Family Vacation 2012

One of my FAVORITE times of the whole year is getting together with my ENTIRE family for a few days of fun and fellowship!This year and last year, Eddie's parents were able to join us, too, which made it extra special for us!!  For some people, the idea of 20 people (yes 20!!) sleeping and just being together for a 4-day weekend might sound like a bit much, but we LOVE it!!

Normally, the only time we are ALL together at the SAME time, is for a single day during Christmas time.  One family is usually coming, while another is going, but we do overlap for several hours during a day.  Those hours are usually very filled with meals, gift-opening, etc.  Several years ago, we decided that that was just not enough time, so we started doing a summer family vacation.

This year, my precious sister-in-law Ashley, made all the grandkids matching t-shirts!!  

How awesome is she?!?

It was (obviously) very hard to get a decent picture of all 8 kids at the same time.

(mainly the difficulty was my 2 busy children)

Hmmmm...to try to put into words how special this time is and how much I LOVE it!

1.  I LOVE how EVERYONE pitches in and we all work together as a team to make the weekend a success!  This year a special shout out to my mother-in-law, Ms. Margaret (Gie-gie)!!

Because the dishwasher was broken, she stepped up and became our human dishwasher after nearly every meal!!  And remember, there were 20 of us!!  She was never asked to do this and never called any attention to herself.  Just quietly stepped into the kitchen and went to work!!  Thank you so much!! (and just an idea of how EVERYONE pitched in...notice my Dad beside her drying the dishes as she went!)

AND...

On our first day of boating, she and LOU went in early to prepare dinner for us so that when we were done with our boating adventure, we walked into the house and had a warm meal all ready to go.  How AWESOME is that?!?  I'm truly blessed with some of the greatest in-laws EVER!!

AND...

She was the MASTER of the shut-down operation on the last day when it was time to go.  I looked in the fridge knowing that it needed to be cleared out, divvied up and packed and was so overwhelmed, I decided to start elsewhere.  An hour later, I went back in to try to tackle it again and it was DONE. 

I'm telling you, everyone there did LOADS of work, but she really went above and beyond.

2.  I LOVE all of the cousin bonding that happens!!

 And again, just because it totally blesses my heart, notice my sweet mom in the background preparing breakfast for everyone.  She did this EVERY SINGLE MORNING, so the rest of us could enjoy sweet morning cuddles or sleeping in late.  Thanks, MOM!!

Below, all of the girl cousins (minus B) are having a morning tea party!!  I wish you could have heard them...so CUTE!!

 Sweet Cannon and Chandler are 2 peas in a pod!  If there is an accessory in SIGHT these 2 will have it on!!  

3.  I LOVE all of the delicious meals

4.  I LOVE how every night becomes HILARIOUS game night after the kids go to bed

I LOVE so many things about the weekend, but those are probably my 4 most favorite things.

Chandler's Highlight Reel... 

Chandler is a bit of a Momma's girl and is almost ALWAYS within an arms reach of me.   It's really sweet, but sometimes makes me sad because she is really smart, cuddly and funny and I feel like others don't get to see her personality or get any of those sweet cuddles.  I thought that that would be especially true for this trip in a house of 20, but I was wrong!!

 She bonded with EVERYONE!

She'd crawl up in laps

Share desserts (Thanks, Uncle Brady)

 She was little Miss Friendly!

Brooklyn's Highlight Reel:

Brooklyn LOVES a party and people, but hates getting her picture taken so her pictures are few and far between.

One night we went out on the boat and road over to the dam where the water is FREEZING cold!!  Crazy Uncle Brady and Eddie jumped in and came out unable to breathe or feel there legs.  Uncle Brady also dipped all the kids in just enough for their toes to feel the cold water.  Some of the kids were talking about jumping in and trying to work up the courage when we heard a splash!  B went in!!

Eddie and I, being the crazy parents we are, were soooo proud!!

 And very true to B's intense nature, she was very much - play hard, sleep harder!  She slept completely  face down on her nap mat!  How can she sleep like that?!?

How we spent our days and nights?

Well, we kicked the weekend off with our fiesta, of course

That concluded with the piñata

And Gender Reveal!!

Which was super-exciting!!

 (BTW - Think we've decided on a name, but I'll save for another post...you know I'm all about keeping the suspense!)

We spent a lot of time on boats in the water.

One night, on our sunset cruise, we saw this beautiful rainbow.

AWESOME!

And on one of the days, the guys all played golf while the rest of us stayed home and did crafts.

 My mom is a bit of a pinterest junkie and found these fabulous little crafts for them to do!!

 They made these super-cute caterpillars out of green grapes, with white icing and chocolate chips for the eyes...then they were delicious and mostly healthy to eat!

 The other craft was a printed picture of a rainbow and the kids sorted through the froot loops to make the different color stripes...then addd some cotton balls for the cloud.  So cute!!

So much fun!!  Can't wait until next year!!

Gender Reveal of Baby #3!!

Since this is  our 3rd (quite possibly last) child,

we decided not to find out the gender at the time of our ultrasound.

Instead, we decided to make it a party and find out with all of our family at our annual summer family vacation!!

And we did it - FIESTA STYLE!!

To start off the fun night, Eddie grilled out some delicious fajitas for everyone.

We followed that up with a yummy lemon bunt cake from 

"Nothing Bundt Cakes"

(OK...that has nothing to do with a fiesta, but it was too pretty not to take a picture of and share.)

Then we went downstairs to bust open the pink-filled or blue-filled piñata!!

Above is group shots of B&C and all their maternal cousins who would be participating in the breaking of the piñata.  How special that they could all be there for this!

It would be Chandler (with assistance from Eddie) in round 2 that would eventually be the ones to bring the piñata down.

OK.  Not exactly what I had envisioned.  But soon Lawson went to inspect and announced...

It's a ____!  And before I even knew what happened, somehow all of the contents came pouring out.

I'm not going to give it away, you'll have to watch a little more to find out!!

We are so excited!!  Can't wait to come up with a name and start working on the nursery!!

Summer Fun!

This might possibly be the most fun summer EVER!!

Here is just a glimpse of some of the fun things we've been doing!

 Going to Rangers Games!

 Chandler takes very short naps so I had a little extra time to play with her hair.

 The girls were not very cooperative for a picture (so surprise).

 My little lefties.

Chandler is not a true lefty, but has adapted quite well with her cast!

We also had a date with the Wyatt girls and saw Beauty and the Beast LIVE in a little children's theatre!

 We've been watching the movie over and over again to get the girls prepared and familiar.

 Chandler was mildly interested when it came time for the real show, but Brooklyn was GLUED to every word, song and scene.  She turned to me during the show and said, "This is really awesome."  She doesn't have a huge vocabulary and doesn't talk that much, so this was really a sweet moment for me.

Thank you Wyatt girls for "Being our Guests"!

And we also had a blast celebrating the 4th of July

 Some people in our LifeGroup at church had a party at their house complete with food, swimming, bounce houses and fireworks.  These are pictures of the girls at our house before the "crazy began."

 Brooklyn has always been a bit of a daredevil, but Chandler was JUST as interested in climbing up and sliding down this big bounce house waterside all by herself...cast and all!  Every time she'd get to the bottom she'd smile and say, "More?"

 I was a little paranoid the whole time about Chan getting her cast wet and keeping a close eye on both of them with the pool around...so not too many pictures.  When we did take a snack break, Eddie and I were cracking up at Brooklyn sitting like this with her legs crossed.  Such a lady!

 And sweet Chandler was SUCH a trooper!  She came over several times and patiently waited while we unwrapped and re-wrapped her cast when I thought it might be getting wet.  She never once complained or cried.  She might be the sweetest and most patient child that ever existed!!

Much more fun to come.  Hope you are having a great summer!

This Thursday we are doing our fiesta and celebrating the "Big Reveal" of Baby #3!!

Baby #3

Last week, we went in for our "BIG ULTRASOUND."

Here are a few of the "baby pics."

 Above:  full body pic, baby is laying face down...head on left and bottom on right...spine at the top of the pic

Below:  face picture and maybe the belly?  Face in on left and you can kind-of see eyes nose and mouth

He/she looks a little scary and skeletal here, but was of course, much cuter in person.  Baby was very active and cooperative.  We saw all 10 of the little fingers and toes.  Everything looked perfect!

Heartrate: 148

Weight: 1/2 lb

For those that don't know, we had the sonographer put the "gender picture" in a sealed envelope and are going to wait to find out what this precious baby is until our big family vacation.  The date of the reveal will be JULY 12!! We are so excited and can't wait to find out with the family!!

Broken Bones

That's right.  I said "bones"...plural.  Both children!!

I feel like the girls drink lots of milk and get plenty of calcium, 

but apparently it's no match for a 5 lb hand weight and a stepstool.

Brooklyn has a "chip fracture" at the tip of her right middle finger after dropping a 5 lb hand weight on it.  No cast necessary.  It will heal on it's own with time.

However, 

Chandler's break is a little worse.  (She has candy in her mouth...her cheek is not swollen.)  She fell of the stepstool while brushing her teeth and got a "buckle fracture."  This one had to be casted.

She was pretty sad about it at first, but then we got her some Chickfila and that just seems to make everything in life a little better.

We came home and took a nap.

And when she woke up, she was over the trauma of being casted and very proud to show off her new pink cast!  And it hasn't slowed her down one bit!

And to be perfectly honest, it's pretty stinkin' cute!