TWO for TWOS-Day - Cousins

I (heart) this picture!

They are growing so fast! They keep getting prettier and smarter and so darn grown up. Katie and Paige (my sister's daughter) have a special cousin bond that I just know Katie is on her way to having with Emma (Chris's brother's daughter). I love seeing the dynamic of Katie being the younger of the pair AND the older of the pair. (Would you believe I don't have a SINGLE recent/good picture of that duo? They are so difficult to get to stop and smile at the same time.)

Recently we got to visit Paige at the county 4-H fair. She is a member of the 4-H club and loves to learn about horses. She got to decorate a horse stall and ran ribbons to the horse ring for the winners of riding competitions for an entire day. We took this picture just minutes before my nephew Alex announced to Katie, in front of the pigs, that we eat them and they make yummy bacon and sausage from them. Ironically, that was just after this post - so Katie wasn't too shocked, but I can say that I got some horrified looks from the mothers of young children. Oh, and then the fun continued and Katie walked off and we had to have a "lost child" announcement over the loud speaker. And oh heck...this was supposed to be just a Two for Tuesday post, but while I'm at it here's some pics of the boys chowing down at the 4-H fair. We had nephews Alex, Teddy, and Henry with us for the weekend for a sleepover and to do some fun outtings for their belated birthday gifts. Henry ate 1 and a HALF barbeque chicken dinners and loved every bit. Alex gobbled his sandwich and Teddy made short work of his burger and then helped out by feeding Timmy.

If you want to join in the Two-some fun, visit Debi at Who Says 8 is Enough?

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TWO for TWOS-Day - Yearning for the beach

And by "the beach" I really mean the Ocean City Boardwalk and rides since I'm not really a big fan of the actual beach. For this week's Two for Twos-day sponsored by Deanna at Eight is Great I've gone a bit into Katie and cousin Paige overload. There are a few pics in my folders I've been wanting to showcase for a TWOS-day for quite some time, but have gotten way behind. Last June we brought my niece Paige with us to Ocean City so Katie would have someone to go on rides with. As usual I got a ton of great pics of the girls together. The first one here isn't really one of the better ones, but I noticed something in it as I was gathering the good ones for this post...if there is any doubt that Katie is my daughter, this picture cements the fact that she is..it's all in the closed eye. As I scanned through the pics tonight I started to laugh at Katie sporting my signature closed right eye. In EVERY single soccer picture taken of me over about 9 years I had to look into the sun and couldn't keep my eye open. Every year my mom would yell or try to get me to keep my eyes open and every year I just couldn't. Even as an adult if I have to look into the sun, I have to look at the ground and have someone countdown to the picture taking and then look up at the last second if there's any chance for me to keep my eyes open.

The next few are just some of my favorite pics of the girls together. This was Katie's first time going on the ride below and boy did she love it. The girl has no fear!!! Actually, at first her eyes were kind of big and she looked a little stunned since it was a bit more extreme than any other ride she's been on and then she saw Paige smiling and laughing and well this picture captured a split second after she realized how much fun she was having.

As the girls waited for me to relieve my preggo bladder, Chris gave them a little lehway letting them THINK they weren't being watched even though they were. When I emerged from the restroom, I was greeted by this adorable picture taking moment.

And finally, the ride home. I had to make this pic smaller so you didn't get quite as grossed out as you would have if it was larger and you could see Paige's asleep but open eyes more clearly.

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