Aunt Katie

Remember how we planned a trip to Boston 2 weeks before we left? We called Katie (Drew's sister) that night to see if she could come watch our kids and she excitedly said yes! She drove alone with her 3 kids from St. Louis. Watched our kids for the weekend and even sent me emails describing their days because she knew I was nervous about leaving them. We wouldn't have enjoyed our trip as much if we didn't know our kids were being taken care by a loving aunt and 2 really excited nieces. Annie walked around looking for "Jackie" (katie) the first day I was back. They all had a great time while we were gone. A huge thanks to Katie for doing this for us. I really hope we can return the favor in the near future! with Kate's permission I'm posting the 2 emails she wrote me. I've never left our kids and to hear stories about them while we weren't there made our days. Katie described our kids perfectly leaving out some of the more difficult experiences I 'm sure...

Ash,
I know you were a little apprehensive about leaving the kiddos so I thought I would send you periodic emails to let you know how they are doing and all the fun stuff we did.
Annie- loves playing with Emma and ellie. She took a bath with them tonight and giggled the entire time. After she got out she gave brig about two dozen open mouth kisses within the hour. She has been so cute and has even snuggled with me a couple times. When she went to bed she was fine asking a little for you but I played with her hair and sang her some primary songs and she went right to sleep.
Gray- took sometime to himself a bit and didn't really want to be bothered so I gave him some space until he was ready to play. He got a propel from the fridge and shared it all with Emma and Ellie and was so proud of himself for it. He accidentally scratched his back while playing in the playroom and was a little sad, but after some bandages and love he was bragging to Ellie about it making her touch the band aids over and over again while laughing and saying "it doesn't even hurt" it was pretty funny. He asked if Ellie could sleep in his bed with him and Ellie was all game she laid in bed with him for a while and snuggled, but I made her get out:) he has been a big helper though just like you said.
Mac- owns the place. He is being really good about getting things for me when I don't know where they are and explaining things. He cracked me up and ate about 3/4 of a pop corn bag. I put about 1/4 in a paper Baggie for him to eat and he looked at it like "are you kidding me" and grabbed the still full popcorn bag and sat down on the couch and it went to town. It was super funny. We ended up going through 2.5 bags and mac pretty much did a whole one of those by himself. He has played great with the kids, but likes to remind me that he is the oldest:) he was cute with gray at bed time when I made Ellie leave g was sad and Mac kept saying "gg I am here with you"
In the end all the kids went down easily, not one cried and they are so excited to play with each other more tomorrow. So now you just enjoy your trip and know we are having a fun little holiday here:) talk to you at tomorrows briefing... Until then:)

Loves,
Katie


 Ashlee,

Today was pretty funny. Sorry I didn't think to email you yesterday I got busy and didn't think about it.

First of all today was even better than the first two because the kids weren't so wound up and excited to be together. They just played all day and were happy to just be together. There were some really funny things that happened though and I have to tell you about one of them. So we opened those little things that you bought to make necklaces and bracelets and stuff and Emma and Ellie went wild over them. Gray and Annie were also pretty entertained, but Mac wasn't too interested, he just wanted to play avengers. Emma for some reason has been really wanting to win Mac's affection all week and he hasn't really wanted to play with her. He must think that she is too young or something, or he just prefers to play alone, but either way he's not very interested. Well Emma is wearing a couple necklaces and bracelets that she made and she walks over to Mac and says "Mac do you think I look pretty?" Mac looks at her and says "I am not going to say that!" Well Emma asks again and Mac folds his arms and runs away from her. Emma then runs into your closet and starts to just sob. I am laughing by now and I go into Emma and tell her she looks pretty and G tells her she looks pretty, but NO she wants Mac to think that she is pretty. She sat in the closet and cried for about 20 minutes and during that time Mac kept saying "That is hard for me to say that" and I was thinking these two are TOTAL girl and boy, this is Jr. High right here. Mac cannot express his feelings and cannot tell her what she wants to her and Emma is so upset because the person that she wants validation from will not validate her. OH! I am worried for the teenage years with that girl!

Funny thing 2: G and Ellie call themselves "Best cousins" and G won't take anything that doesn't match her. They ate the same color of Popsicle, the same plate color etc. Once again he asked if Ellie could sleep in his bed with him tonight and was very sad when we left him without her.

Funny thing 3: Emma and Ellie insisted that they go in and sing a song to the boys after they were in bed. Mac took a pillow and covered his ears saying he DID NOT want to listen and G G closed his eyes and said it was nice. Poor Mac these girls are really trying him.

Funny thing 4: Your kids can POUND ravioli and all food in general. I keep on making what I think would be too much food for any child and they eat everything. I am very amazed and very jealous that you have good eaters.

Funny thing 5: Me telling G not to do something like hit somebody and he looks at me and says the most surprised "Oh!" like "I didn't know that was bad, this is news to me for the first time..." He said "Oh!" to me like a dozen times today when I would say something like "G don't step on that it will break" followed by "Oh!" So CUTE! I had a hard time not laughing out loud.

Funny thing 6: Annie is too funny. She has been pushing that stroller around the house the entire time you have been gone. Watching her take that thing up and down the stairs has been real entertaining. Not to mention going to the table and eating all the food that the kids, actually just my kids, left on their plates after meals. She is like a little garbage disposal.

Anyways, that is just a little fun thing for you to enjoy tonight. I won't see you tomorrow so call me if you have any questions are to where I put things or stuff. Love you!!