Friday, January 20, 2012

Crazy Life in a Big Family

We have so much to laugh over, living as we do in a house with 12 people. Some days it seems more like so much to sigh over, but hey, that happens.
We have a little girl. That means cute little dresses, dolls, an imaginary world where everyone is some animal or other, Papa Rabbit and Mama Puppy and Grandpa Squeaky (why do I have to be Grandpa Squeaky?). It means excitement over pretty shoes, crying for chocolate at 2 am, and loving going places and seeing people.
We have four young boys. Boys mean noise and rowdiness. It means telling lame jokes on the way to church, forming a choir to sing Jingle Bells when a big sister comes in to put them to bed, arguing over Fords and Chevys and Dodges, pretending to be mountain ibexes on the stairs, and always making the sound effects of a whole battalion of artillery.
We have five "big girls". We stress over what we are going to do with the rest of our lives (as if it's in our hands), jostle for the mirror on Sunday mornings, have late night conferences sitting on the bed talking about anything, get hyper over card games, and generally have fun. Another thing we do is silent communication. One time our family was at our cousin's place and there were quite a few other people there, most of whom we didn't know. The five of us were hanging out with three other girls whom we had just met. I came in with a coke. Leah raised her eyebrows and gave a little smile. I shook my head. Leah gave me a pleading look. I rolled my eyes and went out to get her a coke. The other girls said, "Whoa, what just happened there?" We thought, "What, we do that all the time."
We have two amazing parents. The best thing about them is they are strict but reasonable. We have rules, but they are not arbitrary. They make sense. My parents love each other and us a lot.
We have so much to be thankful for in our family.

The main floor part of our addition has been finished for quite a while and we are enjoying it. The basement is almost finished and then we can move in! So exciting!

I have a new watch. My parents found it in a parking lot. :) Now I have a watch that is fancier than I would have bought myself, and I got it free. :))

Justine

2 comments:

Emily said...

The part about your brothers is really funny. My one brothers (Graeme) is a very literal person and can't imagine that he's any one other than himself. On the other hand Jeremy and William have VERY lively imaginations. William comes up with all sorts of funny things!

A month or so ago William got into his head that he wanted to change his name. His name is now Joe Andrew-Zorro. :-) I don't know where he got the name Joe from. He got the name Andrew from one of his favorite cousins and the name Zorro from his favorite movie character.

And I laughed at the part about brothers telling lame jokes. Sometimes I wish I could disappear from the scene when my brothers start up their "jokes". Some of them can be really quite funny, while others...yea, "lame" is the word for them! :-)

Have a great evening,

Emily

Carmen said...

This post is a good snapshot of now - a fun one to look back on in a few years, because I'm sure things will change and you'll be glad to remember how things were.