The last 3 weeks. Or so....

I was super busy our entire break, unlike anyone else I'm sure.  But I do want to show what all happened while we were off of school, so I decided to do it through pictures.  But my mother has informed me that sometimes the pictures I send to her don't make much sense without some explanation.  So I'll provide as brief a description as possible.

While trying to make some Christmas gifts I sat at a different place at the school table than I normally sit at.  It's kind of hard to see, but one of the daughters had carved several things into the varnish.  One of which is the word "Mom".  Since #1 admitted it was her and that is where she sits when I teach her math, I'm about 97% certain that "Mom" was not written with love.

The parental units came to town which meant date night for Hubby and I.  I even wore heels.  It was momentous enough to warrant a picture.

Grandpa was also here for Christmas and his chosen activity with the girls was seeing how high they could build a domino tower.  #1 came in second to my Mom.  If you're wondering if they quietly took down all the dominoes you don't know my Grandpa.  Or my Mom.  And you probably don't have children because that is a silly question when you have kids.  It's amazing how sound carries when your entire house is tile.

My Mom has this huge collection of Christmas earrings.  Which I give her a hard time about because some of them could be worn to tacky sweater parties.  She brought them all.  And corrupted my girls by letting them wear some.  And then she made me wear some also.  And my girls loved every second of it.

Now that we've finally been let in on the secret of Coffee Call, we take everyone who comes to see us there.  We were smart this time and got the beignet fingers.  Still good and 10 times easier to eat.  Also notice the sippy cup.  The three older girls all came down with a fever, one right after the other.  Nothing too terrible, just a general not feeling well.  Thankfully everyone was well before Christmas.

I am finally good enough at playing 42 that I feel comfortable playing with my Grandpa.  So we did.  I always forget that the way old men play includes gripping about every hand, but I remembered rather quickly!  I really do think that every older gentleman I've ever played with has played that way.

Christmas morning.  This is as close to a posed picture as I cared to try to get.

Yay!  Presents!

#1 and #2 got Kindle readers for their big gift.  No way were we getting them anything with internet access or something to play apps on, but we figured that we travel enough that an e-reader made sense.  And Hubby pointed out that if we only got one for them to share that they would have to be constantly working out a system of what was fair and who got it when.  I thought it was an excellent point, so they each got their own.

And this is where she immediately went to start reading!

Hubby got me a new phone for Christmas.  Well, it was a used one, but new to me.  He knew I would not be happy to have him spend $400 on a phone for me.  Anyway, the first thing I did with my new phone was take a picture of him! 

I also got a Cricut Mini which I love and am super excited about!  This was the first "sample" project you can make with it.  That says thank you if you can't read it.

We finally got our cuckoo clock put up.  It's really my in-law's, but they don't have a house to put it in so we got it so they can see it when they come visit.  We'll get it to actually keep time correctly one of these days.

I used my new sewing machine A LOT to make different things for people.  It was fun!

I finished my cross-stitch piece for my new nephew.  It ended up being bigger than I wanted since I came up with the patterns myself instead of buying one, but other than that I thought it turned out well.  I have a nice sister-in-law who puts my creations for her kids up without saying anything, even if she doesn't really like them!  I'm most proud of the badge in the upper right corner--it looks a lot like his Daddy's badge. 

Our first fire in the house for New Year's Eve

Putting the ornaments on the tree is my favorite part of decorating for Christmas.  Each one holds a memory.  Putting them up isn't too bad either.  Mainly because I love figuring out how to get all the different boxes to fit in the container.  I might have a little bit of OCD.  Or just love Tetris--either one.

We got to meet my nephew CD.  This is the only picture I have of him because I was holding him most of the time!  Love babies--especially my nieces and nephews.

No special significance to this picture, they're just all so cute.  Stinkers--but cute!

#3 turned 7.  We were traveling on her actual birthday, but she got to go to her favorite Mexican food place once we got to my parents'.  She requested the hat and singing this time.  Sometimes I feel bad that we almost always celebrate #3's birthday around our extended family's Christmas, but then I remember that at least she gets to be around family on her birthday.  The other girls rarely have that.  So don't feel too bad for her.  She usually rakes in more gifts that way too!

Uncle M taught us cool things like how to make a mask out of a slice of turkey and put it on our face

 Aunt U makes up for Uncle M by playing picnic with the little girls.  Because she's cool like that!

Uncle M is not the only one who corrupts in our family.  I taught my niece the joy of sticking olives on your fingers and eating them off.  And her Daddy can't do anything about it!  Ha!

My child already knew how it was done!

We brought my niece, who is 6 months younger than #4, with us to my parents house for a few days before her parents and brother joined us.  I got a small taste of what it would be like having twins.  I have not stopped thanking God for giving my girls to me one at a time since!

It was so cold this day, but we bundled up and walked down to a little frozen pond to see if we could break through the ice by throwing rocks.  Amazingly enough, a piece of gravel, thrown by a 3 year old, from several yards up did not break the ice.

Uncle M and Aunt U are awesome because they help the kids climb down to the frozen pond so they can get closer to try to break the ice.  When that doesn't work Uncle M holds their hands and lets them get out on the ice.  I did not take any pictures of those moments.

 Getting ready for our annual scavenger hunt.  Dad did it by himself this year without Mom's help.  Let's just say the clues were interesting!  And there was absolutely no cheating!  Like sticking the envelopes under a log where they couldn't be seen.  Because our family does not act like that at all!

This, friends, is just one of many reasons being part of a large family rocks.  There were almost this many on the other side of the tree. 

The gift from all of us to Mom and Dad this year.  A friend at church who can actually paint painted the trees for me and then each of our families used our fingerprints to make the leaves on the trees.  So the first one is my older brother and his wife, the second one is my family's, the third is my sister and her husband, etc.  And yes, that one lone leaf on the orange tree is supposed to be there.  People who know my family can figure out which kid that is and they'll knowingly nod their head.  Wouldn't have him any other way!  :)

So that was our break.  We were busy and started school a little later because of traveling to see family, but it was totally worth it!  I'm so thankful for the time we got to spend with everyone.  But it was good to get back too.  We're looking forward to getting back in the swing of things!

Family and Food

I don't know about y'all, but that about sums up our Thanksgiving week!  And it was awesome!  I'm so happy that we able to be around family for Thanksgiving.  It's one of those holidays that we don't usually travel for since we're saving vacation time for Christmas, so I was happy to have family come to us this time!

Hubby's parents, Gran-Jan and Papa, were expecting Hubby's brother and his three kids to come on Tuesday.  I didn't know they thought that and I had put it on the calendar that they were coming on Sunday night.  Hubby then told me that they had decided to surprise the grandparents and come on Sunday instead of Tuesday.  So the event was erased off the calendar and we very carefully explained to the girls that as long as they didn't flat out say that their uncle was coming on Tuesday that they weren't lying.  It didn't come up that often, but when it did the girls cleared the room so they wouldn't have to talk about what day the rest of the family was coming in.  I thought for a while that Papa had figured it out.  He made several comments wondering why they couldn't come earlier in the week.  But when they opened our door Sunday night, Gran-Jan and Papa both had looks of shock on their faces.  It was awesome! 

Unfortunately, Hubby had to work on Monday and Tuesday, but he did take some time to go bowling with us on Tuesday.  We weren't going to go bowling.  Have you been lately?  It is expensive!  But being the smart consumer that I am I decided to check their website and see if they had any coupons.  You'll never guess what I found!  Coupons!  We were able to bowl 2 games each plus shoe rental for $7.  A very reasonable price.  We all had a really good time.  We laugh at each other too much for anyone to take the game too seriously!

I had planned for Wednesday to be a stay at home and finish baking and making everything I could for Thursday kind of day.  But we ended up buying a pumpkin and pecan pie because I don't have any long standing family recipes for those, and Sam's pies really are good.  Then Papa brought home a chocolate pie from the store and I figured between those pies and the pumpkin roll I already had made in the freezer that we would have enough desserts.  And I changed my mind about the rolls I wanted to make, so I had nothing left to make on Wednesday.  So we spent the day at home just relaxing while Hubby worked.

Breakfast!

Thursday Papa made breakfast for us all.  I was really happy about that!  Way less work for me.  And I really didn't have all that much to do for lunch.  We bought a fried turkey.  There was no way we could even fit a 20 lb turkey in my little oven, much less cook it and anything else.  The ham went in my new crock-pot that Papa bought for me due to the lid on my old one cracking like a windshield. 

We were blessed with friends from church giving us a cooked sweet potato casserole so I took that off my list of things to make.  Gran-Jan handled the stuffing and gravy.  Good thing too cause I don't like it at all, much less want to make it!  So that pretty much left me with rolls and green bean casserole to make.  Yipee for not having to kill myself making a bunch of food!  Unfortunately, the one thing I was really looking forward to, my pumpkin roll, was thrown away.  Hubby thought it was something else and tossed it, I don't even know how long ago.  He felt terrible.  I was sad, mainly because I felt like I wasn't really contributing anything noteworthy to the meal, but I got over it.  As for Hubby, I'm enjoying bringing it up every once in a while.  That will probably continue for at least a year, with the possibility of it becoming a family joke.  And if you don't think that is that big of a deal, ask my youngest brother how he likes eggnog creamer.  That happened over a decade ago and we bring it up every Christmas!

Thankful for a school table so we had enough seats for everyone!

Friday we decided to go see a movie.  Hubby's brother and his kids went to see Catching Fire since they are all older and didn't want to see the Disney movie with the rest of us.  We invited friends from church to come see it with us.  Silly me thought that since it was Black Friday that there wouldn't be that long of a line for Frozen.  Yeah, we got there 30 minutes before the show we wanted to see and it was sold out.  Luckily, we didn't have anywhere to be so we just bought tickets for the next show, went and ate some fries at McD's next door and then stood in line for 45 minutes to get good seats.  Normally I wouldn't enjoy myself standing in line for a movie, but we were with family and friends so the time passed quickly.  By the way, Frozen is officially my new favorite movie!  The best part was at the end when they kissed and Baby Girl #4, who was sitting on Hubby's lap said very loud, "But they're not even married!"  That's right baby, you just keep on thinking along those lines!

9 kids total

Saturday the brother and his kids had to head home.  I heard he made some sort of comment about us not fixing breakfast for them before they left.  All I have to say is that I have been a member of his family for over 13 years.  He should have known better!

Sunday we enjoyed spending one last day with Gran-Jan and Papa.  Lunch was an amazing pork roast that was given to us by friends again.  It was such a huge blessing to not have to worry about cooking!  I hope I'm able to emulate that kind of thoughtfulness and caring to others.  Well, to others besides my whiny brother-in-law!  After dinner Hubby took Gran-Jan and Papa to New Orleans to stay at a hotel since their flight left early Monday morning.  #1 and #2 had a hard time saying good-bye; they are starting to realize that it is no fun being away from family.  But we're thankful for the time that we did get to spend with everyone.  I'm not going to lie, having an extra 6 people in the house for a week was stressful at times, but I'm just glad I actually like all 6 of those people.  And I would rather be stressed having extra people in our home than be sad because we weren't able to be around any family at all!

Annual Camping Trip

Hubby and I both really like to go camping.  Right now all we have are tents.  We can't justify the money involved to get any kind of camper to just go once or twice a year.  Maybe eventually, but right now we're sticking with the tents.

Ready to go!

So we try to meet up with our friends from Houston once a year to go camping together.  Since neither one of our families celebrate Halloween we've decided that it is easier to just be gone over that particular holiday.  Plus, the weather down here has generally at least started to cool off by the end of October so that we're not completely miserable in our tents. 

Some of the worst weather we've ever driven in.  That wad of brown is napkins put there to block the water leaking in under the windshield!  Thankful Hubby was driving.

We made our reservations a couple of months in advance and the menfolk had already taken time off, so when the day arrived for us to actually leave we couldn't do anything when a huge storm blew in except pray that God would move it through quickly.  We did leave a little later than originally planned in the hopes that the rain would have stopped by the time we got there.  And it had let up almost completely by the time we arrived.  After dumping 5 inches of water on our campsites. 

It's hard to tell, but this was actually really wet.  This is where we would have been

However, we were very blessed that this particular KOA site had cabins to rent.  They were originally going to let us rent the cabins for a discounted price.  Still more than what we would have paid for a tent site, but the cost was worth it to us at this point.  We would have been miserable in tents with all that water.  However, their computers wouldn't let them give us a discount so they ended up letting us stay in the cabins for the same price we would have paid for the tent sites.  That was such a huge blessing for us.  It was still muddy outside, but we had invested in some rain boots for all of us so we didn't have to worry about wet, messy tennis shoes.  The cabins had a bathroom with a shower, AC/Heat, a microwave, and a little fridge.  The only down side was that since we had packed to be cooking and eating right next to each other we had to make several trips back and forth to where we set up to cook and the cabin.  Other than that, it was absolutely perfect!

Deck from our front porch

The cabins were right next to each other and we had a little pond literally off our front porch.  We spent a large part of the day on Friday fishing.  All of us caught a fish, including yours truly!  I've been fishing so many times in my life and never caught a thing.  I caught two fish within 5 minutes of each other.  It was awesome!

Look close, it's there!

We took a couple of walks, played on the playground for a while, ate, talked, and laughed a lot.  We had a fire pit right in front of the cabin and had fun both nights sitting around the fire.  So what could have turned into not so much of a fun trip turned out to be a blast for all of us.  We got to spend time with good friends and take a break from real life for a couple of days.  We're already looking forward to next year!  Even if we do have to go back to our lowly tents!

Fun with family

 The many faces of children who were woken up at 3:30 to start traveling.

While we were going up to Oklahoma for Hubby to speak at a youth camp last week, we also got to spend time with some of my family.  The original plan was for all the girls to stay with my parents while Hubby and I attended the camp.  Unfortunately, some health problems I've been having off and on for the last couple of years popped up again so I decided not to attempt camp.  It was a good decision, even though I was really bummed to miss out on going.  However, next year #1 will be old enough to attend as a camper so we're making plans to go back next year. 

So while Hubby was at camp the girls and I spent time with my parents, grandpa, and uncle on Friday.  I made one of my better batches of salsa.  It's been a while since I made any so I was pleasantly surprised!  I played 42 with my Dad, Grandpa and Uncle Rick that night.  I'm happy to say I can now play with my Grandpa without feeling completely intimidated the entire time.  I'm not the best player, but I'm not horrible either!

Friday night my sister and bro-in-law came in.  I think they were originally coming to attend a party my brother and his wife were having Saturday night, but Sis wasn't feeling well and they ended up not going.  We stayed up late Friday night talking.  I love watching my sister with her husband.  I have three brothers who are married and I love all my sister-in-laws, but there is something different about my sister being married.  I am so happy that she found someone who loves her the way he does.  It helps that he fits in so well with our family! 

Saturday morning we headed to the zoo.  And we spent most of the day there.  It was an awesome zoo and we enjoy every time we go.  It was nice getting to spend time together.

Who doesn't love a baby elephant!

Love my Dad!

That's a baby chimp hanging there.  

Sunday we were able to worship with a congregation we hadn't been at for several years.  Hubby spoke there both services and we enjoyed getting to see several people who hold a special place in our hearts.  My youngest brother was also able to be there with his daughter and I was thankful to get to spend some time with them as well.  I'm attempting to teach all my nieces "Aunt Nita's cool!"  I got K, who is 6 months younger than #4, to say it for a while.  Then she turned ornery just like her Daddy and now the stinker won't say it.  I attempted to teach it to the other niece on Sunday.  She just looked at me.  She too takes after her father.  The awesome thing is that because I had kids so much earlier than my siblings I will be able to spoil their children and they can't do a single thing about it--my kids will be too old for them to retaliate with them.  I will be the cool aunt!

Monday we had lunch with my Grandpa and visited with him for a little while before getting on the road.  We stayed the night on The Farm and headed home on Tuesday.  We are glad to be back.  Until next week when we are going camping.  Can't wait!