Happy New Year 2011

We had two families over to ring in the new year. What a difference a year makes! Last New Years, Emalyn was a few weeks old and this little guy, Dalton, was just starting to grow in his mommy's tummy.

Ellie and Emalyn were so intersted in Dalton. On a side note, the ladies at the gym were telling me last week that when Emalyn was there it was just her and a 4 month old in an exersaucer and a 3 month old in a swing. Emalyn would go push the baby in the swing and then go play with the toys for the baby in the ultrasaucer and go back and forth between the two. I think she is becoming very nurturing like her big sister Maddi was/is.

Emalyn was "petting" Dalton and Ellie wanted to hug the poor guy. 3 little cutie pies.

It was time for the kids to burn off some energy with Just Dance 2 on Wii!

All the kids were dancing, even if they didn't have a remote to play with. So fun to watch!

Still dancing! I love how Ellie's trying to do gymnastics. lol

The spectating parents.

Ellie found Emalyn's ball that she never plays with. All of a sudden Emalyn wanted her ball...

...but Ellie won that battle. Ha ha!

Emalyn got her ball back and now those two are checking out Cocoa's kennel. It's so fun to watch Ellie and Emalyn interact as they grow up. Next year at New Year's will be even more fun with those two.

Happy girl with her ball.

Maddi is a kid magnet. They just love her! She was dancing with the little girls.

Sweet sisters!

Brett got his hands on the camera. Here's Cocoa enjoying the party.

And Brett enjoying the party! He was in rare form after enjoying some whiskey he got for a Christmas present.

And now an Emma face.

Blowing kisses saying good night. We had planned on saying Happy New Year at 10:00 pm and then putting the kids to bed. The kids did sparklers at 10:00 and then Emma and Ellie and Andrew went to bed. We let the older kids stay up and watch the ball drop at 11:00 our time in New York.

Then Brett let the kids shake up the champagne like crazy so the cork would fly.

Big smiles from everyone.

They were all quite happy to see the cork shot all the way across the yard. We ended up staying up until after 1:00, even the kids. Jack and Grace spent the night after the kids came up with a plan of making pallets for everyone and then saying they were tired and wanted to go to bed. They all crashed out quick. However, Cade was up at 2:30 a.m. and said someone puked in his bed. Well, it was Cade that was sick. Too much junk! I barely slept all night waiting for the other kids to get sick as well. They never did, thank goodness. Everyone slept until 7:00 and was happy when they woke up. Hard to believe another year has gone by. We are thankful for our health and many blessings and hope it continues into 2011!