Ami!!!

A few weeks back, my niece Ami came and stayed with us for a couple days. I can't even begin to tell you how awesome it was to have her here. I seriously love this girl!!

Meg and Ames showed up on Wednesday night once the kids were in bed. Doug was exhausted, so he only visited for a little bit before heading off to bed. As for me and Megs? Ya...we were up until 1am chatting. I swear, I don't know what I would do without that girl. We had an amazing chat...amazing. I am sure I will blog about it soon, I am still just chewing on what she had to say.

 The next day Megs left around 11am, so all the kids and I packed into the van and went to DQ for lunch. After lunch we went to the swimming pool. Now, I will level with you, I was VERY nervous to take all these kids swimming. Ami is 10 and in no way would have her responsible to watch one of my kids in the pool, so I was intensely on edge hopping between what each kid wanted to do. Luckily, Nola and Rob were in the thick of swimming lessons and were doing great. We spent most of the time in the baby pool, but we did also go to the big pool. Nola loved kickin around in her life jacket with Ami. Things got a little interesting after swimming when I realized I had locked my keys in the van. Whoops!! Doug came and rescued us :) Haha.

While waitin for Doug, we played at the park. John was in heaven!!

For dinner we made chicken fettuccini Alfredo. Once we tidied up the kitchen we settled down for a movie night. Ames brought 'despicable me 2' and we ate a mountain of junk food and popcorn.

The next day Ami made us eggs for breakfast! What a nice treat! After getting ready for the day, we went to the library. I wasn't sure if Ami was lookin forward to going to the library or not, but once she got in there and saw that she could play mine craft on the computer, she was good to go :) We hung around there for a good hour or so.

Since John missed his nap the day before, we made sure he got one in after the library. Lucky for me, when John was napping, Ames took Nola and Rob to the park and I had a few moments to myself. Ami rented 'diary of a wimpy kid' from the library, so we watched it after they came back from the park. It was SO funny!! I was literally laughing out loud.

We got all packed up and ready to take Nola and Rob to their last swimming lesson. We met up with Nana and Eva at the pool to watch them. After the lesson, Doug took the boys home and Nana and I took the girls on a girls night.

Three words.

Best.night.ever.

We got Little Ceasers Pizza and we to to Henderson Park. I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do for our night. I really wanted to be able to visit and make memories together...not just zone out in front of a movie or something. Then I got the idea to play 'truth or dare'. It was perfect!! We were able to talk about yoursleves, but also get goofy together too. Some of the highlights were watching Nana play the air guiar, and the girls running around in circles screaming 'I'm a maniac!' We talked about our brothers, favourite things to do and what we want to be when we grow up. Again, it was perfect. The only thing that could have made it better was if Miss Lou was there. Soon, she will be big enough to join us :)

After the girls night, Nana took Nola, Ami and Eva back to Cardston for a sleep over. As I drove home, my heart was totally and completely overflowing with love and gratitude. There really are no words to describe the love I have for my nieces and nephews. My love for them is so real, so raw, so intense. Just typing this, my eyes are welling with tears. I hope they know that Aunt Jess always has their back, because I do.

True joy comes from my family, which makes perfect sense, as the family is central to the Lords plan of happiness. How truly grateful I am for that knowledge!!

Ames, thanks for coming to play. We all can't wait to do it again :)