crazy family time

the day after christmas, we were expecting all of nathan's family to come and stay at our house. one brother, aaron, called christmas morning, and told us he was 30 min from the house, a day early!! so we finished up at my parents house, where we were for the morning, and came home to see them. we were not expecting anyone to come, so we had not cleaned up the presents, and there was a dirty nasty house waiting for us upon arrival! thankfully, they did not mind the chaos, and even helped me clean up before the rest of the clan showed up. it was very fun to play with the one family for a day before the rest of the craziness began! don't get me wrong, we love having the whole family together, it's just a lot of people in a small space!! there were minimal problems, and we thoroughly enjoyed the family together for the first time in over 2 years. it was very laid back, not a lot of rushing around to get to planned activities. when you hae 20 kids, that is the best way to do it!! the cousins had so much fun together, and just ran around like little hoodlums for the weekend. it was very fun for them to see each other again.
some people might think it would be too crazy to cram 32 people into one place, but it actually worked out very well. we had the kids in the 2 back living rooms, one couple in the front room, one in the boys room, and then the rest at the back house. they had a room for each of the other couples, so it worked. we all actually slept, most nights. there were only babies crying and kids coughing for some of the nights. :) i enjoyed my nights in my own bed!! we had family pictures taken, and it was the best experience we have had yet. i think it's because most of the kids are getting a little older. it was only my kids that didn't want to sit still and look cute. 2 families left after lunch on monday, and another yesterday afternoon. the last is here for one more day, and leaves in the morning. we are sad the have the festivities end. we love all the fun and chaos of the big family together!!

kids are nutty

ok, there are a lot of things i need to post about. first, i had my visiting teachers over, but caleb wouldn't come say hi. after they left, this is what i found. no wonder he was so quiet!!

colby's christmas concert for school was the first of many i'm sure. he was singing with the whole school for the first time. i am now one of those parents, with multiple children's performances to attend. yahoo. he looked pretty snazzy though. and silly.
and caleb fell asleep on the way to pick up grandma mcnelly, and never really woke up. this is what he thought of the whole thing.

we babysat cousin andrew for a couple hours, and here he is with caleb being so cute watching a movie. don't you love giant bean bags??
this is our view of the neighbor's house across the street. isn't the sunset awesome?
rachel thought putting her breadstick on the floor and attacking it was a good way to eat it. it was hilarious!!!
she screams when we put her in the car, so at 6 months, we switched her to this carseat. isn't she cute? she is a much happier girl now, which makes for a much happier mom!!
as always, she loves her jumper!!
and just as a side note, i can't figure out how to write under each picture, sorry!!

pics for the wall

we had some pics done yesterday of the kids by my friend chalice. she charges a flat rate to do the session, then you have the cd to do what you want with. she did a great job! here is the link to check out the first pics. i thought they were great, way better than the awful school pics, even with retakes!

http://chaliceleamanphotography.blogspot
.com/2008/12/g-kids.html

twerpy boy

ok, so my sister tat was over yesterday, and we couldn't find caleb for a few minutes. we were in the kitchen making dinner, and every now and then we would hear his little voice. well, tat went into the living room to check on the babies, and this is what she found. she just came and shook her head at me, and nathan handed me the camera as i walked by. we knew it would be entertaining! caleb had climbed into rachel's jumperoo, and couldn't get out!! as you can see, he was not as amused as we were by the whole thing!! :) why do all the kids think baby toys are so fun? without fail, the older child has gotten into the baby's swing, walker, carseat, or whatever they can squeeze their little bodies into! silly kids.
and this was the other morning, the girls were taking a bath together. this is the first time i have let rebekah be in the tub with rachel, and she loved every minute of it. rachel now rolls from her back to sitting up immediately if you lay her down, even in the water. she is just going to sit up from now on, and there is nothing i can do about it!! good thing she's so cute!!