The kids...all 10 of them!

When Aaron and I went on our cruise in May, some friends of ours watched our kids for half of the time we were gone, so in November, they cashed in on their time and we watched their kids for them for 4 days.  Shortly after they set the dates with us, Aaron's brother Jeff called and asked if we would mind watching their 2 little girls for a few days while they went to Navoo.  I was honestly really excited to get to spend that time with them, and then we realized that it was the same days...and I hesitated.  Then we figured..."what the heck, if we've already got 8, what's a couple more, right?"  We had the Jirsa kids Wed. thru Sun. morning, and our nieces Thursday through Tuesday.

So, 3 days after all of the fun of Kenzie's baptism and after all of the cousins had gone home, we became the proud parents of 10 kids...ages: 8, 6, 6, 4, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1.  Wow!  There were several times Aaron and I just looked at each other and laughed.  The menu consisted of hot dogs, pancakes, pizza and mac 'n cheese. Our biggest outing was riding bikes to the park (right behind our house)...and even that took us 1/2 hour to get everyone in jacket an shoes...and several were crying by the time we got home.  Oh, yea, and Aaron conveniently had meetings every night but one, so I put them all to bed by myself.  One of the kids got the tummy flu (thankfully, only one!!).  And OH, our house is still on the market.  We had one showing in the two day break we had between my family and all the kids, and one the day after the 4 Jirsa kids went home, but we still had our two nieces.  Caleb had an ear infection, so he didn't sleep at night nearly the whole time.  And I had two extras at church (by myself, remember, Aaron sits on the stand).  Honestly, I was so tired afterward, I felt like I could sleep forever, but other than the lack of sleep, everything went about as well as I expected! (I think the key is low expectations...everyone stayed alive, right?)  Actually, the kids had a phenomenal time! And after they all went home, my own four kids felt like a piece of cake!

This was breakfast before Jeff and Jocelyn left...this was minus 2 kids.

Holli decided she needed to get married, so she married the clown.

My thoughts exactly!

Holli and Alise enjoying the toy closet.

Jenna and Ryker building a tower.

What a ride!