Thursday, January 22, 2009

Cousins!!!

I am the oldest of many cousins, on both my mom and dad's side. Unfortunately, most of them live out of town/state so I'm not able to be as close to them all like I would like, or even like we used to be. I'm starting to feel like now that they are all getting older it might be easier for us to stay in contact. Some of them have email accounts of their own, and well, we all know that that is pretty much the easiest way to stay in contact! That is one of my resolutions for this year. To forge better/stronger relationships with my family members. To get to know them more as individuals. The relationships in my family have all changed drastically throughout my growing up years. Things are no where near like what I remember when I was a child.Anyway, all of this to say that I plan to really work hard on my familial relationships this year, for my kids sake and for my own sake!

My goal got off to a great start when I heard from my aunt Lisa that her kids would be in town this month visiting their dad. I hadn't seen them in 2 years, and before that it had been 4 or 5! I was really excited! I made plans for them to come over for a couple of hours this past Sunday and the rest of the local family was coming over too. Well then it turned out that 2 more of my cousins that live in Sacramento were in town visiting their dad! So it ended up being almost our whole family in one place! Seriously hasn't happened in I don't know how long! The only people that were missing were my 2 aunts (the mothers of the cousins visiting) and my sister (who really upset me by not coming but what can you do with an almost 21 year old who is in lala land with her boyfriend? ;) ).
It was seriously the best 2 1/2 hours that I've had in a long time! It's so fun to have all of these people in one place who look and sound so similiar and have history together, all laughing, hugging, playing. It was just the best! My kids love and miss their cousins so much, they haven't stopped asking for them! I have plans to put little packages together for all the cousins with envelopes, paper, and stamps so that the ones that are too little to have email can still be penpals! This is Alina, Beth, Tessa, & Lacie looking at pictures from our Disneyland trip together 2 years ago.
This is Steven (little brother to the girls pictured above) & Colby.

This is Alina showing baby Natalie the Disneyland pictures

These are my Aunt Amy's boys - Devin & Clayton with Colby. He loves his boy cousins!

Cousins rocking out!

Cousins jumping!!!

Beth and Natalie

These are all of my Nana's grandkids & great grandkids minus my sister.
Thank goodness for cameras with self-timers! This is everyone who was at my house that day. We were missing my sister and my 2 other aunts.

2 comments:

i dont care said...

great pictures! it's to bad emily didn't come.. that would have been a GREAT picture with all the grand/great grandkids

Lisa said...

"what can you do with an almost 21 year old who is in lala land with her boyfriend?"

Haha. Totally sounds like my younger sisters. It gets better, I promise. Andrea (who just turned 21 last year) has really started to grow up and realize how important family is. And now I get to see her at least once a week. Cherie (19) is still in lala land, but she's joining the marines and I'm pretty sure the lala is going to get worked right out of her.