They've Come And Gone...

(Three Male McFerson Generations)

Alright, buckle your seats. This is going to be a very long, picture-laden entry.

Both Tauni's parents (The Schmirlers) and Jayd's (The McFersons) have now come and gone. In Coen's short five-week life, he has been graced with one Great-Grandmother (Grandma Moyer), both sets of Grandparents (Wayne/Sherry, Jim/Laura), five Aunts (Kristi, Tamara, Jennifer, Alison, Janna), one Uncle (Drew), and six cousins (Kayla, Kalsea, Tristin, Kuy, Danny, Savannah). Not a bad stretch at all. The little man has definitely had an opportunity to meet his family. And we really appreciate the sacrifice that everybody has made to come visit him. Central Texas is not the easiest place to get to, so we truly appreciate the effort. I will now attempt to recount some of it, in chronological order (speaking in pictures more than words).

Before Coen's birth, Tauni's family made the huge sacrifice of coming to Texas for Christmas.

Tauni's parents were able to stay for five weeks, during which time we moved into our house, Tauni delivered Coen, we stayed with him for a week while he was in the NICU and then we were able to bring him home. They helped us tremendously throughout this time. Kayla's mom (Kristi) and sister Kalsea also made the huge sacrifice of flying from Edmonton Alberta and surprising Kayla on Christmas Eve. The two pictures above were taken after church on New Years Eve 2006.

On February 1st, my (Jayd's) parents arrived after a two-day journey from Southern California, my father underselling his desire to see Coen by saying that he also needed to "heed the call of the open road". Apparently he needed to reacquaint himself with the West Texas Winter. At the same time that they were arriving, Jeffrey's wife Alison (her gorgeous children shown here) flew in from Orange County, my parents picking her up from the airport en route to our house (strangely, Alison seemed to take most of our pictures so she isn't shown here. Sorry.).

Upon arrival, my mom dutifully went straight to her latest (and sixth) grandchild. She will likely kill me for posting the picture above, so just know that it was taken after two days of her spent in a car. Regardless, I think it perfectly captures her enthusiasm upon seeing little Coen (who somewhat rudely greeted her by sleeping through the entire episode).

The next evening (Friday, 2/2/07), my sister Jennifer also flew in from California, with her 3rd child Savannah. At the same time, Tauni's brother Drew and his family (wife Tamara, daughter Tristin, sons Kuy & Danny) came to Austin to see us and conduct some business. On Saturday night, we were lucky to have a huge chunk of our family over to the house to hang out. Here are some pictures:

And, I think this next one is my favorite picture. Here is an older sister of twin boys. She has obviously learned some impressive mothering skills, even at such an earlier age (Tristin & Coen):

On Sunday, February 4th, 2007, we were thrilled to have a lot of family attend Coen's baby blessing at church. It was amazing to have so much support. Of course, Tauni had Coen dressed up in some stylish whites.

Unfortunately, my time is short (off to Church, then off to California this evening for work tomorrow), so I can't give a full recap of my family's time here. However, suffice it to say, we all loved hanging out together and seeing some of Austin. To all who've come -- Thanks a ton. We love you.

Here's a happy Aunt Janna:

G'Pa Mac holding Coen and Janna computing:

Coen loved his Grandpa McFerson ("The Oven"), who apparently gives off a lot of heat. For ten days, Coen seemed to always be sleeping on Grandpa, rendering the old guy couch-bound and "forced" to watch some serious College Basketball and the National Geographic channel.

And, finally, after these visits, Tauni and I definitely noticed some similarities between our parents' grandparenting styles...

As always, more pictures here.