Last post of 2016

And for the grand finale of 2016, I took the kids to Grammy Pammy's house.  It was time to see some cousins and have a little bit of Christmas with Lanny.  It was nice to go, since we hadn't been to Grammy's in over year.  Andy got the gift of time to himself, time to work and time to work on the school house.  

Liam, helping Grammy make paluszki (maybe this is the right spelling).  They are a delicious Polish dumpling-like food that we love to eat.  All the kids got excited to see them cooking.  And, what's fun is that I have another picture of Liam from a couple years ago helping Grammy make the same dish.

The O-niners.  Love getting pics of Abi and Liam together.

Jacob looking cute.

Oh, the cousins have an air hockey table.  The boys loved it.  They also had fun with the karoke machine and used it, among other things, to announce and commentate on the air hockey games.

I also had fun with the karaoke machine.  

Presents from Lanny!  Kella got her rainbow horse.  

Blaze the car for Kinley.  She loved that show on tv.

Ewan got more action figures for the army he is amassing in his room.

Camping stuff for Marcus.

An "active robot" for Liam with some awesome dance moves.

Look, more soldiers for his army.

Aunt Bitsy, modeling a new helmet for one of the cousins.

Cale, our budding engineer, with a new robot building kit.

Lanny got some weeping angel jams from Aunt Claud-don't blink!

Cale also modeled the new bike helmets.

Love that I got a photo of me and Bitsy together.  This is going on facebook!

A last pic of the o-niners.  

We stay late at the cousins and kept all the kids up way past their bedtimes.  We slept one more night at Grammy's and then came back home.  Where these lucky kids got to open more Christmas presents, this time from Grammy Linda and Grandpa Jerry and Uncle Chris and his family.

Crowns from the poppers.  Sending the old year our in style.

The boys stayed up and the parents dozed on and off in chairs.  We played games and watched Star Wars and tried to time the explosion of the Death Star in the movie with midnight.  (we were close). A simple, easy way to bring in the new year.  

Happy 2017!

whirl-wind #2....to Decatur

The week after Christmas, 7 of us ventured west to that land called Illinois.  We went for some family time (and there were some presents, too).  We left Andy home with the pets, our Christmas gift to him: silence.  Let me say, I really enjoyed travelling with the kids this time.  Having everyone a little older, especially Kinley, has made travelling much, much easier.  We stopped to get snacks before we headed out, and we only stopped once for a bathroom break.  Easy peasy.  We got to have a couple days with Andy's parents, brother and wife and kids.  The cousins hadn't seen each other in a while, so that was fun.  Even the little ones liked seeing their cousins.  I'm glad we got to go.

It's the classic cousin picture.  The only time they are all together and not moving.

We may have forced a board game on the cousins.  

My very favorite Christmas  decoration at Chris and Kim's house.  It's stupid that it makes me happy, but, it does.

We even got to spend New Year's Eve with everyone.  We stayed up till midnight, too.  And, went to bed right after the ball dropped.  Kella wowed everyone with her sense of style.

Liam snuggled down with Savannah and Marie.

And, the part that all the kids were waiting on-presents!

 I like to call this picture our New Year's Eve miracle:  all the cousins together and mostly looking at a camera.

Happy New Year!  

Brace yourselves: more reunion photos

And, now, here are more reunion photos.  Lanny and Courtney took photos too, that I downloaded from Facebook.  These are mixed together, so I don't know who took what, although I know Lanny always takes really good pics of the kids and that he is responsible for the group photo in this mix.  

Ethel's birthday cake.  So cute.  She likes to paddleboard, which explains the decor.  The cake was supposed to be a surprise, but no one told Andy and in conversation about where he had gone, he mentioned going to get the cake.  Spoilers.

Kella and Abby.  Behind them is the tent city we didn't use since it looked like some heavy storms were coming through later that evening.  No complaints from me.  I like sleeping in air-conditioning and Ewan had already informed us that since he had already been to camp and slept in a tent, he was not doing it again. 

Me, being bossy.  What I do best sometimes.

Kinley, post sun exposure.

Ewan, red like his clothes.

bunches of cousins!

Having fun in a deflated pool.

Maddie in the tent.

The elusive Jacob.

there's that snake again.

helping Grammy

Although it killed some of my kids to get their picture taken, I think this photo turned out pretty well. 

The kids' table.

Kella.  Bossy, like her mom.

Kella found someone to play dolls with.

Grown up time.

more corn hole.

The fish fry.

Xander