Duck, Duck, Goose...

The ducks and geese are loving the flood (however we are very sad that our awesome trampoline blew across the pasture in the windstorm). We've had four power outages already-one today when a 65mph gust took out the power for five hours.  The kids love the water, the ducks love the water, the geese love the water...

...and apparently the eagles love the water too!  Too bad I didn't have my lazy person lens on. 

He took off when he realized I was taking pictures of him taking a bath.  I have never seen an eagle take a bath before.  It was pretty neat. 

Christmas Chaos

We've reached a nice balance in our large family.  The Golden Age if you will.  We have enough older kids that things get done, but enough little kids that things are still chaotic.  Getting the Christmas tree this year involved Mark, Ian, Genevieve, and Daniel leaving and Shane, Fiona, and the three youngest at home with me.

A tree so big it couldn't make the first corner?

 They came home with a noble fir for a killer deal.  A local guy has been growing trees for his friends for many years.  This year he decided to sell some to the public.  They also had a goat and a mini pony, which Genevieve loved of course.

XL tree for an XL family

 We of course always have candy cane cocoa on Tree Decorating Day, but since Mark had to buy candy canes and dairy free milk for me, he decided to add cookies as well...

The tree was just a little too tall, so Mark brought the chainsaw in (like, in the house) to shorten the trunk a bit.  "I've always wanted to do this," he said as he started the chainsaw (like, on my carpet). Halfway through, he stopped and called out, "Sorry Mom!" because yes, I'm sure his mother was freaking out in heaven.

Let me tell you, having a strong son to help out with tree carrying and lifting is so nice.  You know, he can carry three times the groceries I can in one trip.

"I just want one picture and then I'll take him."

 Those strong sons are also good at holding baby brothers.  And making the baby brothers smile:

Daniel, I see you under there. Get out!

While the tree was getting set up, there was chaos everywhere.  Everyone was talking (shouting) at once, asking the same questions over and over.  They wanted candy canes. They wanted cocoa. They wanted milk in their cocoa.  Where is their stocking? Can they hang it up yet? Where are the decorations?  People started getting a little overwhelmed and cranky.  But then I realized that this chaos is the essence of Large Family FUNctioning.

Watch for falling cocoa!

I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to decorate.  Something was preventing me from executing my normal decorating routine, but now I can't remember what it was.  But we did trim the tree because whatever it was that was preventing us stopped what it was doing.  And as ornaments were pulled out of the box, I got to say, "Remember the year the tree fell over?" and "Remember last year when Ian cut off the top of the Christmas tree because the star wouldn't stand straight and you got really mad at him but his cut job was actually good?" and...

"Remember the year we had to get TWO trees?" Why did we have two trees? I can't believe I didn't blog about it. Shame on me.  So, the Cubmaster from our Cub Scout pack five years ago had "connections" and could get us some "trees that were 6-8 feet tall" that we could sell for "$15 and make a huge profit because they were donated."  Turned out we had to pay for them, they were 4-5 feet tall, and no one would buy them because the professional tree stands had better looking trees for cheaper.  We bought two trees that year because we felt bad.

This year is going to be the "Remember the year that we didn't use a gate around the tree with a bunch of kids who can't keep their hands off the tree?" year.  I also just let the kids put the ornaments where they wanted.  We have a crystally ornament section, a section with just Shane's ornaments, and a SpongeBob section. 

It will be an absolute miracle if the ornaments survive.  But that's okay. We'll make more.  And we'll say, "This lone ball is left over from the project we did in 2008 and we were snowed in... Remember that?"

Peek-a-boo!

In years past, it has taken a lot of fooling with camera settings to get a glowy picture of our tree lights.  This year? Set in on auto, no flash. Bam.

Winter Fairies

My camera and I went hunting for some winter fairies on a cold afternoon...

When Toddlers Eat Cake

"I can't believe I ate the whole thing!"

Genevieve's Tenth Birthday

Ten years old is a big milestone! Double Digits! To celebrate, we temporarily removed our sleepover ban and allowed Genevieve to have a slumber party.  Her grandparents, aunt, and cousin also came out for her special day!

Grandma and Jason

Everyone loves Aunt Tracey!

Where's Grandpa?

There he is!

Genevieve and her Friends

She had a fun night of presents, pizza and cake, a movie (or two or three), and pancakes for breakfast.  Genevieve has a great group of friends and we were happy to host them.

Thanksgiving

I have come to accept that Thanksgiving and the week leading up to Thanksgiving will never be just about Thanksgiving.  I will always be planning and preparing for two birthdays AND Thanksgiving.  So let the development of our non-traditional traditions of the holiday season commence!

Jason had his turn in the salad bowl Mark and I received as a wedding present.  We started this tradition when Ian was a baby, not knowing that he would have seven younger siblings following along behind him.  When we received the bowl, we laughed at how huge it was. (Who eats that much salad? It's so big we can put the baby in the bowl! Hey, let's put the baby in the bowl and take a picture!) Now that our family is so huge, we use it as ONE of our popcorn bowls as well as a photography prop.

The Assembly Line

We are pretty nontraditional, in case you haven't noticed (haha).  Mark cooks all the food from scratch and I'm pretty sure this was the best Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing yet!  I did spend a few minutes searching for cool recipes on Pinterest, but my contribution was opening cans of processed things.  After we read the Junie B Jones Thanksgiving book a few years ago, we've enjoyed adding "exploding biscuits" and "cranberry sauce in the shape of a can" to our menu.  Instead of putting all the food in serving dishes and bringing it to the table, we serve straight to plates, restaurant style.  This is just how a large family FUNctions with more small people than helpful people. (But I did do more than just open cans. Jason wakes up for the day around 5:00 AM, so I made four pies while waiting for the rest of the family to wake up)

With the middle kids helping, I quickly threw together a simple Thanksgiving table.  My plan was to teach the girls how to properly set a table (we never eat at our dining room table in the dining room since we converted it to a school six years ago) but they already knew how! "We learned it from watching Signing Time! over and over with Lula."  So not only can the set the table, they can sign all the pieces.  I actually made a table covering (a scrap of fall-colored fabric-so shabby chic!) and a centerpiece (Pinterest inspired!) from old dusty champagne glasses turned over into candle holders! We pulled out the special fish silverware and drank our Sprite/cranberry juice out of mason jars.  It wasn't quite Country Living Magazine, but close.

This year we are not only reminded of how thankful we are for our blessings, but how we take our blessings for granted.  As we head into a holiday season where our values are challenged by our culture, I pray that we continue to stay focused and cheerful on why we have chosen to live the life in our own, special nontraditional way.

Two Years Old

Heidi is going to be a FUN two year old.  She is so independent and confident. She loves to make her siblings laugh and smile.  She thinks a loud, "NO!" is the funniest thing in the world. She is developing a caring spirit and will run to a crying sibling and pet them and try to hug them.  She usually gets pushed down for her efforts because it is usually Lula or Daniel in trouble. But she doesn't take it personally and gets right back up and back into the game.

She didn't like the wind blowing

She loves ponytails and tutus and boots-the same purple boots that we got for Evie when she was two and the same pair where Daniel liked to wear only one purple boot when he was two.  We spend all day replacing ponytails that she will pull out immediately and ask for "two" instead of one. She copies Lula as much as possible which means I'm going to have to work extra hard to cultivate a nice lady out of Lula! Her most annoying habit is needing to hold hands when she is sleepy or feeling like a snuggle.  She needs to lace her fingers in ours and then she pinches our hand skin with her index fingers and thumbs.  Annoy-ing!

She skipped over the signing phase and went straight to talking.  She has a few cute phrases like shrugging and saying, "Huh-huh know!" when she doesn't know where something is or kicking and screaming and saying, "Let go of me!" clear as day when she is being carried away from something she isn't supposed to be playing with. Heidi's most confusing request is when she says, "A wah a ginky."  Sometimes it means she wants a cupcake, other times it means she pooped her pants. Her super talent is singing.  She can sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, the ABCs, Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Old MacDonald had a Farm, and Let it Go.  I have the cutest video of her singing the line "You'll never see me cry," and then hitting her head on the back of the couch and crying.  But you have to speak Heidi really well to understand.  She really loves finger play songs and songs with movement.  The other kids tolerated them. Some downright hated them.  She loves it.

Even her older brothers like her-mostly because she is like a performing monkey pet.  Happy Birthday Heidi and may the next year bring as much happiness and joy as this last one!