Crazy day- Part 2

After the family pictures we all headed back home and began to work on the feast....well, the ladies did. Shocker, right??? The guys headed out to go clay bird shooting. I SOOO wanted to go with them, but I couldn't leave Mom with all the kids to get the meal done. In hindsight - maybe I should have gone. You'll read why in the next post: "Sugar: my nemesis."

Chris took the camera with them, but kinda forgot until they were almost done. So I will share a few.

We all know that Chris is "Mr. Safety Man." So when I asked him for some little tidbits from the after noon, what I got was this:

"There were no designated weapon handling & shooting spots....." There was definitely more said, but pretty much it was a little scary for him. What can I say? He is SERIOUSLY all about safety. When they shoot for police training there is alot more organization. Seriously - nobody wants a bullet in their butt!

The feast, family pictures, shooting things, dishes...can anything else be squeezed in today?

Seriously, the only downside to a few days together is a very packed couple of days. The morning started...too early in my book...with the hustle and bustle of getting everyone ready for family pictures. We all decided to wear brown. Did you know that there are sooo many different shades of brown? Take my word for it - there ARE! But we all looked fabulous. We drove into town and chose a loverly spot on the SUU campus. It took some time to get everyone together & ready. There were some tears, some laughing and a pinch of the fabulous JC Penny's posing. But I think we got at least one picture of everyone that we can work with...maybe.

(Dear family, I know this wasn't the best one, but it is hard to see details when you pick them for the blog.)

We all took the opportunity while all dressed with hair & makeup done to get family pics too. I think I may actually get our cards out earlier this December!! YAY!! What do you think??? The only one missing is our "little" Minnie. So I have to decide on how we are doing our cards & include a shot of her too. (Because, I really like how I look in these pics & I don't want to try to get it all to work together again to have her in the picture with us. Is that bad of me??)

Seriously, I am SMOKIN'! Anyway, here are the rest of the troops. I am the oldest.

I put our individual family pics down in order of age. (I am only including my siblings names so you all have faces to go with the names.)

Jennie & her family

Crystal and her family

Patrick & his girl

After we were done taking the serious pictures all the kids started chasing Grandpa around the field. They finally caught up with him and took a little breather on the bench.

This one comes with a funny story. Jennie wanted to have a fun picture of us all jumping off the bench onto the ground. We took several takes - all funny - but this one wins the blogworthy award. Mainly for what happened immediately AFTER this was taken. Look closely, can you see how Jennie & I look like we are touching feet? Well we are. We totally hooked our feet together on the jump, she proceeded to the ground & I just came back down on the bench...Jennie's toe had come out of her show! They were like the Mary Jane type, so somehow my foot practically ripped hers right out of her shoe! We were both laughing so hard. I guess that's our lot in life. It's not alot, but it's our life!

I realize that it is going to take a few more blogs to get the entire weekend in. I wouldn't want my devout fans to miss out on any details...so I will continue this day in at least 2 more shorter blogs.

3 AM and all is WEELLLLL!

When the family gets together things get a little CRAZY!!

I love it when we can all get together for a few days! This weekend marked the 2nd Lyndaker Family Reunionwith optional Thanksgiving Fiesta. We all converged on our parents home in Cedar City. It was fantastic because everyone made it...seriously...it is a feat for that to happen especially when most of the hubbies involved do not have the best schedules to work with. They came from over the mountains (NV) and through the woods (Texas) to get to the grandparents house. Things started pretty well, just catching up and seeing nieces & the nephew whom we hadn't seen for over a year or more.

The house was filled with many kids. Mine are the oldest - with one exception (31, 8 & 5, then Jennie has 4 (33, 5, 3 & 1), Crystal has 2 (24, 4) and Patrick is 22 (my little bro.) I must say that it wasn't as loud & crazy as I was expecting! You see, at our last gathering, Jennie's wee ones REALLY liked to scream at the tops of their lungs. Still love you Ethan & Rory!

I cannot recall anything major that happened that first day besides just being goofy - like always.

But that NIGHT was hilarious! Imagine this...3 sisters all hopped up on sugar, ALL 6 little kids are sleeping, it's after midnight, we are sitting around the dinning room table with the game of Scattergories laid out before us. There were alot of GREAT answers....Jennie shared her "ta ta's," Dad was yelling "lingerie" repeatedly in Jennie's ear...funny thing was, we had rerolled the letter and it wasn't an "L" anymore...I know there was more but at 2 am I was running on fumes & sugar. Many times we had to have a " potty break" in between mass amounts of laughter...and you know how difficult holding it in gets after you have kids. Too bad we didn't video tape it because I KNOW you would have enjoyed it! Sadly, there are no photos of our game playing. I bet we wouldn't have even been able to hold a camera up, let alone take a shot between the hysterics - it was hard enough holding the pencil & writing words!

"Why Does DAD have to babysit us??"

I really want to know how many other Mom's out there have heard this and any similar variations from the wee ones in their home.

Seriously, I have realized that when I am with the girls, they would never even consider saying that I am babysitting them. I am just being Mom & spending time with them - most of my time actually...

HOWEVER - when I am leaving for a few hours at night, I get this comment! "Why does Dad have to babysit us?" Why is it different? I have to just tell them this, every time: "WHAT?? Dad is not babysitting you - that is just called 'being a Dad.' "

Thanks for the supprt!!

I know my blogging fell behind, but I wanted to post the fabulous Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk we did Oct. 11th. We got a fabulous group of Pampered Chef ladies and friends & family to join our team to help make a difference.

I was able to get our entire family involved! It sure was a cold morning. (I think they should have had some hot chocolate available at the water stations....what is better to keep you going than chocolate in it's liquid form, right??) We met at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City for our 4 mile walk. The girls were troopers. Christianna started to get the whiny bug after a mile or so, but she kept going & did the entire walk. Victoria brought her friend Lacey with us too. Chris actually ran around the park for a while and then met up with us - those crazy runner types....

This is Debbie, my Director and wonderful friend. So for all those people I have mentioned her to, here is a face to associate!

We were so lucky. The weather held out right up to the end. It seriously started to rain/sleet as we were walking to get a team photo, just before we headed home. It was an awesome day. I was so excited to be able to raise 170.00. I wish I could have done more, but with moving in - well, I will work much harder on it next year!

Happy Halloween!

I am going to keep this post short and sweet. Halloween marked a significant milestone for us, we had to officially be out of our apartment & storage unit. Between the school parade at 9 am, the lunch with the Horrock's around 12:30-ish (don't forget the quick stop to get some groceries for said lunch,) the Trick or Treating down at the police station around 2, finishing the cleaning of the apartment (luckily a little was left to do in the kitchen only), the Ward Halloween party and the last trip to get the remaining boxes out of storage before 9 PM....we had a very fun, busy & EXHAUSTING day. - Kaye Lani - we loved having you all over for lunch!

These first pictures were taken during the school parade.

These two were taken at the police station trick or treating event. They had tons of fun things there for the kids to see and do! Christianna even traded her broom for a "ride" on a motor. (Seriously, who wouldn't do that??)

The guys showed the kids all the fun buttons & switches to turn on for an array of siren sounds & flashing lights.

Halloween Family Night

As is our tradition every year, we had our family night devoted to the festivities of Halloween. We spent a good hour and 15 minutes de-gooing the innards and carving.

Starting from the left:

Christianna took a stab at making a haunted house - literally! After the house was all done, with a little help - she took her kids knife and stabbed the heck out of that sucker! It turned out pretty neat & once there are candles lit inside, it's fantastic.
Victoria went pirate on us. AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR! She carved out a fantastic rendition of Captain Jack Sparrow, note the goatee. She did it all on her own!

I did just a fun face with these pieces sticking out. Who knew that the Pampered Chef Corer could produce so much pumpkin fun?

Lastly, is Chris's pumpkin. HE always realizes, after the fact- of course, that the top hole needs to be cut a bit larger in order to de-gut it. For some reason I think of the Fonz saying "aye" as I look at it. Or maybe the Fonz being a little loopy after a little too much.....well, I am sure you get the idea.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this years festivities in your own homes. We have been excited all month for it. (Our new neighbors even know how important it is since most of them commented on the fact that we had the outside decorated about the 2nd week of October...BEFORE we had everything moved in. And you know what? It was killing me to not be able to decorate earlier!)