Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve on Sunday is actually kinda special. 

I think it really puts you in the spirit of Christmas.

Sweet babies in Santa diapers and church shoes. Both with matching bruised and Iley sticking out her tongue.😍#howdidigetsolucky

As per tradition each of the kids pick something to be made for dinner. Bronson made some brigadeiros to add to dinner just for fun too. (these Brazilian treats are our weakness)

Aleeya wanted a mango and strawberry fruit salad.

Kellyn wanted biscuits (actually Emerson convinced her to pick them)

Iris of course picked Jell-o. 

Everly wanted grapes. With the fruit salad and Jello, I thought grapes would be a little overkill, so I made a grape/cream cheese salad thing....which she didn't end up liking. #youwinsomeyoulosesome

Brooks grilled whole chickens as usual.....but Camden picked to have chicken wings on TOP of the grilled chicken.

Royce posing with the Kraft Mac and Cheese. (high class I know)

Emerson picked fries

And Bronson picked these bacon, cheese baked bread things that were super yummy.

The Pepsi with Cinnamon ice cubes were filled....

and we were ready for DINNER!!!!

I contacted both of the missionaries' moms to find out something they love that their family makes around Christmas time.

Pumpkin pie was an easy pick.

Elder Padilla is from Peru and his mom doesn't speak English. So contacting her about a recipe was super "fun". But her recipe she sent back was even MORE crazy. After she sent me the recipe even Brooks had to go searching for a translation of a few words...... like BEETS. haha.

Here is his beet Russian salad that his family always has.

It was kinda gross. He downed basically the whole bowl though and loved it. Aleeya was the only one in the family that liked the pea, mayo, potato, cold beet salad mush stuff. :)

Mac and cheese and grape salad for these babies. No complaints from them. (Wynn on right)

Our Christmas pies.....that no one really has room in their bellies to eat, but dinner wouldn't be the same without them.

After dinner the kids exchange their sibling gifts. It's actually quite fun because they draw names and each get $1.50 to go to the dollar store to buy a non-eatable gift (I made that rule this year because they kept giving treats right before the DAY OF TREATS!). 

The kids are always grateful and excited for these dollar store gifts. Funny how if you gave them the NEXT day they wouldn't be excited, but the night before they are magic.

The ABSOLUTE BEST present given this year was Bronson to Kellyn. 

Let's just say she was ECSTATIC knowing she had the biggest wrapped gift.

Bronson bought her a "real" gift with his own money, but he thought it would be funny to give her this plunger first. Here is her reaction opening it up.😂😂 #evertheprankster

Like I said, afterward Bronson gave her a different gift, (and etch-n-sketch thing) but the ironic thing is the PLUNGER was the favorite gift of all! The babies kept asking us to stick it to their bellies!

The Elders with their new Razorback shirts. It was such a fun night.....purely in Spanish (Elder Padilla is new from Peru and doesn't speak English) and just magical all around.

The MOST magical moment I captured later that night was this picture though......6 of my kids all snuggled up close to Brooks watching something funny on his phone. 

December Action

December was considered a success for the fact that the babies did not knock down the tree once or break any tree ornaments!!!!(well, to the point that they couldn't be glued together....because THAT did happen.)

I put these new breakable ornaments up high too. I figured we needed grandparent pics up on our tree!

Here is the tree, but that's not what this picture is for. See that blank wall to the right of Royce? And the bookshelf there with the ONE shelf on it?!?! 

Well, Brooks hired someone to make us another bookshelf to cover that wall. He kinda slacked and was a month late so we finally just said, drop off what you have, give us a discount and we will install it ourselves. "We", meaning Brooks.

It ended up being the BIGGEST pain and a crash course in crown molding and uneven floors and not-straight walls, but as Brooks said, "He learned a lot". Now we have a place for all our books!!! FINALLY. They've been in storage forever.

Brooks ALSO built us a bed frame! I know, I know......this guy has more time in his work schedule and BOOM he's a carpenter with a saw and a few other "necessary" tools now!

What's cool about this bed is we looked up similiar things we liked online and Brooks paid Camden to come up with the dimensions, measure everything and tell Dad exactly what materials and how many of everything he needed. It was quite the math word problem but something Camden worked hard on. Bronson helped measure and sand? I don't know EXACTLY what he did, but I know he spent quite a few hours on it as well.....my garage kinda turned into a Sawdust Mancave with my "men" wearing masks. And this thing is SOLID. 

We LOVE the design and but Brooks kinda wishes now that it's in our room that he would've gone with a different stain color. 

Brooks also paid Bronson to figure out how to install these sconces on the sides so we have reading lights. It was a crash course in electrical work that's handy information to HAVE!

And just for fun, this is what the main bathroom looks like when I'm getting the girls ready to go....they all stand up by the sink so they can look at themselves in teh mirror and I do their hair.

The ROYCE man had his birthday on December 5th.

My BABY BOY TURNED 7!!!!! 😭😭😍

His two presents? Of course Legos and a junkbox.

Dragon Ninjago Lego cake

For his birthday party with friends he wanted the red Ninjajo pinata and I surprised him with red ninja cupcakes too......

Because ANY excuse to use Fruit by the Foot makes my creative juices flow.

He had two friends show up. One is actually Emerson's age but Royce wanted him to come anyway. :)

They all shared the same love for Legos. 

One of the EASIEST parties ever. Probably because Royce wanted to open presents first. So he did, and they just built those Legos the whole time until they watched the Lego Ninjago movie. haha

After that they hit the pinata.

Well, Royce did. Turns out I didn't do enough layers and the pinata lasted one Royce-sized whack!

Our town hosts the sweetest, cutest and LOOOOOOONGEST Christmas parade ever. I don't think there's a limit on number of entries. Even though it was fa-REEZING my friend still wanted me and kids to come. (Brooks was out of town).

I wasn't going to go but then Iris said to me, "What do they DO at a parade? I mean what does it look like?" TOTAL PARENTAL FACE PALM!!!!! 

That's it. I will take my kids to a blasted parade whether it's minus 50 degrees or not!

The babies were great for the first hour of the parade. Then the whole hands-turned-to-ice thing happened for them because I didn't think of gloves. They were SO MAD, so I just pushed the stroller around neighboring roads while my kids stayed by my friend Vanessa and her kids.

My kids LOVED it though (even though it wasn't my FAVORITE outing). Emerson came home SOOOO proud because not only did he get a ton of candy but he got THIS shirt!

-it was HUGE on him

-pink spandex-y

-has a big ol' cross on it for Mercy Tree church

-and it's a "Cowboy Fellowship" 😂

I have some SUPER sad news about that shirt though.....it's a mystery because he put it in his laundry pile and it never appeared again.😉 #thecaseisstillopen

Speaking of Emerson....and December.....it's the month of boxes and all the online shopping deliveries. I could probably do a whole post on what my kids do with boxes and bubble wrap but here's my favorite pic of the season. 

The best part was when Camden nudged him just a little and the box just "timber-ed" down to the floor. There was nothing Emerson could do about it.

December is also the month we make crazy big batches of Peppermint Popcorn to kiss up to our church teachers. For some reason the popcorn tastes better if you cook them while wearing a swimsuit. No, I wasn't wearing mine.

Brooks and the boys have been fishing ever since we moved here. They would catch a few fish here and a few fish there. Nothing to provide a whole meal with. So when they would catch one they would gut it and throw it in the freezer to have a huge "Fish Feast" one day.

Well darn-it-all the Fish Feast actually came to pass.....

That afternoon there were a LOT of fish being defrosted in my sink. (I LOVE my huge deep dish-hiding sink!)

Completely gross to me, but the rest of the family loved the dinner (which I didn't eat). They prepared each fish a little differently before they baked them and kept trying to see which one tasted the best.

Super weird, but that night I had ZERO appetite. Apparently this is a new tradition.....or so I'm told.

One thing I'm SUPER grateful for is my kids' self-initiative. The kids will mention here and there that they have a project coming up but next think I know there's a poster made, a wind sock created, a report typed up, etc. I'm never usually involved. Well for Emerson's we had to be involved a little. He was given the project to make a cell out of anything he wanted. He knew EXACTLY what he wanted to do. He wanted to make "his famous chocolate pie" and do parts of the cell with candy. Best part about this is the ONLY involvement we had was driving him to the store for the supplies. He made the pie, came up with his design, labels and made his own shopping list.

In fact, I was staying after later at the church Christmas party to "clean-up" (pretty sure I was just talking) and I came home to his whole project done looking like this. :)

It turned out awesome.....even WITH the threat of all things diabetes.

Fall Break

For Fall Break we wanted to vrbo a house on a lake....but BEFORE we could, we had to buy out the whole grocery store it seemed.

All packed up to head out.......yes, we packed out high chairs. You haven't SEEN these babies eat.

We got there at night... just enough time for the kids to run around squealing and to pick their beds. The boys opted for large beds while the girls claimed these fun built-ins. (Turns out Everly wasn't too fun to have sleep in the same room according to Aleeya and Iris)

Brooks woke up at 4 to put these ribs in to slowly cook all day

He went back to sleep for a little bit but couldn't for long because he was ITCHING to get out and fish. I lazily woke up later and looked out my window to see my dedicated fisherman on the dock

And the older six who couldn't wait to get out on the canoes. The way I see it is we have ALL day for a FEW DAYS.....you can see why I wasn't racing out of the covers to head outside. Plus, SOMEONE had to stay inside with the babies, right? 😉

Typically my husband has HUGE dreams of catching fish and doesn't exactly catch a ton (or any). Well I'll be darned if Brooks didn't catch one that morning shortly after I bravely ventured out of the house. He proudly yelled, "Fish on! Fish on!"

Wahoo! An ugly looking catfish that made everyone hoop and holler.

Determined to catch something Bronson and Royce went out the canoe. It was the cutest thing because Royce couldn't get his pole ready to cast. So Bronson would ready it each time and hand it forward to him. Then Royce would duck while Bronson would cast his own line. They had quite the system.

If you haven't heard Royce's voice this story might lose the effect. But he's got a high little voice. Brooks and I were on our dock when we hear his little high voice yell from two docks down, "FISH ON! FISH ON!"

He was so proud of it.

#realfishermenwearonlysocks

So two fish total that morning/afternoon.....which was fine except for the fact that the fish were gutted and laid out on the dock with all the nasty organs....and the bloody knives.

It's okay, we found other places to go and things to do. Iris found a bunch of seashells.

The home was loaded with board games (which are my kids' favorite thing to do). So this scene was pretty much constant.

During the babies' naps I went outside to watch Everly and Kellyn play in the "sandbox"

FULL DISCLAIMER: I was actually reading my book and pretending to watch them.

The first day we really tried to keep the babies inside as much as we could because I could just see bad things replay in my mind with them by murky water. They looked so pathetic looking out the window though. (Wynn is actually playing in the weeds outside)

Finally I gave in and put life jackets on them and allowed them to wander wherever. Can you just SEE how pleased Iley was to be outside? Cutest little smile

I guess you could say we kinda had a full dock. This scene looks rather peaceful, but believe you me, there were a lot of pushing-ins.....started by Brooks.

There were three canoes so the kids enjoyed going out in them when they wanted.

Suffering from genetic FOMO from their mother, the twins wanted to get in one as well. Mercifully, Brooks and Bronson offered to take them out. As they paddled away I just had a hunch not everyone was going to come back dry.

 And I was right..... the babies both jumped out.

Poor Brooks, you can tell by his face here that he started feeling yucky the first afternoon after we got there. He had a fever and chills before dinner and didn't even want to EAT any of the ribs he woke up early to put in the oven.

Royce was getting pretty tired but didn't want to quite fishing either. I found him outside like this. haha #diehardfisherman

The water was chill-Y..... All the better to convince other siblings to jump in with you.

 Pop is a treat for our family. We always buy some on vacations and this time we let them have one per day. They just felt so cool drinking their cans while playing chess I think.

(btw- none of the kids can beat me yet)

By Saturday night Bronson caught the third fish!!!!

Sunday morning we found a branch a little ways away to go to. Poor Brooks couldn't go to church and since he was so sick I left him the babies too. ;) (Granted they slept the whole time so I'm not that mean). The FUNNY part is I thought Bronson was going to pack his church clothes and he thought I was. Soooooooo, this is what Bronson wore to church. 😂😂 #wearyourbest

 Me and the 8 kids were probably a fifth of the congregation.

Monday morning we drove around the lake to go to a trout fish farm.

 Who knew this many fish swimming around could keep my kids still for so long?!?

 They got to feed the fish too. 

 Brooks was still completely out that day. Seriously, the poor guy. We were washing his fever-breaking-sweaty clothes so much. He's probably been sick three times in our marriage, I swear.

It was strep and I'm thankful no one else in the family got it.....they were just all laid out from pure exhaustion! Isn't that how a vacation is supposed to end anyway?

I will conclude with this.....

 Emerson really REALLY hates wearing shirts, but when it's a tad chilly it's super helpful when you have larger pants sometimes. #favoritepictureofthetrip