New Years Eve

Some time around Christmas, we decided we wanted to throw a New Years Eve Party!  We wanted it to be a fun night with all our closest friends even though we all have kids and it's not easy to get together!  SO - to the marker board I went... I had to make a sleeping chart to keep it all straight!  Ha!  Yes - we had 8 kids sleeping in bedrooms, playrooms, closets... you name it... they were sleeping in it! 

We decided to go ALL out and make it an awesome dinner, too!  Filets for everyone!  We got this big honker at Costco and let me tell you - it was some yummy steak!

We also had monitors on most of the kids...

Robin and Jon couldn't join us because they were in New Jersey visiting Jon's family and she texted shortly after the party began asking where all the crazy pictures were!  So we took this one to send to her... we are SOOOO crazy, y'all!

We ran over to Jon and Robin's house to get their "Just Dance" game and we all did it and it was fun!  Yeah - Tyler is enjoying his wife's dancing a little too much... get a room guys!  :)

Some of the crowd... and yes - those are Parker's legs sitting on Chris' lap and this was waaaay past midnight!  Park obviously couldn't sleep with all the racquet we were making!  No sound machine is that good!  Ha ha!

I love this picture... Trey had just beaten Christa at Just Dance!  She was not thrilled.

Kristin and Tyler had to be the funniest couple...

Someone was clearly wrong in this picture... I have a guess at who!

Amy and Reid were a close 2nd in funniest couples to watch... OK - maybe not Amy and Kristin but Reid and Tyler were way funny to watch!

The party just never really ended!  This picture was taken at like 3 am?  It was a perfect time to take out some of the leftover appetizers and chow down!

Oh - me and Chris dancing... I spanked him.  (To my mom and mother in law who are reading this - no I did not actually spank his bottom... My score was just way higher than his!)

Oh this is out of order, but this was before the craziness began!  Boys were in the den...

Girls were in the dining room!

Our midnight toast in our "hand painted champagne flutes"!  We got them as a wedding gift and they come in handy every New Years Eve!  Kristin and Tyler...

Christa and Trey...

Ang and Zach

Ummmm not sure why I took another one of them...

Reid and Amy...

And the hosts/ess with the most/ess!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Week b/t Christmas and NY

 We got to meet up with the Fortenbery family a few days after Christmas!  We love when we get to see them!  They were traveling through so they couldn't stay long, but we met up at Chick-fil-A and had a great time catching up... even if it was for just a few minutes!  Jessica, Scott and Chris all worked at the Gap together, I was their oldest daughter's first babysitter when I was in college and Scott and Chris were in each others weddings!  The F family also gives us all of Landon's old clothes which we just LOVE!  We don't know what we'd do without the F family!

 It's so hard to get a good pic of these kiddos together!  And we finally did! 

 Ha - this is a random shot of our pantry door after Christmas... and this is missing about 10 more cards we got in the mail after New Years!  I have since taken the pictures down because the cluttery-ness of the entire look was driving me bananas!  The counter (part of it's shown on the left) next to the pantry door is our "messy counter" - yes that is it's official name and having it next to the cluttered door was too much for me!  So, down they came but they are now sitting in a stack on top of the messy counter where we are going to start picking one out of the stack each week and praying for that family!  I heard of another blogger friend who did that a few years ago and I thought this would be the best time to start this tradition in our family.  Parker is truly starting to "get" prayer, what it  means, and how we talk to God so I am excited to start this tradition with him. 

 A few days after Christmas, Whit, her kids and me and mine went to a PJ Party Kindermusik class!  Whit and I took KK and Park when they were much younger, but we weren't able to make the weekly comittment anymore.  It was so much fun but I didn't get any pictures during class because it's non stop action!  After class was over, Caroline crawled her way to the doorway, looked out and I saw her eyes LIGHT UP when she saw the hallway before her... a huge... OPEN... never ending hallway!  She went for it!  I let her crawl til her hearts content.  Precious girl...

 Parker loved racing her then waiting for her to catch up.

 These kids love competing for daddy's attention every evening when he gets home from work!  We had to bring this awful chair back out into our family room after Christmas because we had to make more room for all the new toys we got for Christmas in the playroom!

 The day before NYE, we headed to Kennesaw to see my cousins who recently moved there from Chicago!  Our other cousins from Chicago were there visiting so we all got to hang out together!  We had so much fun.  Here are all the cousins kids together... I have no idea what that would make them... 2nd cousins?  But they were cute together nonetheless!

 These were taking at Amy's house one day between Christmas and NY... Dylan SEROIUSLY loves Caroline - like with all his heart.  His face LIGHTS UP every time he sees her cannot keep his hands off of her!

 And these two kiddies have been best buds for years now.  They have weekly play dates and love their time together!

Christmas Day 2012

Christmas morning began pretty hysterically!  Parker came in and woke me and Chris up around 7 or 8 which is pretty early for him... so we just sort of expected him to be jumping off the walls excited to tell us that Santa came and he couldn't wait to open his gifts.  Well.. he was none of that.  He was normal, Joe Schmo, no extra excitement besides his normal just "excited to be awake" attitude.  We finally had to REMIND him that it was Christmas morning and that Santa came!  OH!  It sort of hit him then... 

Caroline spoke not a word but went straight to work... opening her gifts that is!  She loved her tea set from Santa!  Here she is saying "Ooooooh" - her favorite word ever.

Parker asked for puzzles and he got them!  Lots of them!

Nana Caroline and baby Caroline playing tea together... Caroline surprisingly "got it"!  It was way cute.

It took Parker awhile to find it but Santa brought him a "helicopter with a kamote control!  Yeah!"  He is not even close to being able to work it... it's hard.  I think Santa didn't realize the copter was for ages 12 and up... but I'm pretty sure Santa was at a loss because he could not find ANY copters with remote controls for under the age of 12.  Oh well.  Mommy and daddy like playing with it!  And Park likes making it crash into stuff!  Ha!

The rest of the crew stopped by after they opened their gifts at Aunt Ashley's house!  Here are all the cousins!  Ivy is even in the pic - Jack and KK are holding her!  And Whit is standing by making sure they don't drop her!

 The day was pretty much chaos... I have never seen so many gifts being opened in my LIFE!  We thought we were done, then more would show up somewhere.  It was like they were appearing out of nowhere.  The kids were beyond excited the entire time and to talk to another adult in the same room, you had to nearly scream just so they could hear you above all the chatter of little voices! 

 

We had a great Christmas lunch!  Chris brought down his Green Egg and smoked an amazing turkey for everyone!  Here is the kids table before KK joined them.

Caroline loved everything she ate... as always.

Caroline's closest-in-age cousin, Garrett also loved it all!  I'm pretty sure Caroline eats more than Garrett, though... and Garrett is at least 10 pounds more than she is!  And they are only 3 months part!

The crew - minus some kids - after our dinner! We had the camera on self timer for this pic and it cracks me up that Caroline was still looking right at the camera!  Ha! 

Nana can't keep her hands off her newest grandbaby! 

We kept Caroline at a pretty safe distance from Ivy all weekend, but when she got a glimpse of her after dinner, she couldn't stay away!  We let her have a closer look...

I promise she's not pulling her toes off... Ivy was yawning... not crying.

 We weren't sure which was bigger... Ivy or the turkey... Pretty sure the turkey won!

 So, sort of last minute, we decided to head over to Waycross on Christmas night to see Chris' parents.  They were alone all day and we felt like they could use some cheering up!  We just SHOWED UP on their doorstep and they were definitely surprised!  Our trip there went great, too... the kids slept nearly the entire time!

 After spending the evening in Waycross, we headed home the next morning.  And when we arrived, the kids were super excited to see that Santa had come to our house, too!  And Santa also misspelled Christmas!  :)  Whoops!

It was an overall AMAZING week with our family.  It's hard to show it in pictures, but we made sure we instilled the true meaning of Christmas with Parker as much as possible.  Our kids are definitley spoiled by both sets of their grandparents and we are so blessed to have such sweet family who wants to just give them all they want... and in the midst of all that... Parker will still be able to tell you that the reason we celebrate Christmas is because it's Jesus' birthday... and if you ask him about Jesus, he'll say... "He's God's son who died on the cross for all my sins..." Be still, my heart.  So proud of my sweet boy.  Merry Christmas everyone!