Five very short hours ...

Yesterday's visit with Nathan and Nia went by too quickly! With a huge winter storm on the way, the McNeil's needed to head out of town early to try and beat the worst it.

We did all of our usual stuff around here and had so much fun just watching the children play.

Nia Madelynn is such a love. She is a very smart little one, catches on to new activities very quickly, and is a snuggler ... she really did amazingly well these four weeks so far away from her home ...

Nathan Paul requested some play time just with "Carol" (that's me ... I'm not sure WHY he referred to me that way today, several times as a matter of fact!) ~ so Nathan and I spent a lot of time in the basement playroom. We set up the blocks, built an elaborate garage for the micro-machine cars, made special roads out of the other blocks, and had a great time. I don't think it's grandpa that he wanted to exclude as much as his little sister. Nia does tend to interrupt just about everything Nathan sets up to play with!

Nathan loves music and we have a lot of nice children's CDs. At one point he looked at me and asked me if we had "the all is calm all is bright song" and really beamed when I put on "Silent Night" for him to hear. He enjoys singing and very much likes to be sung to!

Grandpa and Nia got lonely for us upstairs and finally came down to run trains, which everyone enjoyed very much. Nathan was especially fascinated with the tunnels ...

It was great being able to spend quality grandparent time over an extended four-week period with these two beautiful kiddos. We are praying them safely back to San Antonio and counting the days until the end of March when we see them again ... and meet baby Lottie for the first time!