It's feeling a lot like Christmas

It has been snowing for days now. The kids love it. I am thankful for our Jeep Wrangler, my car is not made to drive in the snow. Yesterday we had Christmas at Mana and Papa's house. Not everyone could make it because of weather but we still had a good time. We ate good food and the kids enjoyed their stockings and gifts.

We also had Dominick's work Christmas party last night. We ate more good food, did an elephant gift exchange and played a good ol' Christmas game of Texas Holdem' Poker.

I had to drive to work today in the snow covered in ice. I took the jeep and didn't have much of a problem. I could not see the lines on the road but there was not much traffic so I guess it didn't matter.

Cookie Day

We have cookie once a year just before Christmas. We get together and make goodies for Christmas and let the kids decorate sugar cookies. Things seem to get a little loud when you get 11 kids together under one roof =)

The kids enjoy it! It is all about creating memories anyway isn't it. I remember how fun it was when I was a child. We would go to Grandma and Grandpa Well's house and with our aunts and cousins and make cookies. I always looked forward to Cookie Day and I am hope my kids will do the same.

All the creations the kids made...

my little sister's daughter

my older sister's older son

my older sister's daughter

one of my older sister's twins

one of my older brother's son

my older sister's other twin

my Trinity

my tired boy

another older brother's son

my older sister's youngest

After the party I took 2 of my older sister's kids home with me for the night. Dominick's brother and his 2 kids were already at my house staying the night so I thought why not add some more noise?

We had fun playing video games and eating pizza. At bedtime Nicholas was more than ready for bed after not having a nap and going all day. I put him in bed went to my room to get his inhaler and went straight back to his room... he was already out. The 4 girls all went to sleep pretty fast after they laid down. Cody however stayed up late playing games. I don't know what time he went to sleep but at 5:50 am (I had to work) when I woke him up to take him back home he didn't want to get up.

not working with me

We got our Christmas tree last night. This morning while Dominick was at work the kids and I decorated it. I thought it would be cute to get a picture of the kids together in their Christmas clothes in front of the tree.

LOL! Apparently my children had other plans.

They didn't want to hold still, smile or be in the picture together.

So, here is what we got out of our little photo session...

(hand on the hip with that look on her face)

(not sure what they were trying to accomplish)

(pouty lip)

(he was flinging his head back and forth)
(done with the pictures)
(I finally we got this one)

The individual pictures were just as bad. Trinity was dancing the whole time and Nicholas wanted to flap his arms like a bird. We still have time to try again another day. Maybe I will have Dominick help me next time.

I'm a little behind

Ok it's been a few days since I posted anything.

We had Thanksgiving at my house with Dominick's family. We had a total of 9 adults and 5 kids. It was fun! I cooked the turkey and mashed potatoes (the best mashed potatoes ever). We spent a couple hours eating and visiting. After everyone left we cleaned up a little bit and headed to Emily's house. By the time we got there everyone had left. We hung out with Emily, Jeremy and the kids for a while. We are fudge and played Mario Cart on the Wii.

(dining room table)

(kids table)

The day after Thanksgiving I worked a 10 hour shift. It was busy and crazy at times but the time went by fast. We had some pretty good sales but I thought the sales we had from Sunday through Wednesday earlier in the week had some better stuff.

Saturday we went up to the mountains with the jeep to get a Christmas tree. It was a good day. It was a bit foggy but we found some mud to drive through. The jeep is now brown instead of blue. We couldn't find a Christmas tree so we are going to buy one from the Christmas tree lot down the street from our house.

On Saturday Nicholas was our navagator. He had the map and looked at it for an hour while we were driving. It was funny. He kept saying "yup, we are going the right way Dad."