Four-tunate Mom: Beyer family Christmas 2016

We made the decision mid-November I believe (yay us :) to have our Beyer family Christmas, Monday, 12/26 - on the twins' 6th birthday! The week before was not an easy one.. Riley was hospitalized with salmonella (so scary) and up until the 24th, we weren't sure if he was going to be home for Christmas... we had so many reasons to be thankful and not take for the granted that the best present of all is the gift of being together. I'm so glad that we all were.

The kids ate around 2:30pm? But who's keeping track of time, right?? :)

Had to pry these 2 away from their game ;)

And Jim still in pain... but again, so glad we were all together in the same house. And though I'm not sure he was looking forward to ELEVEN kids ran-sacking his house ;) at the end of the day, I'm pretty sure he was really glad that we all did.

Uh yah... where did these big kids come from?

birthday-girl with big bro Owen :)

It was during this meal that I thought... wow... what's it going to be like when they are 11 big-kids... like teenagers?!? holy smokes it's going to be tight ;)

The dad's ... enjoying time with their daughter's dolls ;)

more games

Before round 1 of opening presents

Awesome group of kids right here :)

And I had to throw this in here! Google pics helped me discover that 4-years ago to the date (1/4/13) we were at Harper's Ferry for our cabin Christmas with the Beyer's!

We were up to our ears in diapers, bottles, footy-pajamas... they were so. little. For the full account of the Christmas, click here, here, here and finally HERE :)

And back to the present... 2016 - Linds got a Polaroid camera! She was thrilled :D

Owen said something to the fact, "Evan you told me they didn't make these!" It was hilarious :) he was in Love!

Love LeaAnn's mermaid tail!! She's still sleeping with it every night!

Clothes for the 11-yr old ;)

the picture taker ;)

And a super cute scavenger hunt for all the kids!

They had to answer clues to find their present and money :)

Lydia ADORES her horse!!

Love, love, love... I have plans for this picture! ❤

They were using his poker set!

And then Jeanette had a really cute game for the kids... it was toys and candy wrapped up in saran wrap and they had to roll doubles before the ball of goodies could be passed on :) Stressed me out a little bit, but they loved it!

And then it was time for the birthday twins to open their presents up!

This was a big 'IF'!! I did not get permission from Jill - but Lauren and I made the executive decision that Miles would love it :)

And he did! I got a text from Jill last week that she didn't think it would ever happen, but Miles crawled in bed for snuggles and had Bear AND Freckles with him!

And then we gave the OTHER birthday girl her present from the kids! Jeanette turned 70 on Christmas day and we had all the kids write/draw on 8-1/2x11 sheets of paper, why they loved Grammy ❤

Super special and precious to watch her read through it with all the kids around :)

I took this group picture

And as I was setting up the timer for this picture, Jim joined us!

Bingo was played... and at the last minute, when we were loading up to leave, Jim came back upstairs, and we gave him his presents :)

And then when trying to take a family picture, they kept trying to 'touch' Jim... so their family picture turned into this :)

And of course on this one, Jeanette's eyes were closed... but that's OK! :) We got it taken ;)

Jody, Brent and kids came to our house to free up some space at Jim & Jeanette's and we went back the next morning to have lunch and sing to the twins! I had failed to get this picture the day before... love it ❤