Home again, home again, jiggity jig!

Well, we didn't go to the market to buy a fat pig as the rhyme goes (one of Great-Grandma Rankin's favorites), but pulling up to our house last night at 12:30am had us doing a jig! Okay, not really a jig; more like a stumble to the door and a fall into bed! It was good to be home! Aunt Karen asks me every time we get ready to leave Illinois on a journey back home, "Isn't it just nice to know you'll be back home and in your own bed soon?" And, every time I reply, "I love being home, but do not like leaving my family!" It's sort of bittersweet! Even more so now with Jacob! But, we make it work with trips and pictures and phone calls! As for my family, we owe them a great big Thank You!!" for all of their help last week! It's so nice to always have someone there to help out with Jacob! Maybe it's good we live so far away as everybody might not be so willing if they were around him more than a week at a time! Seriously though, everybody was a great help: Uncle Chris brought down all their baby gear from the attic for us to use, Aunt Karen and Aunt Kori put in hours of rocking time, Aunt Kelly took so many pictures and entertained Jacob so we could all enjoy his smiles, Aunt Kendall again did her goofy dance to get Jacob to laugh and smile, Emma, Anna, and Ella took turns holding Jacob so he could watch TV (who said it's not a good babysitter!), Grandma Cooper and Aunt Stacy kept Jacob entertained outside while I shopped at Old Navy...I could keep going and going but I hear a baby whining through the monitor so I'd better hurry!
Anyway, here are some pictures that were taken after my deleting mishap! I so wish I had more to share. As soon as I get Aunt Kelly's pictures, I'll post more for you all to enjoy!
A little about our trip home yesterday: Poor Jacob was used to the six hour trips in the car and so he thought that this trip should end after about six hours also. The last four to five hours of our drive yesterday were challenging! We started off great with only a couple stops and zero traffic jams going around the twin cities. That's where the smooth sailing ended. Jacob was ready to quit. We stopped and took a long stretch at Arby's, and then another at a rest stop, and then another in a parking lot, and then another in another parking lot, and finally we made it home! The last four hours were tough but we survived and Scott did a wonderful job driving despite the missing piece of our bumper on the front of our car. We hit a raccoon right before Bemidji and lost a good chunk of the front of our car! We'll have to snap a picture of it for you. It looks as though a small deer hit our car not a pesky raccoon!
The whine has progressed to a scream now, so I'd better go tend to young Jacob! Enjoy the pictures and I'll try to post some from Easter morning for you soon!
Thanks for your patience!!

This is the first picture I've looked at and thought Jacob might look a tiny, tiny bit like me...or maybe Aunt Kelly!