Stacy did an amazing job with the shower and it was fun to meet all of Ty Ty's family.

After a quick "four hours" (uh huh, Christi.....) in the car, we were all ready for some lunch at Cheesecake Factory before the shower. My trusty travel companions (and some of Christi's bridesmaids): Sarah, (Christi), Nicole, and Rachel

The littlest trusty travel companion

 Everything for the shower was beautiful, and so welcoming. Stacy put a ton of thought into the decorations, food (there was a favorite salad of both Christi's and of Tyler's), games, atmosphere and the night in general.

Tyler's mom made this. I know it's hard to see, but it says "Wedding Bliss". On the "I" of Bliss, there are two folded newspaper fans that represented Tyler's dad who works for the LA Times.

Just like she had done something to represent Tyler's dad, Stacy had also done a decoration representing Christi's dad. The hydrangeas on the table were set in a vase filled with water and blueberries. The blueberries represented our dad, who works at a nursery that grows blueberries. Stacy had all sorts of cute and thoughtful touches like this around the house.

Tyler's parents Mark and Stacy, with Christi and Tyler

Us with my mom and Nammy (my grandma)

This was the only picture I had of Tyler's sister (she's on the far left), but it's also almost all of Christi's bridesmaids

Ok-this game was hilarious! It was a memory game, so you had to match up two different words. When you did, there was a candy prize that had something to do with the words you just found (For example, "Bride's honeymoon cry" won you an Oh, Henry candy bar). I had played this once at a baby shower, but the bridal shower version was much more creative!!

My mom had flown into LA for the shower, but chose to drive back with Christi and Tyler so that she could make a pit stop at our house with them and see Drew. I'm honestly not sure who was more excited about this, my mom or Drew.

Yes, those are the Christmas jammies. Again. Don't judge. He'd wear them everyday if we let him (which judging by recent pictures, apparently we do).

We always love having the aunties and Lala in town and it always feels like the time was way too short when they leave, but we'll take what we can get!

Aside from all the Auntie fun, this week has been full of Collin shenanagins. That little hooligan has been into everything! Aaaaaand, he has a sidekick who will happily hand him all sorts of things if for some reason his little arms are unable to reach. Like a marker. Yep. I left the room for two seconds to go grab my shoes and a hair tie on our way out the door the other morning, and I came back to this:

Nothing like a brown marker to make you feel like a major failure as a parent for the morning, haha. I just can't get over how quick the two of them were. I didn't even put my shoes on while in my bedroom, I just went to grab them! Could you imagine how much more marker would have been on him if I had actually put them on?

Just look at the color of his hands. They're like Oompa Loompa orange!

Needless to say, our plans to head out the door were put on hold in lieu of a bath. Look at the marks in the water where his hands touched on either side. The only thing I can say about all of this is thank goodness it was washable marker!! It all came off easily with a little soap and water.

So although Drew just got his markers back after being taken away a while ago for drawing on his toys, they have once again returned to the craft boxes in the office closet. This household is sticking with crayons for a while; a good looooong while.

His other shenanagin this week?

Pulling himself up on furniture to stand. I keep telling him, I'm not ready for him to be playing these sorts of games, but as you can see my requests are returning null and void.

So if you made it this far, congrats you little loyal blog follower you! Hopefully next week's post won't be quite so long and rambling. :)