I'm not gonna worry about getting everything in perfect order -- but here's a few pics of our Chrismtas break! Actually, this was the last day of school before the break -- Kayla's class made Gingerbread houses. Bad Mom Note .... I have NEVER done gingerbread houses with my kids (GASP!), so it was definitely an experience! Thankfully there were several parents who showed up and made the process more manageable! My patience level with gingerbread houses that keep caving in is NILL!
A little story time on my way out the door . . .They also had Polar Express Day - (which is why they were in PJ's) due to the previous snow day.
We made a flying trip to Topeka that evening to see Topeka Bible Church's light show -- and met up with some family before hand!
Kayla FINALY got to change out her earrings!
We spent several days at my parents place -- and between our family (kids ages 10,8,6) and my brother's family (kids ages 9, 7, 5, 3, 3 months), there were 14 people staying there overnight! Wowza! It was the happening place I tell ya!
Opening stockings . . . a day late:)
Mom made arrangements for us to go visit a local assisted living place to do some caroling one day and have the kids play a few songs on the piano. We also made some cards to distribute -- good thing Iron Man was on hand to sign his name:)
It was an assembly line to get the cards signed!
Joshua playing his piece.
We also had a family "recital" -- it was fun to hear everyone:) I had promised them we could take some time off of piano after the "recital" -- so they were pretty pumped about the recital:)
When everyone was together, I think there were 23 people -- that's a lot of humanity!!!! So much fun/craziness/noise/excitement!
Kayla has been on this "I wish I had a younger sister kick" -- well, she got some "older sister" experiences! She really is good with younger kids!
The boys and legos -- never separated:)
The girls --
So, one of my parent's "gifts" was a photo session with all 13 grandkids and Grandma and Grandpa! We knew it would be a modern miracle to even get one picture with kids looking and not screaming . . . but low and behold . . .
IT HAPPENED! I think we're still in shock:)
We snapped a quick pic of our kids.
Joshua - 10; Kayla - 8, Tyler - 5 1/2
Grandma (in all of her spare time!!!!) made matching dresses for the girl cousins -- but this picture doesn't include the youngest girl Kenny (9 months) -- she had a dress too!
This is the crew when we grabbed a quick lunch together!
More girl time!
Henry was quite the perler bead assistant/navigator for Tyler! We soon learned that quiet activities were a definite plus for this crew!
Dozens of chess games!
I told you she was good with kids:)
Tyler making sugar cookies with me!
Kayla enjoyed dipping the pretzels . . . for about 7 minutes:)
Love seeing Tyler's handwriting:)
A little basement fort action!
One of Kayla's gifts was a stand for her American Girl doll -- and she was quite excited to do some "photo shoots" with the doll!
We tried braiding Kayla's hair wet -- hoping it would be "curly" in the morning . . .didn't work so well! A few section were wavy -- but other parts were stick straight. Go figure!
One day this week the cousins joined us at a nearby hotel that has a small water park. The idea was for the kids to burn a lot of energy. It worked! (Although the water was . . . um . . .a bit chilly!)
A quick meal at our place
A cousin (some of them) camp-out at our place! What a great couple of weeks together!
Lots of fun memories!
