Unexpected Perks

The Monroes, the family of five that camped in our basement for about a month, left a little over a week ago.  I won't lie.  It was hard and sad to say goodbye to them.  We have spent the last week expecting small people to arrive in the kitchen for toast or applesauce or popcorn.  We will adjust to life as a family of four again, but it might take a few weeks.  On the up side, just yesterday I witnessed an unexpected highlight of having hosted a family with three small children.

We had a 2-year old visitor yesterday who was immediately embraced by my 8-year-old and whisked away to the playroom for time with trains.  While the moms sat and talked ministry stuff, the 2-year old was completely entertained by Paul.  His willingness to build a train track and facilitate a simple art project without being asked showed me how much he matured while we hosted the Monroes.

At the end of the visit, Luke popped out of his room where he had been reading, to say hey to folks.  And help the 2-year old  put on his shoes before leaving.  The moms were out on the driveway loading ministry stuff into a minivan when Luke appeared with the perfectly shod toddler.  I made a comment about how awesome that was and Luke just said he'd done it a ton of times for the Monroe's toddler girl.  Of course you did.

And now for the part where I post WAY too many pictures of our time with the Monroes.  And by that I mean pictures of their little girls.  Sorry, Asher.  We love you, too, buddy.  We are just a little too smitten with your sisters.

 First selfie in my kitchen with my girl

 She's two days old here.  It was the day they moved in.

 The boys with their books on the couch

Baby Montage

 She was almost smiling!

 Luke and Baby Girl

 Swinging with Tovah-SuperNova (a Bangsund original nickname)

 Face making 

 "Feed baby"

 Another face maker!

 Luke is blurry because he was moving from side to side.  Adorable.

Sisters!

Big Brother and Baby Sister

 Simply Adorable

 Luke spends time with Baby Girl

 These next shots are backlit, but I loved them too much to exclude them.

 Reading to all the people

About three weeks old.

 Paul reads to Asher and Tovah from Curious George

 Both my boys did this with the box at this age.  Asher, you are one of us.

 I could not resist the photo bomb by Luke and the half moon by Asher.  Swinging is fun.

 These two...

 ...really like each other...

 ...a lot.

 More swinging!

 Two days shy of one month old!

  Last selfie in my kitchen with my girl.  We are adorable.