Where have we been??????

We sold our house!  And it sold so fast we ended up having to move into a rental house …. because the house we thought we were buying fell through…. and then it ended up working out….so a month later…two weeks before Christmas…we moved in to our new house!

So, yeah, haven’t blogged much…

But, thankfully, we had company coming a week before Christmas so that got our little booties on the move and we got things cleaned up enough for a Christmas Eve party…

 

So here’s a glimpse of our new home…doing what homes do best…filled up with people, food, babies, and lots of noise!

(Sorry, for some reason can’t get pics to rotate.)

This was the “Jingle Bells” number with the little ones.  We do a family Christmas show on Christmas Eve.

And all the cousins got Christmas PJs…

Girls are always ready for another picture!

And then we watched Charlie Brown’s Christmas.  It was SUCH a fun night, a wonderful Christmas, and we are really enjoying our new home.  Of course there is more to do (like there always is), but we are definitely functional now.  So, any locals are welcome to come for a visit.  I will post more pics soon.  Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Savannah Banana

Just wait you all have been waiting for!  (Well, I think some distant relative might be waiting for it.)  A picture overload of baby Savannah!!

 

Is it just me or do they totally look like sisters here?  Amazing…

 

Savannah is awesome—so good natured and happy—she loves everybody (except that one lady who works at Lenny’s who keeps getting in her face and trying to get her to smile every time we take the kids there for FHE treat—yeah lady, you know who you are—leave the poor baby alone—she’s not gonna smile for you okay?)

BONUS—She sucks her thumb and fingers!  Totally able to self soothe and I never have to look for a binky—love it!!

People pleaser…(again, except for the Lenny’s lady..)

Talented with her tongue

 

Just generally adorable!

With cousin Delphine who is five weeks older than her

I love this baby—more each day—babies are what make me want to have more babies—does that make sense? 

They just feel RIGHT.  God sure knows what He is doing!

July Gettaway #4 Whiting Reunion

  Here’s some pics from the Whiting Reunion—which actually was in August I think.

Yes, Ella has a black eye—she got it the day before we left by trying to wash her hands and falling on the toilet.  At least she was trying to be sanitary.:)

Jack thought Savannah might enjoy a bike ride this way—but she didn’t really at all.  Oh well, the other ones did. 

Hey Asher—come with me, and I will show you the DARK SIDE….

The dark MUD SIDE that is….

Hey—where’d you go?  I was just getting started…

This was the coolest part of the reunion—a homeade merrygo round!  Jack’s dad made it while we were up there.  The kids loved this thing and played on it TONS.

The annual ride up to Green’s Peak to then try and run down a large, steep hill that is full of pot holes and little hills and other things that makes for a very uncomfortable run and leaves you wondering who on earth came up with this tradition….but we do it anyway because, like Tevye, our traditions keep us balanced like that Fiddler on the Roof I guess—I don’t know, the kids think it’s fun. 

Despite my sarcasm, it was a great trip—too short actually.  And then, as I think everyone is aware—school up and started:

Ella even started a little preschool in our neighborhood—here she is with a few cute girls from her class.

Miss Melinda—who Ella says she loves and she will “never stop loving.”  I think this may be in reference to the times when she is angry at various and sundry people in our household and tells them those fatal words, “I don’t love you anymore!”  Melinda, you will never hear those words!

July Gettaway #3 Camping in Payson

We went to a beautiful campsite on the Mogollon Rim towards the end of July.  It was a really nice trip—my mom and step-dad came up for the day and that made it so nice as well. 

Jack was very proud of his accomplishment of getting all these bikes there—there were several bike trails around the campsite.

my cute goofy kids…

an impromptu see saw

This Elk kept hanging around our campsite.  At first, we were amazed.  And then it was like, “There’s the elk again.”  She let us get pretty close.

We camped right by a lake, so we borrowed some kayaks from our neighbors—Jennie, theses are the same ones we borrowed when we went with you guys to that lake long ago—remember that day? 

Yes, Savannah was there—see?  Just didn’t get that many pics of her—or me either for that matter.  Probably because she hung out with me a lot and we took pictures together! 

Whenever we go camping, I do everything I can to make cooking SUPER EASY because it is hard enough work to camp with six children.  Conner really enjoyed his premade foil dinner the first night we were there. 

This was one of our best camping trips—great to have grandparents there to help out.

More Chincoteague

See what I mean?   Just too cute not to take a bunch of pictures!

We took a little cruise around the island—I had to take a picture of Angie’s beautiful hairstyle before it got ruined after the first five minutes on the boat.

 

 

We saw these “wild” ponies on the cruise—not really super wild, but they do live on the island—they just control the population by penning and auctioning off most of the babies every year—other than that they are free to roam.

 

We also went to the top of the lighthouse on the island—which like a dork I didn’t get a picture of from the outside.  But the stairs inside were pretty cool.

  Angie made us count on the way down and there were 175 stairs total.  Here we are at the top.

Yup—we tried the crab,  and I can now say that I do NOT like crab…and I tried quite a bit of it.  Luckily Ang and Dad loved it so it wasn’t a total waste.  It was sort of fun cracking those suckers open though.

Then on the day Ang and I flew back to AZ we had some time to kill in Baltimore before our flight—so we went to the Inner Harbor there and the National Aquarium—they were neat to see—the aquarium was AWESOME—they had so much stuff in there—even a rainforest! 

   

Then we said good bye to Baltimore and headed home….

And that was the best part!  I REALLY was missing those kids man…this lady on the plane asked me about our family, and I started to tell her and then just started to cry..it was a little awkward actually, but oh well.  It was so nice to get home and hold them.  It was a nice trip, and it’s always good to come home.