Hosting Family for 11 Days=LOTS of Fun!!!

Two days after Christmas, Vu's cousin and her beautiful family came into town and stayed with us for 11 days.  I was soooo excited to host them in our home, yet nervous since I have never hosted a family for that long.  I instantly clicked with Cousin C and her husband and we all had a marvelous time!  And not to mention, their two little boys (L-2 years old and G-10 weeks old) were so adorable and absolutely delightful to be around.  The house was bursting at the seams with laughter, baby giggles and wonderful adult conversation.  It was so nice to have someone to talk to during the evenings that my husband worked.  Since their family is currently living on a military base, they worked very hard to stock up on products that were not sold over seas (diapers, linens, ect).  Together our families attended Baco's 100th birthday party, Gator Fred's, the local park, lunch at my in-laws and lots of great hang out time at home.  We couldn't have asked for a more gracious family to host and we miss them dearly!!!

I combined a few suggestions from sweet friends + my experience, and here is my Top 5 List for hosting family or friends for an extended period of time:

1.  Type out a "Welcome to our Home Guide" that includes everything from your address and cell phone numbers to directions on how to work the tv, Internet and washer/dryer.  My List was only 1 page and I think it answered a lot of questions without them every needing to be asked.

2.  Show them where the medicine is...for themselves and their children.

3.  Go with the flow and don't sweat the small things.  This was really hard for me the first day.  We are very scheduled (lets face it, with 4 kids I have to be), but being flexible proved to be the absolute best choice when hosting company.  There were lots of last minute changes and I was totally ok with it!  I think it's all a state of mind...and once I got in the jive, there were no worries!

4.  Keep open communication.  Each night we would chat about our "game plan" for the next day.  This made it much easier to plan meals (or not to, depending if we would be out during that time), plan naps and get kid gear organized (strollers, diaper bags, ect).

5.  Utilize paper products!  We had tons of paper/plastic plates and utensils left over from Christmas and other various events from the year.  So, I decided to use those and I am so thankful I did!  Lets face it, cleaning up after 4 adults and 6 kids sure can be a lot of work, but he ability to simply toss plates made meal times stress free.  Plus, we were able to then get the kids down earlier allowing the parents more time to talk.  I highly recommend this short cut!!!

Bonus Suggestion:  Offer to watch their children for an evening.  I'm sure every parent understands just how exhausting traveling with children can be!  We watched their sweet little boys for an evening which allowed C and J to have a nice mommy/daddy dinner out and an added bonus for us was it was great training with six children (we're still debating about adding more to our family).  We had a great time and I know it helped to recharge their batteries, too :)

Below are lots of photos from our time together (it does not include Baco's birthday party)!  Unfortunately, I did not get any shots with all the adults.

Five of the six kiddos!

C, Baco, G, L and Uncle H.

L and Kyan!

Attempting to get all the kids in a photo!

C and L opening presents with their grandmother via Skype!

Really, he is just the sweetest little boy!

Proud mama's with their babies!

Daddy and son :)

While they were here Paxtyn began crawling.  He is into everything now!  Game on, boy.

Enjoying time at Gator Freds!

So cute!

Quick snap shot of Paxtyn and a New Years Eve Party :)

Braylon at the park!

Paxtyn sporting his Asian Mohawk.

Having fun with lots of space to explore!

And you can see, this was orange day :)

Little buddy was not stop!

Bac came into town for a few days!

Unwrapping presents from bac :)

;)

Now this was an adventure.  We headed to the Glazer Children's Museum since they had Target Free Tuesdays (admission was free).  Of course, everyone else apparently had this awesome idea too because the place was packed!  We waited in line for 1 hour and 55 minutes.  And no, I am not exaggerating.  This was turned into one of those sink or swim parenting moments.  Rather than complaining in line, we got our game faces on and ate dinner in line (yes, we are nerds and made pb&j sandwiches before hand...we were planning to smuggle them in), did flashcards and made the best out of it.  High five to my hubby.  An evening that could have easily ended with grouchy kids and parents turned into a successful and educational night!

It wrapped around the entire building.

"Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming..."

In at last!!!!

Worth the wait :)

Very cool!

"It's just like MOSI!"

They had a blast!

Gator Fred's round two!

Some familiar faces were there!

Adorable!!!

Such a great couple and an amazing parenting team!  We love you guys!!!

Six bags stuffed into the jeep.  Don't go!!!

Little G sporting his new hair do.  Rock it, little man!  :)