Overheard

Ryder, speaking to Craig, "When you were a kid, did you think that getting married was kind of gross?"

Another Trip to the Museum of Science

Our year-long membership to the Museum of Science will expire at the end of the month, so we decided we should squeeze in one last visit.  Our membership came with several guest passes which we've never used, so we told the kids they could each invite a friend.  This proved very complicated, since some of the (younger) friends wanted to come, but were nervous to be away from their parents for so long.  Eventually we got everything all lined up for this last Saturday, only to wake up to a sick Kendra. 

It seemed too hard to try and coordinate with everyone again, so we decided to have Craig stay home with Kendra (that way he could keep painting, at least), and I took everyone else.  Bentley decided he didn't want to bother going with all the younger kids, so he stayed home, too.  And we told Kendra's friend that we would hopefully still go with her on Monday.

That meant I was driving to Richmond with: Ryder (8), Sebastian (7), Quinn (5), Colton (5), and Camille (3).  What fun!

Fortunately, a neighbor was meeting me there with her two little girls, Sydney (4) and Beth (2).  One other grown-up meant that I could at least use the bathroom.

The drive there was fine-- I chatted with my Mom as she was wandering around Animal Kingdom at WDW-- until the last ten minutes where I'm trying to make sure we don't get lost and look for decent parking and Quinn had to use the bathroom so I was worried she would have an accident.  That was slightly stressful, but we made it!

The kids all had fun for the most part.  It was interesting to me that Sebastian was the hardest one-- he wouldn't ever stay with the group and would argue and fight about everything we were doing.  I'm going to blame that on him being an only child.  Quinn was super easy so I was glad she had come along, her presence made it more fun for Colton and Camille.

Quinn attempts tightrope walking

Ryder and Colton doing yoga

And then Sebastian runs around and messes Ryder up, making him angry.  Camille looks very zen, though!

Drawing with sequins!

Playing chess and taking a snack break

The shark tank is always a great photo op!

Climbing on the trains

We played all afternoon and my neighbor headed out and we stayed to watch their Dome movie called Rocky Mountain Express.  I was thinking I'd see some fun views to remind me of my BYU days, but it turned out to be about the Canadian Rockies and, quite frankly, it was a pretty boring movie.  The kids were even more bored and Sebastian couldn't stop coughing (poor kid!) so that was kind of lame.  Oh, well!

By then it was 6pm, so we went to get pizza.  Craig had figured out that there was a Pizza Hut right by the museum, so that seemed easy enough, but man-- Pizza Hut is a CRAP place to eat at now!  The restaurant was just sad and empty, with a place for a salad bar with absolutely NOTHING in it.  And then something happened outside so there were flashing cop lights the entire time we were there...  I felt like we were in the hood or something.  And, of course, by then the kids were getting crazy AND Sebastian's parents were supposed to meet us there and were late so we had to wait for them...  Yeah, I was pretty done by then.  As soon as Sebastian had been collected we poured back into the van and headed home, and let me tell you, driving home I felt so relieved to have survived!

Making straw mustaches as we wait for our pizza

 The day went really well, but having fun with that many little kids is a TON of work!

By the time we got home, I told Craig I was done with little kids and he had to put them to bed.  He'd been painting all day and announced that HE was done painting and I could tear down all the plastic and tape for him.  I was thrilled with that choice, and we both got to work quite happy for the change of pace.  And that's one of the reasons why our marriage works so well!

Conversations with Colton

Colton: I found who I'm going to marry!
Me: Oh, who is it?
Colton: Her name is Amy
Me: And what do you like about Amy?
Colton: She's BOOTIFUL!  If you see someone who's really bootiful, that's Amy!
Me: Oh!  Have you ever talked to her?
Colton: No, but I bet when we get married, we're going to talk a LOT!


Beautiful Amy is not going to know what hit her!

Keeping it Real

Here are some pictures to show what real life occasionally looks like around here...

My kids are so gross.  (I cleaned it all up right after snapping that picture.)  I shudder to think how much food we waste.

I was running around opening curtains and found this-- what, are we in The Godfather...???

As we were painting, we thought maybe we wouldn't have to paint that door and around the fireplace.  We were wrong.  Who knew there were so many shades of white?  (That would be a GREAT title for a book!)

Shortly before this happened I said, "Camille, walk on the road so you don't get all muddy!"  Guess who didn't listen!

Theo and Quinn continue to be adorable

These sunglasses were a Christmas present that arrived late-- Camille was quite thrilled!

Snowy Weekend

They were predicting another big snow storm this last weekend, so everyone canceled EVERYTHING and it was AWESOME.  We only got about 4 inches, but that bought us a three-day weekend with hardly anything scheduled-- no church, no piano recital, and no school!

So that gave Craig the time he needed to get a jump start on painting our family room!

The room has always been a buttery yellow color, and it wasn't bad.  But I'm just not a huge fan of yellow.  I've been wishing it was grey for a long time now, so we're finally getting to it (we've only been here 3.5 years, so that's totally legit!).  We also got a new TV for Christmas-- that was what I decided to spend my babysitting earnings on.  It's so silly because I have NEVER cared about having a TV or what size it is or anything.  But then a few months ago the prices for big huge TVs got WAY cheaper and suddenly I just really wanted one!  So we shopped around with Costco's black Friday sales and found the biggest cheapest-but-still-a-decent-picture TV we could and grabbed it.  Craig had fun getting it loaded into the van when the guys helping him exclaimed, "We've NEVER had so much room for one of these TVs before!"  And since it will be hanging it on a different wall, it makes perfect sense to paint while we're at it.

So we've been under construction all week.  Which is awful.  And so messy.  I hate mess.  And babysitting was a huge pain because I couldn't put the baby gate up (because there was a couch in the way) so I spent the whole day following Theo up and down stairs hoping he wouldn't die.  (Fortunately, I was only babysitting for one day that week.)

But the good news is that Craig finished all the painting yesterday and we put all the furniture back into the room today and I love it!

Craig will mount the new TV today (he's at Lowe's getting cables that he needs and light switches and stuff).  And some time in the near future, we will be shopping for a new couch.

Exciting stuff!

Doing a panorama made the couch a little wonky-- it doesn't actually curve!

Post-Christmas

The day after Christmas was supposed to be nice and relaxing, but my parents needed a bunch of help getting stuff ready for a trip they're taking, so I offered to help.  We ended up hitting FOUR different places before we found one that could do passport photos for them.  The first one didn't do them (it was a FedEx store close to me that my Dad and I just walked to, so that one didn't surprise me); the next one the camera batteries died and they didn't seem to know how to replace them; the third place, the camera worked but the computers weren't letting the lady upload the photos.  The fourth place finally worked and I think my Mom and Dad both nearly kissed the guy!  Then Craig got the unenviable task of trying to make the passport photo files the correct size and trying to help my Mom fill out the visa application on-line.  It ended up taking several hours and that was pretty much our entire day.

So that was NOT exactly how I'd envisioned spending the 26th.  I don't think my parents were super thrilled about how the day went, either...

Here's my Dad's practice face.  Gee, I wonder why the camera broke?

They did buy me lunch at Five Guys, though, so that made me happy!


We also ate a fabulous meal at Bella's with all of Craig's family!

Camille loves her cousins!

Unfortunately, the minute we sat at the table, Bentley announced that he had a headache.  It took us a long time to figure out what all to order (it was all served family-style, which I LOVE because you get to try everything and not feel rude about, but it's also really hard to know how much to order, especially with 16 people.  I totally blew that, because I think we ordered about three times as much food as we needed...) and as we were all staring at the menu, Bentley just kept going downhill.  Right as they were bringing out our food, he said he needed to leave right now.  Craig took him outside where he promptly threw up in some bushes.  Lovely.  I ate as fast as I could and took Bentley home.  He felt better almost immediately, so he took a long hot bath and I went back to get everyone from the restaurant.  Then Craig stayed home with him while the rest of us went and saw Mary Poppins.  (He got to do an escape room the next day with everyone while I took all the younger kids to a park, though, so don't feel bad for him.)

As the week wore on, this little bug wound its way through our ranks.  My Mom threw up shortly after arriving at home.  Kamryn and Maya each took a turn with it.  Theo had thrown up the day after Leah and family arrived in Nashville.  As far as holiday illness goes, this one was fairly mild-- most people threw up once and then just rested up getting over it.  But still not quite what you hope for!

Craig got a camping hammock and was very excited to try it out!

Perhaps our most exciting thing was that Bentley got a bird for Christmas!  He'd been asking for one for months, so we decided he really meant it.  (Craig has now decreed that we can have NO MORE PETS.  We'll see, I guess)

Bentley had done tons of research and decided what he wanted was a love bird.  We wanted him to get to pick it out himself, so after Christmas we began searching pet stores and Craigslist until I finally found some for sale in Richmond.  Bentley, my Mom and I all went to pick it up-- the lady selling to us had two birds, so after a few minutes of deliberating Bentley chose one.  I think he made a good choice: the other one was kind of obnoxiously squawky.  This one was a little quieter and hopefully calmer?

As soon as we were back in the car, I tried to take a picture and the bird flew right out of its box:

Bentley looking surprised and worried at the bird suddenly trying to fly through his window

It only took us a couple minutes to get it back into the box!

Very excited Bentley!

He (she?) has been named Scooter, since any time you put your hand near him, he will very politely scoot away from you.

As he matures, his face should turn a lovely red, making him vaguely watermelon colored!

Everyone was very excited to meet this newest family member!

We also got a new game called "Watch Your Mouth" which Ryder LOVES

I LOVE getting Christmas cards!!!  There are a few missing from this door-- either they were too heavy to stay taped up, or they arrived late.  But you get the idea!  So many people to love!

New Year's Eve was our usual celebration by eating WAY too much food all day long and playing lots of games and barely noticing the whole ball drop bit because by the time midnight rolled around we were all so tired.  One of these days I'm going to convince Craig to just let me go to bed early-- I really am SO LAME late at night!  Besides just the fact that we had a super fun time with all Craig's family (my parents had flown home that morning), I also absolutely LOVED the fact that I didn't need to freak out about no one RSVP-ing.  Happy day!

So the holidays were wonderful and stressful and busy and fun!  And as we waved good-bye to everyone, I could hardly wait to start getting my house back in order again!  (Because apparently I am super lame like that!)  But it has felt really good to finally vacuum everywhere again and start finding places to put all the new toys-- yay for a clean house!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Christmas!

The actual day began at 7am when we'd told the kids they were allowed out of bed.  They were very good about taking turns and opening gifts one at a time and the whole thing was really so fun!  They opened presents for nearly an hour before we made them stop so we could have cinnamon and orange rolls (I mean, cinnamon rolls AND orange rolls; not cinnamon-and-orange rolls; that would be gross).  And then it was back to the presents!  Leah and her family joined us a bit later and they all opened stockings together, which was nice.

Green Eggs and Ham in Spanish!

We got a laser tag set.  I love Colton's tough face!

Colton got a giraffe Squishmallow pillow which I promptly needed to steal.  He also got a cute stuffed animal bunny that looks a lot like our real bunny!

Craig getting the turkey all prepped.  Those purple serial killer gloves come in handy all the time!

Camille is also good at showing me her tough girl face!

Colton very deliberately pulled this face, and I am honestly not sure if he's supposed to be hungry to eat the turkey or in shock at how big it is...?  But I LOVE that face, whatever the interpretation!

The rest of Craig's family all came in the afternoon and we all got to work finishing dinner.  Christmas dinner is always a bit of a production (at least, the way we do it), and feeding 21 people is no small feat.  But feeding 21 people Christmas dinner when you have to be extremely careful about which things are kept gluten-free and which things are vegetarian really gets tricky!  As far as I know, we pulled it all off with aplomb (if I may say so myself).  We had two turkeys, one ham, two different gravies, three kinds of stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, TONS of rolls, two sheet pans of broccoli bake, cooked carrots, two pumpkin pies, two chocolate caramel pecan pies, and one apple pie.  And a can of cranberry sauce that I forgot to open until my Mom asked if we had any.

Quite the feast!  So, naturally, Brian ended up having to heat up chicken nuggets so his kids would eat.  Typical!

Theo fell asleep on Leah's arm!  I guess we should be glad she's right-handed!

It was a lovely-- if exhausting-- day!  Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve

Ryder's baptism was the 23rd and the next day was Christmas Eve!  And we had SO MUCH COOKING to do!

Ryder with Grandpa Rex!

The family that stares at their devices together...

Eliot is enrolled in a hiphop dance class, so he was teaching Ryder his moves!

We had to take Leah and Brian to Carter Mountain (this may have been on the 22nd?  I can't remember now...).  As soon as Leah decided to buy doughnuts, she was like the Pied Piper with all the kids following her!

I got up and immediately started on the turkey brine and mashed potatoes and rolls (which I quadrupled).  Craig eventually brined the turkey and then once Jeni came they got to work on pies.  (Craig makes wonderful pies, but since they needed to be gluten-free, we figured we'd let Jeni be in charge of the crusts, and Craig could do the rest!)  I also wandered around wrapping last-minute things that either had just been delivered (thanks, Amazon!) or hidden away and forgotten about!

Little kids put on a play for me!

Camille was happy to flirt it up with her favorite Uncle Jason!

At this point I was on dish duty

Of course we had our traditional pizza, which I ordered and was sort of proud of myself because we had exactly the right amount.  Tom and Donna picked it up for us, which was a great help. 

And after pizza, we sang Christmas carols... 

We made Bentley accompany everyone on Joy to the World

And Kendra got to accompany for Away in a Manger

Craig saw this picture and said, "I had no idea I looked so angry when I sing!"

We all read Luke 2 together and then opened up our Christmas jammies!  Craig and Kendra had picked out the pajamas this year, and since they went shopping fairly early in November, they decided to buy leftover Halloween costume onesies for everyone.  The results were SPECTACULAR:

I'm a giraffe, Craig is a bumblebee, Ryder is a dinosaur, Bentley is a camouflage shark (???), Kendra is a zebra, Camille is a penguin, and Colton is a dragon.  AWESOME.

That is a very excited Ryder hugging his big sister there

I thought Colton looked like Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon

Eliot and Theo also got pajamas, but theirs were a bit classier than ours!

My Dad thought our tails/stingers were obscene.  If he thinks there's anything sexy about this, he might be even weirder than we are!

The hilarious thing is how much I LOVE my giraffe pajamas.  They are SO comfortable, I want to wear them all the time!  It occurs to me that this is a very slippery slope...

Once everyone was done laughing at admiring our pajamas we sent the kids to bed and all of Craig's family headed back to Culpeper for the night.  And Craig and I got back to work-- we still had a lot to do that night!