Birthday Fever

Yesterday was my birthday, and the day before that was my dad's. If you've seen my mom's blog you might remember that about ten years ago, my dad started giving her day presents. Seven days before I turned seven years old, I got my first day present, and every birthday since, I've received them. When each of my siblings turn seven (well, a week before they turned seven) they get day presents as well. Hal will be seven in February:) This year, I turned 15, so that's how many I got.

Day one

 

A few of my other day presents- I didn't take pictures of them all

Day fifteen 

And yes, my mom is still getting day presents. She is turning 38 on February 23, so she's been getting them for about two weeks now this year.

A few of her days 

 

We were too busy to try to do 40 day presents for my dad, so we went with 10 Days for him.

Days 1 through 9

Nine kids plus my mom equals ten day present tags:)

There's one for each of us.

Day ten

At the beginning of this week, my siblings started getting the flu. Hal was first and then by Tuesday  there was 6 kids down. Emma, Pixie, me, and my parents were the only ones not sick. There's a pretty quick recovery though, so Hal was better by Tuesday.

Wednesday was my dad's birthday. Everyone was recovering, but not quite better. Thursday morning, my birthday, everyone seemed over it. Mama prepared a big delicious breakfast of waffles with strawberries and whipped cream.  My stomach felt kind of "off" afterwards, but I figured that was because I was full. Super full. I went to school, was fine all morning, and then my mom picked me up at lunch and  we went to Subway for a birthday lunch:) it was really fun, but after she dropped me back off at school for my next classes,  I started feeling sick. Not much at first, but by last block, it was full on nausea. Mama was out shopping, so my dad picked me up at school early and brought me home. I  lost my lunch, breakfast, and anyhing else, and couldn't even open my presents at dinnertime, I was so nauseus. I went to bed early, and slept hard all night.

 I feel much much better today, very refreshed, and I've kept down the tea and yogurt I ate this morning.

So hopefully, that's that's end of it. 

We were going to have fish and chips for my birthday dinner, but since greasy food is not good for people getting over sickness, and I wasn't going to eat anyways, we skipped it. We will probably have that in the next few days.

I have to wait for the other kids to come home from school so I can open my presents, so I get to stare at and wonder what they are for another day... :)

The End

Just life

Pixie and LouLou- Pixie was more interested in the music than anything else. She loves music! My dad will play something like Music machine on his phone, and she will get all bouncy, and start kicking her legs harder. 

Smiling! This is a rather old picture-it's from conference, but I had to include it because she's adorable.

Bedtime...

She smiled knowing I was taking a picture, and this was the most natural looking picture of the few I took. in some of the pictures, she looked like she was grimacing. She's cute whatever she does though, so it doesn't matter her smile.

Ricka's actually wearing the exact same dress that I wore for my Aunt's wedding a couple of years ago, I think I was eight. Grandma C. made the dress, along with one for Emma, because we were the flower girls at the wedding. Later, after he wedding, she made a little one for then-baby Ricka, so we could wear them to meeting and match. Ricka has grown so much, (she's eight) now she fits my old one! One of these days, we'll open the too-small-for-Ricka box with the baby dress in it, and see if Pixie fits the littlest one. :)

 I just realized that when Pixie is eight, (I don't know if this dress will still be here or not) I will be 23! Wow. That just makes me seem old. (I know, I know, 23 is not old for some -okay, most people reading this:)   

Me at my Aunt's wedding

The End

New Years Eve

Finally! It was that special time of year, the holiday that every kid in our family dreams of! (no, it's not Christmas.)

In case you missed the title of this post for some reason, it's New Years Eve. :)

Last year (2019), about a month before Burbank conference, my parents asked us all whether we wanted to go on the train to Burbank, and give up New Years presents, or not go on the train, and have gifts instead. Of course, we all chose the train trip, and that was a blast!

While we were having this discussion, I had an idea. What if I got little presents for everyone, since they wouldn't be expecting it? It was just an idea, but everything worked out well and with a little help from Grandma C. (she took me to the store so that I didn't have to try to sneak-buy presents in front of my siblings and parents), I had my presents all ready to go on New Years Eve. Most of my siblings knew I had something suspicious happening, but they had no idea what it was, so they had no proof I had a secret.

I had babysitting on the day of New Years Eve, but only in the morning till 4 o'clock pm, so I got home just in time for dinner and the party. We usually have an early dinner and then various snacks and treats served throughout the night, so it worked out well that I got home when I did.

After dinner, we tidied up the house a little bit, put on  some fiesta music, and  served the snacks. The party was starting! We had a lot of snacks. We are still eating some, like mini donuts and pepperoni sticks.

At around 10:00, I passed out my presents. They loved them! I gave my mom a porcelain bird, and my dad got an appetizer cookbook. I gave PC a snap circuit set, where he could make a whole bunch of interesting things, and Emma got a verse plaque, and a really cute camera necklace. Butler got CDs for his CD player that he got for his birthday, and Ricka got a flower necklace and a bracelet, along with a bible puzzle book. Hal and QB got bible coloring books, and stickers, and Lulu got a book about Jonah.
Even Pixie got a present! I got her a board book about a duckling that was really cute.
They all loved the presents :)

 Basically, we just had fun and snacks all night long.
At midnight, we all went outside, and PC played on his trumpet a little. We heard fireworks from our neighbors, and everyone was making noise!
Then, it was bed time. We all brushed our teeth and went to bed, ready to start the new year.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Serious Case of the Blogging Slumps

*This post is VERY late. I wrote it Nov- December, 2019...


There's nothing really exciting happening right now, just normal everyday life. Cold everyday life.
Last week, I think it reached -7 degrees one night. At the meeting room on Sunday, it started snowing at lunchtime, and stopped right after lunchtime. None of it stuck, but it was pretty while it lasted.

 Saturday the 30th (of November) was Qb's 5th birthday! He wanted noodles and sauce for his birthday dinner, so the next day we had a pasta bar with about five different types of noodles, and different sauces that we made ourselves. I made a pesto sauce, my mom made a Bolognese sauce and a cheddar sauce, and my dad made a seafood Alfredo with scallops, shrimp and salmon, and a regular Alfredo sauce as well. It was all really good, but of course we made way too much and will be eating it for the next week (okay maybe not the whole week, but you get the picture)


There's not really anything else in particular to post about. Life is about as not-exciting as 9 kids living in the same house can get. No big explosions, fires, or injuries. I have to write something, because I haven't posted in almost two whole weeks.


 If you are bored of seeing me not post, check out my mom's blog. She's a way better writer than I am, and there's all sorts of embarrassing moments she posted of me when I was little. :) My mom hasn't posted much recently, (neither have I, for that matter) because normal everyday life is super busy at our house, but it's always fun to go back and laugh at things my siblings and I did and said when we were younger.

Pixie's getting cuter everyday. One of these days she'll actually laugh out loud. She makes all sorts of noises, from cooing to gurgling to squalling. She is still figuring out how tickling works, though. She'll get it eventually. I go to tickle Pixie under her chin, or under her arm, and she makes a really confused chuckling sound that is absolutely adorable.

I've been writing this post over the course of a few days, *(months) so that's why it's all over the place. It is currently Sunday the eighth of December, and everything I wrote before this was over the last couple days.

Lulu and QB were playing under the table this afternoon, pretending that it was a fort.

Lulu: "Can I come in?"
Qb: "if you say the magic word..."
Lulu: "please?"
QB: (in an exasperated tone) "Noo, Lulu.
Lulu: "When what is it?"
QB: "k, say it afteh me: Six oh foe,"
Lulu: "six oh fow"
QB: "five, seven, two
Lulu"fav seven too!"
QB: "abacadabwa..."
Lulu: "abacdabwa."
QB: "May I please."
Lulu: May I please!
QB: "Good job! Ok, come in Lulu!

In case you missed anything, the new magic word is
604-572-abracadabra-May I Please.

 Lulu's sense of humour       

Driving home from shopping last night, we were talking about how everyone had to hurry up and take baths and showers for meeting the next day. Emma was assigned the job of getting the three little kids above Pixie a bath.

Lulu: "Bubble baths are daindwis because the bubbles will make my haiar all fluffy."
Me: "So you don't want a bubble bath?"
Lulu: I do! I will just be vewy caeful and not get them on my haiar
Emma: "I'm not going to give you a bubble bath. Just a regular one."
Lulu: "when who's giving me a bath?"

Burbank Conference 2019 - The Trip to Burbank

We had been planning this trip for a couple of months. After packing, shopping, and much planning, our trip was about to start!

We left our house early December 18th (4:30 AM) to drive to Richmond to catch a travel bus down to Seattle, where we got on a train which would take us to Burbank.

On the bus, it was hard to take good pictures because it was still dark outside, but I did get a few pictures. I'm not going to say whether they're good pictures or not, you can determine that for yourselves..

                                                                               
The bus ride was about 2 hours long, and we got to the train station in Seattle just in time, about ten minutes before our train left.

This is a picture of the Seattle train station at night. It's called King Street Station.

We sat down in the train station, had a small snack, and then the doors opened for people to board. We had a total of 25 bags (suitcases, duffel bags, cooler bags, backpacks), so every transfer from car to bus to train was a group effort, and it had to be done quickly. Every last one of us, (except for Pixie, of course,) down to Loulou, had to carry a bag (Loulou's bag was much much smaller than mine), and almost all the big kids had to carry (or roll) at least two.

We got on the train with all our stuff successfully, and then we were off!

Card games

Mama brought along a packet of coloured wax strings that you could make pictures with. This butterfly is Emma's creation.

Our family has gone on a train a couple times before, the most recent one being two years ago to Regina conference, so some of the younger kids had little or no memory of the train. They had so much fun! We had packed a couple of bags of stuff to do on the train- word search books, colouring, small crafts, cards and other things. Loulou brought her own little backpack that she filled with toys, and she played with that a lot.

QB and Hal.

 It's really hard to tell them apart sometimes, especially when they match. :)

  Hal and PC

\

  Pixie was very happy she didn't have to be buckled on the train.

In total, we were on the train for 36 hours, or two days and a night.

It was super exciting the whole time, except for when you wake up at 3 AM because the train is at a bright station and the seat you're sitting on is determined to make sure you're uncomfortable all night long.

The next morning on the train was beautiful though, and everyone was in a good mood. Mama planned ahead and had a whole zipper cooler bag of food (maybe two, I don't remember) for the trip, which worked out really well. We had bagels among other things for breakfast that morning.

The train bathroom didn't have a changing table, so we had to find a compromise.

Pixie fit perfectly in the little sink.  :)

 I took a lot of pictures on my dad's phone, and quite a few on Mama's as well. I love taking pictures of anything, and I had beautiful scenery and lots of free time. It was so fun!

  

The trip is long over now, we are already back home, I'm just taking forever to get this posted.
 Part 2 coming soon (ish)!

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