Stitches... again!

Our poor Ariana hasn't had very good luck lately.  She had to get stitches a second time after tripping and hitting her head on the corner of the coffee table.  I still don't know why she's the one that has to end up with the scars on her face... Our boys have nothing to show for all their rough and tumble play! Thankfully, this time it was right on her eyebrow, so the scar now is hardly noticeable.  

Here she is shortly after coming home from the hospital.  It happened on a Sunday morning, the morning of the Three Wise Men day (Dia de los Reyes).  She received the Barbie car as a gift from the Three Wise Men, so at least she had something new to brighten her day a little.

She was a total trooper, just like the last time.  She got stitched up at the emergency room and the nurses said she was braver than a lot of grown men they treat there.

When I asked her what kind of treat she'd like she asked for pink sparkle cupcakes, so this is what we did while David and the boys were at church that afternoon.

Sweet girl.  Let's hope this is her last experiences with stitches!  We don't want anything else messing with this cute face!

Family time and New Year's Eve

We had so much fun with all our family here!  Owen had a chance to get to know his cousins a little better.  Little Jack is younger but not much smaller...  These guys will be good little buddies one day!

And when there weren't cousins around Owen stayed plenty entertained with all the toys that were always strewn about!

We got to celebrate Sara's birthday the day after Christmas.  I told her she was lucky to have her b-day so near a holiday since it means she almost always gets to celebrate with lots of family.  She may not agree with me, but I thought it was fun. :)

Then Mom and Dad came to stay with us after David's parents left, so we still had a full house!  Here they are trying out Bryan's new science kit, and Matt's finishing off the movie popcorn from when we went to see Les Miserables!  Bree and Mom and I saw it together and loved it!  We also had a fun girls' night out with Heather and got our nails done together.  Mom wanted to make lots of fun memories together while she was here and we were more than happy to make that happen!

 Playing games with the grandkids.

Grandpa got to make fun memories with the kids, too!  Love these pics!

We had everyone from my side of the family over for New Year's Eve.  We played lots of games, ate lots of treats, and watched a movie or two.

Grandma Willes was quite the party animal. :)

 We even had a surprise visit from Miranda Sings (or a few of her biggest fans)...

The kids actually stayed awake all the way until midnight!!  It was a first for them!

 Going strong at 11:00 or so...

Bryan was the sleepiest of them all and zonked out right around 12:00.

Owen woke up for his late-night feeding right before midnight.  Love his tired little face here. :)  He probably wondered why we were all acting so crazy.

Like crazy Bree here, who insisted on going outside in our nice quiet neighborhood and making all sorts of noise with bells and pots and pans and who knows what else.  Gotta love old Toone traditions.

Santa came!

Yay!  Christmas morning is always so exciting, though you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at these faces. :)  We had lots of kids at our house that morning and had to wait until everyone was awake, so Bryan and Matt had been waiting for quite a while by the time we were finally ready to let them loose to see what Santa had left for them.

I was happy to see that Bryan was still a believer in Santa this year.  In fact, he was so intent on making sure that Santa knew which stocking was his that he left a note, and Matt decided to leave one as well. :)  So cute.

Even with all the cousins here, Santa was still able to keep everything straight, though he had to wrap the presents, which he normally doesn't do.  Between Santa's gifts and family gifts, Bryan got a telescope, a new castle and action figures, a remote control helicopter, a science kit,  and lots of games and books.

Matthew really wanted an ATV and was heartbroken when I explained that Santa normally didn't bring such big things (he couldn't understand why Santa couldn't just use his magic).  Thankfully he was perfectly happy with the things he did receive - a pirate ship, spark scooter, pogo stick, and an RC monster truck.

Ari got doll furniture, a new baby doll, things for her kitchen, and a dream lite pillow pet. :)

Owen enjoyed unwrapping his bead maze!

The kids enjoyed playing with all of their cousins fun toys as well.  Hungry Hippos was a huge hit!

Showing off the new Jazz t-shirt Bryan got for him.

Trying out the helicopter.

Fun game of Parcheesi.

And the cutest little Christmas elf!  Boogers and all. :)  

We had our fair share of sicknesses go throughout the house!  In fact, quite a few people got sick Christmas day and the days following.  Colds and stomach flus - not fun in a house of so many people! But we survived. :)  Christmas night Mom and Dad joined us for a yummy ham dinner (Bree had to skip out because she was one of the ones that had gotten sick) and then a few rousing hands of hand and foot.  Always a good time!  I didn't get any pictures of Mom and Dad, sadly, but I was so glad they were able to share Christmas day with us as well.  We had nearly all our family with us for Christmas - beat that, Santa!

And speaking of Santa, here's the Santa pic we got at the Riverwoods this year.  I thought the baby was asleep at the time so he didn't make it into the pic, which is probably just as well.  He was a nice Santa, though!

Christmas Eve - Misiego style

With David's family in town, we went all out to celebrate Christmas Eve.  We started off our celebrations with a little ice skating - always entertaining, especially when the majority of us are not skaters!  We got to go for free, so most of us at least gave it a shot.  

If only there'd have been "walkers" for all of us... 

Bryan eventually got the hang of it and was able to go on his own.

Some of us struggled more than others... :)

After trying it out Ari preferred just hanging out with Aunt Annalece and Celine.  Thankfully we made it through the afternoon without any injuries!  Fun times.

That night we had a traditional Spanish Christmas Eve meal - or as traditional as we could have outside of Spain.  At least we were all together!  (My parents joined Heather and her in-laws for Chinese - yum!)

The kid tables...

And Little O. :)

After dinner we attempted to act out the nativity, but it was pretty dysfunctional. :)  The kids at least looked cute in their costumes.  So as to minimize fighting we had everyone pick their role out of a hat and Ari lucked out as Mary.  Darcy ended up being Joseph and pulled it off fabulously.

After we made it through the nativity the kids treated us with their rendition of "Mele Kalikimaka"(the Hawaiian Christmas song).

The rapt audience.

Cute picture of Abuelo with the babies. :)

We played some Christmas trivia games and then let the kids open their pajama presents!  David and Landin lucked out with new pjs as well.

Then we ran upstairs and decorated cookies for Santa!  We put out some carrots for the reindeer, of course!

You may think, by the look of this photo, that we were done for the night, but no!  For us adults, the fun had just begun!  :)

We did a white elephant game that Jose had rigged in order to propose to his girlfriend, Julia.  It worked out perfectly and they're now a happily engaged couple!  We're excited to have Julia be part of the family!!

After the white elephant game we did our Secret Santa gift exchange.  I love this shot of Javi and his parents.

Showing off their gifts. :)

This is actually Jose's gift but David was intrigued enough to try it on himself! :)  Sexy, babe!

We finished off the night by playing games and wrapping last minute gifts.  Javi and Annalece spent the night so we had a total of 16 people sleep over!  Family togetherness - that's what it's all about. :)