We spent 4 days in North Carolina at Ed's parents' house around the New Year's holiday. We flew in from Michigan, Mary, Jack and the kids drove from Massachusetts, and Alli and Micah drove from Kentucky. It's quite the gathering--a packed house, lots of food, even more noise, and so much fun!
Some stats from the visit:
*8 adults
*7 kids (thank goodness we still outnumber them!)
*1 dog
* 7 gallons of milk, 4 dozen eggs, 5 loaves of bread, 8 dozen Christmas cookies (okay, these number may be exaggerated, but not by much!)
Tom and Alice and their 7 grandkids.
Aidan trying to get into one of his presents--he's 7 months old and kept trying to pull himself up. Look at those big blue eyes. Such a cutie!
Alli and Josiah
The babies outside. We had a few days in the 60s, which was great for playing outside.
Aidan and Josiah. They're about 10 weeks apart in age and much closer in size then Thomas and Lauren were!
Playtime! Jojo really tries to sit, but he's nowhere near as sturdy as Aidan yet. Overalls make it easy to keep him upright!
Grandma and Grandpa with the boys
The tree and stocking set-up from Christmas morning, before the kids were allowed to come up from the basement. Peaceful, isn't it? That didn't last long.
Making dumplings for paprikash, our traditional Christmas eve dinner. Usually I'm the third, but Micah started in my place while I was busy doing something--feeding the baby, I think.
Grandpa took the big boys out fishing. They caught a tree branch, but sadly, no fish. Great day to be on the lake, though!
Both Annie and Lauren loved to hold the babies. Lauren was constantly asking to hold Jojo, which was great. She's much more gentle than Thomas--no need to worry about random whacks to the head or eye poking.
Just too cute not to post!
Ed is a jungle gym. The kids loved it!
I think this is a great picture. Jakin is 10 now. That was a fast 10 years, and I'm speaking as an aunt! I bet MB feels it was even faster.
Annie got a sewing kit that makes a stuffed teddy for her and for her American Girl doll. She and Alice worked on it together and had just about finished the smaller bear before we left. As you can imagine, I'm always happy to have another sewer in the family!
The start of the stocking hand-out. Still relatively calm. Not sure we have a picture of all the discarded wrapping paper/new toy chaos!
Everyone got a kick out of Jojo's swaddle. Sure, he looks constricted and funny, but it puts him to sleep and keeps him sleeping pretty well because his arms can't flail.
Grandpa and the big little kids
A time-honored tradition...Tom reads "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" to all the kids. The couch is getting crowded!
That was alot of pictures, but it feels like there was so much we did that didn't get photographed--a bonfire, tons of legos, more running around outside, lots of family meals...etc. There also aren't a ton of pictures of the bigger kids, including Thomas--in large part because they were never holding still, whereas the babies were. But photographed or not, we all had a great time!
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