Introducing....

Based on my daily  blog "hits" I can tell  I have quite of few new readers over the last couple months, so I thought today would  be a good day to more officially introduce you all  to these two cuties (who my long time readers know make an appearance on my blog quite frequently :-)

Harper and Sawyer are my niece and nephew. I have one sibling, a brother who is a year younger than me, and these are his two kids. Sawyer is 4 (13 months older than Raya) and Harper turned 2 in Sept. (4 months older than Brielle). Ever since we moved here last October I have been watching them one day a week (sometimes more if needed). My brother lives in the same town as my parents, where we both lived our entire lives, and I now live in the neighboring town, a whole 1 mile away lol. It's been great having the cousins so close and they spend at least 2 days a week together (Tuesdays at my house, and Thursdays at my mom's house when she watches all 4 grandkids on her day off from work.)

Sawyer  looks like  my brother, but the red hair comes from my sister-in-laws side  of the family! Harper looks more like  my sister-in-law. Sawyer is Raya's best  friend in the whole world---she worships the ground he walks on. Sawyer loves to be goofy and make Raya laugh, because she just goes on and on about how funny  he is and feeds his ego lol. Sawyer has my brother's goofy personality. For instance, today at lunch he said "Brielle is drinking milk, Harper is drinking beer, and Raya  and I are having coffee!!"   Bet you didn't know I served so many beverage options with my mac n cheese ;-)

Harper and Brielle have a love/hate relationship. As they get older I think  they'll be great friends. But as of now it's  either really good, or really bad. For instance, today driving to Raya's preschool I looked in the rear view mirror to see Brielle  and Harper holding hands across the van aisle....Harper was singing "ring around the rosie" and they were holding hands and  swaying ....so cute! But then later in the morning they  were  hitting eachother and stealing toys haha. Harper is somewhat of a wild woman--- Brielle  likes to play the part of the dramatic victim ;-)

So don't be surprised  if on Tuesdays these two crazy kids pop up on the blog! And of course  now as the holidays approach I'm sure they'll  be frequent  visitors to the blog as I always have my camera handy  at family get togethers hehe.

(And while I'm talking about my adorable niece and  nephew, I want to give a shout out to my other nephew as well!)  Sadly you won't see Ryan on my blog nearly  enough, because Lee has one sibling, an older brother, and he and his wife live all the way out in Ohio :-( We see them maybe 3 times a year or so. But luckily my sister-in-law shares lots of pictures. Ryan is soon to turn 1 year old right after Thanksgiving!

Hopefully it's  ok that I stole this picture  of Ryan off his blog to share  here ;-) Isn't he super adorable?  If they lived closer I just know that  Brielle would love him---she'd have someone younger than herself to pick  on like Harper does to her!!! (Although he may be younger, but he's already surpassed her in size---so she  better think  twice about this whole picking on him thing!)

And the great news is that  Ryan and  his mommy and daddy are actually  coming to stay with  us  in January and they will get to celebrate Brielle's  birthday with us....we can't  wait! Happy early birthday Ryan---we love  you!


Ok, so now  back  to  Harper and Sawyer today----while Raya was at preschool Sawyer  and Harper did a little photoshoot because they were being goofy and cute. Enjoy!

So carrying over friends yesterday's thankful post, today I am thankful for nieces and nephews--- love watching them all grow up! :-)