Some Catching Up To Do

It's been a while, Folks.  Thanksgiving has rushed by, along with most of the Christmas shopping season (in this house? HA), and now it is time for all of those wonderful Christmastime Traditions that everyone knows and loves.

It started off the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, when we woke to find that Santa had sent an Elf on the Shelf to keep an eye on us over the next few weeks, after much debate we finally chose to name him Alvin and searching for his latest hiding spot has become somewhat of a morning ritual.
That same Saturday we decorated the house for Christmas, spreading over a dozen Santa's throughout the house, putting up the tree and hanging Christmas ornaments-and after having the tree stand break, the tree fall over, and a yellow light bulb burn a hole in our carpet, I'd say it looks rather glorious.-Though somewhat Blurry in this photo.

There has been many a beautiful snowfall up here (this photo was actually taken back on the eleventh of November.) currently there is over a foot of the white stuff on the ground, offering up endless hours of sledding, snowboarding, fort building, snowball fights, and endless other adventures for any excited child (or adult!) the best part about this snow? (At least in my opinion) The fact that it creates the perfect background for stunning pictures of my sister.

Two Sundays ago was the annual Yacht Club Christmas Party. All the Little's were given some awesome gifts by Saint Nick himself, (Thank You Santa!) They had a ball, though you couldn't tell from the looks on Lili and Livvy's faces in this picture.

Oh how I adore this photo.  It's been added to the file of "Blackmail for the Little Sisters".

Next up on the list of "Family To-Do's" was to take the family Christmas picture that would be sent out to the masses.

Do you see that? All of the Littles are smiling! Including Lili! For those of you who don't know why this is a feat, a short back story on Miss Lili:
Lili, though very loud and generally a more energetic child, is rather shy. Unless I am doing a 'private' photo shoot of Lili and only Lili, will she smile. In just about every family picture we have she is on the verge of tears.
So this year, I decided to offer up a bit of a bribe to the child who loves crafts and baking: "Lili, If you promise to give a pretty smile we'll bake and decorate sugar cookies." We got a stunning smile out of the munchkin! Yay!
She held me to my word though, not more than four hours after the picture was taken she comes up to me, sassy as ever, shrugs, puts her hands up, and says: "Sam. This is weird.  I did a smile and there are no sugar cookies." Safe to say we made some sugar cookies after that.

Can you see the icing next to her left eye?

After several hours of present wrapping, stamping, addressing, signing, and sealing one hundred and forty some odd Christmas cards, and going through several boxes of candy canes, Christmas preparations are in full swing here at the house of the Eight, up here there is an under current of Christmas excitement so contagious you cannot step into the house without catching it. But the stockings are hung and the lists have been written, a new tree stand has been bought and the demon light bulb removed, Christmas carols are playing and The Spirit of Christmas is in the air. So without further ado, Warm Christmas Wishes to You and Your Family this Christmas Season. We'll be sending some Christmas magic with your cards!

Cheers,
Sam

Don't Blink.

"Don't blink."

"Don't even blink."

"Blink and you're dead."

"They are fast."

"Faster than you can believe."

"Don't turn your back."

"Don't look away."

"And don't blink."

"Good luck."-The Doctor

For those that don't know, those words above are those of The Doctor from Doctor Who.

 Audrey was a Weeping Angel from the series for Halloween this year and this was the photo shoot I did with her before her two hour trek in the pouring rain on her quest for candy.

Family Rules

There has been an upstanding rule in the house of the eight for as long as I can remember, it regards writing utensils and how they should be used.  The rule is simple and generally easy to follow "Paper or People" and though some may have issue with writing on skin, in this house it is figured that it's a lot easier to wash Sharpie off of skin than off of wallpaper or the couch.  Choose your battles and whatnot.
So what Lili did today was completely in the right, though no rule was being broken, she still gave us a bit of a shock:

Comments like "Oh my Lordy" and "Goodness, Lili!" were soon quieted by the high pitched voice of a five year old saying these three words: "I'M A PIG!!!" with her goofy little laughter following.  It would be safe to say the entire house-who all were in earshot of this conversation-completely lost it.  Thank goodness she's not going anywhere today.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE:

This child, she is too cute for words.

I told her to smile and apparently she was eating chocolate...

That is all.  You may commence with your day.

Halloween Party

Today was the annual Yacht Club Kids' Halloween Party.

 Audrey was a Weeping Angel (A monster-type thing from Doctor Who), Dominic was Martin from Wild Kratts (a kid's TV show that he and Lili adore.), Lili was May from Pokemon and Olivia was a farmer, though she refused to wear her hat... Oh well.

Though the morning was hectic to get there-in past years the party always started at two, so we planned for two, only to check the invite this morning to discover it was at 12:30 this year-the Kiddos had an absolute ball, they played games like get the ball into the Witch's hat, and crush the noodle (Lili's favorite).  They had Ghost pudding and lots of candy-of course.  They got to go on a hayride and Trick-or-Treat for even more candy and just generally had a blast.  All the munchkins have now crashed from their sugar highs and are now asleep... Besides for Olivia.

SNOW!!!

Goodness gracious it has been far, far, far too long since my last post, but I'll admit that the months have gone by so fast I haven't had time to sit down.

But tonight I do have time, I've got a fuzzy sweater, a big cup of tea and something to talk about.

Snow. 

Sassy (the biggest snow person, the mom), Clinton (the middle one), London/Sassy Junior (the smallest) and Audrey

 

I woke up this morning with the thought "it smells like snow."-seriously, talk about a strange first thought-I looked out the window and I was right!  But being the only one awake I had no one to tell, so I went downstairs only to find that Audrey had gotten up before me and was already coming back inside from her first adventure in the fluffy white stuff.

 

By ten o'clock Dominic, Audrey, and I had fought in a great snowball war, made snow angels, and created a snow man family.   Lili had gone outside too, and Olivia had her first memorable experience with snow.  All in all a good day.

Dominic and the Snow Family

 

It's not very much snow though, and there was a lot more before we created the snow man family, but we are supposed to be getting... ohhh....  three to five inches tonight, so our snow-lacking issues will soon be over.

Fair

As I said in the last post, this week is fair week for Audrey, and I have never seen her this excited.

 She had shows all of yesterday, though they were delayed for rain...

 She is doing fabulously, having a blast, and-as of this morning-was planning to sign herself up for Open Classes tomorrow.

Her plan is to have fun and win some more ribbons.

Now to let Fair week continue.

Summer is a Long Long Time to be Gone...

Wow, it has been an incredibly, insanely long amount of time since I have been on this blog.  I'm sorry to have abandoned you all for so long, but I'm back now. Well at least for today.

Today is the start of Fair for Audrey, in a turn of events Tommy and I are no longer showing pigs and Audrey has started horses and is showing at an entirely different fair this year.

As a general update of how our summer has been, CAN YOU SAY BUSY? Everybody besides Dad did Vacation Bible School at our church, a fun time had by all.  Tommy and Dad went to DC for five days, I went down to South Carolina for eleven to visit one of my best friends, Tommy went to Boy Scout camp for a very, very hot (95 degrees plus humidity) week and came back with a ridiculous tan and all of his requirements for First Class finished.   Last week was Mom and Dad's twentieth anniversary.. YES! TWENTIETH!

And now it is August and the summer is coming to an end... It already feels like fall here, with the temperatures scarcely reaching 70 some days.
 *Insert cry of sadness at the lack of swimming going on in our pool currently*

But that's what has been going on for the past three months.

Unfortunately all the pictures taken in these past months are on Dad's computer, so they will come soon.

Have a fabulous day!

Sammy

A couple quick quotes

The little kids in this house say the most fantastic things, as little kids always do, so as for now, here are a few:

"I just touched wildlife!"-
Dominic, on catching the first toad of the season.

"Dom, stop crying! You're a man! or a comfy, comfy seat. It depends."-
Audrey, to Dominic.

"Docta! Docta!"-
Olivia, because we've been watching a lot of Doctor Who.

A Day in the Rain[drops]

Last Wednesday we went to the Children's Museum. It's safe to say that the little kids had a blast, even if the museum was the most packed we had ever seen it. 

They climbed the raindrops...

And splashed in the water table...

And played in the Big Red Barn room, which, named after one of Livvy's favorite books (Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown) was a favorite of the one year old.

They also played in the raindrops...

 

 And grocery shopped til they dropped....

AND CLIMBED ON THE RAINDROPS!

And played in the sand... it was an archaeological dig sight this year.

And got soaked one last time before we headed home.
Over all it was a great day and between Audrey, Dominic and Lili the raindrops were climbed over thirty-six times! Craziness.

Easter Egg Dyeing

Just a few pictures...



The photo-bombing baby



Happy Easter!

Our Easter was sugar-filled and fabulous, and we hope yours was too.

Love,

The 8

Lili's Note Special

Lili had to be like her big brother, Dominic and have her own blog post too, so here's goes nothing, Lili uncut and unedited:

Umm.. Let me think

I love my Lego Friends set, it comes with Stephanie.  My Lego Friends set is great, because of all the fun stuff, but Audrey destroyed my bedroom. And so my baby Olivia sometimes destroys our Lego House, and sometimes my bedroom too.
So in our Lego Friends House I always use the white horse.  Umm, this is my official note that goes onto the blog.

And that's all...
Sam that's all I wanted on it.

Love, Lili

Lilianna, age four.

(She wrote the title too)

A Day in my Life

Dominic asked if he could write a post, so this post is his, uncensored and fully Dominic.

Is it just me or is Audrey getting weird?

Did you know It's a Wonderful Life is a horrible movie?

Liv's destroyed our Lego House and Audrey really didn't like that.

That's all.

Dominic

To Make You Smile

A little laughter to brighten your day.

Olivia is a spastic, happy thirteen month old who loves to run around and get into EVERYTHING.  She likes to sing to Vacation Bible School music, attack my cat, play baby dolls with Lili, and hide things in kitchen drawers for people to find.

WE'RE BACK

We've been gone for quite a while, life's been busy and blogging has been pushed to the back of the list.  But fear not, for we are back and you can expect a montage of birthdays and much, much more in the not too distant future!

The Little Artist

Olivia decided to experiment in finger paints on Wednesday, I think that she did a pretty good job, though I'm not sure that it would made it past the idea faze if anyone would have caught her.

Let me introduce to you the artwork of Olivia

Ranch Dressing is her medium, a dining room chair is her canvas.

In her opinion the 'paint' tasted pretty good too!

 

The goof ball worked on her masterpiece for a solid fifteen minutes before she finally ran out of dressing to eat.

 

Welcome to the art world, Livvy.

Christmas Time was Here...

'Twas the morning of Christmas, when all through the house, the children were unwrapping presents and bouncing joyously about.....

 

 

Just an update

Hello 2013!! I know I am almost ten full days late, but oh well.
The days are getting longer, the tree is coming down and two days ago we FINALLY SENT OUT THE CHRISTMAS CARDS... I really wish I could post some Christmas Eve/Christmas/Tommy's 15th birthday pictures for all of you We Are 8 readers, but alas, Blog Spot refuses to cooperate.  So, I'll just wish you all a Happy 9th of January, and let you know all of us are still alive here at the house of the 8.  Hopefully Blog Spot will let me upload pictures soon!