Awesome Timing

The original reason for my trip to Utah is to help take care of my sister's 3 daughters while she is with her husband in Rhode Island.  My brother in law, David, is graduating and then they are driving their car back to Utah.  The awesome thing about the timing of this is that it coincided with my baby brother and his wife having their first baby!  Being so far away from family makes it almost impossible to see any of our nieces and nephews when they are still tiny newborns.  When I realized my trip was going to coincide with meeting my new baby niece, Elizabeth, I was very excited!

My brother and I have a special relationship.  I am the oldest in our family and Blake is the youngest, with an age difference of 11 1/2 years.  That is a large enough difference that I helped out a lot with him when he was a baby and wasn't around a lot when he was a teenager.  I wasn't the annoying older sister, because I really wasn't living with him during that portion of his life.  I was the older sister he would listen to when he wouldn't listen to anybody else in the family....it rocked!  When he was little he was my little buddy that always wanted to follow me wherever I went.  I was the horrible older sister that introduced him to horror movies (which he still loves to this day).  I loved that little dude....still do!  A part of me still thinks of him as the 5 year old that would snuggle up next to me on the couch.

It's so weird to me that he's now a father of a beautiful little girl.  According to him, he wanted a girl.  Probably because that's what he has experience with, he's the only boy in a family of girls.  I know he's going to be an amazing father!  Just watching him with his little family is adorable.  I was so happy I had the opportunity to see and hold Elizabeth and spend time with Blake & Sarah.  I'm so happy for you Bucko & Sarah!  Don't every take it for granted!

This is my brother getting his hair beautified by my niece

Followed by the attitude stare down.  There are lots of these when these two get together!