Happy girl

Another year down

We rang in the New Year with a little party at the casa de fun (that's our house if it wasn't obvious)! Meredith, Conner, Jill, Mike (aka Mr. Jill), Charlie, Myles and the B fam. We stuffed our faces, watched some football drank some brews out of Sam Adams glasses, and laughed (oh how we laughed!). Then at mid night mild fireworks were popped and glittery hats were worn. I'm positive we will be finding something glittery in house for most of 2011. Sure hope 2011 is full of great everyday moments that makes it all worth it. Thank you 2010 for being so good to us!

A week with Myles

The stars aligned to provide a rare and amazing opportunity that allowed Myles to come spend nearly a week with the B Family. Tried to get him to make it permanent, but for whatever reason his parents were a road block to that. Having Myles around was fun even though it stirred an hourly debate on why Logan couldn't have a free texting app. Apparently I'm the meanest mom...of course, I already knew that! Having a cousin kicked our Christmas break up a notch. There was lots of hunting, dune buggy driving, driveway basketball, and air soft gun shooting. I took all of the boys to the Yogi Bear movie. Steve took them to a Razorback basketball game. They went to the school gym and shot some hoops. Something different everyday. If he hadn't been there were may have squandered our time working on our to-do list...snooze fest! Myles did leave his mark...we now all wear deodorant, even though we don't need it. I sure hope we can make this happen over and over through out the years!

A Kansas Christmas

Well, only 1/2 a Christmas. Our bus never made it to GB thanks to the flu kicking Grandma's tail. As always, once the Christmas tornado tears through our house we load up and head to Kansas for the cousin extravaganza! 18 kids under one roof...just a smidge crazy especially 'cuz none of the adults really want to tackle managing that crew. We have officially exceeded the capacity of the couch!

Pre-teens on their iPod touches

One baby fight

Mad Libbing Mamas

Big babies in a bouncy chair

Old Chicago fails to deliver

Card playing

App Palooza

TACO PRONTO...fully loaded carbs!

Christmas 2010

This year we hosted Christmas Eve dinner at our house before mass. Meredith, Conner, Pam, Chris, Logan R all joined us for a feast. Then it was off to mass so we could all cram ourselves into the pew. Pam, Chris and Logan R came back to the house with us and hung out until it was time to get everyone into their jammie jams. The different routine found me missing some annual pictures. No big deal, we'll catch them next year.

Per the kids, this was the best Christmas ever! As a parent that is exactly what you're going for! Santa delivered by bringing bows & arrows for Logan and Lucas, Lucas' Swiss Army Knife, Kale got a sling shot and he boat, and Avery got a big pink car. Yeah, Santa! Then we tore through all the presents from Mom & Dad. The plan was to go lighter since we got them a big present but it didn't work out so well. Kids were mad about it.

Once all the present were opened I told the boys to get their shoes on and head outside. Then I casually mentioned that they should also grab their helmets. This stopped Logan in his tracks and he gave me the, "Say what" look and hustled outside repeating, "Please be a dirt bike!" Not only no, but heck no! What they saw was just as good...the dune buggy. In the dark of the morning they took their first drive around the yard. They spent the rest of the morning driving around until it was time to head to Kansas.

Kale's Christmas party

The pre-k always does their party in the morning so even though I wasn't on the party team I crashed it anyways. It gave me the chance to snap some pix of silly ole Kale and his class signing again. Some level of effort from Kale. At least he's having fun! He's such a goof ball.

Gamer

Who knows why this little weirdo picked this spot for his gaming!

Fayetteville Lights

Our annual trip to Fayetteville to eat pizza, down some beer and view some lights. This year we had a couple of additional couples tag along. Lots of fun. Lucas had a chance to tell Santa about one more item and he also rode a camel. It happened to be a dog so that night which was interesting and delayed the viewing of the reindeer. We packed our carriage ride as full as possible and looped the square a couple of times. Munched on some kettle corn and froze our buns off. As always, a highlight of the holidays!

Santa Baby

Her shirt says it all, "I heart Santa"! Avery was not afraid of Santa at all. Before sitting on his lap and bringing him in on the one gift they wanted most, the B kids were read a story by Santa. Several kids gathered around and Santa read "Twas the Night Before Christmas". It was an awesome experience for the kids. This Santa is awesome and really takes his time to talk to the kids. Best of all, no wait! I remember taking the older two kids to Fayetteville and waiting for ever to whisked on and off of Santa's lap. Never been the cases here. Love it!

Our Christmas Card