Christmas/New Year/Today

We had a great Christmas. I hope you all did too. It was busy though! I'm finally caught up on laundry. When your house is basically a pit stop from one location to the next with no time to do laundry... it piles up quickly. My last load of clothes is in the dryer and a load of towels is in the wash. Of course, there is already another load to do now that it is a new day... but such is life with 5 kids.
TODAY this house has to get in order and that requires everyone pitching in. Hopefully that will go well. The biggest mess maker of them all is the one who likes to pitch in the least (I'll keep you guessing on who that is ;)
We went to David's parents Christmas Day. The day after my SIL and I hit some sales. I got the kids each a Hallmark ornament and one for us. Also got Levi a stocking like the rest of us :) Then went back to David's parents for a while. Then we figured David's mom needed a break so his brother and fam came to our house for a while.
After they left, I packed for my parents. We left right after church w/o coming home first. Had a good time with my side of the fam for a couple days and were back here on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday were pretty laid back days. Just trying to catch up on stuff (LAUNDRY). I did take all the kids to Walmart to get organizing stuff. I got some shelves for the playroom and a tower with wide drawers.

I plan on taping pictures on the inside of the drawer (so they show on the outside, but won't get messed up... or peeled off) to show what goes in it. I like that there are deep drawers and narrow drawers. Those top drawers will be perfect for little people, matchbox cars, small blocks. I may have to get another tower :)
I also got two sets of hooks for the mudroom. They have lockers but they don't hold backpacks AND coats. Should have made them a lot bigger... but I designed it 5 years ago and didn't think about how big their backpacks would be. Hooks will help tremendously.
You should have seen us coming out of Walmart. I was pushing a cart with Levi and the smaller stuff in it, pulling a cart with the tall tower in it with Noah helping to push it as well. Abigail was pushing Elijah in a stroller, and Isaac... well, we're good if he just walks out instead of running and sliding on his knees whenever he gets the chance...
Last night we went to some friends' house. They were missionaries in Thailand but are now back in the states. They have 3 girls and a boy (around 13, 11, 9, and 7). The boy is Noah's age. But they also had their niece who is Elijah's age. They were SO cute. Holding hands walking around. Really precious. 10 kids and 4 adults and we were able to just sit around and talk. The kids all played together so well. We didn't have to get involved at all (except to change the occasional diaper :) Levi was happy too, even though he was awake most of the time. I thought he'd sleep, but I guess he didn't want to miss anything. We stayed til about 11. I was surprised we lasted that long.
Kids slept in a little this morning but I'm thinking naps for all. But first...

CLEAN UP THIS MESS! (ok, first donuts, then shower, THEN clean up this mess...)