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Advent

I love to plan activities more than I love the activities themselves. And 'round this time of year, my head starts swirling with all kinds of fun stuff.

I'm excitedly preparing for our advent calendar. Each box is filled with a few small pieces of candy and a tag with instructions like "take a drive and look at Christmas lights" that you open each day. Amy gave this to me a couple years ago. I loved the idea and it amazes me how much the kids enjoy such simple activities.

I began making my list. Big plans I have...

Then today came.
I woke up late, chores were half done, a few quizzes took an hour instead of 15 minutes. Still, we managed to get all our baths in, everybody was fed 3 meals, and the house did get picked up (sorry you missed it.)
Everything on the "absolutely needs to get done" list was done, but there was no time for anything extra. Paige never did get around to practicing her flute, Courtney and I never got a chance to pull out the sewing machine, not once did I play a card game with the boys, or color with Grace.
And after my unproductive day was through, and I was putting the kids to bed, Grace got to goofing around, woke Joshua up, and they both started giggling at each other. I did not see the humor in it at all.

Oh, forget it! If I can't get the normal stuff taken care of in the course of a day, where do I think I will find the time for all this extra stuff? I can't possibly fit one more thing into my life right now.
So I took a deep breath and led Grace back into bed, and as I leaned down to kiss her goodnight, she gave me a big smile... and booped me on the nose.

(in case it's been a while since you've been booped, let me remind you how a good booping can change your attitude. First you have to remember just how cute that little face is when you are 3 inches away, and how time seems to stand still while their little hand lingers there gearing up for it. And as they bop you in the nose gently with just the tip of their finger, "boop" they whisper. And grin. You have no chose but to grin back. It's boopin law.)



That's when it hit me. The reason I plan activities like these.
Mothers often forget to have fun.
We get so wrapped up in making sure there's food in their tummies and clothes on their backs, preparing their education, tending to their health, that it's easy to forget to lighten up and have fun. And if I didn't open a box that told me to snuggle up under a blanket and tell childhood stories, I sure wouldn't do it.
I am not as spontaneous as I would like to be. I'm working on it. But in the meantime, prompts sure do help.

So without further ado, (drum roll) our advent list...

1 Read a Christmas book
2 Scavenger hunt: find something warm (reward the winners with hot chocolate)
3 EVERYONE sing a Christmas carol together
4 make a gingerbread house
5 Snuggle under a blanket and tell childhood stories
6 Eat dinner by candlelight
7 take a moonlit walk in the snow
8 Watch a Christmas show
9 Make cookies
10 decorate the tree
11 Scavenger hunt: something that shows joy
12 Take a drive and look at lights
13 read the Christmas story
14 Scavenger hunt: something fun (winner picks the evening board game)
15 Play outside all together
16 Cut out paper snowflakes
17 Write down your 5 best memories from the past year

In case you hadn't noticed, there are more days than prompts. This is because I ran out of ideas. ;)
Really, it's because I know that between working and school and other activities, we just wont be able to do something every day. Also, they are not in any set order. I am keeping the tags in one container and will choose the night before which one will be best for the following day and will slip it in there as if I had it planned the whole time. There will be a few that will simply say "enjoy a piece of candy and remember to thank your mother." ...or something like that. I will be taking a photo a day of our activities and I could say that I will post every day. But I wont. Really, who has the time for that? But I will share when I can.

Have a wonderful first of December!

Thankful

Another wonderful Thanksgiving day with the Senecals. Here's just a few of my favorite photos of the day.
The kiddie table.
I giggle a little to myself when I hear about peoples preparations for their holiday dinners; polishing the silver, getting out the china, washing the table linens that coordinate with the occasion. A fancy sit down dinner is not an option for us. The little kids sat at one table, the big kids sat at another, and the adults sat in the living room with their plates on their laps. The only quiet moment was when Christopher said grace.
I wouldn't have it any other way. I LOVE LOVE LOVE our big family.


The highlight of my kids day were the animals. A new batch of kittens had all the kids attention, especially Grace's. Every half hour or so, we would hear a kitty squeal and find Gracie dragging mama cat by the tail, or wandering away with a kitten hanging from her arm. We were afraid she was going to kill one of the poor things. They ended up locked safely away in the bathroom for the afternoon.



The guys brought home a few deer. Two were Tony's and one was Anthony's. See how excited I get over it? The deer pics never make it to the blog. The only reason I included this one is to show you every one's reaction.



Priceless.



Can you imagine what is being said here?







23 kids and a Grandma. Sounds like a name for a new sitcom.



The '07 girls.
In case you're new here, the year Grace was born was also the same year as her three cousins, Meagan, Livy, and Becka.
I love Becka's face here. This is the best shot I got. Any body get any better?



"Is she OK?"




We had to kick these guys off the swing...



So we could get a picture of the babies.
The '08, '09 boys -er, I mean boys and one girl, Lily had to mess that one all up. :)
Josiah, Lily, Joshua, and Caleb. Do I need to write out a family tree for you yet?



Then the '98,'99 -wait, when was Nina born? Oh, never mind, I've got myself all confused now.
Aliyah, Nina, Courtney, Christopher.



The second half of the day, we went to my Dad's. Usually my brother and his family join us but this year their schedules didn't allow it. So it was a quiet evening of browsing ads. :)
I have no pictures of this because, of course, I don't take pictures after the sun goes down.

Good Morning

Oh, how beautiful this season is. Why is it that a little drop of dew on a blade of grass is easily trampled butwhen you have a camera in your hand, you take the time to cherish it?

And speaking of cherishing...

Smile!

"Bullah, bullah, look it, I looked like this!"



"Ahh! Joe, Joe, look it, I looked like this!"



In case they need them later...

Enjoying these beautiful fall days

There are not many left. We put away the spring jackets long ago not thinking that we would have such gorgeous weather. This is the girls' favorite tree. I don't remember ever climbing a tree to curl up with a good book when I was young. I did once enjoy a novel laying on the back of my horse. But that's normal, right? I mean, how comfortable is a tree?




Courtney took this shot after they all had been playing in the leaves. It's the latest style- camo socks. There really are socks under there.

Our lastest family picture

Joshua (again)

You would think that by your sixth child it would all be old hat. You would think that all the "firsts" would be no big deal. After all, you've been there before. You've already seen five first smiles, five first rollovers.

Maybe it's because I'm older, and can appreciate. I have learned to cherish because I have seen how quickly it all goes by. But by the time you see your sixth child pull himself up to stand, or wave bye bye (even though he's really too young and he is just flailing his arms around out of excitement - doesn't matter, I'll take it) or when he coos "mmmma mmmma mma" the whole room cheers. And they have all seen babies do it before, too.

Joshua at seven months :
Cut top two teeth,
started crawling,
pulled himself up to standing,
had his first oreo cookie,
said "mama" "dada" (kind of. all right, he wasn't talking about us but in all that blabber, those words did come out.)

It's been a busy month. He has a few more days left. Think we can add sleeping through the night to that list?

We very much enjoyed the warm weather this week. I didn't want to waste any of it so we even did a little bit of our work outside.

Teenager?

It cant be... I'm much too young to have a teenager.


Paige turned 13 on the 3rd. And she got spoiled this year. It seemed her birthday went on and on. She first went shopping with Grandma and Aunt Kathy and out to dinner at the Olive Garden.




Then on her actual birthday, she got to take the day off; no school, no chores. I dragged out the potters wheel for her. We don't get it out nearly as much as we should, the thing is sooo heavy, it's really a chore to set up.


It was a treat for everyone. They all got involved.
She really is good at it. It's a lot harder than it looks.




She had a birthday party on Friday, then on Saturday, I took her out shopping, just the two of us. That was more of a treat for me. We don't get many opportunities to do things without a few babies tagging along. We hit a few antique stores, Penny's, Christopher & Banks, Micheal's, and Borders. Does it get any better than that?

In honor of her birthday, I could go and on about how special she is to me, about how she is more of a friend than a daughter, and how many times she has consoled me, or put things into perspective for me. And how much of an inspiration she is to me.
...but I wont, cause that would just embarrass her.
;)

Solid Food

Most of what he eats is by accident. :)
An apple dropped, a fruit loop that fell from the table, or a gift from his sister. This was originally Grace's apple. But he did pretty good with it. And he wasn't happy with me at all when I finally got too nervous and took it away. But not before a couple of pictures, of course.





And for all my pea loving relatives out there...

I may rise...

but I don't shine. I am NOT a morning person. But when I opened the blinds this morning and saw the sun shining full force against the frost and made the whole yard twinkle, I had to take a little stroll.



Then I turned around and guess who followed me out the door? -Courtney's sneakers, pajamas and all.





But it was still a little bit chilly.
"Up, peese. Old Dace." (Hold Grace)