Mehdi Arrives!

Sunday night, Connie's other sister and brother-in-law cooked duck, garlic mashed potatoes and fresh green beans for dinner. It was delicious and rich. The kids went crazy playing outside in the big backyard. Here's sweet baby Layla in the arms of her favorite person, mama. But don't let that sweet face fool you. She screamed her head off any time anyone else tried to hold her. Connie stopped trying to get pictures of her smiling while she was in someone else's arms and just started taking shots of her screaming with smiling relatives and friends!



Cousin Abigail seems to have the most luck holding Layla for any length of time.



And later that night, Mehdi arrived...at about 3 AM his time after going through immigration in Minneapolis. Luckily Layla seemed alright with papa holding her too. Phew! And she had cousin Maddie's hair to play with.


We flew back to SA the next day. Lucas was so good on the plane - really all weekend! I was very impressed with my little traveling companion. Home sweet home! Then I saw the van. Mark had been rear-ended with Jacob in the car on Saturday between birthday parties. Everyone is OK - even the van - but there is a big dent in the rear door. He was stopped at a red light and the lady who hit him had the gall to ask Mark why he backed into her!! Police were called, report filed ... more to come but hopefully, not too much drama.

Sarah had stayed home from school that day complaining of a tummy ache. She really was sick last week so Mark wasn't sure. He thought she had miraculously recovered by about 8:15 am. Then this morning, Ethan woke up with diarrhea! On the bright side, it was nice to be "forced" to spend the day at home after being gone all weekend. He too, got better through the day and hopefully everyone will be off and running tomorrow!