january 6: game night...

Tad's grandma is Russian.  "What's her hurry?!"  (I find myself hilarious!)

Every January 6th Tad's side of the family gets together to celebrate "Little Christmas".  Grandma K gives us all a small wrapped gift of candy with a "little" money attached, and we eat a "little" dinner.  Nothing fussy or fancy...just a nice way to regather after the formalities of the past month.  This year we hosted at our new house!  We ordered pizza and had king cake...

So, while I had the whole family held hostage in our house...I announced that they were all going to participate in game night WITH us!  The boys were super excited.  Game night is something we normally do as an immediate family, so adding "hostages" is AWESOME.  Tonight we played Kids on Stage, which is a kid's charades game.

Everyone had to take a turn...

Pops was a LION.

Jackie was a PIG.

Joel was a HORSE. (Although his elephant and monkey looked a lot like this too.)

Katie was FLYING A BALLOON.

Dominic was PLAYING PIANO.

Mommy was a KANGAROO. (Katie's guess, "a jumping camel?"...thanks.)

Granny was a BUNNY.

Elijah was a SPIDER.

Abram kept watch ON the board.

Josh was a good sport, too.  I think this was him after someone guessed he was using a computer. (I won't post the pic of you being a chair...heehee.)

And my favorite...Tad being a FLOWER.

Game night was a success! 

Tomorrow we do a favorites checklist...

january 5: friends...

I have to admit...today snuck up on me.  I hadn't totally thought it through.  Part of me really wanted to just stay home.  As nice as it has been to have the boys home, I am starting to feel a slight tug for them to return to school.  

So, today was supposed to be about friends...  Fortunately, we don't have to look too far anymore! We walked a whole 2 doors down.  What was supposed to be an attempt at 3 mommas doing P90X for an hour, turned into an all day playdate...complete with fried green tomatoes (it's a hard, hard life...I know).  We have two families that have a bunch of boys just like us, and although my original plan was to be a bit more intentional with this project...hanging with this crew is pretty much what my kids have grown to expect.  It's funny, but they are more like cousins than friends. We now have 11 boys between us!  Each family has their kids in different schools and will play sports at different playgrounds, so their circles are going to be growing in the years to come.  We hope that this crew will have solid foundation and history, and remain close despite that.  This is the age where you start to remember your friends, and I want to make sure we are helping our boys become friends that are going to be wanted and valued by the other kids they are around.    

When it was time to go, I was glad we had gone.  The boys love hanging out with each other...I love when the boys are happy.  

Getting 9 boys (the babies were inside) to smile...quite a feat.  But here they are...the Band of Brothers...our little world changers...friends since the day they were born.  (It was an "arranged marriage", but it's working out wonderfully.)

Tomorrow, we have Game Night!

january 4: nursing home visit...

Today we visited Chateau Living Center to visit with the residence and pass out a little gift.  I love old people...I was/am a therapist and love how little effort it takes to make a big impact.  Before we went we stopped at Walgreens to pick up a few small gifts.  I wasn't really sure how many people would be in the atrium, or how long the kids would last...so we bought 5 little snow globes...on clearance.

The boys were briefed on the do's and don'ts. (Do ask "How are you feeling today?", Don't ask "How old are you?"...you get my point.)  I explained that all the people we were about to meet lived here.  Some have family that come and visit, but some don't.  We need to make sure that we smile and say hi to anybody we see...cause we might be the best thing that happens to them today!

We only spent 20 or 30 minutes there.  The boys were wonderful.  They spoke up.  They endured hugs =).  They said "Happy New Year!".  They brought a little life.  Oh, and don't forget the snow globes.

Tomorrow we invite friends...

january 3: chores...

We have tried to do the chore charts in the past, but after a week or so they all fizzled out. Well, we are going to give it another shot. There aren't a lot of things on each boy's list...just a few things to hold them accountable for the condition of our home. The chores were laid out at dinner tonight, and everyone is eager and on board...for now.

Another system we rolled out tonight was our "Better Choices" jar. It is not uncommon to hear Tad and I say "You need to make better choices." as we try to corral our herd of boys. I got to thinking about that, and...it's kind of a vague statement. Never fear...the "Better Choices" jar is here!! Now, when someone does something that they really should know better...we won't put them in time out...we won't fuss...we will explain that they need to choose a "better choice."

"Choices" examples...clean downstairs bathroom, tell each brother one nice thing, draw someone a picture, clear your brothers dishes after dinner, and bring laundry downstairs to laundry room.  

Here's hoping this sticks around a while!

Tomorrow we visit a nursing home...

january 2: thank you notes...

Our project today was to make thank you notes for the wonderful gifts we received for Christmas. We are not always very good at this...but we want to get better! We also need every teachable moment available when it comes to gratitude.

Each boy had a job...

Joel stamped his name on the inside...

Elijah wrote on the cover....

Dominic added sparkly "snow"...

And here it is!

Love, the Patellas!

They are all addressed and ready to be dropped in the mail...go us!  A simple card, filled with love.

Tomorrow, we roll out chores...

31 Days of Family...

Our family is starting a little project! Every day in the month of January we have come up with something to do as a family. Through this we hope to make everyday things more intentional, learn new things about each other, focus on others, and try new things. I have spent a good amount of time processing this little endeavor...hopefully our family gets a lot out of it. I am going to post our schedule, and if anyone else would like to join in...we'd love to hear about your experiences too! Explanations about my thoughts behind these events will be posted as the month goes on.

 January
1. pray
2. thank you notes
3. chores
4. nursing home
5. invite friends
6. game night
7. favorites checklist
8. fancy dinner
9. patience/(a day without loud voices)
10. mad/sad/glad
11. cook with joel
12. try a new food
13. movie night
14. serve others
15. outdoor play
16. deliver dinner
17. specific praise
18. cook with dominic
19. love languages
20. picture day
21. dessert
22. bible reading at dinner
23. nature walk
24. music night
25. cook with elijah
26. stories in the dark
27. date night
28. technology free day
29. hugs!
30. silence
31. pray

Some of these things we already do, some we do occasionally and really enjoy, and some are just good excuses to add an adventure to our day.

Today was 1. pray. We prayed as a family before bedtime. This is something we usually do, but Tad and I had more behind it than a typical night. We prayed for our house. For our health. For our friends. We had the boys each pray for something. Elijah prayed "thank you for our house." Dominic prayed "thank you for my brothers, a great mommy and daddy, and please let Abram be healthy and get all the vitamins he needs." Joel prayed "thank you for mommy, daddy, brothers, and doors, and doors, and doors." We really do love our doors in this house =). They were typical young boys and were only somewhat interested. That's okay...they'll get it eventually. Before we go to bed tonight, Tad and I will pray together as well. We have so much to be thankful for...

Tomorrow, we write thank you notes!

Year in Review...

So, I'm realizing I haven't sat down to write since our Batman birthday party...it's been quite a year. I started this blog to journal our little lives, but had no idea how emotional of a year it would be. As fun as it is to write out the nuances of our life with kids, there were times this year that I felt very overwhelmed and didn't quite know if I wanted to air out our true feelings to the world. In a nutshell, our entire 2011 revolved around a house. We sold our's last December. We thought we had another one lined up. We spent a year living with 4 kids in a two bedroom townhouse with a majority of our belongings in a POD. I have to say, though, that this experience more than any other in my life...has been led by prayer. We felt it was time to sell our house and prayed it would sell. It sold in 3 weeks. We prayed for a place to live. A friend called and told us their townhouse had just become available that month. We prayed God would find us a new house...that one took a little longer.

The roller coaster that followed included highs of accepted offers, to lows of 5 houses falling through with little potential on the market. Feeling temporary is very unnerving. I took deep breaths almost daily and asked for God to replenish my patience...some days it worked, some days it didn't. It's funny, though. I have learned so many invaluable lessons this past year that I honestly wouldn't change the way things happened. I learned to be grateful. "God, we need a bigger house." turned into "God, give us a house that meets our needs." I learned to accept help. "I can handle this on my own." turned into "I could use a hand." Friends came out of the woodworks for us...it truly is overwhelming to think about. Tad and I, more than ever, had to lean on each other for patience and perspective...luckily we make a good team.

So, we bought a house! This house would not leave us alone...we tried buying it twice! It's bigger, it's down the street from amazing people, it needs a lot of work, it's perfect.

We spent the last year saying "When we get a house, ____________". I am so glad to say we have already started filling in the blank. Last night we had our first get together (despite the mess), and the boys had their first sleepover. We are so looking forward to 2012 to fill in the blank with more amazing adventures!!!

On that note, we are planning a month full of activities to kick off our year on the right foot. I am going to post it on here, so that anyone else who'd like to play along can...

Here's to a great new year!!!