Children's Museum

We figured we should get together with Neil and Ashley again while they were still on this side of the country, so we met at the Children's museum in Indianapolis a few days after Christmas.

Dallin and Connor thought this tie fighter made out of balloons was pretty awesome.

 We started at the "Treasures of the Earth" exhibit. The kids explored a shipwreck.

And put together pieces of a terracotta warrior.

Riding on a train.

 There was a Ninja Turtles exhibit that included some ninja training activities, like moving through the alley rope maze. The kids really liked this one.

 The "big kids" (*cough* dads) liked it too.

We call this extreme babywearing. And Neil is channeling his inner Catherine Zeta-Jones, a la Entrapment.

There was a winter wonderland exhibit with a rink for "skating" with socks on.

 The kids were being so adorable spinning around together, holding hands.

All of my phone pictures of them are blurry because they were moving so fast.

And speaking of blurry phone pictures:

Neil and ?? (Charlotte?) zooming down the yule slide. I slid down with Bennett on my lap, racing with Madoc.

Micah and Ashley (with either Amelia or a purse in her lap)

 Mckay and Connor

Sadie and Dallin

Dallin loves Sadie. He loves all his cousins and had so much fun with all of them, but he really loves Sadie and hardly left her side the whole day. There was more crying in the parking garage as we said goodbye to them, this time for good. (Until they come to the midwest again in the summer.) We love when our family comes to visit!

Christmas 2015

For Christmas 2015, we stayed in Indiana. We missed being able to spend time with our extended family, but it was nice to avoid traveling in the holiday weather. And it was fun to be in our own home and do our own things.

Here's the picture we used for our Christmas card (I finally sent some out for the first time in 4 years!)

And this picture was on the card too because it's so great and Christmasy.

 I had lots of fun activities planned for the season, so I made a checklist to keep track of them. 

(It's pretty much the same as the summer bucket list I've done in the past.)

We continued the tradition we've done for the last two years by reading a different Christmas book each night before bed. (I've wrapped each book in years past but I was too environmentally-conscious  lazy this year.)

This book is Humphrey's First Christmas and it's one of my favorites. We have slowly grown our Christmas book collection through Library book sales and such over the years and we almost have a full 25 days of books. We supplement the difference with borrowed library books.

 One of our planned activities was to watch the big Purdue Christmas tree being set up inside the student union.

They have to bring this HUGE TALL live tree in, which requires taking down the double doors and door frame just to get it in the building. Then all these ropes, wires and pulleys are used to attach the tree to supports and bring it upright.

It was really neat to watch.

There is a BIG gingerbread house near the tree, big enough to walk through.

 Dallin's school had a First Grade Christmas Music program.

Each of the 1st grade classes learned two songs. We recorded some of each song that Dallin was in.

I kind of wish Dallin had learned Christmas songs people actually know. Some of the classes learned more traditional songs, like We wish you a Merry Christmas or Good King Wenceslas. I can't even remember what Dallin's songs were called. Something about snow. Or olive trees.... ?

There was a free sleigh ride with Santa event at a nearby shopping center.

Dallin and Connor thought it was so much fun. Mckay and I both loved this Santa because of the way he talked to the kids. After he asked them what they wanted for Christmas (pretty standard Santa question), he said, "Those sounds like great toys! Just in case I can't find those things, is it all right if I bring you a few surprises?" And the boys, of course, said "YEAH!" I like that he was realistic and didn't promise a $300 Lego Death Star to our kids. 

I love how Connor was dressed for this sleigh ride, with his furry hat, aviator sunglasses and Batman mittens. And his red turtleneck.

Neil and Ashley and the Crapo cousins came to visit us our their way to Columbus, Indiana for Christmas with the Shoafs. They arrived EARLY in the morning, went back to sleep and then woke up to eat breakfast with us. It was technically still a school day for Dallin, but after waiting days, bursting with excitement at the thought of getting to play with his cousins, we thought it would be mean to send him to school after spending only 30 minutes with them at breakfast. So we let him stay home.

We played games, Fruit Ninja, let them run of some energy at our mall play area, and then home for some more games.

And then we went out to dinner. For future reference: when you're going out to eat with a large group (especially one with 8 kids) don't go to a restaurant that's new in town at 6pm without calling ahead. We waited a long time for a table. After dinner, the Crapos went straight on to Columbus and we went home. Dallin was crying the whole way home, saying how much he missed his cousins and asking why they had to go to visit their Grandma Shoaf. He asked if he could call Sadie. He has has such a tender heart.

We went caroling to some friends and brought them cookies. I made gingerbread wookie cookies and ninjabread men.

It was like baking a delicious army.

I made pajamas for the boys to open and wear on Christmas Eve. I sewed the pants and used freezer paper to stencil a graphic on each shirt.

Foxes for Dallin and Bennett, monsters for Connor.

 On Christmas Eve, some friends (the Wrights) invited us over for dinner and a presentation of the nativity story.

Dallin played the part of Joseph and Autumn was Mary. I think Mckay was an innkeeper in the picture above.

I was an angel and Bennett was a sheep, but there's no picture proof of that.

 Connor was assigned to be a wise man, but he really wanted to be a sheep. So we turned my faux-fur lined jacket inside out and Connor wore that.

 The Wrights made chimes and we each took a note and played several Christmas carols.

I didn't take hardly any pictures on Christmas. It was full of excitement, legos, Star Wars toys/clothes/shoes, waffles, and tired parents who were up half the night wrapping gifts and assembling a toy box. I did get this picture of Bennett, snuggling with the big, super-soft teddy bear he got.

Mom and dad Easton got us a chest freezer. I've very glad to have more freezer space now. For Christmas dinner, we invited the Thomases over. They are another Chem.E. family who also stayed in town for Christmas. Our boys love playing with their son, Drew. We ate food, played games, ate more food, watched Christmas movies, and ate some more for good measure.

 Dallin and Connor wanted to play our new game, Ticket to Ride, one more time before bed. They didn't last long though and feel asleep on the floor.

This was such a blissful moment for me. Playing a game with my love, my sweet children sleeping nearby, surrounded by gifts from loved ones and watching "White Christmas"... It was practically perfect.

Colorado after Christmas

We spent the week after Christmas 2014 in Colorado. Since it's only an 8 hour drive from Utah to Denver, Bennett and I drove with the rest of the family. Bennett did great. We stopped twice for bathroom/gas breaks and I fed Bennett during both stops. Other than that, Bennett slept peacefully in his car seat. Dallin and Connor watched movies for most of the trip and danced for part of it.

Bennett was blessed at church in Colorado. We figured it made more sense to do his blessing when we were out visiting family, rather than have our family make an extra trip to Indiana.

My amazing parents and my brother Joseph drove from Utah to be there for it. The words of the blessing were beautiful and it was wonderful being surrounding by so many people who love us.

After church, Connor took a nap with his dad.

During our stay, we spent a lot of time with family, playing games and doing fun things. We took the boys to Casa Bonita for the first time.

I forgot how gross the food is. The boys didn't care about eating and had a wonderful time.

On New Years Eve, we did another soda taste test. 

This time it was Coke vs. Pepsi. The goal was to see how well we could tell the difference between the two. Given 4 cups of soda randomly filled with either soda (so you might have 1 Pepsi 3 Cokes, or 2 of each, or 3 Pepsi 1 Coke), you had to tell which drink was in each of your 4 cups. Mckay and I both got 100% right. Most were surprised by how difficult it was to tell the difference. I, who am not a big soda drinker, was surprised by how easily I could tell the difference. 

We did Easton family pictures too while we were all together.

This is not one of the professional pictures, just a cute one I snapped of my boys all dressed up.

It snowed a lot, so we spent some time out playing in the snow, and lots of time snuggled up inside.

This picture makes me laugh.

Three generations of Eastons napping.

We went to an Avalanche hockey game again like last year, but this time we had Bennett with us. I carried him in the moby wrap so he stayed plenty warm and safe. He slept through the first two periods, ate during the third, pooped during overtime and was wide awake for the shoot out.

We sat all the way up at the top of the arena so we had a little more privacy. The noise up that high wasn't too loud for Bennett, unless you count his own father and uncles screaming and cheering a few feet away.

The Avs won so it was a good game.

Our travel plans for Denver back to Indiana:  Bennett and I flew from Denver to St. Louis on my birthday. (Not one person at the airport who checked my ID that day wished me a happy birthday! Maybe that's because I flew out at 6 AM again. People are grumpy in the morning, especially at the airport.) Mckay dropped me off at the airport and then drove for 12 hours to St. Louis. I beat him there and hung out with Grace again. The next morning we left Grace's house and drove home. The drive back to Indiana was much more uneventful than our drive last year, though I did leave my travel case of baby wipes in the Taco Bell bathroom in Effingham, IL. Darn Effingham! Thank you Bennett for waiting to poop again until we got home. 

Christmas 2014

Christmas 2014 was magical. My parents rented a cabin for the week in Heber City, Utah and all of my siblings and their spouses and children were there. We were glad that we gathered in Utah this year, since that made it a easier for us to travel from Indiana to be there. Since Bennett was barely three weeks old when we began our Christmas break, I knew it would be difficult to drive 24 hours across the country with a newborn. So we came up with a 4 day travel plan: 

Day 1 (Wednesday): we left Indiana right after Dallin got out of school and drove to St. Louis. My good friend Grace was happy to let us stay with her, as always. Day 2: Mckay left St. Louis that morning and drove with the two older boys to arrive in Denver that night. They stayed with Mckay's parents. Bennett and I spent the day with Grace in St. Louis. Day 3 (Friday): I flew out of St. Louis at the not-so-bright and early time of 6am and and arrived in Salt Lake before noon. I spent the day with my mom and two of my sisters getting food/supplies purchased for our week long stay at the cabin. (I'm not sure why we thought it was a good idea to go to Costco on the Friday before Christmas with 3 kids, two being newborns, to buy a weeks worth of food for 40 people. It was crazy busy but we had a some good laughs.)  Mckay took Friday as a day to rest in Denver and visit with family for a bit before driving the final 8 hour leg of the trip to Utah. Day 4: Mckay left Denver and drove to Heber with Dallin and Connor. The rest of the Crapo Family (or most of them) arrived by Saturday night.

I wish I had taken more pictures of the house we stayed in. It was huge with tons of bedrooms and several bunk beds in each room. There was a hot tub, a sand volleyball court, a Foosball table and a pool table, several big living areas for everyone to visit and play, a huge kitchen and, while no table known to man could fit all 40+ people, this table could usually fit most of the little kids.

Julie and Christian (my sister and her husband) once again made a lot of the magic happen for the kids.

They brought an art easel, a train set, gingerbread housed to decorate, lots of dessert projects for the older grandkids, and a new Christmas book to read every night. They were always plenty to do. And there was plenty of snow so the kids got to do lots of playing outside.

Bennett and his cousin Annabel are only 3 weeks apart (she's older), so they did a lot of the same things: eating every 2-3 hours, dirtying diapers, sleeping in whatever set of arms was available.

They shared things too, like the bouncy chair and their pacifiers. (The pacifier sharing was unintentional, but all the pacifiers looked similar and with 15 other adults helping to care for the babies, no one could keep them straight.)

We did a few fun activities outside the house, like riding on the Heber Creeper North Pole Express.

We got to drink hot chocolate, eat cookies, sing carols and meet Santa!

The kids were all pretty hyped up.

As if the sugar-filled, Santa-excited kids crammed into a train car weren't enough to give all the adults a headache, they gave everyone a jingle bell. Now there were 80 jingle bells ringing right by your head. Fun times! It was actually pretty fun, but there's a reason why Christmas only comes once a year.

While we had all the family there, my parents hired a photographer to take family pictures.

Here's grandma and grandpa with all 17 grand kids, ages 13 years -3 weeks.

Me with my siblings.

 The whole group

Well, we're one short in this picture. My sister's husband had a last minute change in work schedule, so he couldn't be there for pictures. I hear there's a plan to photoshop him in later.

And here is our family.

I just love these two cute boys.

On Christmas Eve, we had our traditional talent show, complete with lots of singing and the best Louis Armstrong impersonation I've ever heard. (Well done Joseph!)

We gave the kids candy canes

and then sent them to bed so we Santa could fill the stockings.

I think we got a few hours of sleep before the kids woke up on Christmas morning.

All of the kids got a light saber in their stockings.

We did a round of opening presents. With so many people, it took a long time, so we had a breakfast break.

We ate delicious Kneaders french toast and home-cured bacon, all prepared by Nate.

Then it was back to presents!

Dallin's presents were mostly Star Wars themed.

And Connor got a stuffed minion!

It was a wonderful Christmas.