New Years Eve Fun

On New Years Eve we have a tradition of taking the kids somewhere we would normally not get to go.  Grandma and Grandpa Griffith send us money to use on the kids and so we give them an experience as a family.  This year we went to a place called Hollywood connection.  They had rides, roller skating, arcade games, and food.  They have a movie theater too, but we didn't see a movie.

This is Joshua on his favorite carousel "horse."  He could ride the carousel all day long if we let him.

Adam loved riding too.  In this picture, Joshua is telling me, "Mom, I'm holding on, I won't fall off!"

The girls even enjoyed it, but just couldn't ride as long as the boys. The ran back and forth between the dragon roller coaster and the carousel.

I took Olivia for one ride on the bench seat on the carousel.  She loved sitting there - until it started moving around and around.  Then she climbed into my lap and buried her head into my neck until it stopped.  She didn't scream, but she didn't like it either.  She much preferred watching and waving at her siblings riding the rides.

Here we are eating lunch in the small restaurant.  The kids all had nuggets and french fries.  Olivia thought we were having fruit punch for lunch, because she figured out how to suck through a straw.  (Miriam took the picture.)

After lunch, we tried roller skating.  Miriam was terrified at first and hung onto the wall and her mother - tightly.  But after a few laps around the rink, she relaxed and did much better.

Emily was proud to skate without holding on to anything.  It's a picture though, so she held on to hold still.

In the game area, Joshua loved this game of stomping on the lights.  He wanted to play it over and over.  He is really good at it too, if he isn't distracted by brothers and sisters who stomp the light before he gets to it.  Watch out for your fingers, Olivia!

And now... Adam's favorite ride of all time!

The Dragon Roller coaster.

Adam rode as often as he could get someone to go with him.  That meant once with Mom, and about 6 times with Dad, and countless times with his sisters.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Griffith!

Sledding

Have you ever tried to take pictures of someone sledding?  It's impossible!  I keep getting backs of heads, or ran over by the sled.  Anyway, Santa brought sleds, so we had fun.

Here is Michael and Miriam on the first trip down the hill.

Joshua and Olivia all bundled up and watching kids fly down the hill.

After every trip down the hill on the tube, Michael had to haul the tube AND the child back up the hill.

Adam LOVED sledding.

The girls had their own sleds and went dozens of times.

This is the girls trying to pull the tube with Joshua inside.  He was screaming so Michael told them to let go of their brother.

The girls let go and he slid back down the short slope.

Olivia even went down the hill once with Michael, but she didn't like it as much as everyone else did.

Christmas

This year December was really busy and I had too many projects.

As always, Christmas was a lot of fun (though extra stressful this year due to late shopping).

Here is a sampling of our day to delight the grandparents (and anyone who happens to read this blog.)

I was trying to take a picture of Adam and Olivia to make new ornaments for the tree.  It's a tradition we have to put all the kids pictures on the tree every year.  It sure adds up with 5 kids and adding 5 new ornaments each year!

Our tree.  Can you tell we have 5 kids - and they decorated the tree?  Then they re-decorated it, and re-decorated it over and over every day until we took it down.  No ornaments on the bottom third, crowded on top, and almost no ornaments in the back.

These are three of my 4 sisters that were at a family Christmas party.  Yes, Lori is not in the picture again.  :)
I don't know where Jamie's husband, Patrick is, but he was there too.
This is Jenny, Michele, and Jamie. (yes, that's Joshua in the background.)

This is the reason I got no sleep in December.  Every year, there seems to be a project I start at the last minute that takes hours and days longer than I ever expect.  This year was a texture book.  I made two.  One for my nephew, Jared, who is texture challenged and needs to practice, and one for my busy bee, Olivia.  I put up pictures of the inside of the book on my other blog HERE.  You can also see my other Christmas project making accordion scrapbooks for the grandparents.  It is at http://homemadebykristy.blogspot.com/

Christmas eve brings the joy of opening one present - Pajamas - so kids look good for pictures on Christmas morning.

Olivia got fuzzy pink pj's. - I love her expression!  She did it for almost every package she opened.

Emily in a flannel nightgown to keep her warm.

Miriam LOVED her new nightgown until she tried it on.  Evidently it was itchy on the arms and neck seams, so after the HUGE tantrum, she wore the new nightgown over the top of an old nightgown and it worked.  Of her own choice, she also wore the nightgown every night it has been clean ever since - but always with the two layers.

Adam's pajamas fit!  Good job picking them out, Kristy!

Joshua's pajamas were way too big.
Kristy, what were you thinking?  (I got him another new pair after Christmas and it fits much better.)

This is the kids picture looking at what Santa brought.  What they are saying through those smiles is, "enough pictures!  can we open gifts yet?"  I absolutely love Olivia's bed head.  It's so bad!

Oh no!  Santa put everything in one big pile!

Joshua was really excited for new underwear.  He has just decided to be potty trained.  It was a really rough couple of months, but now he does really well.  He prefers underwear with pictures on them, and is just getting over having to wear them backwards - to see the pictures.  He hates the white underwear.  He also has a recent habit of putting them on his head and running out to see me while peeking through the leg holes.  I laugh every time - but only because he is 3.

Next year assembly needs to happen BEFORE gifts are wrapped.  Michael and I are racing in the next two pictures to put the boys' new car tracks together the fastest.  (it was a tie - me with instructions and of course, Michael without.)

Miriam got an easel for Christmas and we all love writing on the white and chalk boards.
(IKEA for $15)

Emily got a box with a lock to prevent her siblings from touching her stuff.  I don't even know what she put in there, but she loves the power of having a private space.

She also loves her pogo stick, but that's hard to take a picture of when it's moving.

Her is Emily making a new recipe from her new cook book.
It's apple slices, cheese, and peanut butter.  They are called applewiches.

Olivia really loves her new baby doll.   She has been hauling it around everywhere.

Of course I couldn't put EVERY picture I (I mean Jenny) took of our fun day.  Lucky for us, Jenny takes pictures on Christmas morning while we enjoy the kids.

Thank you Santa - and everyone else for a fun day!

What we did in November...

Yes, it has been a really long time since I updated this blog.

So I'll start with November.

What did we do?

My sister Michele came to visit.  So did my sister Lori, her husband Amaleki, and their son Jared.

This is Michele...

And this is how I found Michele in the morning after she slept on my floor overnight.  Yes, her bed was really popular with my kids!

These are my kids with their only cousin on my side - Jared.  Every time Lori and I get together, we always take a million group shots of the kids. (I just don't have any good pictures of Lori or Amaleki.) Sometimes the kids cooperate, but usually not all at the same time.

Here is Adam sharing Joshua's fire truck with Jared.  The buttons make sounds.

November was a hard month for my family.  My mother had her second open-heart surgery and heart valve replacement in about 4 months.  She spent the entire month of November in the hospital, but she is now home.  She is working hard to regain her strength.  This picture was from this past summer, just before her first valve replacement.

Ok, age 3 is really really fun.  Joshua is so fun to watch and listen to.
Joshua will line up anything - and anything with wheels is preferred.  He has always loved cars.

Joshua's favorite color is... you guessed it!  ORANGE.  He won't use any other color.

This picture was so silly I had to include it.  I was holding Olivia on the couch with my camera sitting next to me.  I had a great idea that if I held the camera out in front of us, I could take our picture together!  I had no idea she was PICKING HER NOSE until I reviewed the picture I took.

Thanksgiving was great.  Michael really really loves pie.  He doesn't care for cake.  Every Thanksgiving is a great excuse to make many different kinds of pie.  (in fact at his parent's house, when all the family gets together, they have about 40 or more pies.)  This year we had apple, cherry, and pumpkin.  Jenny came for Thanksgiving dinner, and then we went to visit Mom afterwards (in the hospital.)

So that's November.  Just a little over 2 months later.

Halloween

I really love watching little kids at Halloween. They get so excited to dress up - and eat tons of candy. I'm really glad my kids are still in the cute costume stage that doesn't include any bloody, scary, or evil Halloween costumes.

First, the Pumpkin Carving tradition. 

 (actually, last year we did under-ripe watermelons from the garden instead and it was easier)

Joshua did NOT want to stick his hand inside the pumpkin to clean it out.

Adam is proud of his (Dad's) work.

Yeah for safety knives!

A bit of the chaos...

Joshua decided his pumkin was a puzzle. After I finished cutting out the face, he picked up the pieces and matched them up. He did it over and over. I love this cute kid!

(the cute video of the puzzle for the grandmas)

Emily showing off  -  the pumkins.

So what did everyone dress up as?

Emily - a witch - same as last year. She makes a good witch.

Miriam - always a beautiful costume. This year she is a fairy.

We made the wings. That's why she wasn't allowed to get sick for halloween - because we spent too much time on the costume. :)

Adam - a fireman. He was a fireman last year too. His costume is still a little big and will still fit him for another year or so!

Joshua - bones. That's his name for it. As my "all or nothing" boy, he refused to put the bones on until he saw his siblings putting their costumes on. Then he wouldn't take them off.

Joshua wore bones to the school halloween parade Friday morning, and had to wear his costume the rest of the day. (washed overnight because Joshua is THREE)

Olivia - ladybug! I made this costume for Miriam when she was this age. I can't believe Olivia never pulled the hat off - or even tried!

After watching her brothers and sisters stand by the wall for a picture, Olivia ran right over for her closeup! She even twirled for me!

Emily and Miriam had a Halloween parade at their school on Friday. All the kids dressed up to go watch the parade.

The little kids waiting for their sisters.

My handsome Adam.

Miriam in the parade - proud to pose for a picture for Mom.

Emily in the parade - tried to get out of the picture - but still proud we cared to watch her.

Trick-or-Treating...

Michael took the kids around the block while I stayed with Olivia. This little girl KNOWS what candy is. She loved stirring the candy bowl with her hands, and opening every package she could. She screamed and threw a fit when we said no more.

Finally home from trick or treating. Time to dig in! :)

This is way too much candy for one night.

(and yes, that's Michael getting more candy for Olivia.  Smarties aren't as messy as Peanut Butter cups and Kit-Kat.)