Great Wolf Lodge!

For Christmas this year, my Dad got all his children and grandchildren a night at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, TX for January 4.  Most of the crew headed to my sister Jamie's house on January 3 to sleepover since she's not too far away.  We decided to sleep at home on Thursday night and meet up with everyone at the lodge on Friday around 1 pm.
We headed out around 9 am and grabbed lunch in Grapevine and rolled into the lodge right before 1.  Your rooms aren't guaranteed to be ready before 4 pm, but you can head to the water park starting at 1.  Most of our rooms were ready when we got there though, so we dropped our bags off and changed into our suits and hit up the waterpark from about 1:30 to 4:30.  Candy and cousin Molly each spent some time napping with Grandpa and Sally and we all had a blast. 
Then we took a break in our rooms for a bit and my brother-in-law picked up pizza, drinks, and salad and all 22 of us piled into one of the rooms for a crazy dinner.  I took Megan and Brooke back to the water from 6:15 until about 7:30 (Candy and Dan stayed upstairs) and then when I got back Dan headed out to ride the rides with my brother until the park closed at 9 pm. The kids and I went down for story time in the lobby before bed.
We managed to sleep in a little (for our kids) on Saturday morning until about 7 am and met up with the group around 8 am to be treated to a yummy breakfast buffet at the hotel restaurant compliments of my Dad. And then...back to the water!  We played and played until we were all played out.
Candy again spent some time napping with Sally (thanks Sally!) and her favorite part was either wading in the wave pool or being in the hot tub.  Dan and I would take turns being with the kids and riding the rides.  Brooke was so tired out that she fell asleep IN A TUBE, IN the wavepool around noon.  It was hilarious.  But unfortunately, with so much water, there's not much camera action.  So you'll just have to picture it.  I scooted her to the shore and let her sleep there for about 20 minutes until Dan stopped by and scooped her up to let her sleep on a bed of towels near our stuff.  She slept for over an hour.
By 2:30, we were ready for a break from the water, so we bid farewell to the Lodge and headed out.  It was so fun to be with my family and such a fun place to stay!

My brother Tyler was in our room--here they are enjoying some Saturday morning cartoons.

The whole group in the lodge "treehouse" on Saturday morning.

New Year's Eve 2012!

We've spent most of our New Years' since we moved to Houston at my parents' house and we decided to change it up this year and invite some families over.  We had a good time.  They got there around 7 pm and the adults chatted and the kids played some kinect party.  The kids were getting pretty wild by 8, so we counted down and toasted the new year with them and then headed outside to do some fireworks in the drizzling rain.  We then put on a movie for the kids (and put the littlest ones to bed) and we chatted and played some games.  One family left just before 11 and the other stayed to ring in the New Year...with NYC.  They left around 11:30 and we headed to bed!  Yet another year where we don't quite make it til 12...and I'm at peace with it!

Playing kinect...

Brooke was tired already  :)

The guests arrive! 

It was so funny to watch all the kids playing together.  They are supposed to be like ninjas just randomly hitting stuff...pretty fierce :)

Hurray!  8 o'clock!

Noisemakers in action...

We took a picture before bed--to prove we were there.  Happy New Year!

Christmas Break Fun

We always love having Dan home from work for days at a time.  This Christmas break was even MORE fun because it's the longest school break Dan has had in a year!
We finally gave Brooke her summer chore reward (that she earned back in August) of going roller skating.  Our buddies the T family came along too and we had a great time on Dec. 26.
 
We hit up the skating place for toddler time (you can ride scooters/push toys as well as skate)--and they let us use the "skate-mates" for free since there were about 12 people there (and our group made up 10 of them!).  Megan was excited to try out her wheels at first.  But then she fell pretty hard a few times and the novelty wore off.  I made her make 5 loops around before I let her switch to shoes :).

Candy only lasted a few minutes in her ADORABLE teeny-tiny skates.  It was SO cute!

Brooke went around with Daddy a few times (that's right, Dan and I got our skate on too), but quickly switched to the trike.  She had a blast.

 Kenzie and Candy had a blast.  They particularly liked pretending to ride the motorcycle in the arcade.

The Megans--having fun running around pushing the skate-mates.

Then on Dec. 29, our bud Maddy turned 4 and we got to enjoy her princess party.  Take note of her adorable Princess Giselle dress (from Enchanted) made by her Mom

Candy especially enjoyed that cake--started with the fork...

Mmm (I love that squinty smile)

Forget the fork, she's showing that cake who's boss...

And, TA-DA!  Here's what Megan and Brooke wore to the princess party--Princess Ariel (in mermaid form), Princess Aurora (aka I Know You)--made by me for Christmas.  I had so much fun making those dresses.  I made one for our cousin (Cinderella), then convinced Ashley she could make Giselle for Maddy, and then I just couldn't help myself and made 2 more.

Here's the Cinderella dress modeled by Brooke before we sent it off to Virginia.

Christmas!

We were up late enough on Christmas Eve that the girls slept in a little.  We heard them stirring around 6:45 am, so Dan and I headed upstairs so we could be with them when they saw the tree.  Candy was still sleeping, so we woke her up and brought her in with the big girls.  They were excited (and so were we!).

 

 Slowly waking up...

Candy getting some morning face squishing...

Candy immediately saw the stars of the show--bikes from Santa!  The older girls--had a harder time :)

Finally they noticed!!  They were THRILLED.

They were almost equally as thrilled by the candy in their stockings.  Megan immediately ate every piece of hers (Santa knew to only put in 3 or 4 pieces) and proceeded to sneak every piece from MINE!  Santa had given me about a dozen pieces, and by the time we finished opening presents she had eaten every one!  Good thing she'd already opened her present from Santa or she would have been in trouble...

Cute, cute Candy...

I loved watching the girls open their presents from each other.  Megan and Brooke got Candy a doll--here you see Candy opening it (ha!)

Finally she got to look at it and was pretty happy...

Brooke and Candy gave Megan the Ariel dress--Megan was pretty excited that after a few weeks of trying on princess dresses I was making that weren't for her that Mom had snuck one in for her!

Brooke was ecstatic with the Sleeping Beauty dress from Candy and Megan--she wore it all day...

We finished opening presents around 8 am and headed out to ride bikes.  It was sunny and warm (near 80) and it was so fun to watch the girls go.  They did pretty well.  They each had a few spills but were excited enough to keep trying.  We ate a yummy breakfast of bacon, walnut rolls, egg nog, oj, etc.  We headed out on the bikes again as my Dad and Carrie and Tyler arrived.  We showed them our presents, opened presents from Grandpa and Carrie and grabbed a snack before heading to my brother Shad's to see how their morning went. 

By the time we got to Shad's, it had dropped about 15 degrees and was windy!  Shad's kids got some really fun outside toys...that the adults couldn't wait to try :)

A little go-kart...

A motorized scooter...

After a fun afternoon at Shad's, we headed home for a great dinner with the T family.  They made such a yummy traditional Christmas dinner--ham, potatoes, salad, rolls, and this really cool chocolate cake peppermint ice cream roll up dessert.  We had so much fun playing. 

But by 6:30, our kids were done.  The girls rode their bikes over for dinner (it was sunny and about 60 degrees when we got there).  But when we rode home it was dark, windy, and 44 degrees!  Brrr!!!!  It felt like a long ride home.  But we made it.  It was such a fun Christmas with the girls.  We really loved celebrating the birthday of our Savior with family and friends that we love!

Christmas Eve

We had a really quiet start to our Christmas Eve morning--Brooke and Megan spent the night with my sister Carrie the night before.  And even though we had my brother Tyler with us, like most 15 year olds, he sleeps in as long as he can.

But alas, our sleeping in only went til about 7 am since we had to be on our way by about 8:30 am so we could head to my parents' neighbors annual Christmas Eve breakfast.  We got there a little after 9 am and the party was in full swing.  It's fun to catch up with neighbors that have known my parents since they moved in right before I was born.  And we enjoyed our sausage, blueberry pancakes, homemade egg nog (although it was mint this year--not my favorite!), and grapefruit punch.  By about 10 am we were back at my Dad's house.  

Candy ready for family prayer (so, so cute) before we headed down to Dad's.

Carrie and Brookie at the breakfast...

Carrie and Candy...

Megan and Brooke enjoying their pancakes...

We spent the day relaxing, playing games, and getting ready for a delicious dinner.  I made jello and fruit salad, steamed asparagus with lemon butter, and creamy pumpkin soup.  Dad made ratatouille and two beef tenderloins; Amy made a delicious salad and brownies; Carrie made shrimp cocktail, bread, and peppermint bark--you can tell we starved.  We used the fancy dishes and set a fancy table and had such a nice time.  We were so full we didn't even eat Amy's brownies til the next day and we had lots of leftovers.  

After dinner, all the grandkids opened their Christmas Eve pjs and put them on.  Then we acted out the nativity from Luke 2, sang Christmas carols, had a visit from Santa--it was the perfect Christmas Eve.  We got home around 8:30 pm with tired girls and put them right to bed.  We finished our Christmas Eve prep by 9:30 pm and fell asleep watching It's a Wonderful Life.  We could hardly wait til morning!

Opening jammies...

To say they were wired would be a bit of an understatement--this was the best picture we got!

Candy was happy too!

Here comes Mary (Chloe), Joseph (Zach), and the donkey (Grandpa)

Candy, Brooke, and I were shepherds...

Here's the whole crew including the angels (Hailey and Megan) and our wise man (Tyler in the doctoral robes)

 The grandkids singing...

 
Brooke

Megan

Candy(ahaha--the things we do to our kids)

Me and my sister Carrie

Here's our tree--all ready for Christmas morning!  Santa snuck in and out just before I took these pictures--and I was pretty excited to see he got the girls' letters and brought them some beautiful bikes!