The rest of the year

We took it easy the day after Christmas, staying at home in our pjs most of the day. Having a few days to sit around not doing anything has really made for a nice, relaxing vacation. We went and hung out with cousins at Grandma and Grandpa's house over the weekend, then Sunday Todd and Savannah's family came to our house for a 2 night slumber party.

We started the party off with our Sunday night Scoops. Ice cream brings families together. :)

Jared and Eloise slept in Rachel and Annie's room, and Ryan joined in the fun, too. For having 5 kids in one room, they fell asleep pretty well and did a pretty good job at sleeping (except Ryan who came to wake me up both nights around 2 am). Monday Todd and Savannah volunteered to take our kids to the zoo so we could put away Christmas decorations.

 I love this picture Savannah snapped of Ryan and B eating lunch together.

They're buddies. They've gotten along well for the whole visit. Their shared love for cars has helped them bond, I think. :)
We did manage to get all our Christmas stuff packed away in less than 4 hours. It took us more than 3 days to put it all up. I always appreciate how take down is way easier than putting it up.

The next day we headed out to the Desert Museum to take advantage of Grandma Knight's membership one more time before it expired at the end of the year. It was a lot of walking. We had strollers and baby carriers enough to go around, but pushing strollers on sandy desert dirt hills is not for the faint hearted. We got a good workout. And saw a few animals, too.

We walked enough to knock out these two.

Annie never naps these days, so she must have been really tired to succumb to sleep in the middle of the day. Megan had an awesome nap while we were walking around the Desert Museum, so spent the entire (45 minute) ride home needing to be entertained. Luckily Rachel sits right next to Megan in the car and takes good care of her.

The next day was New Years Eve. We chilled at home until Ryan and Megan were done with their naps then headed in to Grandma and Grandpa's house for some fun. Of course Megan typically naps for 30 minutes max when I would LOVE for her to nap longer. The one time we put her down counting on her half hour long nap she goes for much longer. We finally woke her up so we wouldn't miss out on New Years Eve festivities with everyone else.

After dinner we played some charades, then joined Cape Verde off the western coast of Africa in counting down to their new year (6pm here).

We braved the rain for some fun with sparklers.

Overall, a good ending to a great year. Here's hoping 2015 is as great as 2014 was. Happy New Year!!

Megan's New Dress

Aunt Lisa is a master seamstress.  She was kind enough to sew Megan a beautiful pink dress.

Thanks a bunch Lisa!

Christmas Afternoon

 We hosted Christmas dinner at our house (at lunchtime), so around 11 or 12 the cousins and everyone showed up and we had our cousin gift exchange, and opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa, too. It was mild chaos, but lots of fun.

 

Ryan and Rachel got homemade stuffed animals from their cousins that were pretty cool. Rachel told me she wants to learn how to sew her own stuffed animals now. And Ryan's dog is actually filled with rice, so it can be a heat pack or an ice pack. It's our owie dog that fixes all owies now. Annie got a ride on horse that was pretty cool, too. At some point that afternoon Ryan took possession and played with it for a while. And made Grandma kiss it.

 Along with the bean bag chairs, Santa left a projector for watching movies. Since the only open wall in the house that was in a room dark enough to watch movies in the middle of the day was in our bedroom, we set it up for the kids to watch Planes while the adults played a game downstairs.

The movie projecting sure makes the movie more fun. We watched it on the wall downstairs for movie night and it was great. I'm hoping for a screen for my birthday so we don't have to take pictures off the walls to watch movies whenever we want to watch.

Here I am checking my email for the best gift ever from my mom.

 She gave me 6 man hours of professional house cleaning! Woohoo! That means all the things I never get around to cleaning because of taking care of 4 kids, including a demanding little baby, might get cleaned before Megan is 2 years old! A couple of kids ago I decided that a house cleaning would be the best baby shower gift. If it weren't so darn expensive. Luckily my mom found a groupon-type deal and I benefit. :)

Rachel and Jared spent much of the afternoon like this in various locations throughout the house:

 Those two are book worms and I love how they like to just sit together and read and read. Rachel got a 12 pack of My Weird School books for Christmas. By the day after Christmas she was already done reading them all. I've got to find a series of longer books that are at her reading level. She is supposed to be reading books between upper 3rd grade level up to lower 5th grade level, but finding books at that level that appeal to her is a challenge.
Anyway, Christmas was great. The best part was having family around to spend the day with. We got to Skype with Jacob's family, too, for a while, though we missed seeing them in person. Family really is what it's all about.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning we came downstairs to find that Santa had indeed visited and left a new bean bag chair for each of the kids, including Megan, along with a couple other presents.

 Ryan got his very own set of keys in his stocking, and then couldn't be convinced to put them down to open his presents. He insisted on holding them in one hand even if it meant opening presents one handed until I showed him that he could clip them to his pants with the little carabiner attached. The keys are one of his favorite gifts he got. It's the little things. :)

Some pictures of the present opening chaos/excitement:

Rachel had asked for Heelys (shoes with wheels in the heel, like modified roller skates) and was SO excited to get them.

 Megan LOVES her new toy. It plays music and lights up when she hits it, and has things she can move. Ryan also happens to love her new toy.

 Jacob and Ryan each got a motorcycle launcher that launches two Hot Wheels motorcycles. They had fun racing them together.

 Cosmo left a package under the tree for the whole family so we can be loyal Cougars.

 Megan also got a new swing that she loves.

 She's so happy to join in the fun with her brother and sisters.

It was a great Christmas morning with happiness all around and no post present let-down or melt down from getting up too early. Just a happy Christmas for all.

Christmas Eve

After a fun day at Grandma and Grandpa Knight's house, we headed home to get ready for Santa to come. The kids got to open a present of new pajamas each, and knowing that they got to go home and open a present they were practically pushing us out the door to go home instead of dragging their feet and begging to stay just a little longer at Grandma's house, like they usually do.

 They were all happy with their fuzzy pants pjs.

 Megan's favorite part was the wrapping paper.

 And Ryan, but then Ryan is always her favorite. He can make her smile any time.

 We had a little time before bedtime, so the girls (especially Annie) jumped at the chance to color the puzzles someone in our ward had dropped off earlier that day for us. Annie LOVES puzzles and coloring, so a puzzle that needed coloring was just about the best thing ever.

 Megan, in the meantime, went to town on her wrapping paper.

Then it was off to bed to wait anxiously for Santa to show up. Rachel had a bit of a hard time falling asleep, but was asleep by 9:00 (bedtime is 7:30, though I think we let them go to bed closer to 8:00 that night). But when I went in to check on Rachel around 11:00 she stirred and wanted me to "do the dribbles" to help her fall back asleep (where I run my fingers lightly over her forehead and down her cheeks). Then she woke up at 2:something, came in to me around 3:15 and was asleep again before 4:00. Then sometime while I was up feeding Megan from 5:15-5:45 Rachel woke up for good for the day, and proceeded to wake up Annie as part of what they called, "Operation Ho Ho Ho." And thus began Christmas morning.

Cousin fun

Todd and Savannah and kids got here about a week before Christmas. We've been enjoying spending time with them. Savannah snapped some pictures of our little monkeys playing down at the park.

Rachel and Annie can't keep their feet on the floor and climb up to the tip top highest place they can. Jared and Eloise mirror their cousins' monkey antics with a little more caution.

 

 We went to Winterhaven to look at all the cool Christmas light displays.

 We had two strollers that fit 4-5 kids put together, with some creative seating, and one seat on Savannah's back, and I carried Megan in a baby backpack. We managed to keep all 9 kids moving without losing any, so we can call the night a success.

 The big hit of the night was the Frozen light display that had "snow" coming from Elsa's Ice Castle.

 For Christmas Eve we hung out together for the afternoon and after dinner the kids acted out the Nativity. The kids mostly wanted to be angels, with a Joseph, zebra, and shepherd or two mixed in, but no one wanted to be Mary, so I got to join in the fun as Mary, since Megan was going to be Baby Jesus.

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 Ryan refused the shepherd costume I offered, and instead ran and got his blanky to wrap around him. Then when he saw the angel wings he wanted some, too. So he was a shepherd angel.

 Grandma took care of Megan while I was "pregnant" with a balloon.

 Then Jared (Joseph) decided it was time to get rid of the balloon and have this baby already, so he yanked the balloon out from my robe.

 Ryan must have been Megan's Baby Jesus' guardian angel/shepherd because he stuck close by. And Eloise was the Zebra that came with Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, then bedded down in the stable.

 The angels sang "Glory to God."

 Ryan began wielding his shepherd's crook as a weapon. There are a few pictures of him shooting it like a gun, and many with it in a blur as he swings it around dangerously.

 This is about the best picture we managed to get of the whole cast. It sure was a fun night and a pretty darn funny performance. It just gets better every year!

After the "play" Rachel and Annie and Eloise sang and signed Away in a Manger, which they had learned in primary (except Eloise who just followed along with the signs, but did a pretty good job of it for her first time seeing the signs).