Ryan and Brittney

Pastries, the park, & The University of Florida

The day after Christmas, we started out by making Danish pastries. This is a Martin family tradition that Ryan's dad's parents always did and it has gone down through the generations. It is a family recipe and Ryan told me that when his mom went to his dad's house for Christmas, she wasn't allowed in the kitchen while they were being made because they weren't married yet and it was a secret recipe. Ha! This was the first time that any of us made it without Ryan's parents and they have always done the hard part. We ended up skyping Mark while making them so he could help us a little bit. Isn't technology awesome?! They turned out soooo good, so we must have done it right!

Skyping with Marc during the process:

Bennett's job was spreading the beaten eggs on top of the pastries. He loved his job and did it well (sometimes a little too well... Rachael joked that she got scrambled eggs on top of one of her pieces. haha! But it really wasn't that bad).

It was amazing weather again, so we hung out outside in the backyard for a while swinging in the tree swings and letting the girls drench themselves at the water table. We then took all of the kids and headed over to the little community park across the street, where we discovered how much the little girls all loved the slides. :)

Lucy loved the slides! Every time Ryan would sit her down at the top of the slide, she would start to go down and immediately turn over on her belly to go down.

This picture cracked us up because Lucy is being smothered and hating this, and Lynnlee is totally oblivious to that and just loving it. haha.

When we saw this picture of Stella later on, we realized that Ryan was positioned perfectly through the other side of the playground.

Later on in the evening, we headed over to visit the University of Florida. We first checked out Marc's office at the dental school, and then we walked all around the football field, which happened to be open. As an Ohio State fan, this was not a team I would cheer for, but it was still fun to see around the field! While we were there, the weather turned freezing cold and super windy, so we found ourselves racing back to the car by the end.

This is Marc's very own room (forgot the proper name for it) and his own equipment. He's a real doctor now.

The view of campus from the dental building:

It was a beautiful evening to walk on campus... until it turned freezing cold right about here.

In "The Sawmp"

This picture was not staged at all. They all pointed at something at the same time (and no one could remember what it was later), even Stella.

Craig just practicing his "Tebow" on the proper field.

The next Heisman winner right here.

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.