I love kids

I've always loved kids. The funny thing about that statement is that I never really wanted my own until I met Justin. I thought I'd probably have kids because that's what people do, but it wasn't part of that 'normal' childhood fantasy that some girls have.

I always liked babysitting growing up. It was a good way to make some money, but I also liked to play with the kids that I watched. I started babysitting when I was very young. I wouldn't let someone as young as I was watch my kids today. I don't remember how young I was when I started babysitting, but I know that I was in the 7th grade and younger when I watched other peoples kids. If someone is going to watch our kids, I want them to at least be a Freshman in high school.

When I went to beauty school, people with children started requesting me. That continued on through my hair career (at least the one in the salon). A lady here in town would always bring her kids to me. She asked me how many kids I had and she was shocked when I said none. She thought for sure I had children at home. I got that a lot.

Now that I have children of my own, I can't imagine a life without them. Some days they are a handful, but as soon as that passes I realize how lucky I am to have them.

When growing up in Texas, Shannon and I LOVED when it was time for us to play with our cousins. My dad's sister had kids our age that we couldn't get enough of. When we got older we'd spend our spring breaks at our Grandmothers house who lived in the same town as those cousins. We loved to play with them and for the most part we all got along well together.

When we moved to South Dakota that was something that I missed. However, my mom's sister had 3 daughters who I adored. I used to babysit them each Friday night. We had a great time making up dances and cheers and such. They made the move better for me. I'm not going to say easier, because there wasn't much that was easy for me about that move, but at least I had friends in these kids if no one else.

Now that we've all grown up, we've all started having kids. Here is a picture of Emma. She's the daughter of my cousin Nicole. She's part of the cousin crew that I spoke of from Texas. From what I can remember of pictures of Nicole as a baby, Emma is a spitting image. She's adorable!
Emma just had her first birthday. It's hard to believe that Nicole and I are old enough to have children, much less me soon having my 3rd. Look at this adorable picture of Emma. This one is my favorite. It always cracks me up when babies find the holes in their head.
My cousin Holly, who is a part of the South Dakota cousin crew, just had her first baby in May. He had a rough go of it his first few weeks of life, but thank God he's doing better now. It's so much easier said than done, but we should never take life for granted.

Anyway, I hate that we all live so far apart from each other, but at least we have the memories of each other. Thankfully memories last a life time.