10 days in the Desert

As our Christmas gift this year, my mom flew our family out to Arizona for 10 days in the desert with her and my brother. We decided to go the week before Christmas because the Browns were playing the Cardinals on the 18th which is also my mom's birthday, nothing like killing 2 birds with 1 stone!

Any way, so we got to Arizona on the 17th and got the kids situated with my mom and brother and then Chris and I stayed in Phoenix for 2 days of quiet while the kids were off to Tucson. I have to say the 2 days of quiet was very much needed and appreciated! Chris and I got to sleep in, sort of, go out to dinner, hadn't done that since the summer, and got to go to a football game without having to figure out babysitters. It was all SO wonderful, hopefully we'll be able to do it again in the not too distant future, but more than likely it'll be at least 2 years away....

The rest of the trip was like having Christmas all week long for the kids! It seemed like everyday my mom had something planned and when she didn't have something planned we found something fun to do!

A look at some of the fun we had:
(I also posted all 221 pictures from the trip on Facebook.....my mom sure does like to take pictures!)

In-N-Out Burger for the first time......Yummmmm

U of A Basketball game! Go Cats!
(coincidentally they were playing Oakland, a team from Detroit)

There was LOTS of swimming in the pool...I mean hot tub :) The weather was too cold for pool swimming!


Baking Snicker Doodles
The boys helped to measure, mix ingredients, roll balls, and dip the dough into the cinnamon sugar, and they turned out great!


Much needed haircuts


Cowboy and Cowgirl time!
Rylan LOVED the cowboy boots, you'll see them a few more times below:)


Jewelry time with Mana


A visit from Michelle (my old coach)


A few of my favorite silly pictures in front of the Christmas tree



Sugar cookies this time! And Rylan wanted to join as well :)


Brenden by his Fathead and the Christmas Tree


Christmas Morning!

Stockings are stuffed to the limit!

Opening Presents

Nintendo 3ds for the boys, they must have one awesome Mana!

Rylan's own Jewelry, complete with clip on earings :)


Fun exploring in the Desert


And of course, BASKETBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A very good time indeed! With so much fun and excitement for 10 days its now time to wind down and relax until the New Year that will bring even more chaos and craziness with moving and the arrival of quatro - our current name for the new baby :)

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and has a Happy and Safe New Year!

Christmas Eve....Monkey Style

After a rocky start to the day we had a very nice Christmas Eve. The rocky start began with taking the boys to have them pick out and buy each other Christmas presents. They knew that Mana (my mom) was going to be giving them a present today and they both began whining that they wanted the presents they were buying each other instead - since they pretty much had figured out what the other had picked. We had to have a long talk on the way home about the meaning of Christmas. That Christmas is not about presents, but about appreciating what you have and the spirit of giving to others. For the most part, I think it started to sink in as they were much better behaved the rest of the day.

We spent the day making sugar cookies and decorating them, watching football - Yay Lions!, playing basketball, having a nice dinner of sloppy joes, and opening one present before bed. In the usual tradition of our family our one gift was new pajamas. And this year my mom went all out with Monkey PJs for everyone, including the grown ups.

The kids are now in bed with strict instructions to remain in their room until the alarm goes off at 7:30am or someone comes to get them, whichever comes first. We still have some wrapping to do tonight and we need to stuff the stockings. The cookies and milk are out and ready. We're just about ready for it to be Christmas. We hope that all of our family and friends are having a wonderful holiday as well. Merry Christmas to all! And to all a good night!

1st Visit with Santa

When we arrived on Saturday in Arizona my Mom and Brother took the kids with them down to Tucson for two days so Chris and I could have some quiet time away from them. One of the adventures my mom had planned was to take the kids to see Santa. Jake is nearly 7 years old, Brenden nearly 5, and Rylan 16 months and this would be the 1st visit for ALL of the Eby children to see Santa at the mall - GASP! I know everyone takes their kids to see Santa every year and I've seen tons of the cute baby photos where the kid is screaming in terror on Santa's lap. As cute as all of this is I have never had the desire to partake in this holiday tradition. And quite frankly the kids have never asked. In there defense, they may not have known until now this was possible. Its just that I hate the mall at Christmas and avoid it all costs. I have found that I prefer to do most of my Christmas shopping online. Now I'm not a completely awful mother, the boys have had Santa come to their preschool to give them books so its not like they were in some state of shock to see a Santa at the mall. I was told the adventure went well, they got to do some clothes shopping to keep them distracted while Uncle Chris waited in the long line. Now to see if this will become a new tradition or if they'll simply forget about it next year, fingers crossed its the latter ;)

We are having a wonderful time out here in Arizona and hope that everyone has a safe and happy holiday!

Merry Christmas!

Craziness x4

Remember in August when I was sad that Rylan was turning one and there would be no more babies? Well, the Universe this fall said SURPRISE! in a big, big way. That's right folks, Eby baby #4 will be arriving sometime this summer. The official due date is July 10th, but so far all of the kids have been early, Jake 10 days, Brenden 14 days, and Rylan 19 days, so this one could easily be a June baby. Of course Chris is already trying to madden me by telling me this is the one that is going to go past its due date, not sure if I'll be able to handle that. No matter, there will be a baby this summer!

So far everything has been going well. Hormone levels early on rose as they should and an ultrasound at 8 weeks revealed our newest peanut. This pregnancy has reminded me more of Jake and Brenden's than Rylan's. I have been super tired, TONS of cravings already - especially salty or spicy foods, only a little nausea which has already gone away for the most part, and the hair is already getting super thick. According to old wives tales it appears to be another boy, which is what I think. The Chinese gender predictor chart has predicted a girl - both boys were predicted to be girls and Rylan was predicted to be a boy - so to me that also suggests boy. We should be able to find out for sure sometime in February at the 18-20 week ultrasound.

This obviously came as a bit of shock to us, but we are thrilled none the less. The kids are all excited, well Rylan not so much since she doesn't quite understand yet :) We have told our families and are slowly leaking the news to friends. With this being my 4th the pooch is already in full swing so its going to be pretty hard to hide soon. Officially I am 11 weeks 3 days and I look closer to 4-5 months, how quickly the body remembers! I'll try my best to keep people updated throughout the pregnancy.

The Craziness that is The Eby Family is about to go up a notch!