Hi Sis,

Wow, what a visit! You came for just a week, and it went by so fast. Yet, we got sooo much done. The kids had a great time playing together. It is nice to see how much better they get along, and how excited they are to spend time together. We have been seeing each other probably every other month this year, or maybe more. And their relationships are growing just like them!

Evelyn talks about her cousins and you all the time. And even Grant can say both of his cousins names.

Your visit was jam packed with stuff to do… because that is the way you work. Brandy doesn’t know how to relax. And while we had a great time, and my house is much more organized, I hope you didn’t overdo it to badly.

We had intended to fix up Evelyn’s room from the very start, and you did a marvelous job. Evelyn likes fish, and she has really liked fish for about a year now? She had a fish themed birthday party, which included us taking her to the aquarium. It seemed really suiting that she had a fish themed bedroom. And, you of course had to go above and beyond and help me create a bedroom that was good for her age and development.

I really wish I had taken some before pictures. Not much stayed the same. We moved Eve’s bed, added some lovely paintings made by Evelyn’s great-grandma Cooper, and had some fun adding fish sticker decals. 

We took the dresser out of our living room, and put it into Evelyn’s bedroom. We also got her a small bookshelf. She loves having the bookshelf in her room, and it actually has gotten me to read to her more. I now am reading her a story or two in the morning when she wakes up, and a couple stories before bed. We left a few books in the living room, but a smaller stash in there is suiting us well. And I can swap them up every week. 

You made an adorable blanket for Eve’s bed, got her a big fish stuffed animal… which she now sleeps with, and the room really looks complete. I’ve been adding a few toys to her room. We used to keep all the toys in the living room. But, we had extras after the Holidays, and Eve is starting to play on her own and enjoy her own space. She is really enjoying playing in her room when her brother is bothering her, as that is the place I tell her to go for alone time.

Evelyn’s Aunt Ellen handmade her an E for the wall, and you decided to do a great Aunt and kiddo project and help Eve paint the letters for her some of her wall-art. We cleaned out her closets, made a large haul of stuff to a friend and a children’s resale shop, and added some storage bins under her bed. The room is soo nice, and I think Eve likes it even more then I do!

We also started to work on Grant’s room, but could’t finish due to the materials not all arriving. We decided to make the room more spacious by moving the single bed out of the guest room, and putting it into Grant’s. We added some very colorful wall art that used to be in Eve’s room, you painted Grants name with him, we moved a dresser into his room, and added some toy storage.

Grant really is enjoying the toys in his room. While, he is a bit young for alone time, he wakes up really early and often screams everyone else awake. For the past few mornings he has been sitting in his room happily playing with toys instead. He is also doing a great job at cleaning his toys. I only have one toy per bin, and that is really helpful for him to keep organized. I used to have the bin in the living room, and had multiple toys in bins. And he really had a hard time knowing where to put things. Now, that it doesn’t matter, he is doing a much better job putting things away!

The living room also got redone, and looks fantastic. We moved the play gym to the front of the living room, un-stacked the kids storage bins so they could reach everything and use the top as table play space. We took the toy bin out (and put that into Grant’s room) and created a more spacious play area for the kitchen. Everything is very nice and simple and the layout gives us a lot more space.

The visits from family members made the week even better. The kids got to enjoy time with Grandma Sharon and Wayne, Grandma Marsha and Dave, Great Grandma and Grandpa Jackson, and Grandpa Jeff. We had a full house a few times, and it was an all around great time!

We of course had to celebrate Grant’s birthday party while everyone was over! I’m not going to get into that in this post, as birthday party planning is always your fun thing!

We also learned without any doubt, poor William does not have a pet cat in his future. While, he loves cats and Cookie loved him… his is rather allergic to kitties.

It was a great week and I hope your family enjoyed it just as much as we did!

Love,

Jamie