Amelia

Amelia has started ballet. I think she likes the outfit and shoes better then the actual ballet but that's ok. For the Christmas season the elementary ballet classes were invited to the Nutcracker stage to dance around for a bit. She loved the little fairy wand she got. All she did was run laps around the outside of the set doing leaps in the air but she loved it.
When we went to the production of the Nutcracker she was memorized by Clara. I asked her if she wanted to be a party girl when she got bigger. Her answer was, "No, I want to be Clara."

Jack

Jack is quite the creative guy. This Christmas he made his own special Christmas scene for his room. As you can see in the picture it includes a fireplace, burning fire, stocking and "Mairy Chimis" sign.

Fall Conferences

So fall conferences happened this last week. Most important all the kids’ teachers said how respectful, hardworking, and enjoyable they are to have in class. Those are the words I like to hear as their mom.

Jacob

Jacob is officially double-digits, two whole hands 10! For his birthday Umma and Uppa surprised him by coming over to visit for his birthday weekend. We took several of his friends to Get Air to jump and then to get burgers. Dan and I got him a new bike and a drone (To replace the one he bought with his own money and then promptly lost 10 minutes after he started playing with it. "I don't know where it went mom, it was just a dot in the sky it was so far away.") Umma and Uppa got him his first rifle, a real ONE!  I can't say how great Jacob is and how much I love him.

Jack

The other night Jack was pondering whether he would like to get married when he is older. We talked about the pros and cons of marriage and the right age to be married. I wasn't sure why he brought it up until his final comment. "But if I don't get married I won't be able to take my family to Disneyland."  Can I say again how freak'in amazing our Disneyland trip was!!!

Jack

Quick updates on Jack:

1. He started wearing deodorant everyday. Not sure why but he now has a man smell as he walks by.

2. He has discovered Michael Jackson's (late 80s/ early 90s Michael) musical and dance ability. He loves the Thiller video and talks like Michael Jackson is some new thing. He has started to try out some of Michael's dance moves in the back of the sanctuary.

3. He finally was able to buy his cat mat. It is a giant cat head mat that he saved up for months to get. When he first saw the cat mat in a magazine we got in the mail we tried to order it, it was 6.99, but with the shipping the total order was 16.74. He was totally appalled at the shipping price but really wanted the cat mat so he saved. It is now proudly in the center of his room.

4. He has started to pretend to smoke. Yes it is totally disgusting and I have no idea where he is getting it but he pretends to smoke pencils, candy, suckers, whatever. I am hoping if I ignore him this phase will pass more quickly but goodness knows if I forbid him to do it he'll just "smoke" more.

Halloween 2017

Another Halloween! We started the day at IHOP with scary face pancakes and hot chocolate. Amelia wore her Dorthy costume to school while the boys waited until after school. Jack was a deadly skeleton and Jacob was a super carrot. Dad walked them around the neighborhood this year. They were not gone long since their buckets got so full the weight of it made their hands hurt. So they have a week to eat what the can, which I am sure is all of it.

Jack

Just last week Jack won 2nd prize out our church's Amazing Race Event; the prize was a 5.00 McDonald's gift card. As promised he assured Dad that he would treat him to a milkshake since he took me to dinner. :)

Amelia

Yesterday I went on once last trip to the pumpkin patch with Amelia. I was a chaperone for her class trip. At the pumpkin patch we wondered around looking at trees, pumpkins and squash. The kids heard a presentation on how to grow pumpkins. We ended with each getting to pick out a pumpkin to take home, well back to school. The rest of the week the kids are doing scientific investigations with their pumpkins. Seeing if it will float, dissecting it, things like that.It was a good time because it was the last one. Next year there will be no more class trips to the pumpkin patch: the end of an era as the kids get older. Amelia is so grown-up now and at the same time only in kindergarten, bittersweet.

Amelia

Glow Run

Jack

My wonderful Jack took me to dinner tonight! At his school Glow Run he won a raffle for a dinner for two at IHOP and decided to take me. Now he did some serious thinking about who he was going to take since he could only take one other person but in the end it was me. Jack reassured Dad the next time he won a dinner for two he would take him.
Dinner was great. He order a giant hot chocolate with 2 inches of whip cream on top, a scary face pancake that comes with whip cream, oreo cookies, and candy corn, plus a hot fudge sundae for dessert. He didn't finish the sundae, only ate the whip cream off the top.
He told me about third grade so far. He said he is awesome at math; really good if there is a times test. He said God has gifted him with amazing soccer goalie skills; he can shut down any player trying to score a goal. Although today he said he only played soccer for a little while at recess because he saw his friend Josh playing leap frog and wanted to play that.
I just love me Jack man!

Jacob

We recently changed Jack to a Wednesday afternoon cub scout group. This means that Jacob and Amelia ride the bus home every Wednesday. I told Jacob he is in charge and told Amelia to listen to Jacob. They are home for about an hour by themselves. I am not worried in the least since all they do is watch tv. 
The first time I picked them up from home I wanted to initial Amelia's behavior chart from school before I forgot. I flipped up the binder to find "JF" had already initialed. I looked at Jacob. He confidentially told me, "Well it does say guardian and I am kinda her guardian so I signed it." I was like alright sounds good. Like I said before I am not worried in the least.

Amelia

Amelia is doing so great at school. She was given the Student of the Month award for September for responsibility. Apparently she was called up at the K-2 assembly on Thursday to receive a certificate. I didn't even known the school did those kinds of awards but am not surprised at all that Amelia was recognized. She is really enjoying kindergarten and is adjusting well to school. I am so proud of her. 

Jacob

I missed the alarm this morning by 15 minutes, no big surprise there, but the nice surprise was Jacob had already made breakfast for himself and his siblings, packed the all the school lunches and made me coffee. Boy, how blessed am I to have such an AMAZING kid! He is so kind and  responsible.

Disneyland

This last week we took the kids to Disneyland! This is a vacation I planned 9 months before and had to keep the secret from them until the morning we left. I was bursting with excitement and joy to tell them, I could barely stand it!
The morning we left we got the kids up, told them to get dressed we were going on a secret adventure. Once everyone was up and on the couch we gave them the luggage tags with their names on it and Disney and Mickey and Minnie on the other side.
See below video:

We had the most magical time ever! Best family vacation we have ever had and probably ever will!!! The kids loved riding in the plane. Each kid got a window on the first flight so they could all see out the window. Jack didn't stop talking the whole flight because he was so excited.
On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we were in Disneyland or Disney California Adventure. We walked and walked and rode ride after ride. We ate desserts you can only get on Disney property. We used our fast pass maxpass app to cruise thru the lines. We ate amazing food at great restaurants, including the Blue Bayou inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

The absolute best part of the trip for me was seeing the magic and joy in the faces of the kids. Everything we did whether it was a ride or a show or shop the kids were absolutely enchanted by it. Half the time I didn't even look at the ride or show I just watched their faces. I have to thank Disney and Jesus for the amazing experience we had. I was so sad to leave. Mostly because I could feel the amazing memories being made for our family. We can never recreated the time, age or happiness we felt that week it was so unique to those days in time. I am so glad we got to go and will treasure it always.

First Day of School 2017

So the school year is started! We have a 4th, 3rd and kindergartner in the house. Last school year was such an amazing school year for the kids I just can't imagine what blessings God has in plans.
Now that Jacob is over the 3rd grade hump so to speak I am not as worried about him settling into 4th grade. He is such a hard worker I feel confident that he will do good. I pray God will protect Jacob from harm, give him good friends and give him the confidence to be who he is.
Jack has reached 3rd grade. He has made such significant strides in his learning from just last fall. I pray God continues to strengthen his reading and spelling. I pray Jack can transition into being a reader not just learning to read. I pray God gives Jack good friends and a good emotional environment to feel safe in.
Both Jacob and Jack's best friends are not in the same class this year. It is the first year the boys have had established friendships from year to year. Jack told me last night Javis (his bff) and him walked around at recess discussing how friendship fade if two friends are not in the same class. I said well you'll still be friends just in a different way. Jack said, "yes but we won't spend as much time together because we will be in separate classes." Well there is always recess so we will see how the friendship fair.
Amelia is finally in kinder. Academically, socially and emotionally she is so ready for kindergarten. I pray that God gives her an amazing fun experience that will spark her love of school. I pray her teacher can provide her with a challenge. I pray the kids in her class are a nice bunch that come ready to learn each day.

Olympic Pennisula

The kids and I went on a road trip around the Olympic Peninsula. It was an amazing time of camping, hiking, discovering and enjoying each other. The weather was great for the trip; sunny and warm.
Our first night we camped at South Beach. The kids played the whole time in these driftwood forts someone had made. It was great fun for them pretending to live in this fort. I sat on the beach and watched migrating whales in the surf.
The second day we stopped at several hiking places: Big Cedar Tree and Hoh Rain forest. The big trees and moss were so impressive. We had lunch on a 650 year old tree stump, walked the Hall of Moss trail and saw some elk. We drove the rest of the way to Salt Creek Campground that day. The kids loved the old military fort. The next day we walked down to the tide pools. The tide was coming in but we still saw some great stuff.
On the third day we drove into Port Angels to see the port and ferry terminal. The kids were very impressed with how large the ships were. We also stopped by Hurricane Ridge visiting center. We spent about an hour there but we could have spent another hour easy. There was a very cool discovery room for kids. Next we drove down to Seal Rock campground. The kids looked for crabs and hiked around some more.
On the way home we stopped by Gramma Sharpes' house to say hi. The kids love stopping by her house.
The whole week was great. We could set up our camp in about 10 minutes with us all working together and break it down in about 15. Jacob was very helpful with the campfire and camp stove. I hope we all can remember the memories we made on this trip, I know I will.

County Fair

Today we went to the Benton-Franklin County Fair. We have gone in the past so this wasn't anything new but each year brings a little different experience.
This year the kids went on the "big kid" rides. The first one they all tried to go on the carnival man stopped them to measure to see how tall they were. Jacob was tall enough no problem but Jack and Amelia were too short. Jack was totally shocked and outraged that he was not tall enough since when he measured himself he was. Now it needs to be said when Jack measured himself his hand had an upward angle of about 3 inches as he moved away from the measuring stick. The carnival man just laughed and said "nice try."
So Jacob went on the ring of fire for the first time. It was so delightful to see his face as he whirled around the circle. His face was priceless! His eyes were super wide and he had this permanent goofy grin of joy and delight. I had to laugh at loud it was so wonderful.
All the kids enjoyed the rides but I think Jacob really has the taste for fast rides.
Jack brought some of his own money to the fair so that he could do this floating bubble things he remembered from last year. He had a blast running like a hamster in this little ball. He also payed to play several games. I payed for them all to play one game where all three of them won a little frog. Amelia was not very happy about it but Jack said he would win her another prize. And he did! He rung a little bell with his mighty strength to win her an inflatable pink dolphin. She was so happy and he was so proud of himself. I was also pretty proud of him for winning his sister a prize.
Jack also spent a dollar to have a parrot fly to his hand to retrieve it. The bird sat there on his hand for awhile  just hanging out. It was a neat trick and Jack really enjoyed it.
Amelia's favorite part of the fair was having Jack win her a prize. And I believe eating the cotton candy.

Solar Eclipse

So the kids and I drove down to watch the total solar eclipse just outside Baker City Oregon. The boys got up at 2:00 am, me 3:00 am. Jack set my alarm for me. Jacob had coffee ready for me when I got downstairs. We stopped to get breakfast at McDonald and then hit the road. All the way down the kids slept and there was no traffic. We made it to the rest stopon the 335 mile marker around 7:00 am. The place was packed! There had to of been 500 hundred people already there. The rest stop itself had no parking. The restrooms lines were 20 people the whole time we were there. I hadn't even bothered to go look for a parking spot at the rest stop so I just parked on the other side of the road; it was a great stop.
So the time between getting there and the eclipse the kids and  I hung out in the car. We had snacks, stretched and mostly played cards. The guy parked next to us was from Canada. We met a lady who had spent the night in her car at the rest stop from Seattle. It was amazing to hear where people were from and how far they had come.
When the eclipse first started happening we would check on it in between hands of cards. As the total eclipse was getting closer it started to get darker. It was amazing how much light the sun gave off with just a little silver of it still uncovered.
Well when it actually it happened it was amazing! The moon just sort of dropped into place. The sun's coronas bloomed out; they looked like flower petals. The kids were jumping around they were so excited. All of them kept saying "this is amazing!" and "this is the best ever!" We were all very excited. It was a once in a lifetime kinda thing. After it was done Jack said it was the best 2 minutes of his life so far.
We didn't wait for the entire sun to be uncovered only about a fourth of it before we hit the road. We stopped in Baker City for lunch and ice cream. On the way home the traffic was ridiculously bad on the freeway so we took different highways home. Amelia and Jack slept most of the way home so missed our daring adventure driving these super backgrounds along farm field and wind turbines.
The whole day was quite the adventure that I don't think I will ever forget. I hope the kids never forget the amazing sun coronas of the eclipse or the feeling of being witness to God's mighty universe.  

Their Vacation

During July the kids were suppose to go camping with Umma and Uppa. Well instead of camping the kids ended up just going to their house. Of course it didn't matter where the kids were at they just wanted to spend time with Umma and Uppa. As we preparing for the trip the kids kept referring to it as "their vacation." Such as: "When we are on our vacation..." or "I think I need to pack this for my vacation."
Needless to say they had an amazing time; a constant whirl of activity for 4 days. They came back exhausted, content and overwhelming feeling loved by their Umma and Uppa.

Jedi and Princess School

This summer the kids tried out week long classes at the Academy of Children Theater. Amelia went for princess school and the boys went for Jedi school. It worked out nice that Amelia had morning class and the boys right after in the afternoon. All the kids enjoyed it.
At the end of the week we got to see a performance from the boys. As a class they showed off their light saber skills. Jacob did each move but was very aware of the audience. Jack however could have been in a Jedi movie! His moves and facial expressions were totally all into the activity; slicing the air with his weapon like a pro.
Then each group in the class performed a scene from a Star wars movie. Jack did a great job as Chewy. His group's scene was short and too the point, very nice. Jacob's group scene went a little long but he did great.  Jacob was Fin, him and the girl who played Rae did a great job, he even memorized all the lines to the scene!
Amelia's class was suppose to put on a performance but that didn't happen. Her leaders didn't prepare anything, needless to say she will not be going back to princess school there next year. Maybe she can try the Jedi school.

Lake Cascades

Over the 4th of July we went to Lake Cascades in Idaho. The trip was long after getting lost for several hours on the way there but we made the best of it and kept on smiling and laughing. At the campsite we swam everyday and the kids rode their bikes a lot. We stopped at two museums, one in Baker City on the way there and one just outside Baker City on the way back. Both museums were great. I am so glad the kids enjoy going to museums to look and learn new things.

I am so lucky to have such an amazing family.

Jacob

Jacob's baseball team won the AAA championships! He was so happy and excited. The game started with the national anthem and had 4 umpires, it was the big time! At his first up to bat he hit the ball in a gap in the outfield for a double! The rest of the at bats were walks. He even tried to catch a ball that came to him in the outfield; it was in his mitt for a second.
Overall the season was great for Jacob. I am so proud of him. He'll tell you that he improved so much this season, which he did. The biggest improvement that I saw was just his confidence in himself. He believed in himself and had success; can't really ask for more than that.

Amelia

Amelia turned 6! Two hands! Can't believe this long legged, happy, singing little girl is mine. She is so smart and creative. She loves to color and ride her bike. She is kind, generous and thinks of others. She is always ready to give a cuddle and tell you she loves you.
For her birthday she got to have a party at Umma and Uppa's this year. I asked what her favorite part was she said cake and the presents. I think her favorite present was her hatchimal from Umma and Uppa; boy did she do a happy dance when she opened the box.


The other thing Amelia got for her birthday was the mumps. Ya, the mumps! She woke up Sunday morning with a big swollen cheek crying it hurt so much. The night before I noticed her cheek was swollen when she complained it kinda hurt but I didn't think anything of it. Sunday morning though I took her to urgent care. The doctor came in, took one look at her and said it looks like mumps. I was like, what?! Apparently outbreaks were cropping up. So now she is in isolation for a week while she heals up. She doesn't feel too bad as long as we give her ibuprofen for the pain of her swollen glands. And in addition to the immunizations she will be immune. Here's hoping none of the rest of us get it.

Jack

Tonight the cub scout group went to the BMX track for their end of the year celebration. The track was super nice and well groomed. Jack absolutely loved it! He got right up to the top of the starting line hill and let it rip! He said he felt a little anxious the first time since but you couldn't tell. He zipped up and down the hills and around the corners like a pro. The more he raced the track the more serious he became. He started standing up and trying to jump his bike. As he went around the corners he had the look of total concentration.
At the same time as the cub scouts a BMX team was practicing. Jack loved their neon yellow helmet and team shirts. He now says he wants to join a team.
At the end of the hour and half his little face was super red and he was tired but he had such a good time. I told him we could come back for him to ride some more. I am sure Jacob would love to do it too.

Amelia

Amelia got a new diary from a class book order. She just loves the soft fuzzy purple fur. She dutifully locks and unlocks her diary after every entry. As you can see she really loves to write and draw in it.

Art projects

            Jacob's cool mask                                                               Jack's flower

Jacob

Jacob hit his first home run in baseball the other night! He has worked hard all season building up his confidence when he is batting in a game. (It helps that his coaches started making kids run for not trying to hit the ball.) It is so great to see him be successful!

I was lucky to see it too because I was taking Jack to Cub Scouts that night and had to leave early. Just as we were pulling out of the parking lot I noticed Jacob up to bat. We saw from the car Jacob crack hit out to right field. I was yelling, screaming and clapping; Jack informed me that Jacob could not hear me. I could see him running so fast around the bases. I was surprised to see his coach wave him on at 3rd base.

Of course the best part was watching Jacob run into a big hug from Dada right on the other side of home plate. Nothing can compare to the feeling of watching your kid succeed.

Amelia

Amelia is playing t-ball again this year. She has all the basics down this year. She hasn't hit in a game yet but that's ok. She says her favorite part of the game is the snacks at the end. ;)  Her other favorite part is at the end of practice we always play a fun game; season favorite: water balloons!

Mother's Day

So this Mother's Day was great. All the kids gave me the gifts they made early so it was like Mother's Day on Friday. Each kid made a small gift and, of course, my personal favorite a card explaining why they love me. The following are the pics of each of their gifts.

Jacob:

Jack:

Amelia:

PS - It is a good thing we celebrated on Friday because all Saturday night Jack was up throwing up so so was I. Sunday, actual Mother's Day was a pretty low key day because Jack was still sick and I was tired from being up all night.

Jack

So Jack had a big week this last week. He performed in the all school talent show and scored his first touch down in football.  I got both on video!
His talent show went great. He sang loudly into the mic so everyone could hear him. Jack said he had stage fright so he did the talent show to to get over it. And boy did he!

Amelia

Amelia smashed her finger in the car door yesterday. It was pretty bad. Her nail bed under the skin is totally exposed. After the initial smash she did pretty good. I did take her to the urgent care since it kept oozing blood and clear liquid pretty good for about an hour and half. It is still oozing if she uses it but not as bad. Not sure how long it will take to heal or what the nail will look like after. Only time will tell...

Trees

So Mrs. Stephanie next door has three trees growing in the edge of her yard. They use to be quite small but the boys managed to climb up the few branches that would support them, not far up. Well now those trees are much bigger and the kids can get up much higher! Amelia now scurries up the darn things.
Mrs. Stephanie has always said the kids could climb the trees so that's no problem; I don't even mind the kids climbing, climbing trees are fun. But geez-la-wheez it scares the dickens out of me at the thought of one of them falling out of the tree. Mostly because underneath the tree is a metal bench and concrete curbing around the flower bed, if one of the kids fell it would be a serious injury.
I don't say anything, though, other then be careful and hang on because climbing trees is fun and swaying in the branches can make a kid feel so free.

Jacob

Jacob has decided he will be my assistant coach for Amelia's t-ball team. The medium adult size shirt fits him enough that he wears it with his matching red baseball hat. It is so wonderful that he wants to help, and the great part about him helping is that he does actually help! He plays catch with Amelia, shows the kids how to run bases and where the defensive positioning is. He even helps kids with their batting setup.
Once he had practice so he couldn't come help and he was pretty upset. He said he would rather come be a coach. While I am glad he wants to help younger kids, I told him he needed to go to his practice.
So to add to my coaching the t-ball kids I am adding on mentoring Jacob as a kid coach; which is something I love to see.

Jack

While deciding if a movie was appropriate for the kids to watch Dada told me the word damn and sucker in the movie.This is the conversation that followed:
Jack:I know those words already, its ok.
Me: Well I don't want you repeating those words.
Jack: I won't. I know lots of bad words and I don't say them.
Dada: Well if you say them in your head you are saying them.
Jack: Oh well I don't even say them in my head.
Dada: Well if you even think them you are saying them. (smile)
Jack: I don't even think them. (then a sheepish smile on his face as he starts to think of the bad words he knows.)

We ended up getting the movie.

Easter Bunny

Well the jig is up for the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and Tooth Fairy for Jacob. While putting away some stuff from Lowes he stumbled upon the Easter Bunny stash in the trunk of the car. (Dada forgot it was in there) Now I had always planned on coming clean about these fun magical figures of childhood but not for a couple of years. My plan was when each kid reached fifth grade sit them down for the sex talk and then acknowledged that now that they were old enough to know that information they were old enough to know Santa, Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy weren't real. That way they could be in on the joy of seeing others younger then them enjoy the characters. Just a small ritual of passing of age and maturity for each kid.
So since Jacob found out I went ahead with my plan and had the sex talk with him. Nothing to deep but the mechanics. He already knew some stuff from the books from the library and goodness knows where else but he was informed. He decided he wanted a more detailed book with more information and pictures. I said sure, he can take a look and then we will talk about it. Lucky for me it went well but most things with Jacob have been pretty easy so far.

Spring Break 2017

Kids spent their spring break on the west side of the state again this year. On the way home I asked each what was their favorite thing they did. Since it was so hard to choose I let them have a top two.

Jacob:
1. Putting the model car together with Uppa
2. Trapping the opossum
3. Remaking the bridge

Jack:
1. Putting the model car together with Uppa
2. Getting the saw from Uppa

Amelia:
1. Playing barbies with Maysen
2. Getting all the candy from Nanna Kim

Amelia

Amelia has the baseball fever. She is wanting to play catch all the time. The first couple of times we started with the wiffle ball because she is scared of the ball. I also had her just hit the ball away with her glove so she gets use to using her glove as a way of protecting her from getting hit.
Well once we switched to her actually trying to catch the ball she did great. The first time she caught the ball you would have thought she won the lotto! She was so excited and happy; her face just lit up with joy and then she danced around. Now she counts how many times she catches the ball.
We have moved from a wiffle ball to a real ball. She can throw it pretty darn good and of course catch it some of the time. :)

Jacob

Jacob has started little league. He had his first practice this last Wednesday. Dada says the coaches look like good guys who will actually teach the game to the kids. On Thursday the team was going to have batting practice at the little league fields. So on Thursday I drop Jacob off at practice. As we pull up I ask Jacob if he recognizes the coaches, he says ya. I get out introduce myself to the coach, make sure about the pick up time, and leave.
Now Dada picked Jacob up at practice. When they get home they tell me Jacob had practiced with the wrong team! Apparently his team was somewhere else, another batting cage somewhere by the little league fields. Both Jacob and Dada were like why did you leave him at the practice? All I could say was Jacob said those were the coaches! Apparently when Dada picked him up the other coach told him that Jacob was not on his team.  Geez
Well I am hoping by next week he will know who his coaches are.

Amelia

Amelia has now learned how to snap with both hands. She bee-bops around the house snapping away. She snaps a couple time in between each bite of food. She just loves to snap! And of course I love to hear her little fingers clicking.

Jacob

Jacob has become quite the chef lately. He made is first batch of chocolate chip cookies the other night and boy were they good!

Jack

For the last couple of weeks Jack has been sleeping in his "fort." He will climb out of it to get a hug and kiss goodnight and then climb back under the stuff to slip into his sleeping bag. Not sure how long this will last but at least we don't have to wash his bed sheets.

Jack

Jack has finally lost one of his top front teeth. He was VERY excited to lose it finally. Of course he looks so cute with a big gap in his smile.

Jacob

Jacob has started to play organized soccer for the first time thru the YMCA. Now that isn't too notable expect that it is for the 9/10 team; which means most kids have played before. Jacob's soccer skills are definitely not up to par as the rest of the team and his coach is super intense but Jacob is hanging in there. The practices are totally intense and half the time he is chewing on his lip trying his best to keep up and understand. He isn't the only one, like I said the coach is super intense.
The one thing that I see in Jacob though is his coach-ability. Whenever his coach shows how to do something or instructs him what to do he does it. Now as a coach and teacher myself, I can totally appreciate his ability to take in what he is told and then immediately try to do it.
Jacob may never be the best athlete on a team but he does try hard, does his best and does what he is told. All of those characteristics will help him on the playing field and in life.

Jack

Over Christmas break Jack saw one of those commercials about helping abandon animals for .50 a day or something like that. He came in with tears running down his face he was so sad about the animals. He asked why they would show that on tv? Why no one would help those animals? He was pretty upset for while; I just hugged him.
Well over dinner he brought up the cause again. He wanted to donate money to help those animals. Well of course he doesn't have much money but he convinced Amelia and Jacob to give him some of their money to add to his few coins. We asked him if he would like to donate the money to the tv place or at the local animal shelter. He said he would like to donate it to the local shelter and pet some of the animals. On Wednesday we are going to drop off $4.53 to the animal shelter.
While we were discussing this Jacob, smart-mouthly, pointed out that most of the money was his and Amelia's. Dada was quick to point out that giving the money was important but having someone round up the money was just as important. I asked Jack if he knew what that meant, of course he said no. I told him someone has to be tell people about problems that are important to them, someone has to lead people to believe giving money to that cause is worthwhile: simply put he was a leader.
Of course that made him puff his little chest up with pride; it makes me proud as well. Jack was significantly moved by those sad animals he saw. No matter how small, he has acted on that feeling to help those animals; an official start, hopefully, to a long line of actions that make the world a more loving place.

Winter 2017

This last month we have had so much snow! It has been a recorded year of snow fall. Since Christmas break the kids have missed a week of school. When they do go to school it has been 2 hour delays. They have played in the snow, shoveled snow, went sledding, had snow ice cream, lots of hot chocolate and one day we made a snow fort in the cul de sac.
The snow is deep enough to be up to their knees as they trudge across the field to go sledding at the park. As a grown up there are always those epic winters you remember with tons of snow and school snow days; I believe this one will be one of the winters.

Amelia

Amelia lost her first tooth! We noticed it was lose the other night while we were brushing her teeth. She asked why her tooth felt funny and we discovered it was loose; since then she has avidly wiggled it. Tonight at dinner she popped up and said her tooth moved a lot. It was bleeding a bit so I grabbed hold of it and pulled it the rest of the way out. She is so excited to have lost it! We took a picture, of course, and she had me send it to her friend Adriana from preschool.( Adriana has lost 4 teeth so far). She already has the glass with the tooth by her bed ready to go for the Tooth Fairy. Can't believe Amelia has lost her first tooth! 

Jacob

Jacob loves the game Monopoly. I do not like the game Monopoly.
This is how every game starts: Jacob, Jack, Amelia and I start the game. Eventually Jack and Amelia quit because the game takes soooooooo long. I want to quit because the game takes soooooooo long but can't because I am the mom and must keep playing with Jacob. Usually after a couple of hours we take a break. The break lasts until the next day. The game stays as is until we come back to it because we always have to come back to it. Jacob  will patiently and methodically play until the bitter end; which is usually me "losing" somehow.
I swear that kid is the most patient, persistent kid I know. He will mortgage properties. Stay in Jail for about 20 turns in order to collect rent but not pay any. Build up up houses into hotels, the whole nine yards.
I think I am going to get him the personalized Monopoly game for Christmas next year. I might as well land on Heidi Ave if I have to play it.