You B

This morning, I crawled out of bed waaay too early. Joshua decided it was time to get up and that was that. So we went downstairs but I curled up with a blanket on the couch. Grace joined me. We snuggled, face to face, talking about all kinds of very important matters, when she said "You b."
"What do you want me to be?"
"You B."
"Be what?"
"Cause me an A."
"Oh, I'm a B and you're an A? So what do I say?"
"Buh."
"And what do you say?"
"Ah."
"OK then. Buh, buh buh. Buh buh? Buh, buh buh."
"Ah, ahh, ah? Ah ah ah."
This conversation went on for a while (we had a lot to say) until she rolled her eyes, sighed and said simply, "Nuff."

The boys got some more Lego's for Christmas. Like they needed any more. You can't take two steps in our house without lodging one of those tiny little pieces into your foot. They never get completely picked up because there is always a house, or car, or monster creation that they are "saving".
But it's OK with me, they love playing with them and Lego's are so constructive.



So I got hem some pretty large kits and then Papa Choo Choo (the boys named him that- can you guess why?) got them an awesome Lego train kit. They couldn't wait to rip open the boxes and get to work. I had a nice long talk with them about how these kits are not like anything they'd put together before and that it would take them a long time, maybe weeks to get it all done. And they need to be patient and do a little at at time. I just wanted them to be prepared and not frustrated when they saw how complicated and involved these new kits were.

So Saturday morning, they woke up first. We listened to them excitingly get dressed and sneak downstairs, whispering the whole time about what they were going to work on first. When I came down, the you couldn't even see the kitchen table.
So much for my talk... by noon, both kits were completed.



I wouldn't let them open them train yet, though. We're saving it for New Years day.
"Is it Friday yet?"... "How many days until Friday?"... "Can we pretend today is Friday?"..."How about we open the train on Tuesday instead of Friday?"...
It's driving them nuts, they can't wait. I think Papa Choo Choo should come over and help. ;)

Merry Christmas

What an absolutely wonderful day we had. I came down this morning and the girls were sitting at the window, talking about how beautiful the sky was. We didn't have a white Christmas, but you sure cant complain about this...



After a quick breakfast,


We opened our presents.
The kids got everything they asked for. Because they didn't ask for much. The kids get three gifts each. Paige asked for missionary biographies. That's it. She was surprised when she opened all 13 books that she asked for. She also got a rip stick (that I'm sure she is going to break a leg on) and a lap desk. Courtney got a stable for her Shleicks, a puppet, and sea monkeys. Yes, I said sea monkeys.
The boys got the puppets they wanted (the doctor and the pirate), Legos, of course, and bathrobes that were NOT AT ALL impressed with.




I lied. They didn't all get everything they wanted. Grace has been asking for a chicken. She just doesn't seem to understand that you can't raise chickens in town. Unless maybe you kept them in the house.
But while I was shopping for the other puppets, I found a really cute chicken one. It's not quite the same. Bit it's as close as we're going to get to the real thing.

We headed over to Amy's and saw the REAL chicken.




The entire visit went by and as we were getting ready to leave, I realized I hadn't taken one picture. So I snapped one on the way out. I played a few games but not at this table. I haven't learned how to play euchre yet so they stick me at the kiddie table.
Just kidding. I really dislike euchre. So I played a few games of Uno with some 6 year olds and then a magnet game (cant remember the name) with some teenagers. I had a lot more fun.




Then off to my Dad's. I made sure I remembered my camera for this visit. My sister, Pam is here from Florida. My Mom mentioned that all her kids and grand kids would be all together for the first time.
Forgive the poor photography, Mom had the camera.
Kidding.
Me, Kathy, Jim, Pam



And with all the kids



Wheeew! What a day! We're all beat!

Courtney's Birthday

Finally! After a few weeks of illnesses and weekends with already too many plans, we finally had her party. Nina and Aliyah were able to come over early and they spent some time sledding and playing in the snow. It was much too cold for me, but they didn't seem to mind it much, they never wanted to come in.





I made the best cake ever!



Nina cuddling with Lily



"Hey! That's my seat!"





After a long, fun night, Tony and Courtney drove Nina home. The little kids were tucked in and Paige and I enjoyed a few quiet moments. We put on a show (can't even remember what it was) and took out some craft projects. It's not often enough that I get to spend good one on one time with my kids. Or, I thought it was one on one time. It turned out we weren't alone.


I will have to remember... when you take a picture of your children being naughty, they know you think they're funny. Then it's just a little bit harder to get them to take you seriously. Was it worth it?
Oh, yeah.

Is this winter already?

This late bloomer was caught off guard, too.
We had such a beautiful fall, so warm. We certainly can't complain about the snow now.


Forgive me for my lack of posting. I know, Kathy, you've been waiting for some kid pictures, and all I give you is a frozen rose and some blurry backsides. I promise, soon enough, I will share some in focus, non artistic photos. But right now, these will have to do. I'm a busy woman, you know

Have a happy Thursday!

I love two year olds

It only took a minute for Grace to jump down from her chair and walk across the kitchen, throwing spoonfuls of applesauce onto the floor. She made about five or six little piles in a trail around the table before I noticed what she was doing.
"Whatcha doing, Goosie?"
"Feed... nipe...eat it...I do it!"
In case you don't speak Gracie, that means she was feeding the snipe. Well, of course, what else would she be doing?

For the rest of the afternoon, we kept finding little spatters of applesauce here and there that we missed. And every time, we would say "Ahh! I stepped in snipe food!"
____________________________________________________________

The reason we don't allow toys at the lunch table...



I'll leave you with a riddle complements of Joseph.

What continent rhymes with underwear and starts with a D?

Give up?

... Delaware

Yeah! the tree is up!





Why do I enjoy our Christmas trees so much?



Because the kids so enjoy throwing the ornaments up there and it looks nice no matter how they do it. Because the smell of pine floods our minds with sweet memories of every other past Christmas seasons. Because when the sun goes down, we can turn off all the other lights and enjoy the beauty and the ambiance of the flickering lights. And...

Cause it's just plain fun!

Is there a better way to spend the day?

Happy 2nd of December

We started up our month on theme blog again. It has only been sitting there untouched for a year. Hey, we're busy ladies.
Go on over and check it out. I will be posting the pictures from our advent countdown. Read two posts down if you don't know what I'm talking about.
Here's the link :)

Come check out my house...

Clicky clicky

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...