After the presents were open the typical thing happened. She played with the wrapping paper, which was good because Rylie wanted to play with her toys.
Every year we decorate the house the day after Thanksgiving. Here is Jacob and Ali decorating the tree. We have learned not to use any glass ornaments and the bottom fourth of the tree is bare. I have really relaxed about wanting my tree to look perfect and just enjoy having one. I am not even embarrassed anymore when visitors see it. Who cares what other people think. Right?
Josh was scared to death. He would not sit on his lap. He stood long enough for us to get a picture and quickly moved to get his candy cane. Then he remembered he didn't tell Santa what he wanted and ran back and said "a transformer" and ran away.
Alison was very excited to see Santa. She has been frightened in the past and mentioned a couple of times on the way that this year she was trying not to be scared. She hesitated at first then was okay. She is definitely posing for the camera. She wants a Littlest Pet Shop Adoption Center.
Look at this picture. She is looking at the camera again! Yeah! Rylie was so cute with Santa. She wanted to be with Santa and could not stand in line. We had to hold her back. When she got up to him she just started jabbering away. Who knows all the things she was saying but she was very excited. After he put her down she went and got her candy cane and went back to show him and talk some more. She would have stayed with him all night. Every Sunday when we walk into church she asks where Santa is. I have to show her the room every week and tell her he went home to get the toys ready for Christmas. I don't think she will ever forget he was there.
Little Emily. I love this picture. She of coarse was TERRIFIED. We told Santa before hand that she was going to cry but we wanted her picture. We're such great parents!
Everyone is waiting so patiently for the meal. It was only about 20 minutes later than what we planned. I think that's pretty good for my first Thanksgiving dinner! 
Emily loved the mashed potatoes, yams and pumpkin pie.
As you can see, Rylie didn't eat much (which is normal). She is also having ice cream for dessert instead of pie because she kept chanting "ice cream" during the meal.
Jacob loved EVERYTHING!
Josh didn't eat much, but he had 3 rolls.
Alison was just happy to finally get her food. Of coarse her favorite part of the meal was the pie.
Silly me to think it was safe to give Rylie a marker since it was washable. I thought she was out of this stage of eating them. She proved me wrong!
Of coarse, this is another messy face, highchair picture of Emily. I gave her ravioli for the first time. As you can see, she loved it. It is all gone.
This is Rylie's masterpiece. She worked on eating this cookies for several days and only ended up eating most of the candy off the top.
Emily just enjoyed eating the cookies and was happy eating and watching our little family night activity. I have recently learned how to adjust my plans when they just don't work out how I thought. The old me would have just let the kids eat the candy and forgotten about making cookies after Halloween was over.
All the kids went upstairs and packed immediately, even though we had to wait for the girls to take their naps. Josh was so excited he carried his suitcase, blankie and teddy around for about an hour before we left.
Rylie in the van with all her pets. She is not asleep. She is just avoiding eye contact as usual.
Jacob and Ali showing how excited they are.
The pool at the hotel was great. It had a kiddie pool and a regular pool right next to each other. I stayed in the kid pool with Emily, Rylie and Josh while Darren was in the big pool with Ali and Jacob. They could have swam all night
Josh really enjoyed himself. He really didn't need the floaties since the water was only 1 foot deep.
Emily thought her little pumpkin was a ball and played with it at least once a day.
Rylie loves this little kid. It talks when someone touches it or makes a noise. Here she is putting her arm around it. I sometimes wondered it she thought this was a real kid. Also Emily was scared of it. We would put this at the bottom of our stairs. She would not go near the stairs. Now what am I going to use?
Joshua did not like gutting the pumpkin. I ended up doing most of it for him.
Jacob and Alison did enjoy the whole process.
This is Joshua's pumpkin. He designed it and Darren cut it out.
Ali did her pumpkin all by herself.
Jacob spent hours on his pumpkin. He had to stop and take breaks because his hand hurt. It did turn out great though.
This costume was made by a friend of mine for Jacob when he was almost one. I think Emily is the only one that has been the right size to wear it. It guess it pays to have a lot of children.
Emily will eat anything and everything off the floor. She has now learned that if she sits under the table in the morning that most of the time Rylie or Josh will drop some fresh cereal.
They had a few bounce rides. Rylie loved this big dog bounce house. 
Jacob and Ali went town this big tornado slide. Ali thought it was more fun than Jacob did. I guess he is getting too old.
Joshua, Ali and Rylie all rode the ponies and loved it.
We all went on a free horse drawn wagon ride. Rylie kept yelling Weeeeee even though we were only going 5 miles an hour. We had a great time. I can't believe how fast the weather changed from wearing shorts one week to jackets and coats the next.
