Wow, what a crazy couple of weeks. I think we have all been sick a couple of times (thankfully not the stomach flu a lot of people had) and are exhausted, but it was great. It started last Monday night we went out to dinner with Andrew's family and the families of the guys that work on the ranch to Colton's for a little Christmas dinner. Then on Tuesday Jackson and Ellie had their Christmas parties at school. Jackson's was a pj party in the morning. He was so excited that Lincoln and I joined him.
Ellie's was a little later that morning and since we went to Jackson's, she really wanted us to come to hers too. They got to do a little gift exchange and decorate cookies. I also got to help them make some reindeer food and Lincoln was excited I was distracted so he could explore the room.
Tuesday night we had my family over for dinner and Andrew decided to go ahead and give me my birthday present, a beautiful emerald necklace. He gave me an emerald necklace back in high school and I lost it when I took it off at an away basketball game. So he decided it was time to replace it. We celebrated my birthday with my family on Wednesday and my mom made soup and red velvet cake and family started arriving into town. I also spent some time finishing the sugar cookies to take over to my family. Supposedly Carson ate half of these and everyone else shared the rest
The cousins were excited to see each other even though they did have their share of disputes.
Isn't little Carolina sweet?
I spent most of my Thursday helping Lissy with little Miss Violet's photo shoot. Violet was such a sweet little girl and I thought they turned out great. Thursday night we opened a couple of presents-Christmas Eve pjs and the kid's gifts to each other. Lincoln gave Jackson a sword and shield set which he put to good use.
And then Santa surprised us and showed up. The kids had mixed emotions of excitment, disbelief, and anxiety. I think my parents loved to surprise them with it.
Lincoln isn't a big fan yet except for the plastic, light-up kind.
Friday we got quite a bit of snow, which made for a beautiful white Christmas. But it also made the roads a little treacherous for our trip to and from Tom and Mary's house for the Farwell Christmas. We headed out their for lunch and to open some gifts. The girls have so much fun together.
Another attempt at a picture. Poor Ashlyn, she is just not a fan of posing for pics.
Jackson was very excited that Granny remembered to get him a snowboard. He even got to try it out the day after Christmas.
Ashlyn gave Ellie a dance game which made her pretty happy.
And if you haven't heard, Lincoln has a thing for corded, small appliances. He loves my blow dryer, irons and hand mixers. He found Mary's and decided to take a rest from playing with it in Luke's car seat.
Tom and Mary gave everyone a hunting video game-a very good idea.
Then it was time to head into town for church. It was beautiful. But like I said, a little treacherous and we ended up doing a little off-roading. Nothing to bad, just didn't quite make a turn. We went off into a little ditch but Andrew quickly put it into 4-wheel drive and we made it back out and onto a drive that led us back out to the street. Jackson yelled from the back of the car, "Why did we go that way?"
After church with Andrew's family we came home and ate some dinner. Then Andrew headed down to the basement to try to take a nap while the kids decorated some cookies for Santa.
Then they put out some reindeer food, put out Santa's magic key and read the Christmas story from the kid's bible.
And before we knew it, it was time to get ready for Midnight Mass with my family.
I think Lissy ended up with a pretty good picture considering all the people we had.
The same as every year, the music was beautiful at Midnight Mass. I think my kids were the only ones out of our crew that didn't sleep. Ellie got a second wind and was moving around to different people in our group talking. Jackson wanted to go to sleep but couldn't get comfortable. And Lincoln didn't know what was going on. Lissy helped me keep him quite by giving him some Smarties and letting him hide his Teddy Grahams in her lens cap. We got home sometime before two, put the kids to bed and got everything ready. I think I got to bed around 2:40 which was much better than everyone at my parents house. I think my parents went to bed around 4am.
Jackson and Ellie slept until close to eight but we had to wake Lincoln up the next morning. We put wrapping paper up on the stairs so the kids had to stay up there until we were all ready to go.
Lincoln thought he needed to rest a little longer on Ellie's new doll bunkbed. He wasn't really into opening presents. He actually still had one under the tree until a couple days after Christmas and I let Jackson and Ellie open it for him.
Andrew, Jackson and Ellie all got ball gloves. Ellie's was pink with white polka dots. She loved it.
Then it was onto my parents house where they were all waiting for us. I think this picture is funny-the babies with candy canes.
The babies kind of got lost in the wrapping paper.
Jackson trying to find more presents with his name on them.
Lincoln did like the new riding toys the kids got.
It was mass chaos, but so much fun.
And we made Aunt Lissy cry with her own pictures of his nieces and nephews.
All the little grandboys got litte Cardinal hats.
So cute.
They used Jackson to pack down some of the trash.
That night we had a delicious dinner. I don't know how my parents do it-go to bed at 4 in the morning and prepare a meal for over 30 people that night. The kids table is always very entertaining.
Part of our tradition is Christmas crackers that include paper crowns that we all wear for dinner.
The next week flew by even though I'm not sure what we did. A lot of our family stayed in town so we hung out with them. We ate dinner out at Tom and Mary's Thursday night because they had some friends in town. We also spent some time getting ready for Kaitlin's baby shower that we had Friday afternoon. We went with a little bit of a vintage theme and added to some of the decorations from Ellie's birthday party. They all decorated the night before and it turned out really cute and the food was good too.Kaitlin had a lot of help opening her presents.
Then we changed up the colors of the decorations a little to prepare for Caroline and Jared's engagment party that we had that night as part of the New Year's Eve celebration. It was supposed to be a surprise, but with everything going on, things got confused and she found out. Oh well.
Lincoln stayed up for the celebration. Andrew even tried to take him home early but he wasn't having it.
The kids stay entertained throughout the night with different games and movies. Sara even set up a scavenger hunt for them with different surprises. Here they are playing a little bingo.
We decided to celebrate New Year's at 11 when they dropped the ball. My dad even shot off fireworks and it was barely early enough for Andrew to celebrate with us. Man I look tired.
It is so hard to believe that it is all over now. Family is starting to head home and I am getting antsy to start taking down all the decorations and clean the house. It was crazy, chaotic, exhausting, but it was also fun, memorable, and priceless.
Ellie's was a little later that morning and since we went to Jackson's, she really wanted us to come to hers too. They got to do a little gift exchange and decorate cookies. I also got to help them make some reindeer food and Lincoln was excited I was distracted so he could explore the room.
Tuesday night we had my family over for dinner and Andrew decided to go ahead and give me my birthday present, a beautiful emerald necklace. He gave me an emerald necklace back in high school and I lost it when I took it off at an away basketball game. So he decided it was time to replace it. We celebrated my birthday with my family on Wednesday and my mom made soup and red velvet cake and family started arriving into town. I also spent some time finishing the sugar cookies to take over to my family. Supposedly Carson ate half of these and everyone else shared the rest
The cousins were excited to see each other even though they did have their share of disputes. 
Isn't little Carolina sweet?
I spent most of my Thursday helping Lissy with little Miss Violet's photo shoot. Violet was such a sweet little girl and I thought they turned out great. Thursday night we opened a couple of presents-Christmas Eve pjs and the kid's gifts to each other. Lincoln gave Jackson a sword and shield set which he put to good use.
And then Santa surprised us and showed up. The kids had mixed emotions of excitment, disbelief, and anxiety. I think my parents loved to surprise them with it.
Lincoln isn't a big fan yet except for the plastic, light-up kind.
Friday we got quite a bit of snow, which made for a beautiful white Christmas. But it also made the roads a little treacherous for our trip to and from Tom and Mary's house for the Farwell Christmas. We headed out their for lunch and to open some gifts. The girls have so much fun together.
Another attempt at a picture. Poor Ashlyn, she is just not a fan of posing for pics.
Jackson was very excited that Granny remembered to get him a snowboard. He even got to try it out the day after Christmas.
Ashlyn gave Ellie a dance game which made her pretty happy.
And if you haven't heard, Lincoln has a thing for corded, small appliances. He loves my blow dryer, irons and hand mixers. He found Mary's and decided to take a rest from playing with it in Luke's car seat.
Tom and Mary gave everyone a hunting video game-a very good idea.
Then it was time to head into town for church. It was beautiful. But like I said, a little treacherous and we ended up doing a little off-roading. Nothing to bad, just didn't quite make a turn. We went off into a little ditch but Andrew quickly put it into 4-wheel drive and we made it back out and onto a drive that led us back out to the street. Jackson yelled from the back of the car, "Why did we go that way?"
After church with Andrew's family we came home and ate some dinner. Then Andrew headed down to the basement to try to take a nap while the kids decorated some cookies for Santa.
Then they put out some reindeer food, put out Santa's magic key and read the Christmas story from the kid's bible.
And before we knew it, it was time to get ready for Midnight Mass with my family.
I think Lissy ended up with a pretty good picture considering all the people we had.
The same as every year, the music was beautiful at Midnight Mass. I think my kids were the only ones out of our crew that didn't sleep. Ellie got a second wind and was moving around to different people in our group talking. Jackson wanted to go to sleep but couldn't get comfortable. And Lincoln didn't know what was going on. Lissy helped me keep him quite by giving him some Smarties and letting him hide his Teddy Grahams in her lens cap. We got home sometime before two, put the kids to bed and got everything ready. I think I got to bed around 2:40 which was much better than everyone at my parents house. I think my parents went to bed around 4am.
Jackson and Ellie slept until close to eight but we had to wake Lincoln up the next morning. We put wrapping paper up on the stairs so the kids had to stay up there until we were all ready to go.
Lincoln thought he needed to rest a little longer on Ellie's new doll bunkbed. He wasn't really into opening presents. He actually still had one under the tree until a couple days after Christmas and I let Jackson and Ellie open it for him.
Andrew, Jackson and Ellie all got ball gloves. Ellie's was pink with white polka dots. She loved it.
Then it was onto my parents house where they were all waiting for us. I think this picture is funny-the babies with candy canes.
The babies kind of got lost in the wrapping paper.
Jackson trying to find more presents with his name on them.
Lincoln did like the new riding toys the kids got.
It was mass chaos, but so much fun.
And we made Aunt Lissy cry with her own pictures of his nieces and nephews.
All the little grandboys got litte Cardinal hats.
So cute.
They used Jackson to pack down some of the trash.
That night we had a delicious dinner. I don't know how my parents do it-go to bed at 4 in the morning and prepare a meal for over 30 people that night. The kids table is always very entertaining.
Part of our tradition is Christmas crackers that include paper crowns that we all wear for dinner.
The next week flew by even though I'm not sure what we did. A lot of our family stayed in town so we hung out with them. We ate dinner out at Tom and Mary's Thursday night because they had some friends in town. We also spent some time getting ready for Kaitlin's baby shower that we had Friday afternoon. We went with a little bit of a vintage theme and added to some of the decorations from Ellie's birthday party. They all decorated the night before and it turned out really cute and the food was good too.Kaitlin had a lot of help opening her presents.
Lincoln stayed up for the celebration. Andrew even tried to take him home early but he wasn't having it.
The kids stay entertained throughout the night with different games and movies. Sara even set up a scavenger hunt for them with different surprises. Here they are playing a little bingo.
We decided to celebrate New Year's at 11 when they dropped the ball. My dad even shot off fireworks and it was barely early enough for Andrew to celebrate with us. Man I look tired.
It is so hard to believe that it is all over now. Family is starting to head home and I am getting antsy to start taking down all the decorations and clean the house. It was crazy, chaotic, exhausting, but it was also fun, memorable, and priceless.
1 comment:
what fun!
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