Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving seems like forever ago, and indeed as Valentine's Day is fast approaching, it kind of was.  So, I thought, instead of focusing on the day in retrospect (it was a normal American Thanksgiving anyways - food and family), I thought I'd make a list of the ten things I was most thankful for in 2013.

1. My Savior - My list starts out with the easiest: I'm thankful that I have an all powerful God who has chosen me, despite my utter unworthiness
2. Reading through the Bible this year with James - We were supposed to have finished by the end of the year, reading the Bible from Genesis through to Revelation.  We aren't quite there yet, we have about 30 more days to "make up" still, where we fell behind schedule.  What a blessed experience this has been for us as a couple (we read out loud together) and for us as followers of the Way - we look forward to doing this annually and we've started on next year's schedule as well (we've chosen to do this year chronologically through the Bible)
3. My Husband - He's got such a huge load on his shoulders, and he handles it all without complaining and without looking back, and he's growing in faith every year
4. Hero, Allegra, Ian, and Colin - I'm thankful for my "bigger" kids.  It's amazing to watch them grow into their own people.  Sometimes it's a ride (that I might wish had an exit door from time to time LOL) but I know that the hard work put in now will pay off as we watch them move into the world independently and positively impact those around them
5. Cecily and Elinor - I'm so thankful that I still have "littles" around to lavish my love on, knowing just how fast the precious time flies.  I soak in every "Mama" and every snuggle I can get.  It's one of the benefits of having a large family, and I think of how I'd miss out if I had just my two oldest kids, two years apart, like most people do.  My biggish family certainly didn't grow out of my own planning - it is one of God's choicest blessings.
6. My Dad - I'm thankful for the opportunity to grow closer to my Dad, as he tries his best to be there for me and James, and the kids.  It's not the way any of us planned it, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Mom is proud of both of us for where we've gotten (we can talk on the phone for a long time now - who would've thought?  we've probably talked more in the last two years than we'd talked for the previous fourteen, just because that was Mom and I's thing)
7. My Brothers - Maybe an oldest sister never quite thinks of her brothers as "grown ups", and I admit that it's hard, but the proof is in their lovely families and the fact that I enjoy spending time with them and wish that we were all much closer, geographically speaking
8. Our Trip to Hawaii - The trip changed every one of us who was there, permanently.  It brought a smorgasboard of emotions, but the single most important thing it did was remind us that we are a family, and that no one ever really leaves a family when they pass on - their legacy and memory lives on through generations.
9. Our Pets - We lost some beloved pets in 2013, and gained some too.  What a thoughtful, caring God to have made certain animals to be true companions alongside humans!  Thanks for the memories Princess, Tabatha, Bear, Ginger, and Bart, and we look forward to many more memories our little pet family of Rory, Cinammon, Augie, fishies, Essie, Elsa, and Stella.
10. Books - Lest I be too serious, this year was a big year for me to get back into reading.  I mean, I never really stopped reading, but I forgot a bit just how much a love to read.  I acquired a lot of new books for my library and have been absolutely devouring everything from serious academic texts, to faith-based books, to classics, to fluffy fiction.

Among a few other things, I contributed a dessert to Thanksgiving dinner - Neopolitan Cheesecake

Cecily and Colin burning off some Thanksgiving energy outside

Hello to Esther!

In November we welcomed a new member to our pet family - a kitten from the humane society that we named Esther (we call her Essie most of the time, unless we find her trying to get on the table, and then she hears her full name yelled at her).  She's a perfect fit for our family - spunky and vivacious, but very loving.  She's already grown very much in the two and a half months we've had her, and it's added such fun to our home.  We said goodbye to the last of our elderly cats (we lost the last three within four months), which was very difficult, but young, vibrant life has a way of reminding you that time marches on.

Cecily spends a lot of time toting Essie around

Elinor's more content to observe and occasionally pet

James is secretly a cat lover, I think

Essie hanging out with Hero's guinea pig, Cinammon

Her favorite place to lay is in front of the fireplace, when it's on

October Odds N Ends

September was a bad picture month - the only pictures we took, apparently, were of the first days of school.  We did mildly better in October, so here are some random pictures from the first half of the month (since I can barely remember what happened way back then anyways).

The little girls love their Build A Bears and the piano

Elinor is also a huge Littlest Pet Shop fan - the messes the girls can make with those is epic

We had loads of fresh apples from the orchard, which meant lots of lots of homemade applesauce, yum!

Allegra, Ian, Colin, and Cecily with one of the 4 year old teachers at Shepherd of the Valley, Mrs. DuVall.  They've all had her, and Elinor will make five, once she's in her class next year.  The preschool has been such a blessing to our family.

One of the best parts of being a teacher, for sure!

Our Newest Addition

This was one of those "investment" parenting moments.  We tell our kids no a LOT.  I don't want them to grow up to think that their folks never let them do anything fun and slightly crazy.  So, hopefully we'll earn some interest on our investment years down the road - we have a new pet.  James was working onsite on Saturday, and had brought Ian along to get him out of the house, and in the sprinkler box he found a curious creature.  The homeowner was grossed out and did not want it in there.  So, the logical choice to do with an unidentified, slimy, underground creature is apparently to put it into an Eggo box and bring it home.  When I walked in the door from skating and was told that there was a "thing" in a box, I thought it was a joke.  James can be a bit of a jokester.  But, no, no they were not kidding at all.  In a box on my stove was a very strange-looking creature.  James and I were promptly informed by Hero that that was a newt - thank goodness for recent biology lessons in science class, I guess.  After a bit of research, we found out that we were the new foster parents for a tiger salamander.  Tiger salamanders are pretty popular pets, because they are very easy and very safe.  We needed time for a "mom and dad conference" and took a drive to talk about what we should do with him (we have no idea if it's a him or a her, so we went with him).  Said drive ended up at the pet store and $60 later we were the proud owners of a terrestrial salamander set-up (basically a really long 20 gallon aquarium, a soaking bowl, coconut fiber bedding, and refrigerated wax worms).  As we drove up to the house, there were literally twelve sets of little eyes staring out the window at us, to see what we'd decided.  Even Hero dropped her normal teenage nonchalance when we walked in with the supplies.  So, Augustus (affectionately called Augie) the tiger salamander has officially been adopted into the Merry Band of Fife.  Because we were running a bit low on the crazy, of course.  What a life! 

Tree #1

 

 

I probably don't need to post pictures, because my trees don't change much from year to year.  I think that's part of the charm of Christmas - the repetition of old traditions.  I do plan to start to make some changes to my holiday decor, moving towards a style that is a bit more sophisticated and grown-up.  Our artificial tree is losing "needles" faster than our real tree, so I think it only probably has two or three years left in it.  I insisted, when I picked the tree out, that I wanted multicolor lights.  I've always despised clear lights - so boring.  But now I'm thinking of going in that direction next time.  I was thinking that maybe I could also add some colored lights on top of the prelit strands and maybe I could change that from year to year.  I've always wanted to have a purple tree once, so maybe purple?  When I think of purple, I think of advent candles, and then the season of Epiphany.  Anyhow, I'm getting ahead of myself (this is a problem I have LOL).  As it stands now, our tree is a testament to a houseful of children - the ornaments are always moving.  The tree is rather bare in some spots, and then in others you've got three ornaments on one branch.  Ah well, it certainly looks "lived in".  And not just by our children, but by our two orange cats - Bart and Ginger.  They love the velvet tree skirt (so much so that I have to have it dry-cleaned after Christmas before I put it away) and you can often find them cuddled up under the tree for hours.  It's better than when they were kittens and tried to climb the tree.  If they aren't under the tree, they are enjoying our multitude of Christmas fleece and down throws.  Our sectional disappears for the season under a mound of soft fluffiness.  I love it because it's such a cozy, warm, inviting place to be at night (and we keep the thermostat set at 60 degrees, so it's a matter of practicality that if you aren't moving in our house during the winter, you'd better be covered up). 

Grandpa's House!

 

It seems like forever ago, but it hasn't even been a month since we left for our summer vacation to Wisconsin!  The drive there was a dream.  I mean, as much as that long a roadtrip with eight people in a car can be considered a dream.  We departed Boise at about 10am on Tuesday, August 7th and arrived at our hotel in Miles City, Montana around 11:30pm (the dark hours are the hardest - the car makes me naturally sleepy, and James too, as long as he's the one driving - bad, I know!).  We departed Miles City the following morning aat about 8:30am and arrived into Wausau at 10:30pm.  It's always so fun to cross the river into Wisconsin - we rejoice every time we see the Welcome to Wisconsin sign!  We were busy, busy, busy, so much so that I didn't get the chance to take a lot of pictures.  There were relatively few moments that we spent hanging out at Dad's house, but when we did the kids enjoyed playing with the Sphinxs, Tut and Yoda, and Uncle Troy and Aunt Becky's cat, Zeke, playing in the yard, and playing video games in the basement. 

Cecily & Uncle Ryan enjoying some sane weather this time around

 

Ryan's such a chick magnet

 

Cecily fishing for cats (aka harrassing them)

 

Cecily napping and sporting her vacation war wound

 

Yoda only tolerated the kids

 

Tut was a good sport and played with them, though

 

 

Left Overs

This is a blitz of complete and total random pictures from the month of May.  I can't believe we are almost through with the month.  May always flies by.  We have four more days of school, a night of ballet dress rehearsal, two nights of ballet recitals, and then we are free...until it's time to start the round of summer activities.  Que sera sera. 

My poor Tabatha cat.  She puts up with manhandling that no almost 15 year old cat should have to 

Apparently this is what kids take pictures of - toy french fries in a bowl on the playroom sofa

Every so often (haha) I find my children doing something endearing and cute - this time it was Colin and Cecily playing "lunch"

This picture was actually from Cecily's birthday party.  Cecily got a play tent and sleeping bag and Elle grabbed the little travel pillow, laid it out on the concrete patio and decided to take a nap right there.  Love the chubber thighs!

Allegra and her friend Gracie, playing dress up in the backyard.  Allegra loves to play dress up and has a rich imagination.  She reminds me of myself at her age.  I'm glad she's still hanging onto "little girlhood" a bit longer.  I much prefer this to battles over makeup and whatnot 

Hero's guinea pig, Cinammon, is hilarious.  When he is put outside, instead of making a mad dash for freedom, he contentedly mows down grass in one spot, for about 30 minutes - I'm not even exaggerating