Wednesday, December 31, 2008

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!!

3 comments:

3in3mom said...

I'm tickled to hear it was the best experience yet. Glad you had a fun time together. You sure have a fun family! Your FIL sure made me laugh when he "called" everyone to attention. I'm so glad someone had a loud voice.

Happy New Year!

Marie said...

Sounds like a fun time! The pictures look good! I can't believe you guys got any sleep with all those kids in one room!

The Burtons said...

Holy cow! You sound like having over 30 people in your house was no big deal! I would have started stressing before anyone arrived and biting my nails the whole time. Kudos to you. I'm glad it turned out so fun!