Family Style

I've got family all over the place. My mom is one of 5 and two of her sisters and a brother live in the Chicago suburbs while her oldest sister lives in San Diego. This weekend, the San Diego family was in Austin for a wedding and being only 3 hours away, I had to make sure to see them! My cousins, Erica and Tyler, just had a baby (Ryan Oliver, 3 mos) and I wanted to meet him as well. Babies have such pure, joy-filled hearts and you can see it written all over their faces, especially when they're sleeping. It was such a treat to get to spend some time with family and in Austin no less which is just a great city!

Erica - Ryan's beautiful Mommy!

Daddy Tyler making sure the little guy gets enough to eat

Ma Famille, la mia famiglia, mi familia, min familie...

No matter how you say it, they will always be your family. (The last one is Danish by the way) You may fight, argue, yell, cry - but ten minutes later it's all blown over and no one can remember what the fight was even about. The holiday season always seems to make families go crazy. My sister is indecisive and can't tell me what she wants for Christmas and my mom just wants "happy children" - the same thing every year. Mom makes the secret Boehm family chex mix and Margaux bakes a different pie each day. I'm always frantically searching for the perfect stocking stuffers. We send tons of emails back and forth about plane reservations, airport pickups and trips up to UMASS to take Margaux to and from school. Then the house fills up kids and friends and there is always arguing over who gets to take the car out. But at the end of the day, we'll always be family. I don't think I always appreciate this simple fact.