Missing our nieces and nephews!

Last week we got the rare treat of being with most of our nieces and nephews on one day or another. We were able to visit with the 3 Clark kids (N.C.), Lily S. (MD), Alli J. (CA), and 3 Elzey kids (VA). This week we hope to visit the 4 Smallwood girls (UT) which means we will see all but 5 our of little ones and will have visited with all of Mark's brothers and sisters before we start living in Arkansas. It has been so nice to live close to 10 out of our 17 nieces and nephews and 4 out of the six siblings. I will most definitely miss the many opportunities we have had to get to know this side of the family better!

We have seen Cameron, Ashylne, and Tyler Clark at least once a month for the past 3 years and often multiple times a month. It has been a treat to see them grow and develop. Little Tyler was only 6 weeks old at our wedding, and just over a year old when we moved to Durham. Now he is a sweet 4 year old who was very content last week to let me hold him as he hugged my neck in the pool and talked to me about the "squitoes" in the woods, moving plans, and how the wind works. Cameron still amazes me at the number of facts he can pull from his head from watching the history channel each weekend, and is always a gem when I ask him to help me grade spelling tests over the weekend. Ashylne is always looking for a game to play or someone to cuddle with and I love it when she asks me to be her cuddle buddy when we watch a movie. We don't see the rest of our nieces or nephews as often as these three but I am always happy to spend whatever time we can together as one big happy family.

It will be hard for us, but for me especially, to not have these darlings only a weekend away. Being an aunt is one of the highlights of my life right now and it is a privilege that I treasure. I am already sad thinking about how much these kids will change between now and the holiday season when we get to fly back to Danville for vacation.

I forgot my camera part of last weekend, so I don't have pictures of everyone (the Clarks and 2 of the Elzeys ) but I still wanted to show you just how cute they are!