Insert family here

Once again, a bit behind in keeping track of my life for the masses. It's been such a busy summer, since we have been back from vacation we are out and about almost every day, enjoying the nice weather and seeing parks, museums and friends while the warm weather is here.

So let's rewind to the August long weekend. Paul's sister Steph, husband Chris, and four month old Pierson (my first nephew!!!) came to visit. We picked up Steph and Pierson at the airport (Chris arrived a couple days later) and David and Peter were very interested in their new cousin. Pete was concerned that he "couldn't crawl, walk, talk OR eat anything other than breast milk", but seemed charmed by Pierson nonetheless :-)

I won't go into any lengthy details b/c the boys actually had a pretty rough weekend, which ended up being very hard on me. David was just getting over and Pete was in the midst of the most bizarre illness - quite high temperatures with basically no other symptoms. Well, aside from lethargy, tiredness, crankiness and general angst. So the boys were not on their usual fairly-good behaviour which made things a little tough with tons of family staying at my mother-in-law's house - including two other toddlers and a baby. But we all survived and had a great time seeing family with whom we don't often get to spend time.

Here are all of Paul's cousins, including spouses. We are on the left, Paul's giant cousin Andrew is peeking up behind Paul's head!!!

Here is Andrew with his super duper cool girlfriend Shayna - they stayed with us and seemed to have a good time. They loved Rudy, although we did learn Shayna has an aversion to dog saliva. Good things to know :-) Shayna was great with the boys, Pete asked for her for about 5 days after she left. She runs a school for autistic children in Toronto, so she *knows* kids pretty well. p.s. Andrew is very cool too.

Brigid's (MIL) sister Mary, David, and siblings Anne, Andrew and Cathy! Lookin' good guys, all smiles!

Here are all the Irish cousins - well, I mean Irish offspring :-) Cathy, Anne, Joan, Steph, Paul and Andrew.

Offspring of the cousins - Devlin is Joan and Matt's son, in between David and Peter (whom you surely know by now!), Pierson is the babe and Aiden is in the front (Anne and Dave's son). Not perfect but not bad for a picture of five kids aged four and under!!!

Joan and Matt brought all the kids Yankees hats from New York City - they were a big hit!!


Pierson sharing a very alert and adoring moment with mommy!

Pierson lounging with mommy and daddy in the gazebo . . . mmmm, see the beautiful garden in the background - many long hours put in by my MIL but clearly rivals Martha Stewart, as you can see!
Paul's sis Steph, my BIL Chris, and all three cousins!!


Devlin takes some shots in our backyard . . . don't you love that hair?????


Contemplating global warming - no, but that serious look is just thoughtful planning before going down the slide into the pool!

Pete warming up for a big splash as well . . .

Devlin in the sandbox with Pete and David.

Dave and a few others took Aiden to the water park that day - it looks like they had a great time! (I got that great shot from Shayna, sorry Dave!!!) :-)


It was really hot this day, so we turned on the Elmo sprinkler so the kids could run around - Pete was thirsty so cut the water off at the source, lol!!!