Back into the swing

This will be a long one, we have some catching up to do!  Christmas Day found our kiddos so excited to open presents!  The girls came in around 5am.  I'd told them 7am.  We stuck them in the spare bed in the office and told them to go back to sleep.  They did.  Big brother woke up around 6:50.  The girls proceeded to sleep in until around 7:30.  Funnies.  We had our cereal, and then they tore into the stockings.  The boys got cars and tractors, the girls got lots of jewelry.  And candy.  Then we headed to the tree.  They had a lot of fun giving each other their presents.  We're going to have to take tighter hold of the reigns next year.  Big sister kept handing stuff out while other people were still opening stuff.  We work so hard to create the joy of that morning, we want to see it!  We'll  have to re-emphasize the one-at-a-time thing.  Anyway.  The kiddos all got their own tablets.  They love playing on Daddy's kindle, but they tend to try buying stuff and mess up settings.  So Santa found a great deal on some little cheapy tablets.  They love being able to play their own games now.  The battery life is kinda short, but we've decided that's a good thing.  They can't play all day long.  Big hit!  Big brother got a bike and couldn't wait for it to be put together!  He loves it!  I really didn't take very many pictures, we were too busy playing. 

Big sister and her loot

Little sister

Big brother

Little brother never holds still.

Later in the morning my parents and  my sister came over to exchange gifts.  My mom got me new pots and pans, which I love!  The old ones were the teflon non-stick kind.  I loved those, but the teflon was basically gone.  She got me some new copper bottom pans and I won't have to worry about scratching them.  We've put them to good use already!  Husband got the star wars trilogy on blu-ray/dvd.  He's been watching them while he works out on the elliptical, and little brother has been walking around the house making shooting and light saber noises.  Cute.

We had dinner with Husband's family.  I did finally take a couple pictures!  Yummy food, good company.  Can't be beat!

The day after Christmas I kicked it into high gear packing us all to go to visit my sister in Nevada.  It took me all day, but we were ready to go first thing in the morning.  We had a fairly good trip out, and the kids were thrilled to be at Aunt Shaye's house.  There ended up being 20 of us in the house, and it was a blast.  The kiddos loved playing with cousins.  Sunday we expanded the size of their primary with our 5 extra primary kiddos and 2 extra nursery kiddos.  Big brother actually went to class without any fuss!  Having his twin cousins there helped, I'm sure.  Monday, the guys went four-wheeling.  My girlies went with and had a marvelous time.  The women did some shopping and went to lunch.  Tuesday, we went to Costco and WalMart to buy food for our New Year's feast.  We took the kids to see Frozen.  They loved it!  Little sister had to have ear plugs, and as long as she had those in she was good to go.  This was the first time we'd taken the boys to a movie.  They loved it!  Big brother did turn to me about 3/4 of the way through and said he wanted to go home.  I bribed him with more popcorn.  After the movie, he stood up and was clapping and grinning.  He said he loved it.  Yay!  

Little sister and little brother

For dinner, we convinced little sister to skip the tradition of IHOP.  We still did our chocolate fountain, and then we had a ton of appetizers.  Chips and dip, veggies and dip, shrimp cocktail, spinach artichoke dip, Rotel dip.  Lots of dips!  We also broke out the honey baked ham my parents brought.  We had LOTS of food!  Good thing Shaye has such a large kitchen.  This is just some of our spread...

Little sister sad when she finished her first round of chocolate fountain goodness...

And happy when I told her she could have as much as she wanted!

The food was all SO yummy!  The kids thought it was fantastic to have appetizers and chocolate for dinner.  It was also nice that my sister Summer, in Afghanistan, was able to chat online with us for a little while.  Next year, we hope she can actually be with us!

Brother-in-law Jon loves doing puzzles.  We did 2 while we were out there.  I believe this one was the Las Vegas panoramic one.  With everyone's help it went pretty fast!

Big sister loves her Daddy!

Tiffany, Shaye and Ashley (those are Ashley's legs...)  Poor miss Smash was sick the entire time.  Fever, coughing, and in general just feeling yucky.  We're glad she felt good enough to at least come to the movies with us.

Daddy and the boys playing trains.  Big brother was stacking the tracks.  A little OCD maybe?  Little brother was knocking them down, and daddy was trying to referee.  We may have to get big brother trains for his birthday!

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After coming home, the kids started right back to school and I took down Christmas stuff.  It was nice to have such a long break.  I enjoyed most of it!  They did fight and get on each others nerves, but no more than usual.  I loved having them off before Christmas.  It was just so nice.   Here's a picture of the kiddos gingerbread house this year - had to take a picture before we chucked it!