Christmas Day

On Christmas day, the kids were up bright and early and we all got up to open presents.  It really is so much fun seeing little kids with such anticipation and excitement!  Lucy's santa gift was a blow-up princess ball pit that seemed to entertain the little girls pretty well.  All of the new toys kept the kids busy for a while.  A few hours later, we headed over to a park that has a bunch of wildlife, but mainly alligators.  Once you enter the gates of the park, there is a path to follow, but the alligators can be anywhere.  Most of them were down on the banks by the water, just off the trail.  It was so pretty and tropical looking with all of the palm trees and spanish moss everywhere.  We did the whole walk, which was 3 miles round-trip.  Because it was such nice weather that day, a lot of alligators were out and about as well as tons of birds, which Lucy liked.  It was a good way to get out for some fresh air on Christmas day.  Later on after the kids went to bed, we all did a workout video together and then stayed up watching funny youtube videos online for a long time.  It was definitely a night filled with lots of laughing!

Here are the kids coming out for Christmas morning!  Lucy was still sleeping and we didn't want to wake her up since she had been up coughing for a while that night and was sick and definitely needed the sleep.  However, about 30 seconds after everyone came out and was super excited, she woke up, so I guess it didn't really matter.

Here I just got Lucy out of the laundry room where she slept to head out into the living room where all of the other commotion was.  We both look pretty rough... Lucy in a more cute way though.

 As soon as she saw this blow-up princess thing, she got so excited and dove out of my arms for it.  We had blown it up once at home to make sure it worked and also so that Lucy could see it once and would recognize that it was hers on Christmas morning.  Our plan worked.  This ended up being something fun that all of the little girls liked playing with over the rest of the break.

 Jackson was SO great with the little girls.  He was always playing with them and trying to find things to entertain them and help them.  Even when they were bugging him (like when they were messing up his new legos), he very nicely asked them to stop and helped them find something else.  Such a nice boy.  Here he is, just after checking out his Santa gifts, helping Lucy pull out her stocking gifts.

I love this cute face of Lucy's when she got another cuddly stuffed animal.

A few hours later, we headed over to a park that has a bunch of wildlife, but mainly alligators.  Once you enter the gates of the park, there is a path to follow, but the alligators can be anywhere.  Most of them were down on the banks by the water, just off the trail.  It was so pretty and tropical looking with all of the palm trees and spanish moss everywhere.  We did the whole walk, which was 3 miles round-trip.  Because it was such nice weather that day, a lot of alligators were out and about as well as tons of birds, which Lucy liked.  It was a good way to get out for some fresh air on Christmas day.

 All Lucy wanted to do was run around out of the stroller.  Not that great of an idea when there are alligators all over.

 Craig got this U of F Gators football from Jackson and Bennett for Christmas and wherever Craig went, that ball went too.  It was appropriate to take a picture with the gator and the gator.  This also came in handy because Lucy loved holding the football and it helped keep her in her stroller.

 Bennett grabbed Lucy's hands and started dancing like crazy with her, which she loved.  It put her in a silly mood after that and I loved all the faces she made, so I put them all in.  I'm sure no one else cares about them, but I do, and it's my blog. :)

Once we got home, the kids all settled down and watched a movie... which lasted about 2 minutes for Lucy.  Then, we gave the girls a bubble bath together but couldn't manage to get a decent picture of the three of them.  Two refused to stand up, one refuses to sit down and turn around, etc.  It was pretty funny.  Thankfully we got two of the girls out before the third one pooped in the tub. haha.  

Later on after the kids went to bed, we all did a workout video together and then stayed up watching funny youtube videos online for a long time.  It was definitely a night filled with lots of laughing!

Ryan was so tough he only did one-armed push-ups the whole time.  Definitely not just for the picture. ;) 

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is when most of our current traditions take place, which I love because it makes you feel the Christmas spirit.   We spent the day prepping some things for dinner, tracking Santa online, listening to Christmas music, and just relaxing in between.  For dinner, we had a Thanksgiving-type meal with turkey and all of the fixings.  After dinner, we did the nativity reenactment with the kids, which was a little crazy getting so many little kids to follow orders, but it was still super cute and touching.  Next, we had a family talent show where people sang, played instruments, and even juggled!  Then we lit candles and sang Christmas carols and hymns in just the candle/Christmas lights.  Marc made candles out of hallowed-out oranges and olive oil.  It looked so festive and smelled like oranges.  Finally, all of the kids opened up their new pajamas and wrote letters and left cookies out for Santa.  Of course they couldn't stay up very late just in case Santa was close, so off to bed the kiddos went.  The adults set everything up for the next morning and then we stayed up way too late just talking and laughing.  It was such a great day.

This picture was actually from the day before Christmas Eve, but I needed somewhere to put it.  The three little girlies in their Christmas dresses.  This was taken after church and they were all tired and hungry, so we're lucky we even got this.  These girls are going to have so much fun in the future together, I just know it!  In fact, Lucy is lucky to have a lot of awesome cousins around her age.. even Amyah and Ashlynn and Elizabeth won't seem that much apart in a few years.

There was only so much room when we all sat down at the tables for dinner, so the baby girls got to eat on the floor.  We had a lot of sweeping and vacuuming to do after those meals!

Nativity time.  Lucy was an Angel, so Ryan appropriately held her up for her part. :)

All of the stuffed animals were out for talent show props and the Rasmussen's have the same big bear that we do.  As soon as Lucy saw it, she went over to it to give it hugs and kisses.

Ryan and Craig juggled for their talent.  They started out with shoes...

Then moved to stuffed animals...

Including Big Bear!  Haha.  We all had a good laugh over this picture afterwards.  He really did juggle it, too!

Christmas songs and orange candles.

Christmas jammies.

The stockings were hung and Santa came!

Christmas Break in Florida

Ryan had a lot of vacation time that he either had to use it or lose it by the end of the year, so we of course used it.  Ryan's sister, Michelle, and her family live there while Marc specializes in endodonics (root canals) at the University of Florida in Gainseville.  All of Ryan's family, except for his parents and  his brother Kevin's family, came to Florida as well.  There were 7 adults and 6 kids total.  It was so much fun to see everyone.  We did so much though and all seemed to have our cameras out that I don't even know where to begin with posting about it.  But here's a shot.

We drove down to Florida on Saturday December 22nd, and stayed until January 2nd.  It's about a 13.5 hour drive, but it took a little longer getting down there because of an accident in Atlanta, so we rolled in after the kids were all in bed.  Lucy actually did pretty well on the drive, thanks to our DVD player and some Baby Einstein movies.  She also warmed up to everyone way quicker than I ever imagined.  She loved exploring all of the new toys and things around. The next day was fun as all the kids woke up and we got to really see everyone.  We just went to church, hung out and talked a lot, and ate.  Marc's birthday was the day before we got there and Michelle got him a new game for his birthday called the 7 Wonders (I think?) and we played a lot of rounds of that game that night.  It was kind of complicated, but once you figure it out and develop some strategies it is fun.  It was fun staying up late playing games, talking, listening to Christmas music, and eating lot's of treats.  Definitely a good way to start off the vacation!

A sick girl's blanky, purse, and candy.

A few weeks ago Lucy was pretty sick and didn't sleep for about four nights in a row (like, literally did not sleep... at least not longer than about an hour and a half stretch each night.  I died).  She was so exhausted that she would just lay down anywhere she could, especially if she saw something soft and fuzzy that she could lay her head on.

She was surprisingly pretty happy considering her miserable cold and lack of sleep.  She found this striped bag somewhere and I later found her walking around with it over one shoulder while holding up my cell phone on her other shoulder and saying "hi" and babbling into the phone.  This was her first time doing either of those things.  So cute.  Also, this girl cannot keep ANY pants up.  She's too skinny.  I can't buy them any smaller or they will be way too short.  These ones below are 9 months and still falling off at 13 months.

 She somehow managed to get a candy cane off the tree (that I moved up high) and since she felt so awful, I let her just play with it.  A few minutes later it was totally unwrapped and she figured out that you just suck on it and it's candy!  I let her go at it and from that point on she wanted any candy cane she saw on the tree.

Cleveland visitors

My Grandpa and his lady friend, Becky, came down from Cleveland just before we left for Christmas.  It was fun to see them and Lucy had a lot of fun with them.  These pictures make me laugh.

My grandpa and Becky were bribing her with anything they could find to get her to come take a picture with them.  The remote was a good option.

They are still trying to get her to smile at the camera while doing so themselves, and Lucy realized she got tricked. ;) (Lucy's face cracks me up.)

Somewhat normal picture.

 ...and she's done.