{Second Helpings of the Texas Crew}

 I got a call from my brother Devin on a Monday afternoon asking if I could "donate" a room out in our house and by Thursday night we were reunited with our Texas cousins! Twice in one 9 months? We're feeling pretty dang spoiled over here!

Is this not the cutest? Just snuggled up doing our nightly Christmas advent book.

One of the bonuses to having Allie and Devin come visit is that I don't even have to think of how to entertain us! Allie is quite the tourist and loves learning all about the cities she visits so she does her research and away we go!  It's also super fun because she ends up showing us cool places we've never even heard of or been to before! The pictures above were at the Basilica Cathedral. It is known for it's BEAUTIFUL mosaics on the interior, which is one of the largest in the western hemisphere. It really was breath takingly beautiful!

Allie even managed to find us a few birthday cakes to add to our list! Only 244 more to go . . . I don't think we're going to make it folks ;-) Oh, and as for these two, don't they look like they just love each other?! Well, let's just say they like to fight like they are brother and sister. They know how to push each other's buttons and most the time all I could do was sit back and laugh about it. They had their sweet together moments too though.

For dinner one night we ventured out to a tiny diner called the Crown Candy Kitchen, a St. Louis tradition since 1913! On their website it says "It's like stepping back in time." I would most definitely have to agree. It was the cutest little place. It was so tiny that we couldn't even all sit at one booth! Not going to lie though, it was in a bit of a sketchy area. Ryan was later told by nurses he works with that we should NEVER, EVER, EVER take children there at night. hahaha! Oops.

The food was good, but the shakes and candy were AMAZING. And for being such a tiny little place they made up for it with their BIG sandwiches and BIG shakes. Mmmmm.

Ryan gave Easton his first taste of ice cream and his reaction was priceless. He then spent the remainder of the evening growling and slapping his hands for more. That boy loves his food, no doubt about it.

Choice options overload!

We told Eli if he ate every last crumb on his plate that he could pick out a treat. This was him in the lying down position trying to finish his sandwich.. Must. Make. More. Room.

243 to go!

242 to go! Allie wanted to take Devin to see Lone Elk park Sunday morning and Addy wanted to tag a long. I am in love with that picture of the two girls and the cake!

We dressed up in our Christmas best early this year so we could get a picture of the girls in their dresses from Grandma Ginny. They all looked ridiculously cute. I've decided Miss Scarlett looks more like she belongs to me than my own children do.

On their last night here Allie and I baked sugar cookies for the kids adults to decorate ;-) I think this was the first time in my entire life where I actually got super in to decorating the cookies and let me tell ya, it was kind of addicting! Devin was my inspiration. That boy can decorate a sugar cookie! I spent the next 2.5 hours decorating. It was kind of therapeutic! We had a little friendly competition to see who could decorate the best cookie. I think he won. See that itty bitty star he is holding? It has an itty bitty wreath with an itty bitty bow on it. Seriously?!

It was soo good seeing Devin and his cute family, even if our kids fought like they are brother and sister ;-) Now they just need to get in to the residency program in Iowa City so we can see more of them!