Family time!

We have been so lucky to have lots of help over the last couple of weeks from all four of Brynna's grandparents. I can't imagine how exhausted and overwhelmed we would be if we were trying to do this all on our own! Grandma and Grandpa S arrived this past Friday and stayed through this morning. We were certainly sorry to see them go, but hope to see them again pretty soon if we are able to bring Brynna east in September to meet more of her extended family.

Here they are just after arrival:




Catching up on sleep after the long drive:


Bringing wonderful hand-me-down toys from New York friends:



(Alex is already plotting how he can engineer restraining bolts for noisemaking toys...this little piano doesn't have an off switch!)

Art and Denny also helped us out with a lot of tasks around the house. Art trimmed the bushes, which have never looked better, and edged the weeds and grass away from the sidewalk. He and Alex also did a lot of cooking, including a delicious red and black raspberry shortcake the other night.

And Denny sewed! I was hoping that she might be willing to make a couple of extra covers for my Boppy, which is the crescent-shaped pillow that appears in many of the photos of Brynna. So off we went to the fabric store, where we found two lovely bright flannel prints, and in no time at all she had whipped up the finished products:



Testing the stripey one for fit:


Brynna and Alex modeling the other one, which is red with little lions, elephants, and crocodiles on it:


After finishing this project, Denny was brave enough to ask if we had any other little sewing projects that needed doing, at which point she was quickly buried in a pile of clothes that appeared from all corners of the house! Now Alex's fleece has a new zipper, his khakis have a new button, and my maternity clothes are in much better repair to sell or give away.

Finally, here's a big family portrait that my friend Lucy took for us:


The only person missing is Aunt Kate, who will be here in a couple of weeks! In the meantime, we've been listening to a wonderful CD that she sent called Brynna's Aire, which has lovely soothing harp music on it.