More parties- June.

We headed over to Uncle Kevin's house to play for a while. At lunchtime, Uncle Jim let me eat part of his Christmas present- cheese puffs! Puffed cheese products for Uncle Jim is the motherload at the Taller house. Add a little high fructose corn syrup and Aunt Jenni will keel over from all the artificial ingredients and spend the rest of the day laying on the floor whimpering for lentils.

Later, we headed over to the Edgerton Meyer house for the annual Christmas party. From two couples came 31 people (we were hoping for 32, but Holly and Jake don't have a new baby yet). That includes 3 new babies this year. The Meyers have a huge basement and the parents set us loose down there. The big kids spent a lot of time covering up the playhouse with blankets. I'm not sure why.

Uncle Jim saved Tessa from being trampled on the floor. (Doesn't he look nice with a little baby?)

Oliver wants to be a dentist and spent his time trying to drill a tooth (and perched atop a slide avoiding any remote controlled car).

Annalise gathered every animal in the house and read them stories.

I tried to climb the slide and was having fun until mama bonked my head trying to turn me around to go down the slide.

Then I found a balloon to play with and was happy again.

Heidi showed us the correct way to use lawn trimmers. Be sure to have protective eye and foot gear.

When it got later, I made sure my best friend and I stayed close together, although I did give mama a little break and sat with Miss Jane for a long time.

I exchanged some pterodactyl screeches with Aunt Jenni.

Thanks for hosting a great night Miss Kim and Mister JJ!

One more Christmas present.

Yesterday, Aunt Jenni was feeling a little low from post-Christmas letdown. Well, Aunt Jenni, it's still Christmas on RFD TV. And on Big Joe's Polka Show we got the best Christmas present yet.

What could be better than a polka version of Kenny and Dolly? It was a great night for Big Joe and we hope this renews your Christmas spirit.

Seibert Christmas- Henry.

Yesterday, we celebrated Seibert Christmas.

All the grandkids had matching Christmas dresses and shirts. This is the best shot we got of all 7 kids.

June was really hungry, but supper wasn't ready, so she chewed on her shoes.Grandma read the girls some books.

At supper time, the 4 oldest kids got to eat at a special kids table. Uncle Jim and Aunt Elizabeth bore the brunt of cafeteria duty and everyone else was very grateful to eat a meal in peace.

With much prodding, the kids ate enough of their meals to earn a very special treat- "Scarlett" sugar cookies.

I picked out a mitten!

Annalise ate a tree!

Oliver loved his wreath.

With 7 grandkids, it's increasingly easy to lose track of one kid. This happened last night. While everyone was cleaning up a half eaten cookie inadvertently was placed on a chair so the table could be wiped off. No one was paying attention to June until mama looked down and saw that she had found the cookie and shaoved it in her mouth as fast as she could.

Needless to say, she was pretty proud of herself.

After we got June cleaned up, we tried to enforce the house rule: "You make a mess, you clean it up." But June's big belly full of cookies made it hard for her to work the vacuum.

Wagner Christmas- June.

On Christmas day, we left the Cooper's and headed up to Great Grandma Wagner's house.

There was no shortage of people to dote on me while we were there. Miss Kenkiki (John's girlfriend) held me while Andy and Miss Christina kept me entertained. Mister Andy and Miss Christina are getting married in Shanghai on January 2nd. Then they are coming back to their new house in Charlotte. Hopefully we'll get to see them soon since they are so close to us.

Even though all the kids were REALLY wound up, we managed to et a shot of 7 of the 9 great grandkids with Great Grandma. (Oliver, Natalie, Annalise, Great Grandma with me, Evie with Tessa, and Henry.)

And 7 of the 11 grandchildren. Note the two guys in the front row on the left. They are mama's cousin's John and Ryan. They were also at the Bengals-Browns game in Cleveland, but were on the losing side. Maybe they should finally wise up and switch to the Bungles side. (Back row: Mama, Betsy, Great Grandma, Andy, Aunt Jenni. Front row: John, Ryan, Uncle Kevin)

Great Aunt Mary Ellen says that Henry is a lot like John was when he was younger. John spent some time getting Henry wound up and we were all impressed at how well Aunt Mary got henry to calm down. Whereas mama gets kneed and elbowed in the face about 10 times a day, Aunt Mary anticipated Henry's every move and was always able to shield herself from his blows and move Henry out of the way.

Finally we got a shot of Grandma's 4 kids. (Uncle Jim, Great Grandma, Aunt Mary, Grandma, Uncle Jim)

We had a great time at the party and Henry even spent a short time charming everyone with his alphabet and storytelling skills. But we eventually had to leave because we were all getting tired and we wanted to get out before all the kids threw tantrums.

More Cooper Christmas- Henry.

When we got back from Cleveland, we just spent a couple days hanging out. I never wanted to leave the house, so i didn't even go see the lights at the Marion Fairgrounds. I just wanted to stay at home and play with my new toys. June and Sadie had fun playing together. There was only one booster seat for the both of us, so we had to take turns eating.

Luckily, Sadie is ver generous with her cheerios and offered to share with anyone who was willing.

June took her up on the offer.

Aunt Girl and I continued our tradition of decorating a gingerbread house. The best part about this year's house is that it came preassembled and mama didn't have to spend 2 hours trying to glue the pieces together with frosting while simultaneously propping them up with tuna cans.

While I decorated the house, June scarfed down more food.

The grown-ups managed to get us kids to sleep for a few minutes and tried to enjoy a nice meal.

And finally, we got to open presents. When mama and papa and "Unkie" Adam and Aunt Katie added their presents, it got really out of hand. Lucky for us, most of the presents were for us kids.

Sadie was excited for the action to start.

PawPAw helped June unwrap a present and got a pretty bow as a hair accessory.

Then she decided she wanted to get to the tree and started climbing the presents.

Papa had to wake me up from my nap so I wouldn't miss Christmas. I was a little out of it, but perked up as soon as i started opening presents. Mama was a little embarrassed because I was very excited by the thrill of the presents. Unfortunately, that meant, I didn't think much about the presents themselves. I'd open a gift, toss it aside, and ask for my next present. Hopefully I'm not the only kid in the world like this. Mama made up for it by insisting I wait my turn to open my presents. It was hard for me to understand that not all of the presents belonged to me.

June tried to stay out of the way of the madness, so she crawled under a table.

I was so excited because I got a remote control car that flips over.

June gave it a try, but apparently it doesn't run on drool alone.

This was the end result. Mama lost me a couple times n the mess, but we all made it out alive.

Before bed, we tried to get a group shot. Sadie is holding her new dolly. June is holding her favorite present- a paper bowl.

Then the girls changed into their matching Christmas jammers and tried to feed each other fuzz.

Two pretty girls with two pretty dolls.

On Christmas morning, Aunt Girl and I built another house. This time we used stickers.

I was very proud because i made it look just like the one on the box.

I got this George kaleidascope in my stocking. It's relaly fun to play with.

Also in my stocking- a half pound of solid chocolate santa. Mama debated about giving me a little at a time, but knew that would ultimately end up with her eating the entire thing. So, overcome with Christmas spirit, she decided to just let me eat as much as I could (after I took off my white shirt, of course).

I made a pretty good dent in Old Saint Nick before I gave up.

We had a great week with Nama and PawPaw! Thank you for all the wonderful toys and we can't wait to see you again!