Yanoses

The Entire Yanos Family  
It never fails, that anytime I am thinking of my blessings, I keep coming back to my family. No matter where I have been in my life, it has always been family that is the most important thing. They are the one constant in my life that I can always count on, and for a girl that doesn't like change, having a constant is VERY important.
Michael's brother and his family
This weekend, we were fortunate enough to have Michael's parents visiting us. They came out on Saturday and left this morning. We had a lot of fun having them around. It's so good for the kids to see them more frequently, and Michael is truly enjoying the growing relationships. We have all changed a lot in the past few months, and I think it is working out to make our family stronger.
Yesterday, Thanksgiving Day, Michael's brother and his family came down as well, so for the first time since Heather was a baby, the WHOLE family was together!! That's SEVEN grandchildren ago!! It was so nice to be all together. I love to watch my kids develop relationships with their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. It's such an important part of who they are as individuals.
Heather and Natasha with their cousin, Alissa

I could tell that the kids were really excited to have their grandparents here, because they were up by 8 every morning. Usually on weekends they are dragging out at 9 or 10. So, even though some mornings they were barely awake, they were still upstairs talking with us and figuring out what they were doing for the day.

Natasha and her cousin Alissa, have been best friends since birth. When they were very little, they lived together, and then they practically lived together, and they were completely inseperable. As they have gotten older, and we have moved, they have had less and less time together, but they are still the very best of friends. When they are together, the whole world is right and they are nothing but smiles. I don't ever recall them having an argument or disliking one another. It's been amazing. Since we've had Heather here, they have been really good about including her and she is becoming "one of the girls". So the three of them run around together laughing and smiling and enjoying girl talk.

Our photo shoot was a lot of fun. In the beginning, the kids weren't too fond of the idea, but as we all started taking pictures of the cooperative kids, then the uncooperative ones decided that they wanted in on the action. So in the end we got some great shots of everyone and everyone had a great time. The older kids thought it was particularly amusing to watch me clap and make funny sounds to get Zachary to smile. Uncle Cory even took a video, which became a great amusement!
Michael's family



The Grandkids
Our little family

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