Good news, bad news

Let's do the bad news first.

My computer is still being fixed.  There was some sort of mix up with the paper work, and it sat in the shop for a week and a half before being shipped out.  Also, I sent it in to fix the screen, and they are replacing the hard drive.  They said it failed the tests.  I didn't loose any data (I've learned the hard way to back up EVERYTHING before sending it in) but it will take a minute to get back up to speed.

The good news is that while the computer was supposed to be fixed the first week, hubby, the kids and I took a little trip to a place you might have heard of...  Disney World and Universal Studios!!!  That's why it sat for a week and a half.  By the time they called to tell me they needed another signature, I was on "It's A Small World" down in Florida.

So, I have a million pictures and perhaps a few tips to pass on.  But you'll have to be patient to get 'em.  I'm posting this on my phone, and it's a pain in the rear.  Plus, I don't have all my pictures, and everybody knows a blog post without pictures is booooooor-ing.

So be patient.  I have so much to share.  And by share, I mean a million pictures.

TTFN!

Bad News

Remember how I turned the computer in before?  Well, they keep kinda fixing it and then returning it.  So....  I have to turn it in.  Again.  Trust me when I say that I am more frustrated than you are.  But, if there is a light at the end of the tunnel, I will have lots of fun things to tell you when the computer is returned to me, hopefully in wonderful working order!  Be patient my friends :)

Beehive Kari

We arrived late on the night of the second.  But not late enough to notive that our door had been decorated to welcome Kari into the Young Women's program.  They left a gift basket with goodies and her new personal progress (a book of gospel related goals) book.  Which she wanted to start working on.  At 10:30 at night!!!

The basket also included some yellow nail polish to help celebrate that the first section of young women's is Beehive.  So, before Kari's first young women's activity, she painted bees on her nails.

Aren't they cute?

I don't have a 12 year old.  It isn't possible.  That means I am old!

Now Its Time to Say Goodbye

Sunday we went to church with Grandma and Grandpa and then spent the rest of the day gathering and packing, loading and playing.

 It was a wonderful vacation with much time spent bonding with family.  And it was awesome!   Kaitlyn and McKenna made a special bond and were very sad when they had to leave each other.

Somewhere around Saturday night, I realized that La and her family could not get to the airport without my vehicle.  We had originally tried to rent them a car through one of those owner thingys.  Cheaper, but...  they car was broken, so we didn't end up getting it.  It turned out ok because hubby had to drive down to his job site near by.  So we had our van, our truck, and Grandma and Grandpa's crossover thing.  That was enough to fit everyone.  But, if our van left, there was no physical way that they could get to the airport.  And, there was no way for me to load up our stuff in the van until after all of their stuff was at the airport.  Good news was that I got to sit in the back and make googly eyes at Miss Beffy on the way to the airport.

And, I'm telling you, I have never seen a child so happy to be in her carseat than this cute little dancing girl.

So we got off a little later than I had originally thought, but it was totally worth it to help out family and hang out for the entire week like we did!  Because we left late, we stopped for dinner at a Chick Fil A and let the kids play and get some energy out while mom ate her food.  And we got home in time to semi unload the car and fall into bed.

And, according to my trip odometer, it was a pretty decent amount of miles, dontcha think?

Thankfully, the next day the kids didn't have school.  We did have to go to Kari's 12 year check up, but that wasn't until the afternoon.  So we had time to sleep in, be a bit lazy and do laundry before having to return to real life!

Fireworks and New Years!

After cake, we headed outside.  Florida's fireworks laws allowed us to set off our own.  So Grandpa started it off with some Roman Candles.

And everyone had the opportunity to try their own.

It makes me think of Harry Potter.

Everyone with their wand, and little bit of magic coming out the end :)

Grandma got in on the action.

We even convinced Kaitlyn (our resident scardy cat) to give it a whirl.

Anna wasn't scared.  She just wanted a little assistance.

And once Kenna saw Kaitlyn and Anna do it, she was willing to give it a whirl herself.

Look at the sparks coming out of Pickle's "wand".  Her magic is so feisty!

Kelsey wasn't afraid.  No way.  No how.

Then it was time to bust out the sparklers.  Thankfully, no one was hurt in the making of this GIF.  But we did have some dueling sparklers.

For the next set, I lined everyone up and told them to draw a picture.  By playing with the settings on my camera, I was able to get some cool effects.  And it seems pretty much everyone wanted to draw a circle :)

It wasn't the light that bothered the girls.  It was the noise.  But, they did much better than they have in years past.  It may have been the earmuffs that helped :)

There was another laughing incident with Aunt Pickle...  though right now I can't remember what set her off.

This time around I spent quite a bit of time playing around with the settings on my camera. 

 I wish I was better at knowing what I was doing.  But I still managed to get a couple cool ones.

In fact, I got so many, that I had to make GIFS so I could show all of them to you without overloading you.

Because fireworks are kinda cool!

And that is how we made it to New Years!  Even the kids made it all the way to midnight.  Though they were in bed about 10 minutes later, and we weren't far behind them. 

So. Happy Late New Years!

Dirt Piles and Birthdays

After we left the farm, we headed out to a place Grandpa recommended.  We ordered the Cuban sandwich and got a sneak attack in for the birthday girl!

With everyone fat and happy we drove a bit down the road to check out Grandpa's office.  And then we went to another part of the farm that is currently a lucrative side business.  Basically, they are selling dirt!  So we all walked out to the dirt pile to see the big machines, big holes and good times :)

It was Saturday, so the job site was technically closed.  And we all had to climb over the fence to get in.  Even the grandparents!  On the way back, someone found a little gate over on the side, so it was significantly less exciting to leave.  But I did make all the kids stop so we could take a picture.

Kaitlyn was also super excited for Kari's birthday to arrive because it marked the 6 month mark since she got her ears pierced, and that meant she could finally wear dangle earrings instead of just posts!

We had Kari's favorite mean for dinner.  Trust me, we did feed Benny boy...  I guess he was just looking for dessert ;)

There we go.  Thats better!  We had Kari's favorite dinner of While Saulfredo (her own creation) and then opened a few presents before we continued the night.

She got this cool Young Women's necklace from Aunt Pickle.  In our church, when the kids turn 12, they graduate from Primary and go into the youth program and the Young Women have 8 values they work on building, each characterized with a color.  And the necklace had all 8 of the colors on it.  Kari thought it was super cool.

Her sister also bought her some neat earrings.  And Grandma and Grandpa got her a whole new Sunday wardrobe basically for months to come. 

 Cute skirts and shirts like this one :)

This is where we took a birthday break and went out to the drive in!  We paid for the double feature but ended up coming home after just one.  And it was STILL cheaper to pay for it that way!  We saw Moana and really enjoyed it.  Its a bit blurry, but this is a picture of a sleeping Kelsey on the way TO the movies!  She was a tired little kiddo!

When we came home at 10:30 at night, we decided it was time for cake!

I mean, look at these cute faces!  They look like they need sugar, right? 

(DannyBoy photobombing FTW)

She made a wish....

And eventually got all the candles blown out :)

And there was cake and icecream for everyone!

Shooting Stuff

Saturday was Kari's birthday!  Her only request was that we spend the day together.  Mostly ;)

The boys woke up a little earlier than the rest of us, and headed over to the farm to get a few rounds of shooting in first.  Then, once all the girl adults were dressed, and all the children were fed and groomed, we headed over as well.

We didn't drive the whole way like this ;)

But once you get to a certain part of the farm, a truck just makes more sense.

The adults mostly just plugged their ears, but for a few of the babies, we did bust out the ear protection.  I was actually fairly surprised Beffy left it on.

Everyone got a turn to shoot or push the button on Grandpa's automatic clay pigeon thrower.  Even some of the littler kids got a chance to at least shoot something.

I think everyone had shot shot guns before.  But I hadn't shot a semi automatic one (which is Grandpa's new toy) so I wanted to try that.  We recorded it with slo mo so we could see how it ejects the shell and loads another one.  

By the expression on my face, I'd guess you can tell that it still isn't my favorite thing.  I think I'll stick to pistols, ThankYouVeryMuch.

Friday Togetherness

Friday morning we got up and set off for the Orlando Temple.  Auntie Pickle was nice enough to watch all the children (she's ever so brave) while we were gone.

 So it was kinda just a day long play date for the kids.  And they loved it :)

 As always, there is a great deal of cuddling going on when we are all together :) 

Unfortunately, due to traffic again, we missed going in to do the scheduled session by about 5 minutes.  But we were all able to do sealings, which I haven't done since my own so long ago.  And that was really neat and fun to be reminded.

 That night, as with many others, we had dinner around the table.  With that many people, we often stuck all the kids outside on the screened in porch and shut the glass door between us.  It worked well for both of us!  They got to be loud, and we got the quiet.  On other, less formal evenings, we all just kinda fit where we fit.  Though baby Beffy always had a spot :)

 Love those cuddles!!!

Funny story: Beffy is very vocal, though she doesn't have many words.  And she thought this bottom step was the perfect size and place for her to sit.  But she would sit down and pat the stair next to her until the desired person came and sat beside her.  Every once in a while, it was even me!  On this particular occasion, we tried every person we could think of, but she was pretty emphatic that none of those people were the correct people.  So... we tried Mollie dog.  She stopped squealing and patting, meaning we had gotten the right person.  But she still doesn't look all that excited to share the stair with Mollie.

 Friday night we tried to do a "sleepover" with all the cousins in play room upstairs....  It took forever for the kids to fall asleep, and in the end, it didn't work out.  We had to separate them.  But, it was worth a shot :)

It probably didn't help that we played this game downstairs while the sleepover was going on upstairs.  We laughed until our sides hurt.  And then posed for a picture so you could see all of our great dental work.

 Family together.  That is what this trip was all about!