Happy New Year!

Have I mentioned how much I love my brother's wife, AD? I mean Keith is great and all, but AD is just plain fun. She is one of those moms who thinks of cool things to do. With JB working from 2pm until 7am (an extra long shift due to a great need at the hospital), I would have ended up not celebrating at all. But AD would hear nothing of that! She had a great idea to pick up a few things at the Dollar store and make it a celebration.

First idea? A 2014 Favorites! Each kid (with the help of a grown-up) filled out a sheet listing their favorite things from 2014. I'll try to post the results at a later time. It was fun to hear what their favorite things are right now in their life. Here's big Keith having an interview with Sidge (who has difficulty committing to any answer so this was no small undertaking.) 

My interview with Isaac.

Hannah passing the time (still covered in lasagna).

Charleigh photo bombing Hannah.

We then decided to pull up a Netflix and Youtube video of the countdown and ball dropping and pretend it was midnight! Another great idea by the sister-in-law.

Scrubs, who was very concerned at this point because I had totally forgotten to feed him in the midst of the New Years festivities.

After the countdown it was time for celebratory candy!

More photo bombing. The kids are so into that right now.

Then AD passed out noisemakers. Scrubs was very intrigued, but Abigail was quite upset because she could not figure out how to blow into them.

Sidge trying to show Abigail. Check out Scrubby's ears -- so far back!

Abigail still unable to get this thing to work.

Baylee checkin' out her noisemaker.

At the end of the evening, each kid picked out a book and Big Keith did the reading. After that, we put the kiddos down and I volunteered to babysit so Keith and AD could go out to celebrate their 8th wedding anniversary (which was yesterday.)

And here is a video of our celebrations!

Girls first slumber party

Last night, Keith and his family drove with me about 45 minutes away to have dinner with my cousins Josh and Sarah. Josh's parents (Keith and my uncle and aunt) were also in town. They had brought one of their other grandkids. Altogether there were 9 of the Huisman great-grand-kids in attendance. (I left Hannah at home!) These kiddos had a great time together.

Check out all those Huisman/Kitsteiner kiddos.

Silly time.

Dancing to the Frozen soundtrack.

Josh and Sarah's youngest daughter, MaryBeth has grown weary of watching her big brothers have a slumber party. She really wanted to have her first slumber party. Since I had three little girls over at my house, we thought it was the perfect opportunity to have some girl time.

Here is MaryBeth excited to get the party started!

Girls getting ready for bed. Abigail is on the left, then MaryBeth, and then Charleigh. Baylee is up on the couch. We watched a movie and had popcorn at night. (We let the boys join us for that part.) Then we shooed the boys to their room when it was time to sleep.

This morning they had a picnic right in the middle of the hallway! 

Sarah had warned me how exhausting slumber parties are. Holy cow. Not only was I exhausted but the little girl that I allowed to stay up too late nearly fell apart this morning with emotion! But was it worth it? Sure was!

Princess Tea Party

Our local public library is the BEST! They were having a free princess tea party for the first 20 recipients, and I got Abigail and her two cousins signed up for it. They actually had an Elsa and Cinderella and bracelets to make and make-up to put on (!!!), and cupcakes and tea and lemonade. There was a story and karaoke too. What a wonderful morning. Check out some of our photos!

Peeking in before it was time to go in.

So excited!

Olaf joined us!

With Queen Elsa. This young woman did a fabulous job!!! Abigail was excited to see her and then gave her normal pout face during the photo. :) When Elsa asked Abigail her name, she simply pointed to the Belle button on her dress.

How pretty is this? And this whole morning was completely free!

My little Belle. 

Check out the make-up.

Pretty girl.

Lovin' the make-up. First time for everything I guess.

Just wanting a cupcake.

Story time.

Pinkies up.

I thought the event was an hour and did not pack appropriate Hannah snacks. When I realized it was two hours, they saved me with a cupcake for my girl. The only other one she had was on her birthday so she was quite ecstatic!

Forget waiting for pieces ... I'm going in.

Delicious.

Yum.

Yum is right.

Abigail had mentally checked out by this point!

No Abigail.

Big Keith hung out for a bit and then took the boys and ran for it!

Our Family Featured on Website

My friend Julie recentlyt old me that our family's picture and a quote from me was featured on the Learning with Home website. Check it out!

More for Grama

We are having SOOOOO much fun with the cousins here. The kids play so well together, Abigail finally gets some girls to play with, and Charleigh is a great leader who comes up with all kinds of fun adventures and games for the kids. Today, she decided to lead a performance that the grown-ups sat down to watch. My kids had never done anything like this before so by the time they reached the "stage", she had lost Abigail and Sidge to stage-fright. At least Isaac stood by and tried out this whole acting thing.

Here are so more fun moments in the last 24 hours!

JB got home from work last night and everyone lined up to take turns giving him hugs! (Hannah was already in bed.)

Abigail and Baylee (who are only about six months apart) playing some iPad games together.

Big Keith with Hannah early this morning. This picture absolutely cracks me up!

After dinner this evening, we all piled in the van to drive around the corner to see the big light display by our house. 

Grama will love these!

I know my Dad and Mom are going crazy knowing all six cousins are finally together for an entire week and that they aren't here to see them in action. So my sister-in-law, AD, and I are taking as many pictures as possible. Here are some from Saturday:

Thor with a princess (Charleigh)

Abigail and Charleigh

All the kiddos watching a movie with Big Keith

Scrubby and Big Keith napping together. (Scrubs LOVES him!)

Time to play!

Three on one!

Sidge and Charleigh with our fun craft project (a gift from Mr. Yamil and Ms. Patty)

Five on one!

Craft time (AD soon came to rescue me -- this is stressful!)