Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows

We spent this weekend in Denver with Grant's family.  It was awesome!  There is something so wonderful about being in your parents (or in-laws) home, surrounded by family with nothing to worry about.  It literally feels like Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows   (That is one of our favorite songs.  It's from our favorite movie: see here).

One of the best parts about visiting family is playing with our nieces!  We have three: Kate (3), Gwen (1) & Elaina (3 mo.).  They are all at such different stages and have different personalities so they are each fun for different reasons.

Kate, 3, loves to talk and has tons of energy.  She is super smart and asks questions like, "So... Uncle Matt... how do you like living in Utah?"

Uncle "Guck" taught her how to play croquet... sort of.  Here she is contemplating the meaning of the universe... maybe...

I don't have a ton of pictures of Kate, mostly because she loves to run around... and I don't know how to use my camera that well yet.  I'm good at taking pictures of things that stand still...

Which is why I have a lot more pictures of her baby sister, Gwen.

Gwen is 1 and her parents call her "the unloader" because she loves to walk around and find things to dismember.  Luckily, she didn't do too much unloading this weekend.

But she did do a lot of smiling and holding still, which made it easy for me to take pictures of her.  Woohoo!

Gwen also loves to eat.  (But really... what one year old doesn't?!  Oh yeah... that would have been me... Sorry mom.)

There is something about her red hair and greyish eyes that I find absolutely beautiful.  What a cutie!

She also loves her Uncle Guck.  This picture reminds me of a picture of me as a baby... Do you know what picture I'm talking about mom?  Do you have it?

And then there is baby Elaina!  She is in quite a mommy stage so we didn't see as much of her as the unloader or the talker :)

I am in love with her chubby cheeks! Why is that it's so cute to be a chubby baby but not a chubby adult?  Sometimes I think we should reinstate the idea that extra poundage=status.  Yeah!

I love all these faces she made so I made a collage.  What a cutie :)  Someday we'll have our own little one to take millions of pictures of.  But for now, I will attack every child that gets near with my camera.  (Well, not literally attack... ya know...)