Christmas

This is Savanah with Grandma at Terri and Tim's house.

Here's Ryon talking with uncle Mike infront of all the Charlie's Angels:) (If you don't know what I mean...it doesn't matter!)

Christmas morning just before the destruction of our home...

Andrew is always happy to be playing with "guys".

Christmas Continues...

I'm not a huge ramen fan, so I don't buy it any more, except for Christmas, and apparently Andrew was not impressed!

And More...

Organized chaos! Or not so organized. We did take turns opening gifts, but no one threw away the wrappers... Nathaniel is taking time to help Andrew get on his new Star Wars costume.

Ry is "listening" to...on his new "mobile" phone.

Ryon teaches Andrew how to play the new Mario Cart game.

The whole family is having "fun" watching Mario Cart.

We're Going to Papa's House, We're Going to Wash the Jeep, and Be Happy, Happy, Happy!

The last time I saw my "uncle" Jeb was when we were both really young! (Maybe 5 and 6) Now he's a teacher/principal and is married to Angela (truly beautiful I might add)! I completely enjoyed our visit (reunion) at the Draper/Frisch Christmas party on Sunday!Some of the cooks for the delicious Christmas feast!Life is a party at Papa Kirk's house!

Papa and the kids went to the hobby shop to get rockets for all, built them, and even launched them in the rain!
The launch site...they had to get a ladder to get one out of a tree.

And nine of us went to see The Tale of Desperaux at the theater! Thanks Nana!
We almost took up a whole row!!!

And after all that we matched for church, even though we didn't plan it, ahhh, so cute! :)

Lacy and I both got these cute pj's from our mothers-in-law for Christmas,

even though we have different ones (mothers-in-law that is)!
Oh, and 10 kids were sleeping EVERYWHERE! And 8 parents were sleeping everywhere else! Family gatherings are so fun!

Even More Exciting?

Is it possible for birds (specifically chickens)to sense my excitement? And try to please some one (namely me)? There was a line waiting for the laying nest today!!! They just waited one after the next to do their thing (lay their egg) and move on. And when they were done 5, a record! That could be a dozen and a half every 3 days, woohoo! I'm so grateful to be a little self sufficient!

The Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus?

After Savanah lost her first tooth the tooth fairy was delinquent for 2 whole weeks. And then after returning from a 5 day vacation (the tooth fairy and the girl), the fairy still hadn't visited...so she decided to visit right after bed time on the day of her return and use her "stealth" mode to place a few coins under the pillow with out waking the "sleeping" girl. But unbeknownst to the completely over rated tooth fairy the little girl was yet to fall asleep and asked what are you doing under my pillow "tooth fairy". A deep shade of red spread across the tooth fairy's face as she tried to explain the reason for her completely over due and clumsy visit. One might think THAT almost impossible, but OH NO not for our tooth fairy! And the sad end to this tale is, it has never gotten better, hardly a child in our home hasn't awakened or heard the tooth fairy leaving her less than magical stash of cash for the little fellows. Well, it doesn't really end there. Our whole family decided that being a "secret" (now what in the world were we thinking?)Santa would be a fun way to celebrate the Christmas season. Now the tooth fairy knew she needed to stay in the car, to avoid all the problems that the tooth fairy has historically experienced, but the tooth fairy's children were apparently born with the tooth fairies genes and NOT Santa Claus'...and thus, on each visit the children meet face to face with the recipients of their "secret" gifts. Carrying on the tooth fairy's tradition of wanting to do something anonymous, but being well... less than stealth...maybe all the practice now will make for better tooth fairies for future generations! Merry Christmas!

Simple Pleasures...

Exciting!!! We collected 3 eggs today, yes, we have 13 laying hens, but we only collect one egg a day, first it was because they were too young to lay, except Chicken Slade, then the days got short(not enough sunlight-I feel their pain), and then I don't know...we just get one egg a day, but today!!! THREE eggs! I'm so easily excited, I know!

(Batman Chicken & Chicken Slade-yes we name our chickens!)

Tonight Savanah and Eli had an orchestra and Suzuki violin concert. I forgot to take the camera to the concert tonight, but the kids looked great in their black slacks, white shirts, and black dress shoes, and Eli in his tie. Our children officially hold the 1st chair position in the 7th grade orchestra and last chair in the 5th grade one:). (And for very good reason!) Savanah's bow glides gracefully up and down dancing to the music. Eli's bow bobs up when every other (all 150 of them) go down and vice versus, talent only goes so far with absolutely no practice! We're going to work on that this quarter! But it was fun to sit with our four little boys and watch our older two perform. Our little boys took a break to go get a drink of water and three of our boys came back, with someone else's little boy, Ryon asked, "What'd you trade Nathaniel in?" The little boy sat with us for a long time before his mom came to retrieve him, we couldn't stop laughing at his cute little face and complete comfortable disposition sitting amid our whole family!

It's Christmas Elder!

The boys (even the littlest) are so excited to be Elders some day!

Schoolish Photos...

Before and After...

O.K. This is entirely too, too many pictures of me in one place, so you can skip this post! But for my mom, here are the results...

A Kind of Before (8:30 am today)

After 12pm

A True Before Shot

(3 years ago)And After

Andrew said I looked older as soon as I got them off:)... It's great to have little honest people around all the time. Boy that 2 years went by soooo fast! And now I'm excited to know that barring all accidents, my bite is perfect and I will keep MY teeth forever!

I'm trying to decide what the best part about having them off is, being able to whistle again, eat again, or kiss again... :) I'll know after dinner!