Thanksgiving Break

We had an awesome Thanksgiving break.  Like all breaks, it ended too soon though!

We started out the break by having a little celebration for Jim's birthday.  He even let us sing to him and consented to one candle on his cake!  He is such a great husband and father....I hope he knows how much we love him and had a great day!

 He tried to get the kids to sing in a round.....it did not go over well, as we are not a good singing family!

 We had a little bon fire.  Fire seems to be a passion that Jim has passed on to his children....they all love a good fire!  Colin had some friends over for a few hours and they had a great time roasting hotdogs, but the little ones were crushed by the idea they might be left out.  We had to let them roast up their own dinner before we turned the fire over to the big boys!

 We had a lot of help from Saige (aka Captain Destructo the second) with the Thanksgiving cleaning. 

 Madison and Mallory did most of the cooking for the Thanksgiving dinner.  I must say that they are good cooks, and the food was great, and most importantly, nobody got food poisoning!

 Saige got an unexpected package in the mail from Aunt Pam.  It kept her busily reading for quite a while, and probably saved her life too since she was doing something acceptable rather than undoing all the cleaning!  (Thank you Aunt Pam, Uncle Ben and Sarah). 

 On Saige's second Thanksgiving, she got to enjoy a feast, and since Madison fixed her plate, it was indeed a feast!  Most of this ended up on the floor. 

 We enjoyed playing games with each other, and even though a game of spoons gets a little wild around here, I think the kids all had a very good time!

And what is Thanksgiving without a little post turkey nap?

It was a very blessed weekend full of family and good times.  I am now looking forward to the next break!

Langsgiving and Football finale

 It was an exceptionally strange weekend.  We had a Saturday with nothing scheduled.  This is unheard of!  Despite my saying I was going to clean up the little girls bedroom, it never happened.  We did do a little cleaning, and I took this photo of Colin to prove to his future wife that I tried to teach him some cleaning skills. 

 The kids were all happy that Jim was home, but Saige decided to glue herself to him, just in case he should try to escape again!!  I think he carried her around for most of the weekend!  He did have to put her down for a while to get everyone around to fix a water line break though!

 Our church is going through a little bit of an interesting time, as we have learned that the structure of the building is not in good condition.  Despite efforts to fix and renovate, it is just not stable.  Whereas they do not think the building is an immediate danger, they do think we have to make some decisions.  Today, we had a meeting to decide if we should spend 1.2 million dollars to renovate the current building, build a new building, or ask the Archbishop to disband our parish.  It was not a fun meeting to go to, and I have never felt sorrier for any person than I did for our new priest.  He has only been here since July, he is only the messenger....oh man he does not have a fun job!  He definitely did not ask to be sent here, to a parish with an old falling down building.  The people were not overly kind to him, and I did feel horrible for him.  In the end, I think we will be exploring building  new church, as renovations have already been done to no good ending in the old building.  That being said, I am sad, because they just don't build neat old churches like ours any more.  My grandparents funerals,  4 of our children's baptisms, and all of our older kids first Communions were in that church, it holds a lot of memories. At least we will be moving forward and not disbanding, at least that is the plan for now.

 After church, we had Langsgiving.  It was awesome to see most of my cousins, and their families.  The family has grown  so much and there were babies and little kids running everywhere!  I distinctly remember when our girls were born, Jim told me he had never really been around babies much....I don't remember a time when someone didn't have a baby to snuggle with!  I have a lot to be thankful for.  Especially for Aunt Diane who took a lot of time assembling a recipe book with all of grandma's recipes typed neatly (with actual measurements, not things like a drop or a spoonful).  I can't wait to make some Dochin!! 

 The kids had a great time playing football with their cousins.  Jim played for a while too, which is what I think prompted the need for ibuprofen before he went to bed tonight!

 After the family fun, we watched Preston's flag football finale game.   His team played really great, and he had a great coach and a fun team! 

 He played quite a bit of quarterback, and really seems to enjoy that position!  He had a great season.  (Preston is the one with the  purple hoodie under his shirt).

 Despite the fact that his coach is a Nebraska fan, he is a great coach and Preston learned a lot!

 Now we are officially done sitting at outdoor sports until spring!  And for that I am truly thankful!!

First concert as the tuba boy

 Well, I wondered if I would find myself at a 7th grade concert after the 8th grade music prodigy  thing.  And sure enough, last night was the 7th grade music concert where Cam made his debut as the tuba player.  He even had a solo - which is impressive to me considering he has only been playing the tuba since late August.  He did good!

 The band sounded good, and I was thankful to Mallory for taking pictures.  I was also happy that she was not the one who decided to crawl on her knees INTO the band to photograph a player (I could not make stuff like this up!)

The long week

 It has been a very long week here at our casa.  Jim was in Wichita all week for city clerk training.   I do not know what they do at city clerk training, but  I know what we did here!  Overbrook Parks and Rec had a soccer banquet.   The kids all got pizza and their medals.  Quincy was excited to go, but was a little upset with me because she didn't wear her soccer shirt....I never knew they were supposed to!  I guess I lost my psychic ability somewhere! 

 Her anger was short lived, and she was excited about her first place medal! 

Colin started wrestling practices this week.  I do not know for sure what goes on at wrestling practice, but I do know that my grocery budget is going to need to increase if he comes home every night like he has this week!!

 Harper has decided that she is a cat.  She asks me millions of questions such as: do cats talk?  do cats eat birds?  do cats sit on the couch?  can cats walk on 2 legs?  Unfortunately, the walking question was at the grocery store and I forgot she IS a cat, so when I said no they walk on 4 legs, this instantly meant she had to drop down and crawl!  Luckily, our grocery store  knows how very much money we  spend  in there and the ladies  laughed at her....and then told her cats have to wait outside!

 Saige had her 1 year physical where she was diagnosed with a belly button infection, double ear infections and a sinus infection.  And then she got 5 shots and some antibiotics.  Aside from fitfully sleeping, you would  never know she is sick. She is such  a happy girl!  Hopefully she will feel better very soon! 

Jim is on his way home and I am glad for that.  He helps me  do a lot around here and I have missed him!  The kids said they missed his morning singing!  That was the kids....I never said that!!

No Longer ZERO!

 Every couple of weeks since Saige was born, Quincy has asked me how old she is.  I always responded in weeks or months and she would get a worried look and say "so she is zero?" 
This morning, Quincy smiled really big and told Saige  "happy birthday, I am glad you aren't zero anymore!"

 Saige was very relieved to finally be a whole year old!!  She celebrated by eating some leaves and giving me a hard time with photographing her!

 Aside from being very busy, she is a delight!  When we told people we were having an 8th child, a lot of people said we were crazy, but that's just because they don't know what a blessing an 8th child is!  I am especially thankful for this sweet little girl who the Father sent us!  She fills our days with smiles and love and we adore her!  She truly melts my heart! 

 Happy 1st birthday Saige - we love you!