Fun With Cousins

Kristin and Brian and family came inland for a while over Christmas so we got to hang out with them for several days. It has been a long time since we last saw them - it was our first time to meet baby Alexandria, and she just turned one! But the cousins fell right in step and had a wonderful visit. Kali was able to come down for a day as well, so we had all the cousins on this side of the family together.

At first Sophia only gave me this look, but she warmed up after a bit.

Christopher took an occasional break from playing cards and reading books and writing codes and playing Legos with the big kids so he could hold baby Agnes.

I have no idea what they are up to here, but I do know that Gussie is hiding behind Julian so he wouldn't have to be in my picture.

It was terribly cold outside, but at one point the kid energy threatened to burst out of the house anyway so we bundled everyone up and walked down to the playground at the end of the block. Mary and Christopher were upset that I made them stop reading and come outside. They showed me.

Sophia latched onto Catherine as a play mate, and clearly Catherine has oodles of experience entertaining a preschooler.

All the bikes and scooters they could haul out of the shed came with us. I think our gang of kids was up to 11 at that point? Although Agnes was bundled up under my coat, so we really only had to count to 10.

Just as I was thinking everyone looked like they had braved the cold long enough, the kids decided to build a wall out of the plentiful rocks. When they got tired of carrying the rocks, they started transporting them by scooter.

Meanwhile Edie made off with a neighbor's earmuffs she found discarded in a bush.

But the wall! By the time it got this high I was the one who was cold and Agnes was ready to eat so I made them stop, but promised a picture in case the school kids destroyed the wall the next day.

Since we have no idea when all the cousins will be together again, we gathered them all up before Kali had to leave for a picture. Getting eleven kids, including two quite small ones and possibly a few disgruntled by having to sit for a picture, to even be in the frame was a bit of a challenge. And Agnes was tired and crabby so she looked like a grumpy pink potato in every shot. But they're all there! For the record:
Back row: Alexandria (1), Christopher (10), Mary (10), Agnes (3 months), Catherine (11)
Front row: Gussie (6), Sophia (3), Edie (4), Michael (8), Julian (6), Kali (8)

Sophia and Edie were rather skeptical of each other the last time they visited, but they were fast friends this time. They really bonded over a mutual love of skirts that spin and unicorn dressup.

We were sad to see them off to Florida again so quickly, but at least we get to keep Dema and Grampy T around for a while! Plus Mary and Christopher began co-authoring a story about unicorns while they were here, and exchanged phone numbers in order to continue their work, so we now get a lot of updates from Christopher via text. It's rather convenient!

I also completely forgot to post the Christmas picture we took with Olivia for Grandma's Christmas card, so since this post is about cousins, I'll throw it in here.

And I think that's finally all of the Christmas posts! It was a wonderful season and we are definitely still enjoying the fruits of it, especially the boost from all the family visits. 

Fantastics Gymnastics

In addition to all the unicorn fare, we had a rather active Christmas with a balance beam, mini trampoline, bouncing ball, and wobble board entering the house. These things are all currently still in the living room until I clear a space in the basement, and the kids have been taking full advantage. They immediately began creating routines. Full disclosure: they're not very good yet! But they're having a lot of fun practicing. They spent a whole afternoon with Mary as the announcer on their new show, "Gymnastics Fantastics." I'm going to spare you the entire 4-hour version, but here are a few clips.

The Rest of December

The day after Christmas we made our third trip to St. Charles and back in three days. Agnes was absolutely not impressed, as she remains steadfast in her utter loathing for being in her car seat. But it was worth the trip to celebrate at Gigi's house!

Quinn loved this little ride-on car as soon as she opened it, and her pigtails are amazing.

It was pretty much chaos as soon as the kids had opened their gifts.

Luckily it was just warm enough to take the chaos outside!

I'm pretty sure Aunt Jena has a hilarious video of Uncle Thomas turning a corner and dumping Michael out of that wagon...

It was a very fun afternoon but a little bittersweet, being the first Christmas at Gigi's that Papa wasn't able to be at since he is now settled in his new care home. We miss him!

We also got to spend one more afternoon with Thomas and Jena before they headed off. Many games were played, including the unicorn ring toss.

Daddy and Catherine were doing pretty well as a team...

But Thomas and Michael Jr finished the round with all three rings secure and won.

I did not notice Michael Jr's face until I had uploaded the picture. Clearly he takes Skip-Bo very seriously and is rather skeptical of the Uncle Thomas / Edie team.

Our 12 Days of Christmas activities were rather more subdued and home-based this year what with Agnes and her inability to be in the car for ten seconds without screaming (didn't really seem like a fun idea to drive 40 minutes to Our Lady of the Snows and then drive through the light display some more). Thanks to Grandma and Daddy the big kids did get to go on a couple light viewing adventures while Agnes and I snuggled at home, and did ridiculous things like take pictures with this onsie someone at church gave us and a Christmas hat from Grandma:

You can tell Agnes had a good Christmas - she has started to develop some thigh rolls.

Christmas Day Part 2

After Christmas lunch we zipped over to Grandma's house for more Christmas! Here are a bunch of random pictures of present opening.

It was a very unicorn-y Christmas.

Apparently a kid had my camera at some point.

I'm pretty sure this stuffed chicken is Michael's favorite present of all of Christmas. Her name is Mrs. Cluck.

These two are not very good at coordinating their picture faces.

Agnes was a bit more awake and willing to socialize than she was at Thanksgiving.

Overall she is a very happy baby, but don't let the Christmas dress fool you. I'm pretty sure she has some amount of spitup on her at least 90% of the time. At least she's a happy spitter.

Christmas Day Part 1

Christmas Day is a bit of a whirlwind right now. We wake up with the kids and it's usually early enough for them to open their stockings before Daddy goes off to his first Mass. Then the kids and I prep lunch before heading off to the later Mass. When we get home we open presents and enjoy our Christmas lunch feast, usually just minutes before jumping in the van and driving out to Grandma's for presents with them and the aunts and uncles and then dinner with more family joining in. It's a full day but the kids love it!

The only reason lunch was ready on time is because Catherine and Mary are amazing babysitters. Catherine had snuggled Agnes into the top of this giant stocking for fun, and then she fell asleep!

Here are a few pictures of the kids opening presents. Michael makes that face every time he sees a Lego box.

Gussie was playing Santa and handing out the gifts, but we didn't have a Santa hat, so he made do with another giant stocking. Something about Gussie right now makes me think I am going to be very well acquainted with that side-eye look of his over the next years.

I missed it, but his face totally lit up after he discovered the dinosaur in that box is radio controlled.

Daddy was sitting on the couch next to Catherine trying to get a good picture smile out of her. It almost worked.

Our general gift process is for each of the kids to buy for one sibling, and Edie was in charge of Mary's gift this year. While we were walking through the store she spotted this unicorn ring toss game and had to have it immediately. It was a pretty good pick.

The freckles are really the only point of this picture.

It's Catherine in a bean bag! She has been keeping her part of the room spotless for several months in order to have space to put a bean bag chair.

I completely forgot to take our family Christmas selfie at lunch. But we had a really fun dessert. Jesus had a super fancy birthday cake this year, a ring of puff pastry filled with praline studded cream. It wa delicious, but the bonus was watching people's faces when the kids said we had "Paris-Brest" for dessert (yes, that's really what it's called).