Vincent's Cake and Fun

We went over to Andy's parent's house to have birthday cake for Vincent and his cousin. Vincent enjoyed the cake. After he ate all the cake he could handle, a certain aunt asked him if he wanted a fruit snack. Of course, now that you mention it... The kids, and Uncle Brad, always get fruit snacks before leaving grandma's house. I don't even buy them anymore because I don't like to spend so much on them, but it's a special treat for them.
Vincent was spoiled! Here are a few pictures.
We gave him his presents from us this afternoon so he could play with them and practice unwrapping presents. We got him a cool 'rock, roll, and ride' big wheel trike (NaDell bought it right after Christmas for a great deal and no shipping! It starts out this rocking way, then bumps up to a handle to push kids, and then riding trike.) He played with it this afternoon, although he was a little distracted by his milk and Alice in Wonderland playing and didn't enjoy Olivia rocking him either. We three stayed home from church today because of colds. Elizabeth was the only one in her class and there were only six kids in nursery with four leaders. Andy reported that it was the best nursery ever.Watch the video to see how opening presents went.

Um, yeah, he has over-helpful sisters and really liked the tissue.
After we ate dinner, we went over to the party.
He blew out his candles. Andy is restraining him because we don't want a repeat of the unfortunate incident where his niece grabbed a candle and burned her fingers. Those are car cakes, in case you can't tell.He ate some cake.He opened presents very carefully enjoying the tissue paper all the way.
He found that all the presents were desirable and wanted to open each immediately to play with them.That's a cool rubbery dinosaur with tiny plastic pellets inside. It's pretty fun to play with. Good thing he has two of them.
Happy Birthday, little buddy!

Happy Birthday, Vincent!

Vincent is two years old today. He is a pretty fun kid. See? Just look at that face! He is always up to something fun.Vincent has discovered the fun of knock knock jokes. At least he thinks he has. On Tuesday Elizabeth brought home a bookmark from the library with a joke on it. I read it to her and then she repeated it to me. Then Olivia repeated it. Then Vincent started with "Knock knock." When you say, "Who's there?", he responds with "Knock knock". It's super fun. You should try it.
So the continuation of this is that on the way home from ballet Wednesday afternoon (a whole day later), Vincent randomly said, "Knock knock." I think he likes it.
Here are some other things he says. Most of the time he doesn't need coaching, but something about when you take the camera out makes it so they stop doing what they were doing so cute that you got the camera out. Olivia was helping me coach him too.

This is my favorite picture of him as a baby. He's just two weeks old here. It was Aunt Torrie's wedding and I found him this adorable vest outfit. I love baby church clothes!!!Too bad he's still a little sick today and we are staying home from church. We are going to have cake with Andy's family tonight though. I made some yummy looking cakes yesterday.

A week of routine

Nothing super eventful happened this last week, but I haven't posted since last Wednesday, so I think I'd better come up with something. =)
Olivia and Vincent keep themselves occupied pretty well while Elizabeth does ballet. There are a few other girls Olivia's age and they like to share Polly Pockets and other toys. This time they had crayons to share and Vincent laid down next to them to color his picture.I love that Andy likes to read to our kids before bedtime. It gives me a few minutes to put things in the dishwasher or tidy up a little or just check my emails (not that I don't do that enough....) I get the kids the snacks they want before bed while they read. Milk and bread or crackers or raisins or cut up apples or something.
Right now Andy is reading the Narnia series to Elizabeth. Olivia doesn't like it that much so she went in to the family room to watch a show with Vincent. I couldn't pass up the cuddling on the couch picture. They are good buddies.See? Vincent even lets Olivia put her feet in his lap. Watch out future husband! Vincent woke up a few days ago and the first three words out of his mouth-even before I took him out of the crib-were Dora, Boots, and Backpack. He is a little obsessed lately. He yells the answers at Dora too. We are getting all ready for his second birthday next Sunday and then Elizabeth's seventh birthday the Saturday after.

Olivia just got done at her ballet class wearing her new tutu from Grandma Shirley. It's on the Ransom-Made design website and will be sold at our Spring Event April 16-17.
The tutu is so cute on her!
What have you been up to?

Finished Apron

Sorry if you are getting bored with this whole apron experiment of mine. I wanted to show off a little how I did with the apron my friend requested.
After talking it over with my mother in law, I did it. I had never:
-Sewn rik rak
-Sewn lace
-Sewed Curvy Edges
-Made a decent bow on clothing
-Made an apron
I stitched every stitch on the apron. I unstitched some too. =)
I think I did a pretty good job. And you know, I'm learning and it took me something like 6 hours, but the next ones I do should go faster, right?
I plan on making more aprons, but not for another week or more. Maybe it helps me to work on my patience.
If you want to buy one, let me know colors and things. They will be $20-$25 (dependent on fabric choices).

More Craftiness

One of my friends emailed me yesterday to see if she could buy an apron for her sister from me. I said I would get right on that and started thinking about how I could do it. She sent me this picture as her idea. I talked with my seamstress mother in law when we went over for dinner to get her ideas (and if I couldn't do it, to see if she would) and she helped me visualize how to put it together.
I made this green one out of some fabric I already had to see if I could even do it. I'm not really an experienced seamstress and this style is a little harder than most aprons. I used different material and made one for one of my best friends. I think it will be her birthday present in April. The light yellow and red came from her daughter's bedding that I used on the cross-stitch I made for her daughter. These are her favorite colors and she loves to cook. I hope she likes it. I know I'm missing lace, rik rak, and the ribbon bow. I might add those on. It's a really long apron too and the ties in the back weren't quite long enough, but for a first try (with only minor seam picking out), I thought I did pretty well.
Vincent napped really late on Sunday after sleeping more than 12 hours (10:30pm-11am) on Saturday night, so he wasn't tired and I stayed up working on this and he watched some Dora until we both went to bed at 3am.
I took the kids to the crazy fabric store this afternoon to buy the needed materials for the black, white, and red apron and bought some other fabrics to make a few more aprons to sell on the Ransom.Made design site and at our Spring Event April 16th and 17th.
What colors are your favorite in the kitchen? What colors would YOU like on your apron? If you want to buy one, let me know.
Now, back to crafting with all that new material (and hopefully I sell some of these things soon, so I can keep crafting....)
Make sure you check out my food blog too. I've been updating it with yummy recipes lately.
Oh, I forgot to add in here that the lady cutting our fabric at the store asked Elizabeth if her dad had red hair. She said no and Olivia and her both said that he has black hair and blue eyes and that the rest of us have brown eyes. The lady looked all confused as to where Elizabeth got her red hair. Seriously? Isn't my hair red? I'm pretty sure it is! I told her she got her red hair from me and the lady looked at me like my hair wasn't red. It is? Isn't it? It's not blonde or brown. Does it look like that? Maybe her eyesight is going or something. Weird.
This has happened before when Elizabeth was a baby. Once I was out with my mother in law and the checker asked where Elizabeth got her red hair. My MIL pointed at my head and said, "Uh, probably her MOM." I know it's not the exact same shade of red (her's is darker), but it's still red. I just don't get it.
Something funny on the way home in the car: As we drove over a little swampy part of the Yakima River, Elizabeth said, "Hey look, the Jordan River!" As in the river Jesus was baptized in...Yeah, um, no. Not quite, but I'm glad you've heard of that someplace.

Van Update

Andy fixed the van this morning. Apparently it was the alternator. I'm thankful that I have a handy husband and don't have to pay mechanics to fix every little thing. He bought the manual when we first bought the van, so he looks up the problem, reads it, and fixes it. I love that he's so smart. After all, why do you think I picked him?
Now on to the rest of the day. This afternoon we are having a little party to do some work on the ceiling. Andy's dad and our two game night regulars are coming to help. I see progress. I think we started gluing up the foam insulation three years ago.
I think I'll even keep this one short.
Thanks for reading.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday.

She is amazingly crafty and is a great cook. She made my wedding dress and dozens of other dresses, outfits, and quilts throughout my life. She taught me a lot about baking and cooking great dinners. She tried really hard to get me to do other things she does well too, like crocheting, scrapbooking, and quilting. I have tried some quilting and scrapbooking now, but I'm never going to "get" how to knit or crochet.She loves to do things for the grandchildren as well and sometimes takes on too much. For example, last year she set out to give each grandchild (14 of them) a quilt for their birthday along with all the quilts she normally makes for her quilting guild and more. She is very close now to being done with all of the quilts and they aren't just squares sewn together either; they are fabulous works of art that the grandchildren will cherish and I do too.
Growing up I loved coming home and talking with my mom after school things or dates and telling her all about it. We stayed up until 2am so many nights. She was/is one of my best friends and she was a good mom too.
Happy Birthday, Mom!
If you feel like it, you can tell her happy birthday on her blog too.

Crafting and Reading

That's what I've been up to here without a car during the day. Andy went grocery shopping last night too, so I didn't even have to do that.
Our book group at church was reading a autobiography about a man who was an FBI agent for 30 years and was also Bishop of four different wards during that time. I just finished it. It's called Agent Bishop by Mike McPheters. It was fun to read and I liked how he told of his experiences and also included his spiritual promptings. The editing needed more work though. Periods were missing at the end of at least three sentences and there were several misspellings. (A little of that yearbook editor coming out in me.) It was still a pretty good book and worth reading. Part of the time his job was near where I currently live, so that made it even more interesting. Thursday morning I made a wreath. It will be better for Easter, but I made it now. I found all the supplies at Dollar Tree. I bought a round green styrofoam wreath, five bags of those little pompom puff balls in pastel colors (I only needed four), and some ribbon (but I could have used some I already had). I used my glue gun with an old box top underneath and got to work. First I tied the ribbon on the top. I put the knot close to the base of the wreath and then tied it again so it would lay smoothly. Then I got working on the gluing. I made a few rows halfway around the circle and then went back and filled in the rest. Then I turned it over to the back side and did a few more so the green styrofoam wouldn't show. Vincent helped me by handing me the puffs partway through.
Here's what the back looked like after I was done.How does it look? I think I need to add something to it, but can't think of what? Maybe a bow or a bird or a wood painted Easter egg? What do you think?
I can hardly wait to put it up for Easter. Actually, I can't. It's up now in my kitchen. I think I'll decorate for Valentine's Day now.
Have a fun weekend!

Unexpected Walk

Today, like any other Wednesday after school, I picked Elizabeth up from school and headed to the ballet studio. Today was different though because our van slowly lost power in between two stop lights on the highway. I got to the second light where I turn left and was the first person in the lane when it turned red and there was no ummph left in the van. The hazard lights wouldn't turn on and the van wouldn't turn over or anything. It just died.
For more information on the van check here and to see a picture check here. I was expecting it to give out eventually and it has given us more than eight months. Anyway, so the traffic on the highway wasn't coming our direction, so I put the car in park (not that it was going to go anywhere) and got out to tell the guy behind me that my car was dead. There was a police officer who had just finished giving someone a ticket going our direction, so the nice man honked and got his attention and he came over to help. The officer asked the nice man to help him push the van off of the highway where it wouldn't be a nuisance because his car was an unmarked car without a push bar. We waited through another cycle of the light and then went. The guy behind me just had his hazard lights on and the poor cars behind just had to wait through one extra cycle. I was glad to have help and it was great that people were there to do it because I wouldn't have been able to do it myself.
So, the police officer walked back with the other man to their cars and then came over to let me call Andy or someone else. I called Andy who was in Oregon about an hour away working and then his dad who didn't answer. I just decided to put Vincent in his stroller and walk to the ballet studio (about a mile or so away) with the girls. After getting all situated with bags hanging off the stroller and everyone ready, the police officer came past and asked if we wanted to hop in the car to go. I said it wasn't a big deal to just walk and be a little late. Soon afterward I was kicking myself, not because the walk was hard or long, but because the kids would have thought it was awesome to ride in the police car. I didn't want to move the car seats or ride without them or take down the stroller, so I just thanked him and we walked. There was some murmuring from a certain daughter who didn't want to go to ballet anyway, but also another daughter who cheered her on telling her that "you can do it!" Vincent sat nicely in the stroller not making a peep until he saw a puppy. I bribed them with Nerds and suckers once we made it. On the way to pick Elizabeth up after school Olivia saw a man running and she said that exercise is good for us. I said that we needed to make more time for it. I guess I got my wish. I need to stop saying things like that!
We did make it and Elizabeth was 20 minutes late. We got her all set and gave her the promised Nerds and she went into ballet. I borrowed the ballet phone to call my father in law, who said he could come and pick us up after work after 5pm. Elizabeth's class didn't end until 4:45 and she changed and then we just waited a little while before he came to rescue us. The kids sat in the back seat and he drove carefully home. I guess I could have asked him to figure out a way to go to the van and get the seats and then strap them in, but I was a little frustrated and annoyed, so I just went with it. We got home, Elizabeth had a shower, Andy got home, I worked on dinner, and then gave Olivia and Vincent baths while it cooked. I planned on making a different dinner, but gave up on that when all the car stuff happened. I made a delicious meal I've been wanting to try though. I found it on someone else's blog, but posted it here on my food blog. Nathan came over to play games with us and ended up taking Andy to the store to buy a battery for the van (Andy thinks the alternator went out and I was cruising around on just the battery until it went dead. He didn't want to tow it home himself and figured it was cheaper to buy a new battery, that would have enough charge to get the van home, than to pay a tow truck. If he's lucky, he'll be able to replace the alternator, put the old battery back in, and get the auto parts store to take the new battery back because it wasn't the problem) and then Nathan took him to the van. They came home just before Andy's parents came to figure out a plan for our family room ceiling (yesterday Andy planned on working on it, but the nails from the nail gun went right through the panel that we wanted to hang up on top of the foam insulation, so we had to come up with another plan). I brushed and fixed hair, cleaned ears, clipped nails, painted girl nails, and got everything ready to eat before they were done. After eating, we played games and watched American Idol. At least the evening was partially relaxing. Oh, and I arranged tomorrow's transportation for Elizabeth too.
Fun stuff. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Andy told me a few days ago I shouldn't say things about not feeling like we have many trials. What was I asking for?!

Andy's Random Quips

Disclaimer: I didn't make all of these up myself.

Why does Hawaii have Interstate Highways?

A lot of people have trouble getting married because they can't find the perfect person. That's silly, because if you ever found a perfect person, what would they want with you?

Why is the third hand on a clock called the 'second' hand?

Take it from the Darwin Award's staff: dishwashing liquid is not a good substitute for brake fluid.

Be polite to supermarket clerks. If you make them mad, they'll go on the PA and say, "I need a price check on the jumbo Preparation H."

Why do you park on a driveway and drive on a parkway?

I asked a girl out, and she said, "I wouldn't go out with you if you were the last man alive!" So I said, "if I was the last man alive, you wouldn't even be allowed to stand in line!"

Why does sour cream have an expiration date?

Buy lottery tickets. It's the tax on people who are bad at math.

Why do people fill their garages with worthless junk, and leave cars that cost thousands of dollars in the driveway?

Before the whiteman came to this land, there was no debt and no taxes. Medicine was free, women did all the work, and a guy could go fishing or hunting whenever he felt like it. What made the whiteman think he could improve that?

Why is it called after dark, when it's after light?

If nothing sticks to teflon, how do they get it to stick to the pan?

Law was invented by annoying people, to keep regular people from killing them.

Why do you recite at a play and play at a recital?

Do they ever put pictures of runaway trains on milk cartons?

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Light a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

If God didn't want us to eat meat, why did He make it taste so good?

I never wanted to be a cop, until I learned from cop movies that in order to solve any crime, you have to make at least one stop at a strip joint.

Bad guys in Kung Fu suits have an unwritten code of honor that says no matter how badly they outnumber you, they'll only attack one at a time.

Drive slow in our town. We have two graveyards and zero hospitals.

God said, "and that, Noah, is how to build the ark. Any questions?" Noah said, "yeah, what's a cubit?"

My sister said, "but Officer, I couldn't help hitting that man. He walked right in front of my car." The cop said, "that may be true, Miss, but this is his backyard."

If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of Progress?

There's no beating death and taxes, but at least death doesn't get worse every year.

Some movies are so bad that they weren't released, they escaped.

Swearing was invented to create a middle-ground between fighting and running away.

Need a job? Cigarette companies are always looking for people who can say, 'cigarettes don't cause cancer', with a straight face.

I lost my dog. Have you seen him? He's got three legs, no tail, one eye, and he answers to the name Lucky.

Deer only hit cars in self-defense.

This version of the Bible, for modern readers, goes a bit too far. Instead of saying David slew Goliath it says he kicked the ---- out of him.

Four out of five dentists say you should brush your teeth after every meal, the fifth one is sure you have something better to do.

When you're trying to solve your problems, it's not wise to ask, "what would Bugs Bunny do in this situation?"

The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

The tech support guy said, "look, if you don't keep the thermostat below 75 degrees, the computers will overheat." Some woman retorted, "oh yeah. So how did they keep the computers from overheating before there was air conditioning?"

The main difference between Las Vegas and Washington DC is that in Las Vegas, people usually gamble with their own money.

Elizabeth's Art Contest

Throughout the Country, students of all ages create projects for a contest called, Reflections. The projects are judged by level for the school with the top three moving onto the District level where if they win first place, they move onto State, and then to Nationals. Elizabeth didn't make it that far (yeah, even with all that build up), but she did get third place at her school. See the other winning entries here. Her picture is in the Visual Arts Primary. The theme was "Beauty Is..." If you want to know more about the levels, look here at the Washington State PTA site. They have people from the area who are knowledgeable in the area judge each entry.

Elizabeth's creation is the orange butterfly. It is several different pieces of paper glued together and then colored with crayons and colored pencils.We went to the District ceremony on Thursday night. I called Andy's parents to see if they could come (but forgot to call until Wednesday, so luckily they were both available-after three canceled piano lessons. Elizabeth picked where we should go to eat to celebrate and they were able to join us for that too.

Elizabeth was waiting to see anyone she knew to show them her picture. We actually knew a large percentage of the students, mostly from church.The pictures next to the stage didn't work well, so I took this one of her with her certificate and green participant ribbon.This is the Superintendent of our Richland School District, Jean Lane reading off the names. She gave a great disclaimer at the beginning about how long it takes parents to think of names for their children and how she wanted to honor them by saying names correctly and that she even asked for phonetic spelling for each student's name, but if she messed it up, she didn't mean to. (I LOVED this, in particular because my name was constantly pronounced and spelled wrong as a kid.) You can also see some of the other entries behind her. The ceremony only lasted a half hour so it was very nice. They had refreshments in the cafeteria afterwards and then we were able to put the kids to bed at their normal time.
Here are some better close ups of her picture.
This one has her certificate from her school and her third place ribbon.
We are happy Elizabeth participated and had a fun time with it. Next time she should make an entry for chorography because no one in the District in the primary level made an entry for it, so she would have automatically won and gone to State. Or I could get Olivia to do it next year. That would be fun!

Funny Kids

I love listening to the things kids say to each other. Their conversations (especially at this age) are so funny and I can see in a lot of ways how they think and why they say the things they say and completely NOT understand them in other ways.

The kids were talking in the car the other day about horses. Elizabeth really likes horses and keeps asking if we can buy one. We tell her we have no plans to buy her one, but she's free to buy her own horse when she's a grown up. So, she has decided that's what she'll do. She'll save her money and buy her own horse. Then Olivia said that when she's a grown up, she's going to have a boyfriend who has a horse. (Andy says: how clever. At the tender age of four, she's figured out that there's no need to pay for something that, with a little effort, you can get for free.) I think it's all that Barbie movie watching.
It's funny to me that these two kids come from the same house. Totally different outlooks on life.

A few days ago Olivia was in the bathroom and left the door open. Vincent walked in (because he's got a sixth sense that can detect any open doors or cupboards and he's right there, in an instant, to brush his teeth, get a drink, mooch food, or just do some mischief.) Olivia said, "Vincent, will you please get out of here? Say, 'Yes'." He parroted, "Yes" while he continued standing there.
Even when you give them the right answers, some days they just don't get it.

Elizabeth asked to bear her testimony on Sunday in Fast and Testimony meeting at church. We haven't taken her up because I like it better when kids aren't fed all the lines from their parents and it comes straight from their sweet little hearts, so this was her first time. I asked her what she would say and she told me. I said, alright go on up when this person is done. She started up and then stopped when someone else got up there when she was only a few rows away from us and came back all mad that she couldn't go up right then. We sent her up anyway and told her to sit next to the Bishopric. She went and sat there until it was her turn, went right up to the front, waited for the little step stool, and bore her little testimony. When she came back, I could see the sweet relief and good feeling poring out of her. She told us it was a little freaky because of how many people were there, but she did it. YEA! Andy and I were nearly tearing up. (Andy says: they were tears of relief, because she didn't say anything weird) Okay, we totally were bursting with happiness. So sweet.

Monday I had jury duty at 8am which meant I had to get up at 6:30 to be ready to get the kids ready and take them to my mother in laws (maybe not early to some of you, but really early for us.), but was done before 10:30am. The defendant pled guilty, so they didn't need the jury to decide if he was innocent or guilty. I was kind of looking forward to it. (Andy says: I was not looking forward to it. Sure, we're proud to perform our civic duties in this family, but it's still a major inconvenience. If only more hoods would do the rest of us a favor and plead guilty after they get picked up. There used to be a great show called Law and Order - Crime and Punishment, where they followed real trials. On one episode the defendant and his brother tried to attack the judge, and got the crap beat out of them by sheriff's deputies. If every trial ended like that, people would be lining up for jury duty.) Here is what I said on Facebook about it: "I get to have Jury Dury. Some people complain about and try to get out of this. I don't. Regular people with morals SHOULD be the people serving on juries so we can put away the people who will reoffend. I'm okay being one of those people. Maybe that will make me not picked too. We'll see." So, I really just sat in the room with the group of people and read my book (I'm reading "The Secret Garden" now.) and I'm already to chapter eight, just from sitting there. A judge and bailiff and a clerk came in to talk to us about the process before letting us all leave. The case was supposed to take two and a half days. My mother in law was watching my two younger kids and Andy dropped Elizabeth off at school. My sister-in-law was going to take over for my mother-in-law when she had to teach piano lessons and a friend was going to pick Elizabeth up after school, but none of that ended up being necessary. Instead, I went to the grocery store (or Star Wars Cantina as Andy calls this particular grocery store), we went to lunch, got some gas, and came home. Elizabeth was disappointed when we picked her up because she thought she would be able to play with a friend.
All in a few days time. I think I need to be better at recording these because I'm sure they said some more super funny (at least to me) things.

New Year's Fun

I forgot one of my goals I told myself most of 2009 that I was going to start after the new year. I'm setting my new bedtime for 12:30 instead of 2am. Yes, that's late, but I love having time after the kids (and Andy) go to bed. I can finish up the lunches, watch a movie while cross-stitching, or just sit and enjoy the quiet with a book. I like to have everything ready to go in the morning when we get up. Andy doesn't leave for work until 8am and Elizabeth doesn't go to school until 8:30, so we don't have to be up that early anyway. Our kids don't go to bed super early, like 6:30pm, so they don't wake up super early either. Let's see if I can stick to this goal. It will be hard.

My dad's parents and siblings decided 15 or so years ago that they didn't like trying to get together at Christmas with all the other things going on and switched our get together to New Year's Day. Everyone is off of work (for the most part) and we spend several hours at a church playing games, doing puzzles, writing letters to those on missions or far away, (Andy says: Oops! I forgot about those letters. This was my tenth Crowther New Year's Day party. Even at the first one I went to, Grandma Zora made me write to guys on missions, and I can't say 'no' to Grandma Zora. I think Justin and George were on missions in 2000, and I didn't even know them so I had to say something lame like, 'Hi, I'm Andy, I'm engaged to NaDell. Work hard, keep the rules, see you soon.' I've known Lee since he was nine or ten, so I feel kind of bad about not saying anything to him. If not hearing from me puts him into some kind of funk, I'm really sorry. -NaDell's note: I asked Grandma if we were writing because normally she has it all set up so no one can eat until they've written a letter, but she said that with all the technology now, she didn't think we needed too. I told her that Lee might miss it since he's been writing to cousins on missions his whole life and then a few minutes later, I walked in the room to a few people writing letters to Lee, Shawn-who's preparing to go to Iraq, Patricia and her kids, Jeff, Mandy and Ben. I wrote letters from our family since this year was a funny letter writing year, so Andy doesn't have to worry that much.) Then we ate our yummy BBQ pulled pork sandwiches and yummy salad. We even managed to not be quite so segregated by families this year and did a lot of catching up. Some years we have a white elephant exchange, some not. (Andy says: I can take or leave the white elephant exchange because some of the gifts can be really sub-par, even by white elephant standards. -NaDel0 adds: We like to give useful things like robes, puzzles, and games.) Sometimes this is the one time a year I see cousins who are in school. My dad has four siblings, so the party usually rotates between them. This year my parents were in charge and it was decided that the party would be better in Pasco at my brother Joe's church building because it's more centrally located.
Friday was the day for the big party from 10am-2pm. The roads were icy the night before, but were already starting their meltdown by Friday morning, so most of the roads were just slushy. We got there, brought in all our games and Wii to play, and the kids started running. That's what they do in the church when it's not Sunday and there are cousins to play with. Joe brought some toys that they use for Kori's preschool, like a parachute, tubes for the kids to have an obstacle course, and cool big blocks. Andy set up the Wii in one of the classrooms (Andy says: I used to feel like I was being a party-pooper because I didn't want to play basketball or volleyball with the rest of the family, then a year or two ago, they egged Jes on to play, and he broke his foot, so now I have a good excuse not to play) and I played some Rummikub with my parents and aunt. I like that game. Before long, it was time to get things ready for lunch and eat it. Then clean up and a big group picture before everyone left. Here are my grandparents, their 5 children and spouses, and 20 of their 25 grandchildren, some with spouses, and most of their great-grandchildren, plus an exchange student, from Tajikistan, living with one of my cousins.Vincent making sure no one was going to take this toy, thereby making it so he can't really play with it either. This picture was taken 15-20 seconds after the other kid gave up on getting the toy. He was determined to keep it.
Vincent wrecking the parachute. The balls in it were "his" too, apparently.
Olivia under the parachute. Her hair was sticking up pretty good, but she stopped doing it when I got the camera out. I bought that dress for her last year (after sale for $4 or something like that) intending to make her wear it before Christmas this year, but forgot about it in the back of the closet until the night before this party. It has candy canes all over it. She paired that with polka dot tights.
Cousins with the parachute. They had a fun time.
Tina, my brother Brant's wife, in the tunnel. She's a fun mom.
Tina's cute sons Christopher and Caleb.
Andy setting up the Mario Kart racing game after lunch. It was a hit.
Vincent helped with clean up too. He's helping my cousin George.
Then we were off to the movies with Andy's family. Some of them were discussing going to see the new movie, Sherlock Holmes close to Christmastime and it's hard with all these kids because then one or two of us gets stuck at the house with all the kids and miss out on the fun. I said that it would be more fun for a few of us to take our kids to Princess and the Frog while those who didn't have to take care of kids could see Sherlock Holmes. We had six kids in the movies. One of Andy's sisters came with her two sons and one sister came with one of her two daughters. I had all three of mine. I was a little worried, but not too much because even if one kid had to leave and go to the bathroom, I wouldn't have to take all three (and all our stuff) with people I know next to me. First our almost three year old nephew wouldn't come in the theater. His mom worked on him for about a half an hour to finally come in. Niece Sami wanted pop and cried a little, but was pretty good until she fell asleep halfway through the movie. My kids just sat and watched the movie with only occasional outbursts from Vincent or purposeful drops of the glow stick an aunt gave them for the movies. It was nice and we enjoyed the movies. I didn't have to leave with them at all. Because of the timing of the movies, our movie was done first. I needed to run to the store, so I took Sara and Sami with us and she waited with the kids in the car while I bought our groceries. Then we went back over to Andy's parent's house for dinner and waited for everyone else to come back. It was fun to visit with all of Andy's siblings and their families. The men and unburdened women enjoyed Sherlock Holmes and dinner was delicious.

For New Year's Eve we stayed home and started watching the newest Harry Potter movie before one of our game night buddies finished watching the hockey game and came over to play games with us. We played Risk 2210 (my suggestion, because it was almost 2010. Risk 2210 is different because it expands to the moon and the sea, among other things.) The game was fun and competitive. They both decided (gave up) at 1am that I was the winner. That was okay with me.

My mom just sent me a few pictures from the party Tuesday, December 29th to celebrate Christmas with my immediate family only missing Mandy and Ben in Ohio and Jeff in Kansas.

We gathered at our house and had a potato bar and salads followed by picture time courtesy of my friend Ally who I asked to come and take a few. She did great and got the kids to say things and look at the picture. Some of them (mostly mine) got excited about that. We had a fun sibling exchange and a good time chatting and watching the kids play with cousins. My parents had 13 of their 14 grandkids at the party. My mom blogged about it over here.Brant had plenty of wrestling to tide him over until the next visit. Here Colby and Elizabeth were tag-teaming him.