When I was but a wee baby, my parents picked up and moved from Paris, Ontario to the north coast of British Columbia. My Dad is the oldest of five kids and they all had kids of their own around the same time. This would have been oodles of fun for me, did we not live clear across the country. We went back every few years but I often wished we had our extended family a little bit closer. The rest of them would get together for the holidays and big family get-togethers (They still do) and I felt like we missed out a little on that aspect of family.
Matthew has a sister two years his junior and a brother who arrived a year after she did. We all got married close together (Three years in a row) and had our kids in the same time period (Eight kids between us, born in the span of four years). We’ve been busy.
Matthew’s brother and his family live in the same town we do, so those cousins get to see each other pretty frequently. Matthew’s sister lives at the Coast, which is a mere four-hour drive away, so the whole batch of them get to be together often enough. This past weekend she drove up with her three and it was a Festival Of Blondes. The kids had a blast playing together for two full days in a row and before the group dispersed I asked if we could get a photo of them all together.
Back row: Daniel, Anna, Emily (Girl cousins! Only a year apart!)
Middle step: Isaiah, Graham
Bottom step: Caleb, Nathan, Jacob
I like it in black and white, too.
I can’t decide which one I’m going to print.
After checking the LCD and confirming that I did indeed have a photo I liked of the group, I told them to make silly faces.
They were happy to oblige.
Emily stayed with her standard “silly” face.
Nathan is slaying me in this series.
So is Isaiah.
Seriously.
We asked Anna if she wanted to make a silly face too.
That’s a negative.
I told the kids to do one more “nice” pose.
Daniel didn’t get the memo.
I love that my kids are having the extended family experience, complete with close cousins, that I did not. Based on the photos above, I think there’s going to be a lot of good times and laughter in the years to come.
Comments:
Cousins are wonderful. Did you know that I have 65? First cousins? Then… add on their spouses and their kids… Yes. My wedding was huge.
I love it, though… and it’s so awesome to be close to so many of them, too.
.-= Elizabeth´s last blog ..Last night =-.
Yep, cousins are awesome, and I am so glad my boys have some wonderful ones who are close in age. The photos are great, I love all their facial expressions. You can kind of tell what their personalities are like by how outrageous (or not) they get when you tell them to go crazy!
.-= Hannah´s last blog ..Opposites attract =-.
Funny – my mom is the youngest of six and moved from London, Ontario to BC
I too felt isolated from that side of my family – I don’t actually know any of them. My dad is from a small family so I only had 1 first cousin growing up and he passed away years ago. I’m lucky, though – I’ve got my multiple siblings to contribute the crazy and chaos to my life. Emily and her girl! cousin are adorable together; you will surely have your hands full with the 2 of them when they’re teenagers together 
.-= hillary´s last blog ..Rock Robot Rock =-.
That is so awesome. Poor Eric has no cousins, my Husband is an only child, and my sister doesn’t want to have kids.
I grew up having one set of cousins around all the time, and when they moved to Florida we would go visit them every summer. So much fun!
This is exactly why I can never pick up and move to Cananda like we want to. 2/3 of my family, including M’s cousins are less then 3 hours away. (My brother and my oldest nephew live in FL, but we still see them 3-4x a year). M gets to see her cousins at least once every other month and her grandparents, too. I could never give that up.
I didn’t grow up with cousins my own age at all, and longed so much for someone other than my boring brother to play with at family events. Your kids are very fortunate to have a whole pile of cousins to play with, argue with and get into mischief with!
Love the se of blonde! They are all so lucky to have each other! I only have two cousins, total, so I’m envious. And our siblings are slow in getting the reproduction memo, so our girls will be lone rangers for a while and then quite a few years older than any cousins that eventually might come along.
.-= Amanda Brown´s last blog ..Think Pink. AGAIN. =-.
Emily’s face in the last photo makes me want to leap into the computer and hug her face off. It’s that cute.
Your house must be amazing with all of these fantastic photos printed and hung up on all the walls.
I am looking forward to having some munchkins of my own to photograph down the road a bit.
.-= LauraRadniecki´s last blog ..Tutorial – How to Make Wine Glass Charms =-.
They are SO FREAKING ADORABLE.
Caleb and Daniel are looking so grown up! Sigh.
I grew up with a slew of cousins, but my children will not get the same privilege. Their only cousins live a good 20 (or so) hours away.
Cousins are an amazing gift of fun! I grew up close to my cousins and am still very close to some of them. And my kids see theirs on both sides frequently.
But we have yet to get that many good pictures of them together! That is no small feat my friend, good work!
.-= Kami’s Khlopchyk´s last blog ..A Moment of Complete Clarity =-.
So sweet!! Those cousins look so lovely together. Great moments captured too.
We grew up with no extended family since my parents were both only children. Now there are 3 little cousins who love to play together and we enjoy each moment they have together.
.-= Mama in the City´s last blog ..Mama in the City on Grief and Loss in Pregnancy =-.
SO many blondes!
I had to say that “Daniel didn’t get the memo.” was the first thing that made me laugh on this terrible no good day. Thank you!
.-= sizzle´s last blog ..Pushing Past =-.
I remember hanging out with my cousins during summer. (They lived about six hours away near my Grandma’s, so when I’d visit her I’d see them). It would have been so much more fun if it wasn’t just three boys. Emily’s going to love having a girl cousin that close in age!
.-= Sarah´s last blog ..Things I Love 22 =-.
I’ve so many cousins myself. But these pics are wonderful. Anna is so anti-social, lol, she’s like my sister’s daughter. Won’t smile for a photo.
.-= Roshan´s last blog ..Disappointing Behaviour =-.
I didn’t grow up with cousins or aunts and uncles either so the whole thing is a little foreign to me. Foreign but cool
.-= Victoria´s last blog ..Oh =-.
Love the photos – and that they are all blonde. How adorable. Anna’s face made me giggle. You can very much tell that YOUR girl has two older brothers – by the silly faces she can muster up. Good job!! Must have been a fun weekend.
I thought you were joking about the SEA OF BLONDES! but you REALLY ARE outnumbered by them!
Good thing they’re reaking adorable!!!!
I didn’t see my cousins a lot growing up…and now…now I just plain don’t LIKE some of them
.-= Meg´s last blog ..300 =-.
Why am I not surprised that your kids were the ones that went all out when they needed to make silly faces?
SO CUTE!
.-= Kristabella´s last blog ..Walk Away The Pounds =-.
This post makes me so happy. Cousins are the best!
I have two cousins who are super close in age to my sister and I (Ryan and Kyle, respectively) and we were inseparable growing up. I have a ton of cousins on my dad’s side too, and while it took longer for us to get to know them because we didn’t see them as often after the divorce, I am close to them, too, and so thankful. Big families are fantastic.
As are these photos! (The last one of Emily is SO GREAT.)
.-= Kerri Anne´s last blog ..Good Things: Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer =-.
My kids never had the chance to grow up near cousins (my husband was in the military) and this all just sounds like so much fun.
And all your gorgeous family- the children look very much like each other. Enjoy these sweet years!
Is it weird to say that I think they all look like they could be sisters and brothers? I hope not, because I just did!
What a sweet bunch. Glad your kiddos get to bond with their cousins – that is pretty great!
.-= Elaine´s last blog ..I Couldn’t See… =-.
They all look alike! So fun!