Obligatory Christmas Review

I don't believe I mentioned that we had a very full house for Christmas. My parents have a 5 bedroom house- 3 rooms upstairs and 2 downstairs. We managed to stuff 12 children and 9 adults into those rooms. Crazy, I know. Fun? Absolutely!

We don't really need Christmas to bring us together. We really only want to duel in games of Five Crowns. (Which I lost quite spectacularly, by the way.)

Here we have Delaney and GG (Great Grandma). It was nice to have my grandmother here. It has been a while since I have seen her, and I really need more pix of her with my children!

Christmas morning we got dressed up for church. Marian looked so cute in her hat. She wanted a hat because all her girl cousins got to wear super-adorable berets.

See, super-adorable berets on super-adorable girls! Kera's kids are so cute and she dressed them in matching dresses. I felt quite inadequate!

Yep, this was the fruits of our ill-fates attempt at family pictures. All were dreadful.

Yep, even the best were awful. So no pictures to share, and none for the wall.

So I am exceedingly jealous that Andy and his family managed to look fantastic, look at the camera, and look happy. Sigh.

Delaney was delighted to get "Kitty Meow-Meow" for Christmas. She is such a funny girl. I loves her. Loves her a lot!

Somebody needed a nap after the loot-fest. I didn't get one, but my dad did!

My gorgeous niece Katie with GG. I couldn't pass up this picture.

Joshua was so happy to get an entire Hershey bar for himself, he ate it all. I'm not even sure he wanted to eat the whole thing, but he did it. Bleh.

Can you see what Joshua is looking at? He got a little indoor rc helicopter and has had so much fun with it. Unfortunately, it has run into just about everything in the house, and flies just a little off kilter now.

GG is a bit of an artist, so it was great to see her and Marian together. Marian was drawing and GG was offering suggestions and showing Marian how to do some things. I loved it.

I also loved seeing Rylee and her cousin Camden playing together. Happy giggles are the best sound ever!

And thus, it was sad when all the family headed home. Except for us. We will stay a little longer. I have to regain my sanity before tossing the kids in the car for a 11 hour drive home! To recap, being with family was the best part of Christmas. Seeing the kids playing with their cousins and hanging out with GG and their grandparents was wonderful. Eating lots of pie and playing 5 Crowns and scoping out the thrift stores made it a lot of fun. I am so grateful to have good family, and to have married into good family. I am grateful for the birth of our Savior and for the blessings it brings. I love Christmas!

Now That's Self Esteem!

Christmas was a rough day for Delaney. Somehow on Christmas Eve, she ended up watching Netflix till 11:30pm, while I was distracted by a rowdy game of "5 Crowns" with my family and Dan fell asleep on the couch. Combined with the other late nights, early mornings, and romping to exhaustion with her cousins, she was one tired puppy yesterday. Much whining and crying and drama occurred between the delighted giggles and joyful play.

Last night as I tucked her in, she said it was hard to tell that I loved her when I spoke in a grumpy voice to her. And I certainly did use a grumpy voice on her yesterday. I explained that I always loved her, even when I used a grumpy voice. We chatted about that and I told her how much her Heavenly Father also loved her, even when she wasn't being a good girl, He loved her, just like I did. She got a big grin and her eyes went wide and she whispered conspiratorially, "I think I'm His Favorite!!"

Holiday Travels... er, travails? The follow up.

In the last post, I regaled you with our ill fated journey to grandma's house. I mentioned our 3 hours in the airport. I should have provided the visuals that went along with it! And I wanted to be clear that despite the misery associated with covering long distances with children, it was worth it. Totally worth it!

This was one of the best ways we found to kill time in the airport. The kids loved zipping around in the wheel chairs. I confess that it was a lot of fun. But not 3 hours of fun for me.

Delaney wanted to take a picture of me and Rylee at the airport. So here I am, after 8 hours in a van and 2 more hanging out in the airport. Good times.

This is what makes it worth while! Hanging out at Grandma's house, watching Rylee spin Camden around on the toy and hearing them giggle like loons. I love seeing my kids play with their cousins! I also love hanging out with my family.

Rylee and Camden in their Santa hats was too cute. I have no idea what Rylee is doing here, but it was funny!

Yep, too cute, that's what these 2 are!

And here is Delaney, wearing her Halloween shirt, a Santa hat, and what she calls her "creepy smile". That's my girl!

The Delights of Travlelling long distances with Children

Yesterday was a long day. A very long day. For some reason, we made some odd choices in order to complicate our December and Christmastime. This means that yesterday I drove to Arkansas. I drove the van, which was packed with not only lots of suitcases and Christmas loot, but also with my mom, my sister, my nephew, and my 2 youngest children. 3 adults, 3 children, good ratio, right?

We made it through the first 8 hours with only a minor glitch requiring an extended stay at a gas station bathroom. We had some rain, which made me ever so grateful to have my lovely van, which has enough trunk capacity to store all the stuff we were hauling, so we didn't have to have anything on the roof getting wet. We were a wee bit behind schedule, since our goal was to pick up my grandmother from the airport. Her flight was scheduled to arrive at 3:45 or so. We arrived at 4:30pm and learned the flight had not even taken off yet. After many rides up and down the escalator, several tours around the airport, a few snacks, teary meltdowns, and 3 stinking hours, Grandma (G.G.) arrived at 7:30pm. Whew!

We stopped at McAllisters for a late dinner and headed on. 3 hours to go! 3 hours to go! Since the van was full, I sat in the very back seat, between Rylee and Delaney. Miranda sat in the center, next to her baby Camden, and my mom and GG sat in the front. Wheee on the dark and twisty roads! Delaney had to pee 30 minutes out. Nothing is open after 9pm, so she had to squat behind a closed gas station and go, which saturated her pants when it trickled down her leg. Off came the pants. 30 minutes later, Delaney said she had to go again. I put one of Rylee's diapers under her bum and made her use that. Surprisingly, she did with good humor. Then she asked for another diaper in case she had more. I obliged.

We were down to the last hour, and Camden had had enough, and he had a screaming meltdown. I knew how he felt! 15 minutes later, with Camden still in full miserable cry, Rylee suddenly vomited down her front. More revolting chunks of barely digested macaroni and cheese erupted from her, and more, until she expelled the not-minute contents of her tummy. And oh yes, still 45 minutes to go.

Leaving it all behind

So, a week ago, my mom dropped Dan and I off at the Cruise Terminal Oh yes, Dan and I finally ran away on a second honeymoon! We spent a week on the Norwegian Spirit and had a really good time. We figured if we were going to live this close to the New Orleans port, we should take advantage of it. And we did!

This was our room. The buffet dining was on the 12th floor. That means we ran up and down 7 flights of stairs quite regularly. I refused to take the elevator. Knowing the amount of yummy food we'd be eating, it seemed wiser.

My and my sweetie-pie, hanging out on the deck.

Our first stop was Costa Maya, where we visited the Mayan Ruins of Kohunlich, which were really nifty. Okay, so I thought this tree growing out of the ruin was super awesome.

The ruins were impressive, though not as large as some others. But we could climb on these, and I liked that!

Next we were in Belize, where we did a jungle walk and went cave tubing. See that little cave opening under the grabby-knabby vines?! That's where we floated along in our inner tubes. So pretty and so fun.

Yep, them's my toes and there's the cave I floated through.

Did I mention how fun it was to come into the room each night to a different towel animal? This was one of my favorites. Wait... They were all my favorites!

Thursday Dan and I went to Roatan and went to the beach and went snorkeling. I didn't realize it would be so hard!! I hate breathing through my mouth and my brain was freaking out because it just knew I couldn't breath underwater. It took me a bit to be comfortable, and I'm so glad I did it! We saw fishies and more fishies and fun fishies and coral!

That's me! See, I really did it! And I love-love-loved the little mini kodak camera. It really WAS waterproof! And it took decent pix for me.

And when we were done playing in the sea, we hung out on the beach.

A lovely sunset at sea. Sort-of. We visited Cozumel on Friday and just did shopping. And I realized I had no sunset pictures, so I had to remedy that. We're just leaving Cozumel here.

Mmmmmmm...... the Chocoholic Buffet! Chocolate delights, chocolate carvings and ice sculptures. What more do you need?! Well, now I may need a corset.

Delicious!

This is the track. 18 laps makes 3 miles. I ran 18 laps 3 days of the cruise. While laps are incredibly boring, and counting 18 laps is horrid, it certainly is fun to run with the roll of the ship.

And in case you need to know why this much running (plus 2 more days in the gym on their elliptical) was necessary, let me show you some of the other culinary deliciousness that is now padding my hips:

And now to resume real life.....

Go me!!

Today I did something I have never before done. I ran in my first 5k race. It was a very small local 5k, run on the very course I regularly shuffle/jog and push my doublewide stroller each week. Plus, it was walking distance from the house. So it was AWESOME! Dan and I wandered over and made friends before the just-after-9 start. It was chilly this morning and I started off wearing mittens and earmuffs. Once the wind was at my back, those came off, and the sweatshirt soon followed.

It was a great run! I passed 2 ladies and paced a third who I passed on the last half mile. I was significantly faster than I have thus far been- I was just under 10 minute miles. Sure, mock me, that's okay! I was happy. Even better, my mom and sister actually got all the kids together and walked to the course to cheer me home. When I saw Callie and Joshua with Dan on that last corner, I got the biggest grin on my face and it stayed there. It was so great to have my own little cheer squad! And when I saw the time clock and realized I was going to finish in under 30 minutes, I was so thrilled! I think my official time was 29:44. Dan was nearly 10 minutes faster than me. the sad thing is that my neighbors 12 year old daughter smoked me. Sigh. I don't care, I did it and I liked it!

My glorious sprint to the end with my entourage!

Dan actually was really good and had a few pictures of me on the course, but I felt I was a little too.... um, shall we say, busty.... to post them.

Yep, this was the "What?!! Are you SURE I get a 2nd place trophy?!" I know, astonishing.

Oh, wait, there were less than 20 people running in this thing and there probably were only 2 of us in that age bracket! Nevermind, It is still my very first trophy, and I love it! And you can see that I am not an attractive exerciser. I'm okay with that. When I'm done, you know I worked out!

Dan got first place for his age group, and was third overall. There were some speedy young guys, but Dan wasn't far behind them!

Here we are, showing off our trophies and joy. The kids had so much fun cheering and drinking all the blue gatorade. They all had blue gatorade mustaches by the time we got home.

The race was a great one for me to start with. It was small, it was fun, and they gave prizes at the end. They had a bunch of stuff and drew names for it all. They let my kids draw the names from a cup. (So high-tech, know!) The girls were so happy to help. And when it was all done, I had my very own new duffel bag with a water bottle and ball cap. Super-cool! And Callie and Marian got their own trophies. Yep, the race was so small, they had 2 extra trophies and they gave them to the girls. A very successful morning for us all!

How Random!

As Dan went on the balcony to unplug the Christmas lights, this is what he saw, perched on our next door neighbor's flag pole! Amazing! The owl sat there long enough for me to run downstairs and grab the camera and then he let me take a few shots. It took a couple before I had a decent picture. As soon as I had this one, he nonchalantly flew away. Way cool, I say.

This is what happens when you don't set the timer and let your rolls rise a little too long. Oops! Good thing I saw this before the dough began creeping across the counter. The rolls were delicious, by the way.

And this picture cracks me up. Not because Delaney is adorable, but because Joshua was being so silly behind her. It makes me laugh every time I see it.

Flashback Friday Foto

I am stealing the Flashback Friday Foto idea from Kirsten. Thanks, Kirsten! This flashback is from Christmas 2007. This was the last Christmas I spent with much family. We drove up to Connecticut to my brother's house and had everyone in the family there, except my baby brother and his wife. So, one set of grandparents, one older brother (hee hee hee, I spelled that "bother" initially!) with wife and 4 or 5 children, Jonathan with his wife and 3 children, Me and Dan with our 4 ankle-biters, Deborah with her hubby and munchkin, and Miranda with her sweetie in tow. Good times! Crazy times, but good times!

I know, insane. I think we had 12 adults and 12 children there. Maybe more. We definitely have more now! Going through the loot pile was fun.

The kids loved it because there was snow the entire time we were there. Probably our only white Christmas ever. There was much fun had in the snow.

And here I am with the 3 oldest kids. I think Dan had Delaney and took this picture. I think Callie was not going to see Santa alone.

I love Christmas and I love family. I am excited to get to spend Christmas with family again this year. I do like a quiet, stress-free Christmas alone, but the insanity of squishing millions together and tossing in chaos has it's own attraction and I like that too!

Fabulous Family!

This Thanksgiving, we took advantage of being close enough to drive up to my brother's house. We went, we stayed, we overindulged. We had a great time! Out kids got along nicely, I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with my sister-in-law, Kera and it was a really wonderful Thanksgiving. We hung out a few days and parted sadly. I am so glad we live close enough to do it again!

I will not bore you with all the things I am thankful for, but they are many. I will however, bore you with the pictures. Be happy; I have many, many more things I'm grateful for than I have pictures here!

With 4 adults and 11 children in the house, it was only minorly distressing that the dishwasher was broken. Kera put my kids to work with hers and I was amazed at how well they dealt with the mountains of dishes each day. Amazed, I say!

Hanging out, waiting for the feast.

Pre-turkey gobbling.

The wait was worth it, Thanksgiving dinner was divine.

And the pie..... ahhh, the pie!

Charlotte had her own way to eat it. Or maybe she just wanted a chocolate moisturizer?

How many children are in this tree?!! There are at least 4 in there. Unfortunately, in her quest to the top, Callie fell down and broke her crown. Well, she did fall from the very top and she did bonk her head. she's a tough cookie. She only fell because a branch broke.

Check it out, even Joshua was up in the tree!

Marian and Aaron played really well together. They were so cute on the front lawn doing whatever building project they were doing.

Something about Marian and trees.....

Joshua claimed he was so bored he didn't have anything to do except this.

The little kids never got bored! Check out how much fun a trampoline can be!

And I am at a loss to explain this. But I was in hysterics as I took the picture!

The DS was quite the entertainer. The kids were pretty good at sharing.

Oh yeah! We broke out the Apples to Apples and had a good time playing. I might have won had I not looked down at my pile and wondered why on earth I had cards there. I put them back with the other cards before realizing they had been MY cards! Oops.

We went out to the park and ran the kids around to settle the pie.

Not only do I love Rylee's face in this picture, I love that you can see Marian in the top corner.

Yep, she made it up there. and back down.

Delaney had fun. She always does!

Oh, and I had to get a shot of the pies. This was only half. There were 3 chocolate truffle, 4 pumpkin, 2 pecan, 2 apple, 1 each of lemon meringue, banana cream and blueberry. Oh, the deliciousness!