December happened

I WILL get caught up and tonight will be the night because Christmas rocked.

Aleeya always loves stringing the cranberries and popcorn so this year I wanted to introduce her to one of my ALL TIME favorite movies..... White Christmas.

Let's just say she wasn't too impressed.

Maybe it has to grow on you?

But we did make a killer chain.

I LOVE cranberries/popcorn on a Christmas tree.....and my childhood family tradition of sugar cookies on the tree as well. 

This year I spiked the frosting with a LOT of Cayenne pepper and cinnamon for smell. Even EVERLY said it was "spicey" when she took a bite of a cookie off the tree. #herlastbite

Speaking of HORRIBLE tasting, we got the game "Bean Boozled".

It's a JellyBelly game that has two jellybeans that are the same color but one would taste of pear for example and the other booger. Moldy cheese versus carmel popcorn. Tutti-fruiti/stinky socks. You get the idea.

We played the rules that we would spin the spinner, pick a jelly bean and if we could eat it w/o spitting it out we could stay in. If you spit it out, you were out. Last one standing wins.

I still can't stop laughing when I see these pictures.

Brooks got out on "spoiled milk". He ate it the first time, but when he spun and got it again, he just knew he couldn't. (we decided that one was the worst tasting one)......Bronson thinks dead fish was the worst. I never got either of them.....but I got out on "barf". It was just too real for me. 

And you can't even FORCE yourself to eat it. It's like your mouth won't LET you swallow it.

Emerson won, by-the-way.

My cute girls were playing "Mom".....here is Iris. :)

Aleeya.....um...... :/

Royce-man turned SIX on December 5th!!!!!!!

My baby boy is six. That's so crazy. Here he is opening up his junkbox.

Instead of a friends party he chose to go out on a dinner date and movie with me. We went to the Pasta House. Here he is coloring on his menu. Quite an attentive date.

We went to see Trolls and we BOTH loved it. He sat on my lap and snuggled....which is different than my other date, but I loved every second. He's still my baby boy.

We are in full swing on Bronson's basketball. He's on the 8th grade Jr. Longhorns team and this is the only picture Brooks got at his first game. WHAT?!  #heisfired

ALONG with basketball, WRESTLING is in full swing. This time Emerson wanted to be signed up too and he really liked the practices. Most of the tournaments are on Sundays so they don't go. But there was one on Saturday recently and was Emerson's first tournament.

And just because I don't know how long they will let me take pictures of them in their singlets, I add these so I can forever smile and have a better day.

Don't mess with Emerson

The stretch

And here's Camden all ready.

Ready position

Pretty sure the pictures don't get any better.

#youarewelcome

I was at Bronson's basketball while Brooks was at wrestling. He video-taped everything, so no pics, but I came in time to snap a few. Here's Emerson.

I thought it would be weird seeing someone try to go after my son, but I get pretty into it.

And the little man ends up taking the gold medal in his weight class.

And so did Camden!!!!

Brooks seriously LOVED watching every second of it.

And I just love those smiles. A smile for the camera like this is getting less frequent!

The ONLY pictures that can come close to bringing a smile to my face than the wrestling pictures are crawling naked babies.

I put them down and they are OFF!!!! 

Here they are laughing at Brooks. #cottagecheese

Peek-a-boo just sends these girls over the edge with laughing. Even when one isn't in a laughing mood, when her sister starts laughing then she joins in. Have I mentioned I LOVE having two?!?!

6.5 months here. 15 lbs each with Wynn weighing 11 ounces more. I'm starting to be able to tell them apart easier w/o looking long by just their smiles. They smile a little differently (Wynn on left.... iley's eyes usually completely disappear with happiness when she smiles....she gets the disappearing eye trick from my side of the family. haha)

But when they are drinking or not smiling or just having woken up than they look the exact same. And YAY for the fact that they can hold their bottles now!

Sleepy faces eating...... I just love them.

I just put them in a room and they just crawl around and find stuff to entertain themselves. They stay content every second.......unless one of them leaves. Then they go crawling to find them and sit in the same room as her sister. or if I take one out, the other twins starts to whine. haha

Here they are chomping on graham crackers while I cook.

iley is closest to the camera

Aleeya's "Joust" Program. (in the blue in the front)

I THOUGHT it was a holiday program, turns out everyone was dressed up like knights and King Arthur is the kid Aleeya has a crush on. So there's that.

Homemade gifts started appearing under the tree. Royce's choice of duct tape for wrapping paper is pretty awesome. But taken to a WHOLE new level when the present is IN a powerade bottle and THEN wrapped in duct tape.

I had no idea what was in it. The cap was easy to open, so I took a quick peek what Aleeya had in store for her......

Not sure what the blue and orange thing is, but the yellow thing is an already sucked on gummy bear. 

Let's just say I hope he doesn't get me anything for Christmas.

St. Louis had a BAD case of black ice one night. In fact it took Brooks 3.5 hours to drive home the 17 miles from work one night. Which wouldn't be horrible (for me) if Everly hadn't cracked open her chin and we had to wait for stitches/Dad the whole time.

She got it falling off a chair.....which is ironic because the other kids were out with the hose on the driveway to make it more slippy.

The walkways were already pretty slick. Someone was so kind to do a bit of service and put salt on our walkways. 

Emerson stormed in, "MOM, WHO put salt on our walkways?!?!"

"I don't know, but that was sure nice of them."

"NO it wasn't, I want them slippery! Why didn't they ask first?!?!"

Moral of the story is don't do something nice for the Smiths.

Cold days are perfect for gingerbread house/train making. I love all the dreamy picturesque pictures I see of families making gingerbread houses. I would just like to add my equally dreamy/picture-perfect shot to the mix.

No family time is complete without a good meltdown on the floor. #thanksKellyn

For some reason her arm never turned into the puddle.......odd.

She did enjoy the cold weather outside though with her better-than-ever winter outfit.

Everly's bare legs too.

The kids enjoyed sledding but didn't go very fast (giving the tube to the twins) and opted for the riding cars slipping down the driveway.

As ridiculously cold as it felt, Emerson and Bronson still went to school in shorts......and I won't even leave the house. Once it's in single digits I start tapping out. Kidding, I tap out in the twenties.

Each Saturday in December we've had a family Christmas movie night with treats. Last Saturday we watched the Christmas Story where the kid was triple dog dared to stick his tongue to the pole....and it stuck. The boys said that wouldn't really happen. I ASSURED them it does and that I had tried it when I was younger.

But for SOOOOOOME reason, they still didn't believe me. Bronson told Camden to do it. His tongue started sticking so he quickly took it off and told Bronson what happened. AGAIN, not believing, Bronson pressed his tongue harder to the pole.

In a SURPRISE of events......it actually stuck! #nosurprisereally

Camden saw what was happening and saved the day and shoved Bronson off the pole leaving a piece of his tongue on the pole. Bronson kept telling Camden that he "saved him"

haha.

#boys  #iTOLDyouso

Thanksgiving Weekend

My sweet babies turned 6 months on Thanksgiving Weekend.

(Wynn on the left)

I have to say, I am LOVING this. Loving everything about them and their content-ness and their easy-going-ness and their sweet sweet temperments. Seriously, they are the highlight of my EVERY day.

To illustrate how easy these girls have become....... Brooks and I were asked to step in and help in the nursery at the church. (Kids 18 months-3 years) Here they are....on the floor.....just napping through it all.

On Thanksgiving morning, Camden, Bronson and Brooks went off to the church Turkey Bowl (football). They "had fun". And that's all I heard about it. That's all I EVER hear from them. Two-three word answers. Fast forward 12 hours and I get a message sent to me from a guy in our church saying they had never seen a play like Brooks did in the game. He said he STILL can't stop thinking about it.

I guess they served doughnuts there and Brooks went to go grab one. They were in the middle of the game and the guy he was guarding said, "You can't play holding a doughnut" and Brooks told him he could. The very next play Brooks intercepted the ball by tipping it up then catching it one handed. He ran towards his goal line....on the way taking a nice big bite of his doughnut still in his hand. haha. 

He's a rockstar and I wouldn't have heard about it if it wasn't for that guy. Not even Bronson or Camden told me about it.

With it getting dark so early we decided to have our family Turkey Bowl BEFORE dinner which was a smart (albeit cold) decision.

Here's the peanut gallery watching. Sitting up babies being entertained by singing Christmas toys.

 Brooks, Aleeya and I are reigning champs......two years running now. Well, Aleeya did NOT want to play. Like did NOT. We FINALLY bribed talked her into it. She kept saying, "but we're going to lose!" I have to admit, I thought the same thing. The boys are pretty good now and Brooks is dealing with me on his team.

Royce played on the boys team and actually contributed to quite a few plays. Iris was the photographer and I don't think will ever want to play. haha

Royce running the ball.......oh, and Everly just walking through the field. See, THAT'S what makes our game take so much more skill. Not only to we PLAY two-hand-touch football, but it's also a dodge-the-toddler game mixed in too. #skillz 

Aleeya running the ball. She's quite fast.

And SPEAKING of fast......guess who couldn't catch up to his MOM before she scored a touchdown and then proceeded to do a touch down dance?!?!?!? 

BRONSON, THAT'S WHO!!!! #stopdancingMom #youreembarrassingme

Let's just say that's the first time I put my sprint on for a year....and my hamstrings told me about it the next day.

But it was allllllll worth it. We BARELY got a victory with a surprise catch. The look on Bronson's face when the catch was made was worth every sore muscle in my body.

THREE-PEAT BABY!!!!!!

Obligatory victory-handshake.......oh wait, Emerson and Bronson refused to do it. Maybe not so obligatory?

I didn't get a picture of our huge feast. But the turkey turned out great......see? Oh wait, you can't. All I got was a picture of Brooks cutting it with Kellyn yapping his ear off.

All the desserts we enjoyed with the Elders (who happened to show up right when we were eating dessert. #6thsense):

pumpkin, berry, coconut cream, pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate and blackberry cobbler.

Then baths and bed.

All six girlies in the very small bath. Not sure there was much cleaning happening but it was a nice enclosed social hour for them.

Then the next day Brooks just said to me, "Hey, lets use our free nights at a hotel tonight." We found a hotel across the Mississippi in Illinois with a sweet indoor pool and hot tub and got two rooms there for the night. We divided up girls and boys.....oh except Everly. I told Brooks he "gets" to take her in his room too. Okay, NOW we're even. We had the most enjoyable time there and it was truly relaxing. Girls playing "teacher" with the spin-chair and with the unplugged hotel phone.......ALWAYS unplugged. (first thing I do when I walk into a hotel room.... 2nd? unplug the microwave)

The boys room watched all things sports and animals and in the girls room we had Hallmark sappy stuff playing. The babies of course just napped whenever we put them in their port-a-cribs without a peep and they also enjoyed the swimming pool. I'm tellin' ya, this mini-vaction rocked. 

And then we hit the free Science Center on our way home the next day.

Thanksgiving Weekend really was so nice.