Wow!

I guess I took a month off!

December was crazy busy! I had to do all of my Christmas preparation in the beginning of the month. Usually I do it from the day after Thanksgiving until the week before Christmas. This year we were lucky because we were going to visit Nana, Papa Peter, Uncle Travis, Sissy and Uncle Jacob in Atlanta! We were so excited to get to take the kids on such an adventure and to see so much of our family!

We left on December 15th. Nana had our whole 10 days there planned. We went to so many places and had so many experiences, and caught up with family! Here are some of the pictures, and things we did:
On the plane!

I was worried about Olivia since it was a 4 hour flight. But, headphones+Dora playing on the screen right in front of her= A happy 2 year old. It helps that she's such a good little 2 year old. She was interested in airplanes before the trip, so the experience was exciting. Once she started getting antsy there were snacks and then she played 'I want Mom...No, I want Dad' for a while and before she knew it we were there. It definitely could have been worse. The other kids were perfectly behaved. Only needing a couple of reminders to talk quieter.

At the "New World of Coke" with the Coke Bear!

Can you say "Sugar High?!" and....Crash!

Needless to say all of the soft drinks, caffeinated and otherwise, were happily consumed!

We made the boys take the older kids on a walk and to play some basketball while Mom and sisters (meli and I) went on a last minute shopping trip with Olivia. They definitely had fun!

At the amazing Georgia Aquarium...it was so neat! The kids loved it!!

The pre-Christmas Eve festivities...aka Story time...aka Show off the Parker Posing skills!
It was such a treat to hear Papa read the story of Christmas from the Bible as well as his animated rendition of The Night Before Christmas.

After we left Meli took some time to use her teacher skills to educate a giant frog and Travis.

Two Lissa's in a pod aka "Two Balls in a Trough"

We left EARLY Christmas Eve morning. I definitely paid the price for pulling an all-nighter to spend some extra quality time with the siblings. It was worth it, and I would do it again. Regardless, we all arrived home safe and exhausted! I literally laid across Alli and Aubrey on the flight home to catch some zzz's. We obviously weren't stocked up on food after being away for 10 days so we had to take a much dreaded trip to wal-mart to stock up on some necessities and a couple of last minute gifts. It was a close call but we all survived that experience unharmed.

It was a whirlwind and a blast. We had a Merry Christmas and hope you did too!