Our Blessed Christmas

I love the idea of doing a fun activity with the family on Christmas Eve.  Since our weather is so heavenly, we took the kids to the mountains for a hike and picnic.  (Obviously, we'll have to find an alternate activity in Pittsburgh next year.)  It was very peaceful and -- what's the opposite of crowded? -- that!  Scotty and Shari came, too, but they missed the camera.

Nicole and Grant hiked to the highest point on our trail.

Grant also found a "cactus bone" along the way.  He said he would never put it down.  We call them bones because the real term is cactus ribs.  Ribs, bones, same thing, right?  A stick by any other name would be as cool.

This year on Christmas morning, we dressed in Sunday best because we went to church after we opened presents and ate lunch.  It felt nice to be in church on Christmas.  We were treated to a lovely hour of the nativity story accompanied by music.  We heard one of the best English renditions of "O Holy Night" that left everyone speechless. 

The big kids with the tree.  In the background, you might notice that we had a year of Legos!  If you look further back, you might notice Shari's photo at the top of the tree.  Ideally, we would have an angel or a star at the top, but since I'm so picky, I haven't found one I like yet.  Scotty absolutely insisted that we put Shari's picture as high as I could reach, which is kind of appropriate since she's half-angel.

The kids gave each other gifts this year, and that was my favorite part to watch.  Nicole gave Scotty this new puppy, which Scott named "Scotty's Dog."  I'm thinking she picked this for him so that he would stop playing with her stuffed dog.

Scotty also received another small box of Legos.  Nicole took this picture of him, and it totally cracked me up.   When Scotty saw this picture, he said it was "silly."

Scotty with his beloved Lego garbage truck.  When he went to bed on Christmas night, he said to me, "Mom, I wuv my garbage truck.  I wuv Buzz.  I wuv Jessie.  I wuv Wotso.  I wuv it!!"

Scotty also got a watch, which he has worn day and night since.

Everyone received many gifts, but I didn't take a million pictures this year.  Most of the pictures were taken after the fact.  Like this one of the kids working on their Lego kits (which, by the way, took the rest of Christmas day, and much of the next day -- even with me helping!).

Baby Shari was the spoiled recipient of many gifts from her adoring aunts, including her new Bumbo seat.  We put her in it so she could sit right next to the kids while they play Legos and feel part of the group.  So cute!

A Merry 2011

Our little family of six!

It's my "I-can't-believe-my-oldest-is-nine-years-old" child Nicole.  Nicole in three words: sweet, obedient, responsible. She's my first assistant in running the household.

Brainiac Grant

Body size: 6

Intelligence level: rivals some adults

Work ethic: needs improvement

Grant's essence can be captured in this adage: Work smart, not hard.

Scotty "rules the roost," as my mom always says.  His birthday is next week, and he is very excited to turn four.  Actually, Scotty is very excited for everything.  His famous words are, "[Fill in the blank] is my favorite!"  He has an incredible zeal for life, and the energy to match it.

The baby.  I've never seen a child so adored by so many.  Shari is the sweetest and most content human I have ever met.  We dote on her and her fat cheeks incessantly.

The boys of the house ...

And the girls ...

Brothers (sometimes laughing, sometimes fighting, sometimes wrestling while laughing and fighting)

Sisters (practically inseparable)

 The good doctor and his dedicated wife of 11 busy years.

All pictures by Becky Ann Photography.

Third Annual Arizona Christmas Eve Party

I love to spend Christmas Eve with my big family.  It's one of my favorite days of the year.  The kids are all getting so big, but they still indulged me and played the games I prepared for them.

I brought a mini Santa to secretly place someone's back.  I didn't tell the adults, so Tom was the first victim.  In this picture, Matt had just taken the Santa off Tom's jacket and was wondering what was going on.  I think Susie was the one that placed it there.  What do you think?

The girls decorated a gingerbread house and had a little trouble with the icing bag.

But in the end, it turned out pretty cute.

This is what the boys were doing while the girls were decorating:

We played many games, but I only have this one picture, which is where a present is passed around the circle and each kids tries to open it (the girls had to wear work gloves) before the next player rolled doubles.  Whoever gets to the prize gets to keep it.  It was fast-paced and funny.  Great game for kids of all ages.

I found a picture of the old-fashioned candy trains that we used to make as kids and thought it would be fun to replicate.  Of course, lifesavers are double the size they were when we were kids, so it kind of threw off the balance of it all.  I'm glad we get to put it on our tree every year now.

We always eat Italian, and this year we made our old, original, Sicilian family recipe ravioli.  Yum!  Aunt Shari spent most of the afternoon baking while I was organizing crafts and games for the big kids, so Aunt Sarah adopted the baby.

The cousins drew names to exchange gifts, and Scotty received his very own (and first!) Lego set.  He was so happy!  He would not let anyone have it, he fell asleep with it in the car, and he insisted on building it first thing the next morning (Christmas morning).  Pictures to come.

We have lived here nearly three years, and I think this may be the only photo we have with our entire Arizona family all together.

It was a marvelous way to spend Christmas Eve.

Grant's Numbers

In the kitchen one day, Grant said, "Oh, I get it.  So 2 cups equal 1 pint.  And 2 pints equal one quart.  And 2 quarts (I thought he would say equal 1 gallon) equal 1/2 gallon." 

* * * * *

At Chuck-E-Cheese, Grant found a ticket left in the machine.  He brought it to me and said it was "one ticket plus 25%, so if anyone finds a ticket that is just 75%, we will take it to the worker [and explain that they were separated]."

* * * * *

As we were getting ready to leave the house one day, I told the kids to get in the car.  Normally, I have to tell them many times to get in the car before we're all actually in the car and ready to go.  Scotty, especially gets distracted along the way (having to take a moment to ride his bike quickly down the driveway or search for a new toy to take along).  Grant doesn't normally get distracted, but sometimes drags his feet about going.  So imagine my surprise when I reached the car with my first pile of bags to load in the car when I saw Grant alone, buckled in his seat belt.  I asked him why he was sitting alone in the car, and he replied, "You told me to get in the car."  I was so astonished that I told him he could have a bonus point.  He asked what a bonus point was, and I told him it was what you get when you are good.  He then calculated in his little mathematical brain, "Well, can the bonus point just be a negative one strike, so that if I get a strike for being naughty, then it will really only be zero strikes?"

Happy Baby

Nicole: What's your favorite thing about Shari?
Mom: Probably her smile.  What about you?
Nicole: Well, of course I love her smiles, too, but I don't think I could live without her sweet talking.

Shari also blows bubbles.

And she's working 'round-the-clock to get this thumb-sucking trick down!

Scotty Needs A "Take Your Kid to Work" Day

Scotty: Where's Dad?
Mom: He's at the hospital.
Scotty: What?!  He went to hospital AGAIN?!
Mom: Scotty, that's where Daddy works.  He's a doctor.
Scotty: Daddy give suckers to the kids?

Little Sister

My Date with Scotty

Scotty, Shari and I ended up together tonight, and we decided we weren't going to stay home cleaning!  We headed straight for fun at the mall.  We parked in the front row (lucky us), walked through the doors, and immediately spotted the train.  Scotty and his backpack took off running and laughing until they reached the "engineer." Scotty was so excited to sit in the coal car.

Can you see how much fun we had?!

We also found the quarter candy machines, the ones where we never stop, and Scotty picked out a big ball of blueberry gum.  We ended with a trip to Scotty's favorite restaurant: Panda Express.  He wanted strawberries for dessert, but the restaurant was fresh out.  Maybe we'll go to Jamba Juice on our next date.

Loving My Arizona Fall!

My hiking partners in Usery Mountain:

Grant, Sam, Shari, Nicole, Scotty & Tommy

You should have seen people stare at me with SIX kids!  People stare like that when I only have my own four, so I'm getting used to it.  I'm starting to see the humor in it, and just smile when people say, "Are all of those kids yours?!" or "You sure have your hands full!"  But Sam and Nicole act almost like adults, so it was practically three adults and four kids.  That's a better ratio.

The kids kept finding plants to photograph.  Here's a large ocotillo (I want these in my yard one day):

There was this giant saguaro:

A barrel cactus that was growing lopsided:

And a cactus that tipped and died (or died and tipped).  Grant found this one and wanted to study it.

Our state parks install playgrounds near the kid trails, so we got to play in the mountains.

We were so happy to have Sam and Tommy join us.  We have committed to hiking this trail again over the Christmas break.

Tommy Tinker

 At lunch we found a huge ant on our table.  We gave it a cracker crumb, and you should have seen that thing haul its stash away.  The kids watched it carry the crumb under the table upside down (it's right in front of Grant's face).  We were all very impressed and wished we could be as strong as ants (and walk upside down, too!).

Show me the way home.

Learning to Play

Scotty asked if Shari could play in the tree house. 

I don't know which game he hoped she would play, but I suppose he was satisfied just having some company.

Because It's Been A While

Our report: fat and happy

Kitchen Help

One unsupervised morning, Scotty decided to bake a cake.  I was upstairs "otherwise engaged," when Scotty bounded into my room with a giant smile, babbling about a cake and the oven.  I did not delay in investigating!  He raced me downstairs and hopped on his chair, so proud of his "batter."  He fit 11 eggs into this bowl, and mixed them up.  He was ready for me to turn the oven on so we could bake his cake.  He was so happy and excited that I couldn't yell at him.  But I did tell him to please ask permission before baking another cake.  The remainder of our eggs were relocated in the fridge, and I pulled Nicole's leftover birthday cake out of the freezer for Scotty to enjoy.  I made German pancakes with half of the eggs the next morning.  Win-win-win.

Before I could use the last five scrambled eggs, however, Scotty decided that he would help me out with the dishes.  He dumped the eggs down the drain and put the tupperware in the dishwasher, along with a few extra dishes.  Lose-win.

If I could just teach Scotty to properly load the dishwasher, I would have a maid it made!

A Mayo Family

Our residency program plans family functions, like, never!  I still cannot figure out what the occasion was, but we met at the train park yesterday for food and games.  The program was kind enough to give us a budget for lunch and a guaranteed day off for the residents.  I won't complain. Someone made the Mayo shirts to wear as uniforms for kickball teams.  Shari and I lent our support from the sidelines.

The next graduating class:

Clint (How did Shari sneak into that photo?), Justin and Drew

We're moving to Pittsburgh for fellowship, Justin's looking for a job in Dallas, and Drew is dreaming of returning to Hawaii.  Wish us all luck!