the new leaf on our family tree

Nearly a week ago, my sister Brooke and her husband Elliott added another adorable baby girl to their family. Echo Noelle Hinckley was welcomed with (extremely eager and loving) open arms, by her big sisters Ellee and Emelyn. Who would have thought that their dad, who grew up in a house full of {tall, tough} boys, would one day have 3 sweet little girls to teach him to play Barbies and dress-up? :)



Britt and Marnie were anxious to meet Echo. Marnie has been getting over a cough, so we weren't able to introduce her to Echo until yesterday. The moment we walked in, she took her coat off and said, "where's baby Echo? I wanna hold her." Britt's enthusiasm surprised me a little. He was always excited to hold Marnie as a baby, but I didn't know how "into it" he would be as a too-cool 5 year old. He begged to hold her first, softly smoothed her hair {there's a lot of it to smooth!}, and sang his Great-Grandpa Jones's lullabies to her. It makes me grin just remembering how tender he was with her. He needed to ask me a secret right after he held her...the secret?..."can we take her home with us?...just for a while?" :)
He did clarify that he has no real desire to permanently have a baby at his own house. I believe his words were, "ya know, they grow into little sisters." He merely wanted to borrow his cousin's baby sister while she's still too small to get into his stuff or knock over his block tower.

Spring wedding, concert, training game, etc.

A breakdown of our wild weekend:
Friday
We had a surprisingly enjoyable 3-hour drive (thanks to a bag full of books, snacks, and juice boxes, and Marnie's {finally} growing tolerance of car travel), shopped for a few last minute fancy clothes, then Justin and Jordan went to a Suns game with their Uncle Jack while Kaitlynn and I took the kids on a hunt for black shoes for Marnie (ridiculously hard to find in March) and enjoyed a beyond delicious blueberry pancake dinner.

Saturday
Got dressed up early and headed East for my brother Beau's wedding, enjoyed a beautiful morning of marriage vows, food, cake, chatting with friends and family, and celebrating Beau's marriage {to one of my dear friends, Rashel...how cool is that?!}. We took a short rest break before venturing out to an outdoor festival where the kids saw their very first band in concert- Reel Big Fish! We all had a blast, and the kids are super excited for their next live music experience (in just a few weeks!).

Sunday
Britt and Marnie chased geese, then Uncle Jack, Aunt Heather, and cousin Autumn came to play with us at the park next to Jordan and Kaitlynn's house, after that, we met up with Brett and Bree for lunch and a spring training game.

Just remembering all the fun we had makes me tired. :) I didn't realize till after we got home, that I never got a good picture of the bride and groom, Jordan and Kaitlynn (and her adorable baby bump), or our kids with their cousins. Fiddlesticks.
On a good note, amazingly, we made it through the entire weekend of sunshine without a single one of us getting a sunburn. Hallelujah.

flour children

funny face

I love when I stumble upon old photos that make me laugh. I must have been so bored before these funny faces came along.

intergalactic: planetary

Currently, Britt has nightmares about aliens. He ran into our room at 3:00 this morning and said, "mom...I hear aliens outside..." I mumbled some response about how if there were aliens outside, our big scary guard dog would be barking like crazy to warn us. "Well..." he responded, "he can't hear them because he's snoring too loud."
Fair enough.
I walked him to his bed, re-tucked him in, laid down next to him, and asked which song he wanted me to sing to him. Instead, he asked me to explain (for the 45th time) why we don't need to be afraid of aliens. I told him the facts all over again (for the 45th time) and explained that scientists have found no evidence that any of the other planets in our solar system can sustain life, because of their lack of oxygen, lack of water, heat or subzero temperatures, etc.
Then, he blew my mind. He said,
"yeah, I know all that, but remember how our sun is just a star that's a lot closer to Earth?...well, what if all the other stars in outer space are actually suns in their own solar systems?...and they each have a planet that's just right for living on, like Earth?"
WOW. Is this kid seriously only five? We talked about it a little more, then I dressed his teddy bear in the shirt I had worn the day before (so he could smell me and feel comforted, even while I was cozy in my own bed) and he dozed off. And that's why I'm sleepy today...and why I might start having nightmares about aliens.

in the hands of a 5 year old

Britt asked me to charge his camera today, and after replacing the battery, I decided to peek through his pictures. What a photographer. :) These are totally unedited. I'm impressed at his use of shadow & light and artsy angles. :)

Griz. Who also answers to "Grizzly," "Grizwald," "Grizzer-Wizzer," "Dunder head," and "Pupperoo."

Daddy's record player

Marnie's birthday celebration at Uncle Jordan and Aunt Kaitlynn's house.

It's obvious why he took this one, right? :)

Desert tortoise at the zoo

These are his "practice" pictures of animals. He wants to be a zoologist when he grows up, but he says he'd settle for being an animal photographer if he has to.






His "green polymer play-doh." {flubber}

*his superhero drawings, taped to his bedroom door

Me holding Marnie, holding her hedgehog 'Prickles'

silly sister

The icing on the cake...a lovely, nose-picking self portrait.