Brotherly Love

I love my siblings. I really feel blessed to have such a great relationship with all of my brothers and especially my sisters. As I've watched Kobe and Lily together, I've started to understand and appreciate this relationship even more. I have 4 brothers and 3 sisters. I only remember 2 of them being born, other than that my siblings have always been there. I have great memories of making up games with them, getting in trouble with them, and even doing things that to this day my parents don't know about :) Oh and my sisters...I will never forget our road trip to California the day after Christmas, so many memories that still make me laugh. Things weren't always fabulous... So many times I would go CRAZY at my sister after I would find my favorite shirt, that I let her borrow, buried in the mountainous piles of dirty clothes that littered her floor, weeks after she first wore it. But overall I appreciate so much our relationship, more now than ever. Having said that, I hope that my children grow up feeling the same way.

I think they are off to a great start. Kobe has always loved Lily, and now I can see that Lily reciprocates the feeling. Kobe is so sweet to Lily when she falls down or is crying, he'll run over and say "I'm sorry Lidy, it's okay." Whenever Kobe sits down to read a book or watch Sesame Street he always wants a blanket, and if Lily is sitting next to him he makes sure that the blanket is covering both of them. Every night before bed, Kobe can not sleep unless he has given Lilian a good night kiss. And when I'm putting Lily down he wants to sing her a song, just like we do for him. It is so much fun watching them care for each other....
Most of the time that is. Kobe and Lily like to make trouble together (check out the pictures). They also do their share of fighting. Over toys, chairs, Mommy or Daddy, you name it. Yesterday Kobe had thrown a broken toy in the diaper pail. Later Lily went to the trash, opened the lid and took out the toy. Kobe freaked out and ran over, took the toy, threw it back in the trash and sat on the lid. Lily was so mad she screamed at him and whacked him in the head with her sippie cup. So Kobe pushed her and she flew across the hall. Ah the love!
Here are some recent pictures showing the dynamics of the sibling relationship!

I was in the kitchen doing dishes after dinner and looked over to see Lily on the table tormenting Kobe while he was trying to finish eating.




One day the kids pulled these chairs into the kitchen and sat next to each other playing, it was as if they were begging me to take a picture!



Making beautiful music together.



This one has a story... I was busy making dinner and Justin asked me where the kids were. I said they were upstairs and I told him that as long as they were keeping themselves busy, I was too busy to care...My Mistake! Justin went upstairs and found them playing on our bed. They had taken everything off of the changing table (diapers, wet wipes, trash bags, etc.) and had dumped them onto our bed. The best/worst part was they had taken off their pants and diapers and were sitting on our bed half-naked, and of course after being freed from her diaper Lily peed on our bed. Lovely!


Kobe and Lily dancing in their matching Gamecock gear. They are so adorable!

I am thankful that families are a large part of Heavenly Father's plan. I think life would be unbearable without the relationships of our family members.