In the Middle of it all: November 2010

I made an oath this year, a bit of an early New Year's Resolution-to make sure that I spend more time with my family so that my kids know both sides of their family. First step was to buy tickets to Ohio and spend Thanksgiving with Mary, Holly and Brysha. Of course this meant that it would include a relay of time spent at Holly and Brysha's houses and a speed play date kind of game with their cousins. Some things I learned:
Don't eat outside of the kitchen unless you want to get "the look" from Holly.
Brysha has slept sitting up since she had her twins.
The boys absolutely adore Joey and Corbin.
Kaya loves being the princess with her girl cousins as her ladies in waiting.
Holly's bathtub is big enough for the kids to think of as a small swimming pool.
Between the four boys (Corbin, Joey, Colin and Connor) every game they played seemed to involve a monster.
Holly's house would be great if it didn't have so many tattle tales in it.
Sleeping at Brysha's means reliving the days of being mom to newborns.
Arelynn is going to marry someone named Eric.
Dad can still make us all feel like we are twelve years old by lecturing us on Christmas checks. And finally but not in any way in the least, even with Mom in Idaho we could still have twelve deserts for Thanksgiving.

Check out Connor's fingers....a message to the US and North Korea I think.

Brysha's little identical Joshua and Caleb. And if you think they are crying in this picture you would be right. If they aren't touching Brysha, they aren't happy!

Angelina Jolie...eat your heart out!!! This is my sister after twelve children!

I'll slyly move this way....

Cousins and their secrets....something about a princess and a prince I bet.

Joey and Connor...best friends since day one.

You'd think these four would be trouble makers but really, they were just boys having fun. I hope it last until they are in college.

Whatever game they were playing, the boys seems to think they were the victors. Or maybe this is just a cheer for testosterone.

A picture of cousins....I asked them to scream cousins....wish I wouldn't have said "scream" since they do seem to enjoy that part.

Here's the boys watching The Grinch with Isaac and Noah. Ah...the beginning of the Christmas Season.

So Mary and Mark don't believe in telling their kids about Santa Clause. Hmmmm.....maybe the doubters are the true believers :)

For a whole hour they boys stayed in Holly's basement playing quietly. The picture looks innocent, right? If only they weren't playing a kids version of dodge ball. (Their version required hitting someone in the face, not just any body part would do to win...)

Sweet moment #1

Sweet Moment #2

Sweet Moment #3

Sweet Moment #4

Sweet Moment #5...better than any pie!

Always plotting and planning something...but they had so much fun that it would have put any Thanksgiving NFL game to shame.

One bite for mankind~

Aww yes, the infamous pies!

It will always cause a pie coma.

Holly and Bronte hanging out with the girls.

The original girls....(we are starting to look alike which only means we are doing the Barker aging process...ARGGHH)

Up and coming gang!

Here's Connor and Colin with Papa...

Holly and her daughters having a moment with Papa.

To the left you will see the escaping Adeline. Yep...twenty kids all in the same house. And all still for just the one second it took to take this picture. A miracle.

Connor loves his Papa and as soon as he saw him he ran to jump on him and give him a hug. Luckily there were no casualties.

Here's Colin reminding Papa that his name is Colin and not Collier...(not sure why but my dad insist on calling him Collier...no matter how many times we correct him.)

The morning we left Brysha convinced Brian to hold both of the twins. The twins in OSU suits and Brian in his Bruins shirt. Made me laugh! North and South can still coexist. And since I am a southern girl married to a Northern Man, I am thankful for that!