A Cousin Christmas (part 5)

I saved the best pictures for last... or at least I'll say that's the case. Several hundred pictures had to be rejected for this five-part series, so who's to say the best ones aren't among the others. But, these will do, as they are pretty darned cute!

 

This reminds me of the Marx Brothers routine in the movie Duck Soup.

Ethan and Owen

Miles and Westy

Hannah and Vivi

Mug shots, or a preview of Hannah and Miles at age 14? You decide!

Much better!

They were 14 once, too, but they're making up for it now!

Ahhhhhh, Schmidts!

Gma Jill, Gpappy, and a gaggle of grandchildren

 A cozy crew of kiddos

Okay, we've had enough. Can we get off the couch and go play???!

One last gathering of the remaining cousins on campus 

outside Daddy/Uncle Charlie's office before we left for the airport...

Thanks to all the mommies, daddies, uncles, aunts, and cousins for filling our house with laughter, noise, movement, and fun. It's quiet now, as it always is after everyone goes home.  Thank goodness, because I need a nap! : o )

A Cousin Christmas (part 4)

Time for pictures of "Even More Cousins Tuesday", when Uncle Don, Aunt Janet, Mike, Amber, and one-year-old cousins Kasey and Allie came to visit. That adds up to THREE one-year-olds, which would have been bumped up to four if Westy had been here, too. 

Grandma Janet with Kasey and Allie

Vivi, eating lunch

E, O, Kasey, Allie, Janet, an almost-profile of Angie, and the back of Hannah's head

Amber, Evan, Vivi, Don, and Larry

Playing with the cousins wore Charlie out completely, so Ethan and Owen made him take a nap after everyone left so he wouldn't get crabby.

After naps, the kids had a rousing game of soccer across the street in the church yard.

Then it was time for supper, followed by a bath with wild animals, and a couple of lions and a tiger.

The Cousin Christmas Story could go on and on, but I need to end it soon. There will be one last part .... scheduled for New Year's Day, 2012. Annie, if you took pictures at your house on Wednesday, please send some. I didn't have my camera along!

A Cousin Christmas (part 3)

A sweet tradition started last year by the Potts-Dellon-Grimmius cousins is making a special hand print page for a scrapbook that their parents gave Dad/Larry/Grandpappy and me. They preserve their sweet hand prints in paint to  look back on as they grow up. Here are the kiddos getting their hands painted for the 2011 page:

Because this was A Merry Monogram Christmas for the HGE, Angie brought first initial letters for all of the cousins to paint. Here are some of the letter artists at work:

 

 

What a fun morning doing all sorts of great "artes"!

A Cousin Christmas (part 2)

Cameras were clicking at every opportunity to capture the action this past week, and here are some of the highlights...

 

 

All six cousins playing in the gym...

Bigger cousins helping Grandpappy wind the clock...

Time out for tickling and giggles...

Snuggling...

Laughter and kisses..

 Cousins using a Kindle Fire to learn about science...

Some uncling

Bigger cousins eating lunch at their special table...

Littlest cousins playing together in the kiddie kitchen...

Gymnastics and mountain climbing...

 

Celebrating Hanukkah each night at dinner time by lighting 

menorah candles and hearing Hannah sing...

And there is still more to come!

A Cousin Christmas (part 1)

I don't know where to begin with holiday pictures, which ones to choose, which ones to leave out. There are a few hundred, and we've got another day left before Hannah, Vivian, and their parents return to North Carolina. I'll start with Elisabeth wrapping gifts. If you read my last blog entry, you know that my children and their children were given specific instructions not to help Larry/Dad/Grandpappy wrap his HGE gift. Well, no one will tell me the truth, but I suspect that he had help.

While all the wrapping was going on, Evan showed me the plans for the addition on the house they bought recently. It's exciting to see what changes will be made and how the house will look when it's completed. Notice Dad/Larry's artsy shot through the poinsettia plant.

The little and littler kids opened their gifts in the afternoon on Christmas Day. Here are the four bigger little kids getting organized to hand out presents from under the tree, heading for the presents, passing them out, and having fun opening them.

 

 

Everyone seemed happy with their gifts, especially with the new books they received. As in a lot of families, pajamas are a traditional Christmas gift for the kids. Don't these cuties look great in their new pj's?

Stay tuned for more pictures, coming soon.

Merry Monogram update

Important notice for all HGE Gifters and Giftees...

If you have not done your HGE shopping yet, time is running out, as you can see here:

If you have not yet wrapped your HGE gift(s), the time is now. As a side note, should Dad/Larry/Gpappy/Paco approach any of you or your children to wrap the gift for his HGE Giftee, shake your head "NO" and back away slowly. It's his obligation, not yours!

And please do not forget that special recognition will be given to any Gifter who uses both criteria for the gift purchased for his or her Giftee.

In addition, extra special recognition goes to anyone who uses both criteria AND writes a poem or jingle to accompany it at the HGE Gift Opening Extravaganza, 2011. My poem is written. How about yours? Hint.

Missing, presumed non-existent

"What's this?" I asked myself while vacuum cleaning under my bed this morning... "There are FOUR little plastic snack bowls in the set I purchased from IKEA the summer Hannah turned 1?" Like me, you may have thought there were only three-- yellow, dark blue, and turquoise.

Not so! Look at what showed its dusty self to me this morning....

Okay then, where has the little red snack bowl been hiding for three-plus years? Under my bed, apparently! I don't know how this can be, since we bought a new headboard and dressers since then and had to move the furniture and get rid of the accumulated dust. I do vacuum under the bed semi-regularly, especially when I'm missing half of a pair of shoes, which is quite often (It's easier to push an errant shoe out from under the bed with the vacuum tube than to lie on the floor and reach underneath for it, in case you're wondering.). I honestly have no recollection of the bowls as a set of four instead of three.

The most important issue about the little red bowl mysteriously appearing under my bed today is that we could have had enough matching-in-size snack containers for the four bigger cousins for the last three years rather than having to talk one of them into a different kind of cup or bowl for his or her Cheerios de colores or teddy grahams.  It's a challenge even under the best of circumstances to have four of a kind of any eating or drinking vessel clean at one time when the cousins are here. Typically when all four kiddos come, I have to remind Gpappy/Dad/Larry to use adult bowls and cups so that there are enough melamine and plastic bowls available for their use. He usually snatches one of the IKEA snack bowls or a Winnie the Pooh cereal bowl for his own purposes at the exact moment one of the kids reminds the others it's time for a snack. Oh-oh! It won't be long before Vivie and Westy want the same kind of bowl for snacks as their siblings and cousins use. IKEA, here I come.