Surrounded

When we're at Grandma's house, Cousin Nick and Baby Joey are surrounded.

By girls.

And lots of them.

They even have matching dresses.  This was not intentional (well for three of them it was, obviously), Aunt Tami and I just have similar (and good) taste.

They also have beautiful smiles.

And silly faces.

It's a good kind of surrounded.

New Faces

Grandma & Grandpa both got to meet Joey for the first time while we were visiting over the holidays.

I think they liked him.

I think he liked them, too.

Another new face around Grandma and Grandpa's house was Grandpa's new dog, buddy.

The girls were a bit shy at first (actually, Aliyah never really recovered), but after the older girls warmed up to him, they really enjoyed playing with him,

with a little help from Grandpa, of course.

A Christmas to Remember: Finale

In honor of the fact that March starts in two days, we thought we'd wrap up Christmas around the Doolittle Gambit.  This is our last Christmas post, although not our final post about our adventures at home over the holidays.  Merry Christmas, everyone!

We celebrated Christmas with Grandma & Grandpa DeShon and Josh, Tami, Nick & Emma on New Year's Day.  Christmas started a bit rocky as Grandpa ran out of gas on the way to Uncle Josh's house.  After we shook our heads and laughed at him we had a great day together.

  

There were lots of presents to open,

with teasing provided by Uncle Josh.

There was lots of excitement from the kids as they finally opened the presents they'd been eyeing all week at Grandma's house.

Well, most of the kids were excited.  Some played it cool.

 One unique and fun gift was that Aunt Tami found Auntie shirts for all of our kids.

The girls like to wear them and they always talk about her when they put them on in the morning, or afternoon, or evening, depending on which time during the day they're getting dressed.

Even Joey got one.

Joey missed all of the present fun early in the day while he was napping.  When he got up he and Aunt Tami had their own unwrapping session.

In addition to the Auntie shirts, Aunt Tami also got all of the kids these Sing-a-ma Jigs, (more on them in a later post) which the kids, even Joey, really enjoy. 

We played some board games, bowled on the Wii, ate a lot of yummy food, and ended the day with a concert by Nick.

He's been learning the guitar for about a year and he's shown lots of improvement in that year.  He played an entire song for us.  Quite impressive!

Children At Play

While in Lincoln we ventured back to the Children's Museum for a morning of fun with the crew at Grandma D's.  We even talked Aunt Tami into coming with us.  Having Tami along turned out even better than we originally thought since the girls nominated her to be the face painter for the morning.  They wanted butterflies and puppy dog faces.

She didn't just paint their cheek, she did their WHOLE face.  The girls thought this was soooo great.

Joe wasn't too excited about the face painting, so he entertained himself with this  rubberband board while the kids had their faces transformed.

Can you tell what he made?  Can you tell what the girls below were transformed into?

One of the favorite stops last time was the water works area.  This time was no different.

The kids spent a long time playing and exploring with the water.

Theia took Nick for a boat ride and from the looks of it, she needs some work on her driving.

The big  jars filled with colored water were equipped with a mallet so you could play "music" with them.  They even had songs typed out on paper which told you what jar to hit to create the indicated song.

Aliyah was wet from head to toe, but she didn't care at all.

She happily played at this sailboat for a long time.  Last time we visited she wasn't tall enough to see over the edge on her own.

Nick and Joe also spent a long time tormenting Grandma DeShon, who likes roosters, by trying to get her picture with one of the fowl.  She was annoyed and they were having a grand old time.

Unbeknowst to her, they finally succeeded.

There was also a special exhibit all about the jungle.  Joe convinced Theia to check it out with him.  They both got dressed up for their safari.

Xandra, who was playing dress up with Emma, could not be convinced to participate in the safari.

After awhile, Theia grew tired of the safari and Joe was left to explore on his own.  He made a friend a long the way who to whom he bore a great resemblance.

Then he tried to convince Aliyah to wrestle alligators (or is it a crocodile?) with him.

She just walked by, uninterested,

and continued on her journey.

Later, he was obsessed with capturing this picture for our friend, David.

David, if you read this blog, could you please explain my husband's insistence that we take this picture for you?

After a few hours, dead camera batteries, hungry tummies, and tired kids, we ended our adventure with lunch next door at Noodles & Co. and a much needed nap back at Grandma's house.