New Years

Every year, our group of friends from college gathers together to celebrate over New Years. It is rare that we can all make it, with everyone scattered all over the place (including, at times, all over the world!). But this year, we were blessed to all be able to get together this year! We met up in Roanoke this year, since Josh's brother was getting married on January 2nd. (In the past we have met up in Pulaski [ok, Draper, really], Alexandria, Roanoke, Richmond...) Every year, we have more and more kids as part of our group. We are up to 12 kids now, between everybody, with two more on the way! Kathryn is the second oldest of the group (Noa is older by about 3 months.) So, 12 kids ages 3 and under! And it was a blast!

Anyway, enough ado about all that. We all met up at Famous Anthony's on Thursday night to eat dinner together as families (for all who could make it). We forgot our camera for that part. Then we all split up to put our kids to bed in various places, and then met back up at our house to hang out and bring in the New Year. (Don't worry, all the kids had sitters, so they weren't alone!)

We had our annual gift exchange......and Brian was reunited with a very special blanket (that happened to be in our gift exchange last year)!
Naomi got a Snuggie! (It was my first time seeing one in real life!)
Then, on Friday (New Years Day), we had everyone and their kids back over to our house. We were keeping the Lookabill kids for Josh and Tabitha while they were at Josh's brother's rehearsal dinner, so we had everyone over to eat pizza and celebrate Kathryn's birthday with cupcakes. She was soooo excited for her "party".

Here's a view from our steps. And this wasn't even everybody, since there were people in the dining room and kitchen (and probably other places) as well. There were 16 adults and 14 kids, ages 3 and under, in our house! (We had another family over that we are friends with who live in town.)
So excited to have all her friends over!!!
The Weissmans (including baby girl Weissman, who is due in June!).
Chase was trying to decide between sippy cup with juice or an IBC rootbeer.
It looks like the sippy cup won out, at least for now... And he's very excited about it!
Blowing out her candles.
Another shot of the chaos!
Auntie Jenny bought party favors for all the kids. Jude is sporting the very cool glasses.
A group shot of all the kids from Friday night (minus Gloria, who was asleep in her carseat). Also, Madeline was at her grandparent's house. From left to right, they are:
Oliver Glenn, Erin Vos, Patrick Vos, Ansley Jordan, Caedmon Jordan, Jude Lookabill, Kathryn Sink, Naomi Lookabill, Chase Whited (on top), Martha Noll, Noa Noll, and Jackson Sink.
hehe, funny! Siblings, can ya tell?
This was our back porch after all was said and done. Totally trashed!!
On Friday, Noa and Kathryn got to hang out for a few hours together while the other kids were napping. They had an absolute blast playing together! Can you tell?
To give them some rest time, they watched a video while having a snack break. Of course, they had to take care of their babies, even while they were resting.
(For more pictures of Kathryn and Noa together over the years, click here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here. How cool is it that even though the Nolls have spent their past two years in Japan (but now are back, living in Orlando), we have been able to see them so many times?)

Finally, here's one last picture, of Kathryn sporting her cool glasses.

We praise God for such amazing friends, and for the ability to stay so close despite the years and the distance!