Christmas with Nana and Papaw

Kate and Hudson come to church this morning and then we all headed to Nana and Papaw's for our Christmas celebration.  Mom made an amazing brunch for us and we all ate before opening presents.

For the first time I can remember, all the kids opened gifts at the same time.  This was never allowed when I was growing up.  Even with all 14 cousins, we went in order from youngest to oldest.  It was crazy and chaotic, but fun!  The kids all loved their gifts.  Well, Ryker wasn't over the moon about his dress clothes, but ya know... ;-)

Cam loved his Jake and the Neverland Pirates telescope and he even hugged his clothes! :-)

Riella was WAY into her phone.

Ryker was BEYOND excited about his science kits.  I think all of us heard everything he knew about these "ocean aliens" approximately 100 times before we left to go home.

These two kill me.  They seriously love each other.  They see each other and break out in these huge grins and immediately start reaching for each other, hugging and kissing each other.  It is hilarious and melts my heart all at the same time.

Nana got Riella this leather jacket that is beyond adorable.  I can hardly contain myself about it.

Kate and I.  Oh, how I adore her!  We played Taboo with David and Robert.  It was super close until the end...and the boys snagged the win.  Boo!

Orange peels make for fun smiles!

The big boys

As soon as we got home, Robert helped Ryker set up his shrimp and we decided to keep a science journal on it.  Should be a fun project for over break. :-)

Christmas at the Zoo

We've been wanting to get to Christmas at the Zoo and decided to go tonight.  Apparently, so did the rest of Indianapolis.  It was packed! Honestly, it was not my favorite trip ever.  I don't do great with crowds and the inability to navigate the stroller through the crowds and people cutting me off from the boys so I couldn't see them was enough to unnerve me.  Riella, who is never fussy, and always goes with the flow, hated it.  She didn't want to be in the stroller, she didn't want to be held, she just plain didn't want to be there.  We gave up after about an hour and went to dinner.  

She wasn't feeling it...at all.

The boys didn't mind the crowds at all and wanted to see everything just like normal.  We split up some and Robert took them in the more congested areas while I tried to entertain and console Riella.  At least the boys had fun! ;-)

We went to Yats over by IUPUI afterwards.  It was the first time for all of us.  Robert and the boys liked it pretty well.  It didn't agree with me too well, but it was fun to try something different.

Family Fun Night

We made a pizza for dinner and got in pjs nice and early for a "family fun night" as Ryker called it.

Trying to get a picture of my elves by the tree.  :-)

Daddy wanted in on the fun.

We popped some popcorn, lit the fire, set up blankets and pillows, and put in Prancer the movie.

Even Tuck joined us for this family picture.  It was such a fun night cuddle up with my favorite people.  These are the memories I hope my kids keep with them for years to come. :-)

Ryker's Christmas Party

Today was Ryker's classroom Christmas party.  I was able to go and help out.

Enjoying snack.

My friend Shawna's daughter is in Ryker's class too.  She brought me the Santa hat I wore for most of the ugly Christmas sweater party at the McCollister's a couple weeks ago to borrow for today's party too.  It cracked me up!

I handled the snowball launching game and wasn't able to take any pictures but my friend Jamie (who was in charge of today's party) sent me this picture of Ryker at the candy cane station.

I found this in Ryker's folder when we got home.  It was hilarious!

Snow!

It started snowing this afternoon.  Big, fat, beautiful flakes.  Cam is fascinated with snow so we decided to bundle up and go outside to enjoy it for a bit.

He kept saying, "Snow! So much snow, Mama!"

Catching snowflakes on his tongue.

And, of course, we had to have chocolate when we came back in.

Cheers!

Super Parker's Birthday

Cam was invited to celebrate Parker's 5th birthday with a superhero-themed bash at Chuck E. Cheese today.

Green Lantern was ready to go!

And, Cutie Girl was, well, cute!!!

Making a wish!

The whole crew

Playing games

She loved this train ride, even though I never put a token in!

He rocked out at this game and won lots of tickets.

Each of the kids got their very own cape.  It clearly made Cam super fast. ;-)

He traded in his tickets for these awesome glasses and a mustache ring.  

Small Group Christmas Party

Tonight was our small group Christmas party.  This is our 3rd year celebrating with these dear friends.  We did our traditional white elephant gift exchange with one good gift and one object found around the house.

Anna and Jessie were the lucky recipients of some beautiful objects found around the home.  My personal favorite is the beautiful painting of Bozo the Clown.  :-)

Robert walked away with some well-loved sports balls and Tom now gets to admire the chatbooks I made of pictures of Tucker.  (They shipped us 2.)

We missed two of our couples tonight that weren't able to make it.  We are looking forward to starting up again in January and finishing out our parenting study.