More Oklahoma!

Nice way to start Christmas morning huh?! Some nice warm milk! So to start this post off-I have had some problems with blogger being stupid while I was trying to compose it so I had to start new. I had everything written up and a really sweet heartfelt thing at the end but now it is basically just pic because I just want it done!!! (and sorry i dont have any pics of Luxie and Meadow opening presents because whenever I had the camera ready they werent opening anything and then it was hard to see them with kids and wrapping paper everywhere!)

The kids were all excited for Uncle Jeff to open his stocking. They had all gotten some coal along with some fun stuff so they were dying to know if he had gotten some too! and of course he did!

and he got this awesome shirt!! Most of the pics I got were from opening stocking stuff since it got really hectic after that!

Doesnt Eric look excited to up and passing out presents?! He really didnt have much room to complain since the kids didnt get up till after 7!

Dylan asked Uncle Eric to help him put together his Lego thing-how could he say no to that right?!

and Meadow asked Uncle Bryan to help her free a toy from its packaging.

Colby was having more fun with the boxes than playing with the toys he got!

One of the perks of being in Oklahoma was that while it was a little chilly it was still warm enough to go play outside! Here is Jeff capturing all the fun on video-it was hilarious!

Sarah started a tradition of new pajamas on Christmas Eve and wearing them all day on Christmas thats why they all match and look so cute! So we headed outside and it all started out nice and innocent with Bryan and Eric pitching to the kids.

Then they kids got bored and left to do other things-

--and that left the boys by themselves and with Bryan, Eric, Paul and Jeff that is a dangerous combination! It went from just pitching the ball to throwing it as hard as they could across the yard to someone and then throwing multiple balls at one time and then rapid fire.

and escalated to using this plastic pipe thing and putting the balls in and spinning so the balls fling out while someone tries to hit it! It was hilarious! And the most amazing thing was with all the kids running around no one got hurt!!

and for some reason whenever Paul was sitting on the flour he was fair game to jump on! They had been at this for like 10 minutes before I grabbed the camera.

it was such a fantastically fun time! I mean I love Bryan's family and Christmas with them is a lot of fun but there is just something about being with your own siblings that is just so much better! I totally miss those Goodrich Christmases. It was such a blast and I loved every moment of it! Love my sister, love my brother, and love Bryan for driving all the way down there!

Oklahoma!!!

(this is alittle (ok alot) on the long side of things with TONS of pics because my Mom couldnt be there and she has been stalking my blog waiting to see pics! hehe!! love you Mom!!)

So this year after alot alot alot alot of talking I finally convinced Bryan that we needed to go to Oklahoma to visit my sister for Christmas. Well actually to surprise her! I know what you are thinking-"What?! oh no you didn't! not for Christmas!?"--but yes. yes I did. We did. The kids were awesome for our 11 hour drive down to Oklahoma. I had been texting Sarah all day to make sure she would be home when we got there. So we pull up and I call her and nothing. So I call and call and call and knock on the door and still nothing!! I called Eric and he answered and here is how it went-- Eric-Hey! Me-Hey! where is your wife? Eric-Well she isnt in my car, or at the corner of blah blah and blah blah cuz thats where I am. Me-Well she isnt answering her phone and she isnt at your house because I knocked on the door and she didnt answer! Eric-ummmm, you're there? Me-At your house? yes I am! Eric-ohhhhhkaaayyyy! well I will be home in 10 minutes. Me-alright we will be here! It was awesome! Eric was totally surprised! So he got home and we all went inside to wait for Sarah to get home. Eric had let thier dogs out and I thought it was him coming back in when I heard the door but when I turned the corner into thier living room Sarah was standing in the kitchen frozen with a very confused look on her face! Luxie and Meadow took off playing the my crew and I smiled at Sarah and said "Hi! Surprise! Merry Christmas!" She was like "Seriously?!" It was so much fun! We had been planning this for about half the year and successfully kept it from her! It was awesome! Then after the shock of us just showing up on the thursday before Christmas she got a call friday morning from Jeff saying he was at the airport and needed a ride to her house!! Say what?!! How much fun is that?! I mean he was totally in trouble for pulling the "I am just staying home with my snacks and my xbox and hanging out" lie! He even had Sarah and I looking for a box from him in the mail-the little stinker! But oh my gosh we had sooo much fun! Lots of laughing. Between Jeff, Eric and Paul (Erics brother) there was always something to laugh at! The kids had such a blast. We didnt tell them till we woke them up to get in the car! I had a hard time getting Lacey to get up. She kept telling me she wanted to sleep. Granted it was almost 3 in the morning! But when I asked her if she wanted to go to Aunt Sarah's she was instantly up and grabbing her stuff! They all played so well together with only a couple meltdown momments!

We had our big dinner on Christmas Eve so we could just chill out and eat left overs on Christmas Day. The food was super yummy but I dont have a pic sorry! Anyway after we ate and cleaned up the boys had to go run a last minute errand so while they were gone we popped in some Christmas music and the kids did some danceing while Sarah and I got the sugar cookies in the oven!

Cookie decorating fun!!!

After the cookies were decorated Sarah helped the kids write a letter to Santa and they any all got to pick a cookie to put on the plate-in this first pic Lacey was upset because she couldnt see!

Here is how Colby traveled around the house-you cant tell by this pic but he really did love it!

The girls hanging out with uncle Jeff while he helps Dylan with a Transformer.

So this brings up to Christmas Eve night! I think this was a long enough post so more to come!

Merry Christmas!!

Colby and the t.v.

A few weeks ago Colby discoverd the power button on the t.v.. What joy is mine. If he is wake we dont get to watch a show or a movie without it being turned off. And no amount of talking or telling him no or smacking his little hand can stop him. He hears you saying no and will press the button anyway and then turn and look at you like "what are you going to do cuz I already turned it off!"!! So totally annoying! We also hear lots of "Colby!" and "Colby NO!!" from the kids followed by groans when he does it anyway. They get all mad and ask why he does that so I just tell them that we had to live through all of them doing it so it is only fair that they have to deal with it too! So Lacey had come up with a solution. It works most of the time-unless he presses on her hand in the right spot!!

Lacey's Dance

Totally just realized that Lacey's video didnt work! I flipped it because I filmed it sideways-whoops!! But apparently the whole video didnt make it when I flipped it so had to redo it. So here she is!

Holiday Dancing!

(Abby is a couple inches taller than how she looks but I had her get closer to Lacey so I could get a pic!)

The girls had their Holiday Recital today! They both looked so cute and they did awesome!! But I have to give myself bad mom points because I was so focused on trying to find Lacey (they had 3 tiny tot classes up on the stage so about 20 little girls) that I totally forgot to check to see it the camera was switched from pictures to video so I missed her dance!!! So so mad at myself!! The only thing that makes me feel better is that it took me half her dance to even find her and then she was behind another girl and you could only see her some of the time! Still I feel really bad about that! But she did awesome! I was afraid that she would just kind of do her own thing or that someone would make her mad before they went on stage and she would just stand there with her arms folded and a scowl on her face! So to make up for not getting her on video on stage we had her do her dance at home since we had the music and she did it way better at home! Abby did great of course and she loved being up on the stage. She was watching her dance and told me that she wasn't watching the other girls to see what to do next she was watching them to make sure they were all together! She is so funny! We are always telling her that she doesn't need to look at anyone else because she knows the dance so she should just do it!!

So at the end they sing "Santa Claus is coming to Town" and then Santa comes out and they can all go and sit on his lap. Knowing my kids and their fear of Santa I was really tempted to just get them after Abby was done and then leave but they both wanted to go out and sing. I told Abby to just find Lacey after they sang and then come to the end of the stage and I would get them. So they sang and Santa came out and they started lining up the little kids first and I could see them putting Lacey in line and a look of panic came across her face and I knew I had to get up there before she started freaking out! She ended up in the arms of one of the older girls and they brought her to the edge of the stage where I got her. Man the look of relief on her face when she saw me was way funny! She kept giving Santa side glances to make sure he wasn't anywhere near her and she told me over and over that she didn't want to see Santa. All the kids are so funny when it comes to Santa-they are all afraid of him! The only Santa they will see is the one at the Christmas party at Church because they know that it is just Papa in a Santa costume! So I had Lacey and we tracked down Abby, who was a safe distance away from Santa!) and we were out of there!

Funny real fast!

I forgot to add this to either concert post and didnt want to go back and put it in because then I would have to rearrange all the pictures and this was just easier! I was asking Abby and Dylan what row they were standing in so I would have an idea of where to look for them. Dylan was in row 4 and Abby was in row 2. They line them up according to height so shortest in the front and tallest in the back. When Dylan said what row he was in Abby's mouth fell open and she screeched "WHAT?? Thats not fair! I am in row 2 and I am taller than you!" She was all mad (but still laughing!). So I explained to her that while she is taller than Dylan, for kids her age she was short and for kids Dylans age he is tall. And that she will probably always be in the front and Dylan will probably always be in the back-sorry but thats the way it is! She was all "oh man, thats so not fair!". Then I told her that more that likely she will be the shortest in the family so she should just get used to it! She thought that was funny, but I was being honest! I really do think she will be the shortest of all the kids!

Abby's Christmas Concert

Abby had her Christmas Music Concert tonight. She did awesome! It was really fun to watch her really get into the music and do all the actions and the facial expressions! It is fun to see how much she has grown in her performing since she was in Kindergarten. She really had a good time. Her concert was also about snowflakes and realizing that everyone is different and special. and they also sang Silent Night and then signed it. It was really neat to see all the kids up there signing! My camera was being stupid and some of the videos are short but oh well!