House full of guests

The Browns, Livesays, & Junods all came to visit us at the Michaelis compound.  Derek was the lucky man with his harem of wives and children for a few days.  We kept laughing that this must be the way life is when a man has multiple wives.  Ha!

I cannot describe to you the feeling of having some of my best friends around for three days, all of our children absolutely adoring each other, never leaving the house, never putting on makeup, and declaring that this should be an annual event every year!

It was so fun for Shannon, Jenise, & Wendi getting to meet my kids so quickly.

Georgia and Lexi were getting to know each other.

The ladies at the island - Lexi, Payton, Georgia, & Reagan

 The fellas, aka gangstas - Major, Hudson, Levi, Brooks, Barrett, & Justin

 Shannon Brown, eating cooked kale...and liking it!

 Only a crazy lady would blow up a sweaty broken out face on here.  But I love Little Miss's smile

 Derek only stuck around the first night.  He was great at the outside entertainment.

 Justin was thrilled to have some soccer buddies to play with

 And climb with

 And race with.

 One guess who one...Reagan!  Or the big sister, as Justin termed her for the weekend.  Or the future babysitter for all these kids as she was a great fifth mommy to have around.

 Blowing up air mattresses.  Each family had a room, with our family having two.  Payton had big plans to sleep with Lexi in our room...for about 20 minutes.  But Lexi loved sleeping in her parents room.  She has recently grown accustomed to Justin's noisemaker sound and is, on occasion, bunking with the boys for slumber party fun.  But she couldn't tolerate noisemakers at this point, except mommy's if it meant sleeping in her room.

 Lady love

 The next day was outside mania.  Wendi shot the majority of this post, including this one of me discussing one of our many "how can we love one another and not stir up trouble" talks.

 Slip n slide

 I last minute rented a water slide - best decision ever.  The kids played nonstop on this thing for 36 hours straight.

 We found many methods to slide down

 Pretty sure the backyard was water logged for a week afterwards.  But oh the fun.

 Everyone feasting on our Bell and Evans gluten free nuggets.  No joke they are amazing!  Derek even asks for them for dinner from time to time.

 Holla!

 These two had a blast.  And both add so much character to their families.  :-)

 Reagan demonstrating her big sister love for Lexi

 Tracy stopped by with her crew one afternoon.  We even had Maddie, our beloved babysitter, come by for a few hours to help add some fun into the mix.  Or at least let us clean up and talk a but uninterrupted.

 LOVE this photo.  I am a boy mom at heart, and these fellas, who keep getting so old, just melt my heart.

 A quick group shot before the Browns and Livesays headed home.  Sniff sniff.

 So this one is out of order, but all the boys in the Junod wing of the house.

 Playing hedbanz.

 Dancing queens

 Saturday morning I took the four boys on a bike ride.  We had a few falls, but four miles later we had quite a lot of stories.

 I could do this all day

 Lexi had a little throw up episode and Georgia didn't feel great.  So Derek took the boys to Sky High and we laid low that evening.  The next day we took the Junods to church before they headed out to Taddy's house.

Levi still asks when we are going to Doha to see Brooks

 Wendi managed to get all the kids in the parking garage

 Georgia was tired of us by then.  :-)

 Big smiles, sweating faces. 

 Attacking Brooks, who looked very appreciative, before sending them off.

Praying the Junods home this way by the summer!  Miss them, the Browns, and the Livesays!  Cherish the friendships the Lord has blessed us with!