If you follow along here, or on Instagram, you’ll notice another little blondie that shows up in MANY of our adventures around this house.

This little girl:

This is “Cousin Evie” as we call her around this house. Everly is my sister and brother-in-law’s daughter. She is a little more than a year older than Harrison, and they live in a suburb of Kansas City about 30 minutes from us. Evie is Harrison’s only cousin right now.

We LOOOOOOVE Cousin Evie around here. My sister, Kendra, and I didn’t grow up around our cousins living more than 10 hour car ride apart. And my wish for these cousins is that they grow up together. That they grow to have amazing memories of childhood together – playing outside, splashing at the pool, making up crazy games and coaxing each other to take a leap of faith.

I pray that these cousins grow up to be as close as siblings. That in the times that are hard or challenging, that they turn to each other when they feel like the grown-ups just couldn’t understand. That when they’re teenagers, that they go to each other’s games, music recitals, shows… That on a Friday night, that they choose sometimes to hang out with each other – staying up too late laughing and talking about their hopes and dreams.

I wish these cousins the kind of a relationship that continues through life’s seasons. That years from now when they have their own children, that they are still getting together for family cook-outs: reminiscing about the old days when they were little, egging each other on and up to no good. And that those days years from now are still full of smiles and laughter, and maybe they still call each other “Cousin Evie” and “Baby Harrison” 😉