Thoughts Of Family

I was looking through pictures on the computer tonight as I was trying to decide which picture to use for Wordless Wednesday. It was making me a bit nostalgic. One of the things I was thinking about was how lucky my boys are to have so much family close to them.

Both of their sets of grandparents are close enough to spend time with often.
























I remember growing up, with the exception of my cousin Anna who I would spend time with a couple weekends a year, we didn't have a real relationship with our cousins. They were people you would see at holidays and by the time you started talking to them and having fun, it was the end of the visit until the next year.

My husband's family has cousins with a WIDE span. The funny thing is, within that span, each cousin has an age match. With the exception of Aaron, every age match is a gender pair. Noah and his cousin Olivia are only a few months apart, as are Aaron and his cousin Carter. Here is a picture of the group with Steve's parents this past Christmas (minus two who were unable to celebrate with us this year).














My family is quite a different story. My sister and I are SEVEN years apart. My brother and I are FOUR. Because of this, we never dreamed that we would ever have kids the same age. Well, life hands us different circumstances and thankfully, the result is a large group of kids who are growing up together. I have one niece who is in high school, and the other TEN are all seven years and younger. They are not only close in age, but they DO spend a lot of time together, even though some live a few hours away, and they talk about each other daily.

I love these pictures of the crew at the farm last fall(minus the babies that weren't born yet and the high schooler who I think was at a Band function). They show their personalities so well. I didn't want to save them for Wordless Wednesday because I needed to be able to say, once again, how lucky we are.
Maddy, Kira, Piper, Odin, Noah, Patrick, Jamie, Aaron

I think my dad has blown this picture up and added funny captions to each kids mouth. It does kind of look like a mob line-up, only cuter.







Odin, Noah, Patrick, Jamie, Kira, Aaron, Maddy, Piper

I don't know why there need to be pumpkins on their heads. Just goofy, I guess.

Family has a different meaning to me now than when I was growing up. The ability for love in a family is so much wider than I believed a few short years ago. Family is not determined simply by blood. It can also be those friends who have carved a special place in your heart (many of whom I know are reading this...yes, this means you). Family is defined by those around us who care about how we're doing, worry about us when we're hurting, and celebrate with us when we triumph.

Thank you God for family, who are a symbol of Your Love here on Earth.