GIG HARBOR, Wash. — 7 a.m.

It's a Friday morning and Janine Weber's kitchen is a lesson in controlled chaos.

Daughters Alisha, 14, and Anna, 9, along with sons Alexx, 13, and Austin, 9, sit at the kitchen breakfast bar of their Gig Harbor, Wash., home munching cereal. Alexx has already consumed an egg sandwich, and is making wisecracks to his siblings as he digs into Frosted Mini-Wheats.

"Could you stop being 13 for once?" Janine asks, smiling.

Daughter Gracie, 9, bounds into the room, leading Austin off to play with the baby chicks basking under a warm-up light in a bathtub.

"Gracie, you need to wash your hands," Janine says, letting her know her egg sandwich is waiting.

Gracie answers a phone that constantly rings: "Hey Mom! It's Adam."

Janine takes the call from her oldest, a 20-year-old son who lives on his own.

Think you've met all the Weber kids? Think again. As Austin volunteers with a grin: "We have more upstairs."

Yet to appear at the breakfast table are daughters Allie, 4, and Amy, 11.

And then there's daughter Amanda, 19, who lives in a small cottage next door to the Webers' five-bedroom home.

Yep, Janine is the mother of nine.

When they head out for a family pizza night, she says, "you can see people counting heads, trying to figure it out."

Janine, 42, and her husband Bob, 45, stopped trying to figure it out long ago.

Bob told Janine — before they married in 1985 — that he was never getting married and never having kids.

After their two oldest children were born, Janine developed health problems that made future births a challenge. The couple decided to adopt, first Alexx, then the others, one by one.

"It was a leap of faith for us," says Janine. "They're all my kids. You don't feel any different, whether you gave birth to them or not."

LOTS OF HUGS

Spend a few days with Janine Weber, and her secrets for managing a large family emerge:

Be consistent and as fair as possible. Nothing upsets kids more than rules that are always changing.

Don't be afraid to exert your parental authority. When she had her first two children, Janine tried to let them settle disputes on their own. That was the conventional wisdom of the times two decades ago. But as the years went on and her family grew, she realized that sometimes siblings do need Mom to referee.

Give them structure. After-school and Saturday chores are woven into the fabric of family life at the Weber home. And because there are so many siblings, it's easy for parents to nudge reluctant workers by saying, "See, your sister's doing it."

Give them hugs. Open arms wide, wrap around child. Repeat.

THE DAILY ROUTINE

7:20 a.m.

Before the Weber kids leave for school, Janine welcomes more children to her home.

Maddy Davis, 9, joins the family at the breakfast table as her mom drops off her sisters, Erin, 3, and Emma, 5. The young ones are usually there for the day, part of Janine's in-home day care, Little Blessings.

But not this day.

"They were both throwing up all night," says their mom, a teacher, who needs to run to school, map out a plan for a substitute teacher to follow, then take Erin and Emma home.

No biggie, says a smiling Janine. Amy is upstairs with the same ailment.

She'll keep the young patients separated.

"I use bleach water to sanitize the countertops," she says, getting out her constant kitchen companion, a spray bottle. "I'm kind of weird about germs."

Why does a woman with enough kids to form her own baseball team decide to open a day care?

She started the business when Austin, then the youngest, went off to school.

"I needed something to do," Janine says. "You do what you know."

7:50 a.m.

"Breakfast is over," Janine announces, giving the countertops another sanitizing swipe.

Amy comes into the kitchen, looking for a hug from Mom. She gets it.

"Austin, did you take all your vitamins?" Janine asks.

Alisha and Anna go over homework in a math book, then Anna asks her mom for help. Janine takes a stab at it, a quiver of doubt in her voice: "I think what you have to do here is 5T equals 1F?"

With breakfast over, leftovers go to Buster and Nana, two Weber dogs. The rest of the menagerie is two horses, a pony, two more dogs, four cats, a chicken, a couple of goldfish and a baby goat the family is bottle feeding. Says Janine: "I think animals are therapeutic."

They also teach the kids — who help feed and care for the animals — responsibility.

"It's not just me," she says. "We work as a team."

8:15 a.m.

Part of the team today includes an assistant who will stay with the day-care kids for the morning.

On Friday mornings, Janine takes Allie to physical therapy. She was born with myotonic muscular dystrophy, a form of the disease that can affect muscles in the face, neck, legs, arms and elsewhere. Although the Webers knew Allie was a special-needs child, they didn't receive a specific diagnosis until she arrived in their home.

"At first the adoption agency was pretty nervous," Janine says. "I finally told them I was not going to give her back. You can stop worrying."

NO GUARANTEES

Both Janine and Bob believe when it comes to kids — biological or adopted — there are no guarantees.

"You have a child — or you adopt a child — with special needs," she says. "And you deal with it. You can't foresee everything. There are unknowns when you have children, and when you adopt children."

She watches Allie hold her therapist's hand, then jump off a bench, landing on both feet.

"That's new," Janine says, with a proud smile.

9:15 a.m.

Janine says her family can afford private therapy for Allie, thanks to their excellent insurance coverage through Bob's maintenance job at the Simpson Tacoma Kraft paper mill.

The couple raises their family on one full-time income. Little Blessings brings in some added cash. Janine notes other ways they economize: "We built our house when property was not so expensive. We don't buy brand-new cars. We don't have much of a savings account."

The family buys a side of beef each year, which gets stored in a freezer until Bob heats up the barbecue.

Family vacations are camping trips. Most of the time, the kids get their hair cuts at home.

10:20 a.m. Back home, Janine finds a stray peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich in the kitchen, left behind in the morning rush. Someone will be hungry at lunch.

Erin and Emma, the two sick day-care girls, have gone home. Aidan Bartlett, 2, another day-care child, has arrived. It's a relatively easy day, with just Aidan and Allie, who play together well, and Amy, who is sick and just wants to watch TV.

The day-care assistant leaves. Janine heats up a bottle for the baby goat — an orphan who won Janine's heart. Just like one of the baby chicks, which she suspects is blind. The people at the feed store told her not to take the defective bird, but "I couldn't leave her there."

11:05 a.m.

It's time for a few preschool lessons for Aidan and Allie, then Janine makes lunch: peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches, cheese crackers, applesauce and juice.

Afterwards, Aidan cheerfully grabs a blanket and sacks out for a nap. Allie goes upstairs to sleep in her own bed.

"We have a routine," says Janine. "They don't question it."

2:55 p.m.

With nap time over, the little kids ride along while Janine picks up Gracie, Austin and Alisha at Burley Christian School.

"How was your day?" Janine asks.

"Fine," the kids reply in unison.

The other kids, who attend public school, return home by bus. Kids rush upstairs to a bedroom or out into the backyard, where there are swings, slides and a basketball court.

THE SECRET: STRUCTURE

3:30 P.M. It's more than a week later, a Monday afternoon.

Bob is off work, so he makes a grocery run while Janine prepares spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.

"Everybody wants to know, how can this house run so smoothly?" asks Bob. The secret: giving the kids structure.

There are expectations: After school, kids get a half hour or so to get a snack and unwind. Then they have chores. After that, it's homework until dinner is on the table.

A couple of times, Bob says, he wanted to throw in the towel when one of the kids was acting out. But Janine wouldn't let him: "She won't give up on any of them."

Daughter Amanda says if her mom has a flaw, it's that she takes on too many things. "Mom likes to save children and pets. She's a runner," Amanda says. "It would be nice if she just slowed down once in a while."

FOCUSING ON FAMILY

Neighbor Courtnay Ryan, who sent her two kids to Little Blessings, appreciates the Webers' values.

"I admire them," she says. "They're one of the few families that actually sit down each night at the dinner table and talk about their day. The whole focus in their world is family, putting kids first."

4:50 P.M.

While Janine cooks, Bob heads to the back yard to play basketball with Alexx, Anna, Austin and Gracie. Amy plays for a while, too, but suddenly runs upstairs. It could be a physical hurt or an emotional one. Janine decides not to pry.

Basketball ends, and the kids move inside. Anna and Alexx work on homework. Amy and Allie play a game.

"Feast your eyes on my finished homework," Alexx says after a while. He has to get good grades, he says, "or they don't let me play baseball."

5:40 p.m.

"Everybody needs to wash hands and put homework away," says Janine. One parent sits at each end of the table; seven kids fill the sides.

"God is good, God is great, let us thank him for our plate ..." the family prays together.

After dinner, Amy, Anna and Gracie play rock-paper-scissors to decide who has to fetch the Scrabble board. Allie wants to join in, so Gracie teaches her 4-year-old sister the age-old game.

Austin makes a face. He still has homework to finish.

7:45 p.m. It's near bedtime for the Weber kids. Janine gives Gracie five more minutes on the computer, and she tells the others to brush their teeth and put on pajamas.

Gracie wants to know if they can listen to Bible story tapes in bed.

"Only if you're in bed by 8 p.m.," Janine tells her. She'll be back at 9 p.m. to make sure the tapes are off.

There are bedtime prayers, as Janine tucks in each child.

Another day ends for the Weber family.

And tomorrow, it starts again.