New Year's Weekend Blowout!

Our final trip and celebration of 2012 took us to Cousin Robin's house once again. From the moment we left their house after Thanksgiving the kids were counting down the days till we returned. We spent the few days after Christmas hanging around the house watching the world get very snowy. It was still snowing on Saturday morning, the 29th, when we headed out but it wasn't too bad and the roads were pretty clear so we were ready for a great trip.

Pepper sporting a new hot pink track suit from Gramma Goodier. Gramma knows what this little lady likes.

The crew snuggled up and ready to roll.

We arrived around lunchtime on Saturday and got right to business having fun. After a quick lunch, Hazel went down for a much needed nap and the rest of us got to playing and relaxing. We all had presents to exchange and one of the presents Robin gave us was a new family game. Headbandz Disney version. If you are looking for a fun family game and like Disney, this is a perfect game. Kids of all ages played it all weekend long. Even the adults played it after the kids went to bed. That's how much fun it is!

Pepper, Andie and me sporting our new head gear.

It took Cody forever to figure out those little aliens.

Robin and Cris in on the Disney action.
Such great smiles!

It seems that Sydney, Ohio got even more snow over the past week then we did. They had built a huge snow fort in their front yard and the kids couldn't wait to go outside and play. So, later when Khan and family arrived everyone got suited up.

Khan trying to take a picture of the kids inside the snow fort.

From the moment we arrived and Pepper realized that there were more presents for her she asked us about every 20 minutes when we were going to open presents. We managed to hold her off until Sunday afternoon. We finally managed to get everyone gathered in the great room and let the kids go to town.

Aaron and Kegan got generic lego kits from us. Kegan giving me his best enthusiastic face despite the somewhat lame present. I appreciated his effort.

The girls got some fun headbands from us. Poor little Hazel was either teething or had a cold and a low grade fever over the weekend. Sunday was by far the worst day but she looks especially pathetic in this picture because she had just gotten up from her nap.

Joanna, Karissa, Khan and Pepper (trying to open everyone's gifts no doubt)

Hazel opening up her totally appropriate gift from Uncle Khan, a gun.
It actually was pretty fun since it lit up, vibrated and makes noises. I just have to give Khan a hard time because his gifts always seem to be some sort of weapon, including a sword as a wedding present.

All the kids got guns, including the baby, except Pepper, who got a Flynn Rider ken doll.
Can you say, "Princess of the Family," anyone?!

Morgan and William were so excited they started playing with them before the guns were out of the boxes.

The firing squad.
Pepper using Hazel's gun, whilst still holding her new doll.

I don't know how safe I feel with this army around.

William posed all by himself on this one.

And some pictures of Hazel just because she's too cute.

Ali and Cris being silly.

Joanna and Khan. I tried 5 times to take a picture with them both smiling. Khan would be laughing and smiling and then at the very last second make this face. He was driving me crazy so I finally gave up. He's worse than the kids!

Joanna and Robin
These two were more cooperative and more lovely anyway.
Poor Robin hurt her neck at church and was stiff and sore the rest of the weekend. She's hooked up to some electric shock thing in this picture.

Ahhh, the relaxing life!

One of Pepper's presents was this new Cinderella book. The extra special present was having Auntie Robin read it to her while they snuggled. Pepper was in heaven.

Having older cousins means lots and lots of extra help watching and entertaining the little ones. Aaron is a natural helper and if he wasn't having a light saber battle with Morgan, or crawling around with Hazel, he was playing games with this one.

Taking it easy on New Year's Eve.

This one woke up a 100x better on Monday morning. Thank goodness!

Here's a video of the kids running around on Monday morning. How Karissa slept through all of this is beyond me but I envy her!

William teaching Pepper to play checkers. Not sure she ever got it but she loves to play games and William enjoys having someone to follow him so it worked out. Morgan cracks me up in the background.

Monday morning, Robin, Joanna, Ali and I left the men in charge of the kids and headed out to see Les Miserables. I LOVED it and pretty much sobbed through the whole thing. As soon as our movie ended we raced home to switch off with the guys and rest of the older kids so they could go see The Hobbit. We cut it fairly close but everyone made it and had a great time. When we got home Hazel was taking a nap, Morgan was quietly playing on the iPad in front of the fire and William and Pepper were outside in a snow storm having a grand ole time.

These two were so cute. If Pepper fell or needed help doing something William would run to help her. Gotta love cousins.

I must admit, I agree with Morgan, this looks like a much better time than being outside in the freezing snow.

The kids got a hold of my camera and this is a sampling of what I found later.

Over the past week Hazel has finally begun to start walking a bit. She only takes a few steps here and there and definitely prefers to crawl if she's in a hurry, but she's getting there. Monday afternoon Joanna and I were sitting with Hazel in the great room when she walked all the way from the hearth to the ottoman across the room. I ran to get my camera to capture her doing it again. It seems that walk must have tired her out because she turned into a rag doll and this is all we got:

After another attempted video/walking session, this is all I got.
Guess we'll try again later.

Originally there was a stake dance scheduled for the teenagers on Monday night, so we had prepared ourselves for a quiet NYE. Because of the forecasted snow storm they cancelled the dance. Since Robin's house is such a great gathering place, we ended up with a bit of a party. I was nervous about having a lot of rowdy, noisy teenagers waking up the kids but everything was just fine and a great time was had by all.

We let the little ones stay up till 8 to feel like they had a party.
Hazel loved all the attention and trying to grab Ali's glasses, one of her favorite pastimes.

For this trip it was requested that I make some cream pies. On Sunday I attempted to make a banana cream pie but I was very distracted and things did not turn out as planned. Cream pies are an exact science so being distracted is not a good thing. But I redeemed myself on Monday by making a dang good lemon meringue pie. I love a good meringue!

Robin and I capturing the moment.

The group getting ready to countdown.

Khan, Aaron and Kegan ran outside in the snow to set off fireworks at midnight. Crazy people!

My attempt at a couple shot. Guess my finger was covering the flash.

After watching Les Mis and crying for 3 hours, I had the worst headache and my eyes were super puffy and red. Everybody kept asking if I was okay. It was not easy trying to look up into the light and smile because my eyes kept watering.

A little red and puffy but very, very happy to be spending another year with this wonderful man!

As soon as midnight had passed and we cleaned up a bit most of us went to bed even though the guests went back to playing their games. I had a hard time getting to sleep, mainly because of the songs stuck in my head but still managed to get a pretty decent nights sleep, thanks to Cody who let me sleep in. Happy new year's to me!

Always a happy day when you get to wake up and snuggle with this lady.

I love these couches and my orange baby.

We all headed home late morning on Tuesday. It is always sad to leave but excited to get home and get things back in order. Just looking forward to the next time we all will all be together again.

Here are some photos from my iPhone that I found.

Morgan and Pepper taking it easy on Christmas day.

Hazel taking a little snooze and looking mighty comfy on the way to Robin's house.

Aaron taking time to snuggle with Hazel while Khan teaches checkers to everyone.

I just love how relaxed and content these two look.

Ali just chillin with pouty lips.

This shot perfectly captures my weekend.
Pure bliss.
I am ready for the new year to begin!