Welcome Home (again!) G & G

Devin's parents returned this weekend from their 18 month mission to Estonia! It will be fun to have them home. They have been gone for the majority of our marriage as they were on a 2 year mission to Samara, Russia prior to this one, then home for 10 months or so before leaving for this mission. Of course we all thought that they would go to a more local mission this time, but they were called to the Baltic States Mission and served in the country of Estonia. They are such a great example of service to us and we have felt the blessings come into our family through their service, for which we are grateful. We are also grateful that we have been able to keep in touch with them via Skype and that our kids know them due to this wonder of modern technology, despite the fact that Jace and Flor just met them in real life for the first time this weekend.

They missed their first flight on the first leg of their journey from Moscow (where they visited Devin's sister Shawna and her husband Slava for about a week before coming home), so they didn't end up getting in until 11 pm Saturday night. We decided it was probably not in our kids' best interest to have them get up to go to see them at the airport since church is at 9 am Sunday...so I stayed home with them and Devin went up to greet his parents along with most of his siblings. He actually obeyed orders and took a few photos too!

Sunday, we all got together to have a dinner with Grandma and Grandpa and for Brylee's blessing. Ren did a wonderful job on the blessing of sweet Brylee. Of course we had to have a feast after the fact too, as no get together would be complete without a huge spread of food.

Jace and Grandpa decided to match! Cute. Zach (Devin's cousin) apparently matches too- we should have gotten him into the picture better, darn it. Speaking of missions, Zach just got his call this week, to Santiago Chile. Yay Zach!

There are some funny things about this picture (Devin's face for example--just kidding honey, it's hot) but I still think it's cute. Flor was glued to this little yellow chair for quite a while. Just her size...she loved it. Like I said before, she is doing so great staying in her space and I was surprised at how well she did yesterday. She wasn't running around trying to sit on everyone's laps...she just sat contentedly for the most part.

Jana, Karl, and Grady with Grandma and Grandpa.

Kirston, Travis ,and kids.

The family of the hour. Ren and Alisa with their two cute girls, Brynlee and Brylee. I don't know why the pictures of the families stopped here, but apparently I got half. Shoot. Aren't Devin's sisters all gorgeous? Side note: When I first met Devin, he was living with his sister Shawna in Idaho Falls and they had this huge family picture on the wall and I remember thinking the very first time I saw it, "I would never fit in with that family  (of course I already had my eye on Devin) because they are all too pretty for me!" I still think they are just an attractive family. It's true, no?

Welcome Home Elder and Sister Perry! (sorry about the glare)

Beautiful baby and beautiful mama.

Well, that's that. Devin's parents are making the rounds between the kids in the area each night this week, so we will get to have them at our house Wednesday night and part of the day Thursday before they head to St. George. We're excited.

P.S. I started watching some of the old videos on my blog the other day and couldn't stop laughing at this one (ignore the belly shot and just focus on the hilarity of Hals. She had just turned two and was super funny at that point.)