Catching Up

It's been a while since we've posted anything....so I thought I might attempt to give a brief update of our lives over the last couple months.

Well, Christmas has passed. We went back to Indiana for a visit. We cut it short due to sickness which made us ready to come home sooner than we originally planned. It was nice to see family. We didn't get to see as many friends as we would have liked, but that's just the way it goes I suppose.

Here are some moments captured during our celebration of Christmas at my parent's house....

Here is Oliver thoroughly enjoying a ring pop...his new love.

Travis couldn't pass up getting this for my Dad who is

obsessed with Pepsi...notice it says "Sexsi".

Here are the girls with Oliver all ready to

open presents.

Emma, Raeni, and Elise...aren't they beautiful.

My handsome nephew, Caslin and son, Avrie.

Raeni cheesin...she looks just like her mother.

Queen Elise...

Princess Emma opening things from her stocking...

Travis helping Oliver open things from his stocking...he really liked this spinning light toy...he was quite mesmerized by it.

Now some shots from our Christmas celebration at Grandma Rosie's house....

A shot of all the girls in front of G-ma's tree...

Rose has her eyes closed...in most of her pictures her mouth is either open or her eyes closed :o)

All the kiddos except Oliver, he was napping...

One of the boys (except Oliver again).

So those were some shots from the holiday celebrations. We did spend Christmas Day at Todds, Travis' brother. That was nice. Grandpa Bill came over to visit with Autumn, her boyfriend and Tahlyn. I failed to get any pictures though...wish I had. It was a rather hard day though. Elise was recovering from a stomach virus and therefore we were unable to visit my Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Bill like we planned because of my uncle's weak immune system. We didn't want to take the chance of having Elise around him and getting him sick. We were thankful to spend the day with Todd and his family though. We had great sweets and a wonderful dinner together.

As far as the trip there and back itself, let's just say it's a loooooong drive. Here are a few shots of the ride there and back.

This is one of the kids on the way to Indiana...make a mental note of all the space they had...

Here's one of Travis snoozing...also on the way to Indiana.

Now for the trip back to Texas...notice the space had shrunk...the heap of stuff I took the picture over and the things piled up in the back? There were things in every crevice of the van. We definitely came home with a lot more than we left with.

I snapped this shot to show Oliver in his little cubical...poor thing. He was so good on the way to Indiana and home. He's eating his favorite popcorn puffs from Grandma Rosie. She had packed bubble gum balls for the big kids and the popcorn for Oliver. She wanted to ensure that the kids ingested enough junk to successfully have Grandma Rosie poops when they got home. Gotta love her!

I must say it was quite nice to be home. There's nothing like home. A day or so after we were home, Travis finally came down with the stomach virus and spent a day and a half in bed. Poor guy...he just doesn't handle sickness well. After his bout with the pukes and poops, we were able to enjoy the rest of his vacation just being together. It was nice. We spent New Year's Eve with our friends, the Millers. We had a delicious dinner, visited while the kids played, let the kids have a mini celebration before midnight, put all of them to bed, and we enjoyed the rest of our time playing Solitaire Frenzy and a hilarious game of Quelf. It was a blast! Overall hearts were shared and memories made. A perfect way to spend bringing in the new year.

Since Travis' return to work after vacation, we've gotten back into the grove of normal life and we're doing quite well.