Merry Christmas 2015 and Happy New Year!

Parenting

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I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas jam packed with family, traditions, cozy pjs and hopefully an excited child (or 7) since they make Christmas so much more fun! I’ve been dying to show you all our family pictures we took on Thanksgiving and now that our Christmas cards are out, here they are!

View More: https://redpoppyphoto.pass.us/kathi-payne-extended-family

We used Breanne from Red Poppy Photo again and I just love her so much! She is a fabulous photographer, a darling person and really, really nice to boot. This year we did pics with the entire clan on my side of the family and we were blown away at how well she got everyone to behave! I can’t recommend her enough.

Kathi Payne Extended Family-0051FXKPCropRevA

My parents now have THIRTEEN grandkids (uhhhh – just realized over half of those are mine. Whaaaa?!), the oldest is Liam, age 10. NINE of them are age 4 and under and SIX of those are age 2 and under! It’s quite the madhouse when we all descend upon my parents home. Loud and crazy – just how I like it!

View More: https://redpoppyphoto.pass.us/kathi-payne-extended-family

View More: https://redpoppyphoto.pass.us/kathi-payne-extended-family

We told the kids that we were asking Santa for a few big gifts for the whole family rather than individual gifts. I mean, everyone gets socks and books but that’s not really all that exciting when you’re 8. (Except for 6yo Juliet. She was so ecstatic about her Boxcar Children book collection that I wondered why we bothered to get her anything else!)

I have a history of going overboard on Christmas (which I did again this year) but the highlights were a Playstation and a hoverboard this year. Something to rot their brains and something to combat brain rot!

View More: https://redpoppyphoto.pass.us/kathi-payne-extended-family

I’m really proud of my kids for getting at least one shot where we’re all looking (see below for that gem) because we’d already taken all the extended family pics and waited for my brother’s family to finish theirs. Also it was Thanksgiving and we were all anxious to eat copious amounts of good food. Also, my baby had skipped a nap. It was a Thanksgiving/Christmas miracle!

In the words of our amazing photographer, we all deserved big ol’ medals for this feat!

View More: https://redpoppyphoto.pass.us/kathi-payne-extended-family

Let the record show that I have the most incredible husband on the face of the planet. He’s manned up to the task of providing for, playing with and co-parenting this big brood without hesitation and I couldn’t imagine life without him.

He shares my values and love of family like no one else; he defuses any situation where I or the kids have lost our cool and, best of all, he is genuinely hilarious. He is proof to all women everywhere that not only do good men exist, but really fantastically great men are out there looking for a good woman to raise a family with.

View More: https://redpoppyphoto.pass.us/kathi-payne-extended-family

So there you have it – the fancy version of our family photo. Lest you think we’re not your normal psychotic bunch of crazies, I’ll share a couple not-so-perfect family photos from this past week…

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And here’s the corralling beforehand. Ha! Marilyn’s always ready, but only because she can’t move independently. 😉

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Aaaand, the obligatory Christmas Eve photo. I sure love these little munchkins of mine!

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And, if you need a lovely reminder of the reason for the season, check out this beautiful video…


Happy Holidays!!

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2 Comments

  • Reply
    Heidi
    December 29, 2015 at 9:38 am

    Whenever Russ sees a picture of your family he always exclaims “no way is that child’s hair that red!!” (Talking about sweet Viv). I assure him it is (though of course I’ve never met her), just like little orphan Annie! Super cute family pictures!! I always love the colors you pick!!

    • Reply
      Bonnie
      December 29, 2015 at 6:17 pm

      Yup! Even strangers stop us in the store and comment on that fantastic mop! I love it but she already complains that she wants “stwaight haiw wike Kiwa” (straight hair like kira 🙂
      Thanks wonderful friend!!

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