Full House

The day after Christmas, my sisters and their families (Lopez's and Taylor's) arrived at my parents house. We only see each other a couple of times a year, so it's always a special treat to spend time with them. One of the best parts about them coming is that my nieces and nephews are old enough to take care of and play with my kids without close supervision. They will seriously leave the room for hours on end and I don't have to check on them. And since they aren't really close in age, they don't fight either! Amazing!

The Lopez's usually drive through the night from Arizona, so without fail, Eddie always falls asleep upon arrival. I can't blame him. The rest of us hang out around the house and in the case of the new babies, meet each other for the first time. Ethan and his cousin, Jace, are only a couple months apart (Ethan~10 months and Jace~8 months).

Erik is the resident "teaser" of the family and all of the little girls think he is hilarious (as do I). I'm not sure whether they thing he's awesome or totally immature, but he gets them laughing either way. He got in on the "girl picture" below and had them laughing for a while.

 

Now that the kids are getting older (the oldest is 13 years), they tend to play on the Wii a lot, especially the boys. Claire was very interested in watching them and trying it out for herself. She has no idea that we have one. I've never shown it to her, 'cause then we'll have to battle "electronic time" even more.

 

 

The first thing the kids want to do every year is go sledding. Living in Nevada and Arizona means that they only see snow when they visit Utah. We didn't get much snow this year at my parents house, but the kids still managed to have fun pulling each other on the sleds and trying to make a snowman. Claire loved having her cousins drag her around the yard. It makes me so happy watching her face light up when she plays with them.

 

Whenever my sisters visit, we generally spend every waking minute at my parents house, which means the kids also get to spend a lot more time with their Mormor and Morfar. My Dad is an avid bird watcher and Claire always wants to join in on the fun. Inside Claire's Dora the Explorer backpack that she got this year for Christmas was a pair of play binoculars, which meant Morfar didn't have to share his. She loved imitating his ever move and pretended she saw exactly what he did.