The Logue Family: December 2014

Grandma and Papa Logue have left to head back home to Port Townsend today. We had a great Christmas visit with them. They spent a lot of time playing with the kids - Legos, sports, walks, bike rides, etc. Basically, anything that popped into the kids' head, they had a ready and willing playmate in Grandma and Papa Logue. I'm really going to miss their company and all the extra help! They love the grandkids so much and they don't mind waking up at 6am (or earlier) to care for a fussy Riley.

Luckily, we have Uncle Mar here for a little visit until Tuesday. I laugh to myself when the kids are being crazy and he asks, "is this normal?". If he only knew how normal it is to have the kids all running around, hurting themselves, laughing hysterically and making a lot of noise just for the hell of it. I'm afraid that Tanner and I are the red flag warning for anyone who's thinking of kids...But, Uncle Mar LOVES the kids and has had a great time with playing "knock out" basketball game with Chase and rough-housing with Jayden. Riley seems to like him too, which is rare for her since she usually steers clear of males.

Chase has gotten A LOT of Christmas presents. He was wonderfully spoiled! He's been a good big brother and patient with his younger sisters during this holiday break. His favorite gifts include any and all Lego sets he received, football figures from the McDonald's happy meal that "Santa" bought on Ebay, and Skylander figures. He's beginning to sound out words and his writing is improving. His sense of humor is developing into a carbon copy of Tanner's sense of humor - sarcastic and loves to poke fun. For example, I was cleaning up the house this morning and he says in a very exaggerated manner, "Mom, WHO's coming over today?", as if I only clean when we have guests. Sarcasm does have an ounce of truth.

Jayden loves all her Frozen presents. She loves dressing up in her Frozen nightgown/dress/shirt/pants, etc. with her tiara, scepter, bracelet, necklace, shoes, etc. She strikes a pose with her hand on her hip and one leg crossed in front of the other. She likes to say, "I'm so fancy". Jay still tries to do everything Chase does and loves to play rough with him. They're usually chasing each other or tackling each other. Jayden can be very sweet and she'll often check in on me and ask, "you OK, Mommy?".

Riley is a little terror. She has found her voice in screaming. If someone is looking at her and she doesn't like it, she screams. If one of her siblings is sitting somewhere she wants to be she screams and pushes. If she doesn't get the particular snack she has in mind, she screams and shakes her head until things get sorted. Riley is also a little character. She loves bringing cell phones up to her ear and saying "ahhhhhh". She loves all of Jayden's musical Frozen things and tries to sing along in her baby chatter. She wants to be a big kid as demonstrated when she tries to sit at the kids table and eat (most of the time she falls off the chair) and when she throws a fit if I cut her food into small pieces. She want to eat the banana whole with the peel on part way - just like her brother and sister.

Tanner and I are enjoying this holiday break and time with the family, but when all kids are screaming and the house is a mess, Tanner jokes, "I gotta get back to work". On second thought, I don't think he's joking. =)

Christmas morning - the kids awoke around 6am and were SO EXCITED that Santa came and left gifts by the fireplace and filled their stocking with goodies. Tanner and I dragged ourselves out of bed and quickly showered so we were ready to open presents by 7am~

Riley was excited because the others were excited. However, she didn't understand how to unwrap presents and mostly became happy when she was carrying around Jayden's gifts~

I made a stipulation that the kids had to take family pics before they were allowed to open the presents under the tree. Chase and Jayden were most agreeable, Riley didn't really understand the message~

Chase loves playing games with Papa~

Jayden loved playing with her soccer ball with Daddy~

Around 3PM, our other guests showed up for Christmas dinner. We had Grandma Nish and Ron, Uncle Marcus, Auntie Naomi and Uncle Henry, Bryan, Erin and Sean. There was a grand total of 15. We had ribs (BBQ'd by Marcus, tri-tip steak, candied potatoes, chinese chicken salad, roasted artichokes, potato salad and rice for dinner. It was all very yummy. For dessert, Bryan brought a Paradise cake from King's Hawaiian and Erin and Sean brought cookies from Torrance Bakery.

Chase and Jayden were excited that there were more gifts to open~