Our Favorite Cousin

My kids have ONE first cousin (which is balanced out by a multitude of second cousins, but still), who came down from Chicago during Christmas, but I was SO SICK I couldn't make the drive to Knoxville to see him, my brother and my SIL.  Have I blogged about how sick I was on Christmas?  It was some kind of virus (not the flu) that knocked me completely out!  I skipped church and slept most of the day on Christmas Eve, then on Christmas morning I crawled down the stairs for presents, then dragged myself back to bed and stayed there for most of Christmas day.  The day after Christmas I was going to drive us to Knoxville, but again I was in and out of bed for the whole day - no way was I in any condition to drive!  So we very regretfully missed our chance for a cousin visit.  But when Uncle James told me that they were coming for another visit in February?!  You know we made sure we were in Knoxville too!

My kids were SO EXCITED to see Konnor, and once he got over the surprise of how noisy three more kids can be, he was pretty excited about them as well.  

These guys are a little over a year apart, and I think they're going to be best buddies!

They bonded over their love for cheese...

... and their love for Pawpaw.

I tried to snap candid shots early in the day with pretty good success I think, but before dinner we snuck in some group shots as well.  Both little guys did much better then last year, especially when I had my best two helpers (Nathan and Sarah) working hard to earn great smiles from Konnor.

Here it was just me trying to elicit smiles, and as you can see Konnor wasn't as impressed. 

Thanks so much James and Kat for making the long drive. We love getting together with you!