So, the month of January is pretty much done with, and I have hardly any pictures to show for it.  I usually have a ton each month showcasing our adventures.  Guess how many I have this month. Go on, guess.  100? 75? Nope.  27.  That’s it. 27 stinkin’ pictures. It would be cool if I could say I took one picture each day on the month.  But sadly, I took a majority of them one Sunday afternoon after church while the kids fished. So, here’s the cream of the crop, not that they are very good…..

Someone had a birthday this month with LOTS of candles..more than 40!!  It took me a while to light them all, you can tell by looking and the first three candles I lit.  By the time I got the last one done, the first one had almost completely melted down to the icing…

 

One more celebration..after lunch we loaded up the troops and headed south to J.’s moms house. More presents, more ripping and tearing, more giggles, more grins.  Fun times!

 

Milk and cookie time. RA is behind D.  She was having a meltdown about holding the cookies, so she shied away from the camera. I had a hard time figuring out where to put our milk and cookies this year.  Back at the old house, we put it right on the hearth. Now, the fireplace has no hearth. Soooooo, I was stumped.  See, this fireplace is not real. It has gas logs. The real fireplace is in the dining room.  The kids said we should put the cookies in there, but we decided Santa would want his cookies close to where he was gonna be working. So that’s what we did.  I’m finding that silly little problem happening a lot actually. Wondering where to put something that had a great place in the old house, but not now.  Silly, I know.  Moving on…

 

Last pic before bed…can’t you just feel the excitement?  I can..

SANTA CAME!!! AWESOME!

We actually had to go get the troops up this year!  About 7:30 I finally crept up the stairs and met D. face to face in the dark.  He had that half-front teeth grin ear to ear and was bouncing with excitement.  J. plucked RA out of her bed and they came on down only to find me waiting and the bottom to snap another pic.

The first look.  I love the smile on D.’s face.

Jackpot!

Sister was a bit overwhelmed and sat back a bit to let it all sink in..

The boys dove right in and bounced from one thing to another.

Even the oldest boy  got some playtime.

She finally warmed up and got busy brushing some hair on the Tangled princess.

My Lego Boy didn’t waste any time…he loves to put these together!  He comes by it honestly…

 

I bet if you listen really closely, you might be able to hear to paper ripping…

My. absolute. favorite. picture.

From the looks of these pictures, I’d say all the little elves were pleased with their loot!

 

A box of shotgun shells? What am I gonna do with this….

Oh wait..maybe what’s in the big box goes with what was in the little box…

Hmmmmm, I think maybe..

Yep!!  A shotgun to go with the shells!! Even better, a smaller sized gun for smaller sized hunters….

Bubba and Sazzy came on Christmas Eve. By this point, this house was in full swing of the “Christmas Crazies”. Kids were beserk with excitement…they thought present time would never get here!!

As you can see, boys were pumped to get a race track! They can add this one to the existing one and make a huge one.

Sister was ready to rip..

She loves to “ doctor” you.  She is so funny when she “doctors”. First, you have to check in. She will use the portable dvd player for the cars as her computer.  She will ask your name and whats wrong with you.  She then pretends to type it all in.  Then she will tell you to wait for the doctor.  She disappears and returns ready to perform the checkup.  She loves to give “intibodies” (antibiotics) to make you “not sick anymo”.

Raceway construction…the doctor was overseeing the construction just in case anyone got injured.

Lining the cars up…

And they’re off…

J. left again before supper for another “errand”.  The first time it really was an errand.  This time it was to go pick up a present.  I managed to get my elves outside under the ruse of “Mama wants a picture”… They obliged. However, the youngest is hung up right now on “being in the middle”. She thought her bubbies weren’t going to let her stand in the middle so she was in the beginnings of meltdown number 3 for the day…

After snapping the first pic I said..”Look there’s Daddy..what’s that he’s got on the trailer?”  When they saw the cargo he was hauling, this was the reaction:

Our “new to us” four wheeler.  This was the the one that my really big boys got for Christmas one year. “Unca Ray” gave it to the boys and girl to have fun with.  We took it to a guy to fix it up a bit. We just need a couple of more things done and it will be ready.

Elf #2 was the first to climb on..

Not to be outdone, elf #3 hopped on next, dress be darned…

Elf #1 finally got his turn..

After all the excitement we came in to eat. After we ate, the elves were ready to open presents. Of course, you know who “wanted a picture!” So I got the elves lined up in front of the tree with Miss “I want in the middle” IN the middle. Bad timing on my part. Because the elves were just too excited to sit for the bazillionth pic of the Christmas season.  This is what I got…

Fabulous.

 

Let the Christmas posts begin!!!!! Ok. Here we go…This was Friday morning. Christmas with Pop was this day.  We ususally make the short pilgrimage south and do this at my SIL house. But this year…we got all wild and crazy and had everyone at our house.  We had a great time.  Lotsa food, lotsa laughs, lotsa fun. I think the change was good for everyone.. Anyway, as is the way with kids, they woke up PUMPED and ready to get started.. you can see the excitement in D. (or at least I can) I know that grin, I know what it means: PAR-TAY

This girl loves her some “instruments” (that was her word for ornamaents) It was a struggle for her daily not to touch everyone that was on her level….

Our Elf, Freddy.  Speaking of wild and crazy..this little fella went nuts this year. In the past he has always just found new places to hide every morning.  But this year, he got creative.  One morning we found him hanging upside down in the doorway. One time he was eating a cookie and another time he was drinking syrup from a straw and eating a Twizzler!! I guess he was trying to be on his best behavior on this day because we found him sitting on the saddle of a camel from our nativity…

I love snowglobes. That’s it.

Before the crew of family showed up J. had to run an errand.  Orginally, the boys and the girl were gonna go too.  Then the boys decided to stay home.  The girl got all bent out of shape because she wanted the boys to go with her and J. Then, she started to go into pout mode.  J. went on his errand and she sat in the chair and pouted until she fell asleep!  Of course, I’m not gonna miss this opportunity to snap pictures.

About 30 minutes later,she completey flopped over… and ended up snoozing for about 2 hours.  She was charging her batteries…she knew she was going to need a good reserve for the rest of the day!