Wooo (wipe forehead)

Yesterday around 8:00 pm, my parents and I looked at each other, exhausted, and smiled. I think it was Mom who said "We did it!" as we gave each other the customary high fives and, to my horror, the ever popular "knuckles." Kelli and Jeff had just picked up their kids and the house seemed eerily quiet.

It started last Sunday when I had 2 of my nieces (Hannah and Jenna) sleep over. The next night, we took care of Jeff and Inger's kids, Jaron and Calyn. And since Wednesday, my parents and I had 5 or 6 of my nieces at my house (ages 3 mo - 12 yrs). In the midst of all that, we had ALL the family up on Christmas (yep - all 29 of us) and we also all got together for New Year's Eve. Needless to say, we've been busy!

On Wednesday, Kelli and Jeff went down to St. George leaving Hannah, Kate, Molly, and Brooke with us. Jordan graciously volunteered to help out and Jenna tagged along to play with her cousins. Boy did we have our hands full?!?! I got a glimpse of what it was like to be a mom of 6 (I don't know how my mom did it!), but as the cool aunt, I was more there for entertainment than the motherly role.

That being said, we had a lot of fun! I took them to the dollar store (Grandma gave them each $2 and they were in Heaven). I gave them manicures, pedicures, and facials. We did hair. We watched a bunch of TV and movies. We got Slurpee's. We played games. We had fun!

We also had a blast on New Year's Eve at Cori & Tory's house. We played Bunko, ate great food, had a ping-pong tournament (congrats Mom on being the tournament champion!), had lots of treats, and drank sparkling cider at 10 pm to ring in the new year (Eastern time). Unfortunately we missed the ball dropping since we were having too much fun and turned on the TV at 10:01. I guess I could have actually stayed awake until midnight to see it drop, but I was as exhausted as the kids, since during the past week I've also been battling a cold (plus I'm getting old).

Well...long story short...it's been a very busy and tiresome Christmas / New Year's "break". But it's also been such a fun week! Anyone who knows me well knows how much I absolutely adore my nieces and nephews. Although it's been tiring, the past week has been AMAZING! I've absolutely loved having this time to spend with my nieces and nephews. And it makes me feel so good to know they love having me here. To prove that, today Rachel asked me when I had to go back to New York. When I told her that I wasn't going back, she got a big smile on her face, gave me a big hug, and told me that she was happy I was staying here. I sure do love my family.

PS - HAPPY NEW YEAR!!