Awesome-est New Year Ever!

So I'm not kidding. This pretty much was the most awesome New Year's party ever. We started the celebration off with a late morning tea pearty. Everybody got dressed up in Grammy Jo's finest.

Finley showed us proper pinky etiquette.

Sareny showed us the new camera she got for Christmas.

Later we went outside to play a few rounds of corn hole.

 

Me, Keith, and baby KeeKee.

Keeley looked pretty cute in Sareny's old Disneyland sweatshirt.

Happy smiley girl!

Lexi did Finley's hair in a bow made of hair, which you can see in the picture below.

Despite how cold it was, Sareny was definitely up for playing the beautiful game. She loved it!

The rest of us were cold and snuggled up as best as we could.

And then we convinced Bampa to start us a fire.

A group photo around the fire, minus Keith the photographer.

 Shortly after the above photo, Finley fell asleep on the couch and missed out on the rest of the activities. We had bought a couple boxes of sparklers at the store, and we all had fun with those.

I love my adorable boy!

Grammy and Bamps. Also, Grammy Jo saves these New Years hats and brings them out every year, so we all had to wear them.

Me and Keith bringing in the New Year.

Lexi and the kids in front of the giant Santa.

Shortly after we got in, this little baby decided it was time to wake up and party. At this point, it was pretty close to midnight, so I decided she might as well ring in the New Year with us.

We had talked about celebrating New York style New Year (a couple hours early) but somehow ended up celebrating at midnight. The kids had tons of fun!

And the last picture of 2012! Me, my baby, and my mom. It doesn't get any better than that!

The next day we drove back to Phoenix. Poor Finley asked if we had any more sprinklers, which I finally figured out she meant sparklers. But rudely, we didn't save her any. :( We stopped at three stores on the way home to try and buy another box, but nobody had any sprinklers left. We'll have to stock up next fourth of July!

Oops--it's a New Year!

I was glancing through our pictures and realized that I somehow missed blogging about New Year's Eve. We spent a quiet night at home with just our family. We put together some Legos.

And some Citiblocks.

Then we toasted the New Year at 10:00 pm.

I love these kiddos!

Last photo of 2010

The next morning, the kids hurried down the stairs to see what Mrs. Santa had brought for them. (she comes on New Year's Eve and brings a book and something else small.)

Unfortunately, Isaac headed right for Fin's bumblebee and never thought his monkey was very cool. Earlier in the week, I had secretly bought a panda bear CuddlePet, not a real PillowPet, and asked Isaac if he wanted to trade, and he did. So he ended up happy and singing, "It's a Cuddler, Its a Pet, It's a Cuddler Pet." 

New Year's in Overton

We spent New Year's in Nevada, where all my siblings had gathered except for Cassidy and James. We had a pretty low-key New Year's Eve, just hanging out and playing games. Later when I went to check on the kids, this is what I found.

I just thought it was very precious and had to grab my camera. Then I moved Sareny off of Isaac a little bit. But here is some proof that she loves her little brother!
Since Rhys had never been to feed the fish, we went back to Lake Mead for another go.

Isaac actually leaned over and touched a fish!

John, Holli, and Lexi had fun tossing the bread up trying to get the birds to catch it in the air.

None of us are quite sure how Holli and John manage to keep up with this little boy--he has got some energy!!

Finney gives the best kisses ever.

And she is a little snuggle-bug too. She squeezes you pretty tight.

All the kids love their tia Lexi!

We had a fun time visiting with family and friends before heading back to Phoenix to face the real world. After a lovely 2 week vacation, that was a bit of a letdown!

New Year's Eve

We had a really fun New Year's Eve at home this year. Holli, Johnny, and Rhys were in town visiting from Georgia and they also brought John's mom Christy. Our friends Jay and Shauntel also came over with their two kids.

We decided at the very last minute to have a murder mystery party. Fortunately, we had a bunch of Chinese decorations on hand and we made it to Panda Express just before they closed for some takeout. Some even managed to throw together some decent costumes.

It really was a blast. I think my favorite part was either Jay's raspy drawl, (he was getting over a cold, but it really added to his character) or Johnny's awesome Chinese accent.

Unfortunately, the kids had a little too much fun as well.

We had a bit of a breakdown with the toyroom closet locking system. This picture was taken after a bit of cleanup had already occured, including putting the cushion back on the futon.

While I thought we all looked pretty cute with our costumes and props, leave it to a few cute kids to steal the show!

I gave Isaac first pick on the props, and I was surprised when he picked the fan. I was also surprised that no fights broke out over who got which prop. (I'm kind of missing his curly locks!)

What cuties!

The girls.

By this point in the evening, (maybe 10:00ish) poor Isaac was so tired he just wanted to go to bed and went there happily while the other kids continued to play. The rest of us were just getting started. We ended up talking, snacking, and playing games until about 1:30 am. We had fun taking turns asking questions from the game "Would You Rather," which prompted some interesting discussion.
And lastly, just before bed, the kids left their shoes under the tree. At our house, Mrs. Santa Claus comes on New Year's eve and fills our shoes with nuts and candy. Each person also gets a book and a small toy or something. Anyways, I always loved this tradition growing up--it gave you something to look forward to after Christmas was all over. And that is how we celebrated the new year over here!