Holiday Travelers

The other night, Becky plaintively asked, “Why do our friends all live so far away?”  I felt bad for the poor girl, since I know how she feels!  So many of our dear friends live hours away from us, but we are so blessed that they are willing to make the drives (and in some cases, flights) to visit our home.  We had a houseful of beloved friends this past weekend, so there were eight children under eight, including a newborn baby!  It was so much fun! 

Here’s Danny being a reluctant passenger to Breton’s expert car driving (or rather car-sitting, since I won’t let the kids drive the car in the basement, where we store it for the winter!):

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Here are all the kids (minus the baby) watching “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” – one of my favorite holiday movies!

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Beautiful Kyana holding her newest cousin Selah:

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Ashley, the wonder-mom, snuggling with her daughter:

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Jim showing the kids how to kickstart a dirtbike (they were very attentive students and later, passengers!):

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Then we decided to take an impulse trip to New York City with just the girls, so Kyana could see the Statue of Liberty for a school project.  It felt a little crazy to be jumping on the train to Grand Central without any preparation and with a carful of kids, but I’m so glad we did it!  My friend Phebe (Kyana’s mom) joined us, and off we went.  It was a great adventure – we even navigated the subway, thanks to the kindness of strangers who helped our little lost party of five.  It’s such a neat experience to do more grown-up adventures with the girls, especially when we’re blessed with such wonderful company.  Many thanks to Ashley and the guys for holding down the fort when we were gallivanting through the city! 

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Christmas Day Pics

The kids gave Jim and I a great Christmas present by sleeping in until 8am on Christmas morning!  I actually had to wake the boys up, with some exuberant help from their big sisters who eagerly announced it was time to open their stockings!  My husband is an incredible stocking-stuffer-shopper, and this year was no exception.  The kids were thrilled with all their toys and treats – and the boys were especially excited about their very own child-safe shaving kits.

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We then had a great family breakfast (featuring Becky’s favorite French Toast Casserole and Jim’s favorite Egg and Sausage Casserole) and then dove into the gifts:

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Some of the highlights this year were a whoopie cushion (presented to Susie by Jimmy, who picked it out for her at the Dollar Store):

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Headlamps and musical instruments:

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Jim is now an amateur meteorologist:

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Danny got his own set of tools:

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Here’s Susie inspecting Jimmy’s tools (which are actually regular, non-toy tools – we figured he can start fixing stuff around the house!)

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And the crowning Christmas glory was Jimmy’s much-coveted train set, which he earned by stopping thumb sucking about a month ago (which completely blew our minds, since he LOVED sucking his thumb – but he loved that train set more!):

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And since the weather has been warm, we ended the day with a muddy Ranger ride around the yard!

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It was a great day!

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Christmas Eve Pics

What do you get when you cross lots of presents, lots of runny noses, and lots of wonderful visitors?  Well, you get our Christmas!  All six of us have been battling a head cold in various forms, but we had an awesome holiday nonetheless.  It started off with our traditional Christmas Eve dinner at my in-laws’ house with Jim’s aunt and uncle.  The kids look forward to it every year, and so do I! 

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Here are the kids sporting their new jammies – all ready for the big day ahead!

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The Nice List

Since it’s Christmas Eve, I’ll share with you the pictures we took of the kids’ Santa visit a few weeks ago.  The mall had quite the Santa set-up!  There was a “scale” the kids stepped on to measure whether they had been naughty or nice.  I think the kids were kinda nervous about what their rating would be!  Fortunately, they all made the nice list.  ;)   You can see the nicknames Jim typed in for them:

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Next up there was a Santa observation area where the kids can “track” Santa’s flight path:

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And finally, the big man himself!  He was a really nice Santa and chatted with the kids a long time.  Danny made sure to tell him he wanted a “wo-weewer” for Christmas.  Santa looked at me helplessly for an interpretation, and I clarified that Danny was asking for a “four wheeler.”  And despite Danny’s deer-in-the-headlights expression in the photo (or should I say reindeer-in-the-headlights?), all the kids had a great time!

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Susie’s Sandwich

Next steps in independence: making her own PB&J sandwich from start-to-finish.  Can’t wait until she can make us all dinner (And I wouldn’t even mind if it were PB&J!)

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Wonderful Visit

I mentioned in a previous post that Alli made a wonderful (but far too quick!) trip out to see us last weekend.  We packed her visit full of day-trips, parties, pictures and lots of hugs.  It was the best Christmas present ever to have her here!

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My Faith and Joy

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(Thanks to my Mom – the queen of gift givers – for finding these perfect ornaments for the girls!)

New York, New York

While my family was visiting, we decided to venture into NYC and brave the cold and the holiday shoppers in search of the American Girl dolls we had promised Becky and Susie months ago as a reward (for stopping their thumb-sucking habits).  The kids had no idea what to expect, since they’d never been in a big city before, and we were all so excited to see their reactions!  They did not disappoint. 

We took the train into the city, which is the part of the day the boys had been looking forward to, and it was smooth sailing.  The boys were ecstatic they didn’t have to wear seat belts!  They asked at nearly every stop if we were there yet. 😉 Once we exited Grand Central Station (one of my favorite places), the kids did great in the chilly air since we had bundled them up head to toe.  It helped that we had an abundance of adults to watch over all the kids – not only were my mom and sister and mother-in-law there, but Jim took the time off work, and our niece Alli had flown out to surprise the kids, so we had plenty of hands on deck.      And especially toward the later afternoon when the crush of pedestrians increased around Rockefeller Center, we needed every one of us to keep track of the little people!  In a matter of a few hours, we managed to see Time Square, visit the Toys R Us there (where the kids were VERY impressed with the huge dinosaur as well as the selection of electric ride-on toys), see the Rockefeller Center tree and skating rink, and go to the American Girl store.  It was all so wonderful!  The girls were thrilled with their new dolls and outfits that their Bubba and Grammie bought them (Becky chose Rebecca and Susie chose Kit – they had picked out these specific dolls months in advance), and we all loved seeing the city decorated for Christmas.  And believe it or not, we even had enough energy to go to the mall later that night and see Santa and knock out some more shopping.  It was a perfect day! 

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Mind the Gaps

The tooth fairy has been in overdrive around here – Becky lost her two front teeth (on the same day!) a few weeks back, and just last week, Susie lost one of her front teeth.  So we’re definitely singing the “All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth” around here!  I got a kick out of Becky’s list on the back of a coloring page I had printed out of the tooth fairy.  She named it Alexa (her favorite name of the moment).  Who knew fairies liked eggs?

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