December 28, 2013

(click here for today's pictures)

Thursday Night Crew Reunion

• Yesterday as we were cleaning some, Robby turned on some black gospel music. Whitman was crawling around in the room when a deep male voice started singing. That baby stopped and started staring at the tv. He clapped his hands, he swayed, he acted like he wanted to sing along and the child even raised his hands.  Robby and I were both watching him and had never seen anything like it.  
• Also yesterday, since Anderson was spending the night at Nonna's house, his bed was empty.  Graham and Campbell both wanted to sleep in his bed and Reagan graciously volunteered to sleep in the top bunk so they could both sleep on the bottom beds.  
• Around 1:30 when Robby and I just went to bed, we heard someone going to the bathroom.  About 10 minutes later, we heard a bit of a commotion from upstairs.  Soon that bit of commotion was loud enough that I went running up the stairs.  We could hear something about "in my bed" but we weren't sure who was saying what.  
• I opened the door and could first see Graham.   I went to him and started telling him that he was fine and was sleeping in Reagan's bed.  He cried "she's in my bed."  And I told him that no, Campbell was in Anderson's bed.  Again he said "she's in my bed."  Then I looked over and sure enough, Campbell was laying right beside him.  I guess that when she returned from the bathroom, she climbed over her brother to get into Reagan's bed thinking that she was sleeping there.  I moved Campbell back to Anderson's bed and said a little prayer on my way back downstairs that everyone stayed in their beds for the rest of the night!
• Thankfully, not only did they all stay in their bed but they stayed in their beds for a long, long time. Long enough that we have probably now created a bad habit of sleeping late and who knows what we will do when real life starts again.  
• We debated for awhile but finally decided that we probably should take Whitman to the Saturday clinic.  The child had slight ear infections earlier in December and we took the antibiotics.  When he had finished those meds, his runny nose started again.  And since this last week he has been pulling at his ears, we took him in.  
• I left Reagan, Graham and Keaton at home working with Robby.  And I took Campbell with me since she has been a bit of handful for the last few days.  Today when we were at Sams she said "is this the place where I got in trouble last time?" meaning last night (and the answer was yes, that is where she got into trouble last night-and at Home Depot and in the car and at home...)  Anderson missed out on all of this fun because he was still at Nonna and Pops' houses-going to Chuck E Cheese, watching tv, going to IHOP, playing legos, getting doughnuts-I have always said that he would be the best only child.  
• Whitman was completely healthy at the doctor's office.  She did give us another round of antibiotics and told me to call if his nose and all didn't clear up or started back after this medicine.  Some days I have thought that Whitman was feeling better but others (like today) I have felt that he was a bit miserable.  I will be really ready to get that little guy healthy.
• Back at home, Robby was slaving away with his 2 big helpers.  They worked pretty hard and the place was already looking better when I made it home.  I started working too and the kids watched a bit of tv.  While Robby touched up some paint, I worked in the bonus room.  I didn't want to put the kids presents up if they hadn't really played with them yet, so I just piled them all in the pack n play in the bonus room.  And while I did that, Reagan made her first rainbow loom bracelet.   She was so proud of her self-I hate I didn't take a picture.
• Soon all of this evening guests started arriving-for a total of 17 kiddos at the house and 27 in all. Kyle, Joie, Brian, Jacqui, Amber, Todd, April, Jaymie and everyone's kids were here.  There were plenty of salty and sweet things to eat and we ended up eating most of the evening long.  
• The kids did great playing together-they ranged from 8 months to 9 years old. No one really got hurt and the house wasn't too crazy bad.  Yes, you can see the after picture of the toy room but it was picked up in about 10 minutes so that is pretty good in my book.  
• We took a group picture and after it was over, Anderson said "I got some good faces in those pictures Daddy."  I love it when their little personalities show through.  Later during the evening, Anderson came up to me and whispered "the girls are locked in the bathroom."  Well, that sounded interesting enough for me to go and check that out.  And sure enough they were indeed locked in the bonus room bathroom.  I tried to use the key but couldn't open it with the key and Reagan and Kennedy couldn't unlock it from the inside.  So I went and had Robby go and try to rescue them. They were fine and no one seemed to be concerned.  It didn't take any time for Robby to open the door and out walked Kennedy, Reagan, Camryn, Campbell, Laynie and Hayley.  We never found out what all of them were doing in the bathroom together in the first place. 
• When everyone left, we picked up and were soon putting the kids into bed.  It was a late night but the kids had a blast and so did we.