An interview with Jacob

Jacob and I are sitting here waiting for some friends to swing by for airsoft and I decided to interview him now.

What makes you happy?  swimming and playing airsoft and playing video games

What makes you laugh?  funny TV shows

If you were going to eat pure junk food, tell me the menu?  Doritos, Takis, Pepsi, Butterfinger shake, cheese pizza, sour gummy candies, beef jerky
(I can't allow him to continue.  I am now feeling sick!)

If you were going to create a healthy enjoyable meal, what would it include?  Brisket, snow peas, carrots, and spinach salad.

Favorite present ever?  probably my football or bike

Someone you look up to?  Dad

A few good friends?  Leah, David, Isaac, Joseph, Brigham

Strong subject in school?  PE

Favorite teachers?  Ms. Mackey (Social Studies and English at Harmony-5th grade)
              Mrs. Halprin (kindergarten at Purple Sage)
              Ms. Lee (3rd grade at Purple Sage)
             Mrs. Bone-Jackson (pre-k)
             Coach Beardsley  (Gym teacher at Harmony)

Things that make you sad?   Not being allowed to play airsoft, getting grounded, moving away from Texas

Your favorite thing about Andrew?  Playing airsoft with him, going on hikes together, playing football, and that he'll always play with me no matter how much of a jerk I am to him.

Your favorite thing about Millie?  She's hilarious.  She plays airsoft with me.

Your favorite things about Mom?  She's patient.  She rarely grounds me.

Tell me what you love to learn about.  History - specifically wars.

What do you want to be when you grow up?  U.S. Marine

How many kids do you plan on having?  (freaked out voice) I don't know!!

Where do you think you'll serve a mission?  Ummm, China?

Love you, Jake da snake!   

Little Gentleman

Had to document my boy becoming a gentleman.

Jacob bought an airsoft gun a couple of days ago and it wasn't working right.  He planned to get together with the kids in the neighborhood this afternoon and was in a big hurry to get to the store to exchange his gun for a new one.  He hustled right up to the Customer Service area with Millie and I dragging a little behind.  A woman approached the line around the same time Jacob was getting there and he immediately said in a clear gracious voice, "You can go ahead of me!"

I am so very impressed with how he handled himself while in a hurry and without me even really there yet.  Way to go Jacob!

And then a funny tidbit:  As we were driving home I snagged my nail and it ripped halfway.

Me:  "Whoa Jacob, check this out."

Jacob glances and shudders and says while kind of laughing: "I know you're divorced now and don't have a man to show that kind of stuff to, but you don't need to use me as a substitute!"

Hahaha!  As if I keep a man around to show disgusting stuff to!

So what's been going on around here?

Here's a bit of December catch up.

Kids making "funny videos" with their friends. And for some reason they are loading as still shots. I'll work on that. Millie was a happy spectator.

Many boxes of chocolate were sold for a school fundraiser in hopes that they would win an ipad.

Amelia decides to water the flowers and insists that even though it is 50 degrees outside, a swimsuit must be worn in the off chance that some water gets on her.

Many many hours are spent playing with the little darling that I watch everyday. She is seven months old and she and Amelia cannot get enough of each other!

SO MUCH DRESSING UP! Amelia makes sure that even little E gets in on all the action.

More dressing up.

And more pics to come!

You didn't!

Oh Yes, YOU DID.
(her hair is so light you can't really tell how much there is.)

Luckily it just kind of gave her a layered look.

And the boys are home early from school today. It's Christmas Break! They enjoyed their Christmas parties and at Jake's they had a "Deck the halls" card exchange and he got POKEMON!!! All the rage at the school right now. (Isn't this a few years behind the fad?)
Anyway, Millie is so happy to have her big brothers home for the afternoon, happy to play the game with them (Jake keeps coming up to me and whispering that he is going easy on her), and even Emma - the little girl I watch now is enthralled with the action.

They both got straight A's. Jake studied for hours for all his final exams. It was tough. I am so proud of him for doing hard things. He says he plans on getting a $30,000 scholarship for college, so here we go! Off to a good start, buddy!

My dear sweet darling children. I am amazed at your abilities. Amazed that God has entrusted me with your care. You are so good. So creative. So intelligent and inquisitive. So forgiving, quick to have fun and look at the brighter side of things.

Andrew - you cleaned out the van as a surprise for me because you knew I would be driving kids from youth group around for a scavenger hunt tonight. You even pulled out all the rugs and beat them and used a wet rag to clean out anything left in the cupholders. You were sweating like crazy! It is an April evening and was 94 degrees out. You were thrilled to be doing it and I overheard you letting Amelia join in as well, using a gentle teaching voice to direct her as to where things went. Here you are enjoying some cold watermelon after finishing your surprise.


Amelia - every time you pull a candy out of the Easter stash Grandma and Grandpa just sent you, you run to me with an identical candy and say, "One for me, and one for YOU!" and then give me an adorable smile with light spilling out of your huge beautiful eyes.


Jacob - I had so much fun running with you a few weeks ago. What a great conversationalist you are! The time flew by and it was so great to be passing it with you on a cool Saturday morning when the world was still quiet. The next day at church one of the men in our ward came up to me and commented that he had seen us and said it looked like I was having a lot of fun with you. I WAS! Here's a funny picture of you from our road trip last summer.


I love you all! I love that you are all willing to work on things with me. I love the flowers Andrew always picks for me, the way Amelia does something (like leak a little bit before running to the bathroom or open her eyes during prayer), tells us about it, and then states, "But dat's okay." With her eyes kind of squinted, her head kind of nodding at a tilt, and always followed by a knowing little laugh of hers. I love that Jacob ALWAYS checks in when at his friends house within the MINUTE of when I've asked him to. ALWAYS. And even if it's just a check in he's already spilling out what a"marvelous" time he's having and what he and his friends are up to, and what they've eaten, and why they're laughing in the background, and "wait Mom, one more thing, David just told me this joke. You HAVE to hear it........" and I end up having to kind of cut him off while laughing and let him get back to what he's doing.

How grateful I am to be your mama.

TOGETHER!

My boys have been marching around, giggling uncontrollably, with their arms draped around each others' shoulders and chanting...

"We're just two belly buttons out to face the world's problems together,
TOGETHER!"

Now they are laying on the couch pulling each others' ears and shouting/guffawing/drooling
"TOGETHER, TOGETHER!"

Jeepers. I love them.

Okay - funny side note. They were also talking about being Siamese twins. Mike just read this and told me that the night before he had taken the boys to the bookstore and they had been captivated by a book on Siamese twins. Ahh..there is an explanation behind the madness.

Swinging

The other afternoon we were out swinging in the back yard. Amelia was in a little car swing flying high in the sky...

Me: Millie, where are you driving to in your car?

Amelia: Salt Lake City.

Me: Oh! What are you going to do there?

A: Get married in the temple.

Me: Really? Who will you be marrying?

A: My mother-in-law

And because I ran and got the camera, the boys had to do something super cool.

32.....again?

I think I've been telling people all year that I was 32, so when I realized a couple months ago that I would actually be
turning 32 at this birthday I was a bit surprised. I guess no fear of aging here!

The kids surprised me with a breakfast they made themselves. Wish we had a picture of it. My favorite part of the day was listening to the boys organize, decorate, and cook with their hushed voices, commands, and (sometimes loudly spoken) brilliant ideas! I kept pretending to sleep and smiled to myself when I heard Mike go out and ask them if they needed help and they responded that they would do all of it by themselves. They made us all plates of wonderfully arranged scrambled eggs, toast, strawberries, and carrots. Cuties!

Oh - and they woke me up by stuffing Amelia's leftover cake from the night before with 32 candles and singing to me in bed. Hahaha!

My birthday is the day after Amelia's. Can you see that she has already donned all her princess gear before coming down for breakfast? And all week she kept saying to me in an all-knowing voice, "We are da grils. So we have our birthday togezer. We don't want to have it by ourselves!" (Ourselves being said incredulously.)

Sweetness

Let me give you some background. I've decided to homeschool my kids. I'll have to do a different post on that, but here's what happened tonight.

Our elementary school's Welcome Walk was set for tonight. It's when you find out who your teacher is. You wait, excitedly and impatiently, between 5 and 7 for your teacher to show up at your door. She brings you a little bag with papers for mom and dad, a write up about her, and some fun stuff like pencils...maybe a zebra ruler, and then visits with you for a few minutes and is off again. Then your kids are calling all their friends to find out who's in who's class. Lots of fun.

About 6:30 Jacob started his phone calls. First on the list, Simon.

Here's what I could hear from the other room:

"Simon! Hey! Who'd you get?!

Awesome! Are you excited?

Were you hoping for her?

Do you know who else is in your class?"

....a little chatter. And then apparently Simon decided to start asking Jake the same questions, even though he knew Jake would be at home this year.....

And Jake answered, "I got Ms. Anderson! Oh yeah, I like her a lot. She's the one I wanted the most."

Then he looks over at me and smiles a heart melting smile.

LOVE.

Little Fred

A little poem the kids memorized yesterday. The content of the poem being my attempt at brainwashing....

But either way, they are pretty sweet.

(Each video is about 30 seconds long.)







Little Fred
When little Fred was called to bed
He always acted right.
He kissed Mama, and then Papa,
And wished them all goodnight.

He made no noise like naughty boys,
But gently up the stairs
Directly went when he was sent
And always said his prayers.

So I have been extremely busy at the school, more on that later, but good things are happening. As a result of me being so busy though, dinner time often was moved back to 7:30ish, okay - maybe 8 sometimes, and everything was rush rush. Even though a lot of what was causing crowded days was for a good cause, it made for stress in the home and bad habits started forming. We got in a bad cycle of behavior and how I would respond to that behavior. Repeat.

Some of my good girlfriends from law school came out and stayed for a weekend.

(Hi Ronna & Emily!)

We had such fun!!!! But an important side benefit for my family was that the four days that my kids and I were apart provided a natural break in our cycle. I was able to step away and evaluate and things have gone SO MUCH BETTER around here!

I am being a better girl, and the boys (obviously) are responding to a nicer mom, dinner at a normal time, earlier bed times, and not so much of the "alright, everyone has 20 minutes to finish all their homework and then we're gone!" stuff.

They also found the energy to set some of their own goals and I am SO PROUD of them! I decided to throw an impromptu party for them one night to recognize them. Just threw up some streamers and made some quick blue ribbons while Mike made dinner. They were both surprised!

Jake's says, "Faith in God & Hard Work: Positive Life Change Award." He has been working really hard on being nicer to Andrew. He decided that he needed to say a prayer every time he thought about hurting Andrew and has remembered to do this. His behavior has changed drastically and has had a noticeable effect on the household. Hooray Jacob!!

Andy's says "Determination & Honesty: No thumb sucking award." He eliminated his "slippy dippy" from his sleepytime diet and is now thumb free! Woohoo! If he found his slip lying near his bed at night he would grab it and throw it onto the highest shelf in his closet and say "Not tonight!" He decided on a two week chart and excitedly put his big X in the box each morning.

Both boys came up with these goals on their own, and monitored themselves. I can't say it enough.....I am so proud of them!

Scrumps to all of us for getting our act back together again! I love you family!

Go Tigers!

Wow! Andrew's soccer team was ON today! All five did an incredible job. I am so excited by their progress and Andrew has got some serious legs on him. He makes running look effortless and he is ALWAYS where he needs to be. GO ANDREW!!

And Jacob's team did a great job of pressing today. They held it down near the other team's goal most of the game. Lots of goal shots. Jake is a great defender and definitely is not shy about pushing his way right into a crowd to kick the ball out of the tangle.

Good work boys!

Back 2 Skool

The boys started school bright and early today! Jake started off third grade with confidence and excitement. Andrew tightened his grip on my hand as we approached the front door of the school. He told me he felt a little nervous. I told him that was normal, and that there were four whole kindergarten classes full of kids starting just like him, and that the teachers were there to help him. Jacob spoke up and reassured Andrew that everyone felt a bit nervous today, because everyone had a new class in a new grade, so for Andrew not to worry at all.



As we walked in to the cafeteria and split up into grade sections, there were 5 other kindergarteners there so far. Three of them were silent with tears pouring down their cheeks. I'm guessing their parents had to leave for work already. As soon as Andrew saw them, his eyes got red and began welling up. Of course this made me almost lose it. I gained control, though, and quickly began introducing all the little kids to one another, and asking what teachers they had (most of them told me they couldn't remember) and then we found some things to laugh about. After a few minutes Andrew's teacher came striding up waving both arms high in the air and calling out Andrew's name. He gave her a little wave and a big smile. She was so sweet! She came right over and said, "Andrew! I have a TON of pencils that need to be sharpened. Would you like to come with me to the classroom and help me sharpen them?!" Oh boy, would he. He gave me a kiss and was off.

At the end of today Jake reported that his class was "Great! My teacher has excellent control of the classroom. It was so quiet. And I really like the kids in my desk group."

Andrew told me that an "Emily girl" was driving him crazy. "She kept getting up and running all around and out into the hall and was just so loud. I kept looking at her like 'what are you doing?'"

Conclusion: they are both excited to go back tomorrow. And Millie and I look forward to all the time we have to read books together, dance, and work on our popsicle weaning! (; Good times!

Jacob is 8

Happy Birthday, Jake the Snake! Oh wait, Captain Rex, sir! Here is the post you have been looking for, buddy boy. I'm slow, but my brain's fried on kids. Behold the sweet, blue masterpiece. Ok - decent for a 10 minute time slot allowed for frosting the cake before people start arriving for the party.

Chipmunk boy extinguishes the flames.

Jacob is obsessed with all things Lego and Star Wars. Many kind family members and friends fed his appetite. I thought this picture did his reactions to the evening justice. BEYOND thrilled.

Two of his youngest uncles team up with he and Andy Roo to race against each other in building identical droid bombers Jake received. (I already know that "droid bomber" is SO not what these are called. As soon as Jake reads this he will inform me of their real name which is probably something like Droid Battleship 4TP originating from the Galactic Region which was overseen by Lord So and So....)

Fittingly for the birthday boy, his team (okay- Kris) won by a close margin with Sterling moments behind.

We had tons of fun this night with lots of family and some friends over. Barbequed (Mike made some awesome grilled pineapple), and played some Bocci.

Sigh

Jacob finished his breakfast, pushed aside his bowl, and rested his chin on his hands. He sat there for a moment, quietly, and then, in a tired, slightly resigned tone, said,

"I guess I can read this Winnie the Pooh book. It should put a smile on my face."

Why Winnie the Pooh, and why a needed smile?...........

Well, the Winnie the Pooh book was within reach, and the necessary arrival of these -

was the reason he was short on smiles.

Jacob is no ordinary child. When he does something, he REALLY does it. I foresee family get togethers in the future as story-tell-athons, recounting (and hopefully laughing hysterically) all his childhood adventures.

So here's the story. Yesterday was a great day. Harmony in the home, Mom working on prepping some rooms for painting, working in the yard together (while it was only 95ish, and not yet 104), yada, yada, yada. Late in the quiet afternoon, while they were all looking at books (we are all finishing up recovering from the flu in JULY - not bitter at all), Jake decided things were a bit too quiet and starts stirring up the pot. Ends up losing his chance to hang out with us kool kats and gets sent upstairs to his room. He starts shooting arrows (sharpened pencils) at me with his bow (hanger) from his room. Naturally mom shuts his door. He opens it and begins again. Mom locks it. Yelling, banging, and then quietness follows. I continue keepin' my cool and taping off the hallway. I run out of painters tape. I go down to the kitchen to get the next roll and WHAT!?! Jacob is dragging himself up to the patio door!

HE ESCAPED OUT HIS BEDROOM WINDOW, LOWERED HIMSELF ONTO THE COVERED PATIO ROOF, AND JUMPED.

So, a long evening in the E.R. with me and three lovely, tired children. (couldn't get ahold of Mike, he was out running after work). Grrrrrr. Yes, he broke the little bones on the top of his foot, and is in a hard splint. Half plaster, half wrap. He is pretty proud of how "awesome I already am at getting around on these things!" Though the hospital bills he is now in charge of paying, and the thought of not being able to swim in this absurd heat has got him a little down. Natural consequences. Lovely things. (Though I wish I didn't have to hang around while he suffers through it.)

Which reminds me of another story that must not be left out of our family archive. Back in maybe March, Jake was out playing in the backyard. I asked him to pick up some things before he came back in, and then I went inside, inadvertently locking the door behind me. I proceeded to go into the garage to do laundry, and Andrew and Amelia came in as well, to ride their bikes. So we couldn't hear anything.....phones ringing, doorbells dinging, or.... WHOOPS - children knocking and calling and finally crying and pounding to tell me they are locked out. Jake (who's worst fear is being kidnapped) took matters into his own hands. He found a hammer and smashed out our sliding glass door - almost all of it. There was glass from the back door all the way to the front door. Ohhhhhh boy. I am glad I refrained from going with my first train of thought - which was to hang him in the tree by his toes and let the opossums make breakfast out of him -but I gave big hugs and helped calm him down and listened to his story. The poor little guy was terrified. And I felt so bad that I had locked the door, even if just out of habit!

So there it is. And I am clinging to the hope that the thousands of extra dollars these "stories" are going to cost us will seem trivial when all is said and done.

And of course, it must be remembered, that Jacob absolutely charmed every one of the 7 doctors/nurses/receptionists that helped him. Oh, and the whole waiting room. He is charming and delightful. I am so thankful for that. And as I seek to align myself with Pollyanna, I am glad that it was only his foot that was injured, and that the screen he pushed out of his bedroom window was not damaged beyond repair, and that they had crutches his size...because this mama would be having a meltdown if she had to carry a 50 pound child everywhere. I'm not sure that would have ended pretty.

So now I must get back to "the boredest boy on earth," his brother who is still dealing with an awful cough, and his sister - who just woke up and I am praying is in a fabulous mood!

(child's voice) All Done!

Jacob is through with second grade! Here he is with his teacher, Mrs. Garrett,
at the end of the year class party. He loved being in her class and finished out the year with a bang!
Jacob had a different teacher for the majority of the year and he really struggled. He was quite stressed and acted out often, but it took a lot of time for Mike and I and Jacob to pinpoint what was leading to his tough times. We met numerous times with the teacher, counselor, assistant principal, and then principal....and finally I just pulled him out of school for a bit in March. Thanks to a great principal and impressions I recieved after much prayer, we put him back in with a different teacher. The environment was just what he needed. Lots of greens and gold stars followed! Way to go, Jacob! We love you so much and are proud of you for all your hard work!

Andrew participated in a little preschool this year and enjoyed himself immensely. He was the oldest one and became the "helper" for all the other children. His favorite lessons included dogs, lemonade stands, making all things pumpkin, and learning about the sea. This little puppy is excited for kindergarten to start. As soon as school was out, the boys and I made goals for summer learning. Two of Andrew's goals were to be able to count and recognize his numbers to 30 and to write and recognize the lower case alphabet. (Just because it's easier, I've only taught him the upper.) ANYWAY - this goal oriented, determined boy mastered the numbers almost up through 100 in the first few days. He is going to do great in school!
We love you, Andy Doondy! RUFF!!

I'm so tired, and my mind is in a million places, and I have two pressing projects that need to be done tonight, but I cannot be on my feet anymore, so I will take a break lying down and record some things I've been meaning to.

-A couple of weeks ago was our week of shows. Mostly having to do with magic and art. The boys made out tickets and money and collected them behind the play cash register. There were top hats, things disappearing under handkerchiefs, music, pirate ship drawing contests, castle drawing contests...and ALWAYS a drum roll called for before the winner was announced. Pillows were laid out for each person to sit on, and place cards were made. I think we did it 4 different nights in one week. It was so fun to see the boys' creativity and planning.

-I love that when Andrew gets really excited about something he cannot stop hopping while he tells you about it. I also love that he stutters for the same reason. "and, and, and, and, 'JACOB! (he shouts), stop interrupting! I'm telling Mom about it!' and, and, and then we......"

-Jacob is playing soccer for the first time and is really enjoying himself. He is pretty aggressive at getting the ball from others and has made a few goals. He runs all out and is exhausted and happy at the end. I was not able to go to his first game and so I asked him about it when he came home. He talked about the team doing well, but only making two goals while the other team made three. It wasn't until Mike came in that I found out Jake had made both the goals, and that even at the time of making them - while everyone cheered for Jake- he acknowledged the boy who made "such a great pass" to him. He definitely made his momma proud with that!

-My garden is in! What? Do you hear that? An angelic hallelujah chorus?! Yes. It is beautiful. Smaller than originally intended, but good for my first time. I have 6 tomato plants, 2 zucchini (when we came home from the store, Jacob went running out to show Andy the zucchini plants and Andrew hugged them to his chest "Mmmm...zucchini bread."), 1 cucumber, and a number of herbs. It is so enjoyable to sit and weed for a little while in the evening while the kids play.

-We have a playscape finally! I scoped one out on Craig's List and the kids love it! Amelia could swing forever, and the boys are awesome to push her whenever I am doing something else. They are so funny together.

-On a past Friday the boys and I were having one of those "What would we ever do without our little Millie girl?" conversations. On Saturday evening Mike and I were worn out from a day in the yard and Jacob made dinner for everyone. And not the same thing for all of us, mind you. He even made me a salad with chicken on top! (Leftover ingredients, but he did have to cut a few things). He called his operation "Jake's cowboy cookin'." He then insisted on doing all the dishes and wiping down the counters. I was thinking "This boy is HEAVEN SENT!" Later on as I was weeding the garden he came and sat down next to me.

"Mom? Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure, buddy boy."
"Do you ever wonder what you would do without me?"

Oh my goodness! He got kisses and hugs and lots of reasons why we would be so sad not to have our wonderful Jacob around!

-And lastly, little Amelia Love has grown some hair and I can put it in pigtails! So exciting! She is adorable! She loves to have her hair done. If I mention it, she runs to the bathroom and waits to be lifted to the counter. She also wears my shoes everywhere and likes to pick out what shoes she and I will wear. The other day she played dress up in her room. She would point to the items she wanted, and wait patiently for me to put them on, would walk around for awhile (oh so conscious of herself), and then would choose new things to wear. She cracks me up. I want to squish her always. OH YES! -she really loves to prance - she has this little hop in her step all the time. And she wears a "pearl" necklace most days and headbands around her neck, and loves to fold her arms now.

-So that's that. Some things I didn't want to forget!

Sweet Surprise

This evening Jacob announced the following:

J. "Mom, I think this is probably the best time in my life."

M. "Really? What makes you say that?"

J. "Well, we're all here snuggled up in a cozy kitchen, you are making cookies, I just finished almost completely cleaning the kitchen, Amelia is sitting down hunched over a dinosaur encyclopedia - which is, of course, upside down (hearty chuckle), and Andrew is just drawing some picture of....something. It feels just right in here."

Holy cow. You could have mopped me up. This really is such a surprise, because this same little boy has been having some serious struggles lately. School has been rough. I took him out a week ago, and we are kind of feeling out what the best thing is for him right now. He is on my mind constantly, and I have been worried about how happy he is, and what I could do better for him.

Today was one of those sweet assurances that all the effort we are putting in to our family life is doing something. Jacob has felt our love for him and he feels safe in our home. Not only that...it feels like one of the best times in his life! Yippee!

-And a little sidenote of humor....

yes, our little girl is pushing around a stroller carrying precious cargo - a gun(which she unfortunately knows how to use) and a dinosaur book, and then after a while she added a baby. Gotta love her.

January Catch up

Hope you're sitting down. This is a super (everybody scream...super is my word for the week) long post. Lots of pictures. Had to catch up on what's been going on around here.

Poppy (Mike's dad) is talented in the woodcarving area. He made these awesome cars and blocks for the kids for Christmas. Beautiful. Thank you, Poppy!



Went hiking with cousins and a friend over Christmas Break. Had a little picnic and enjoyed the gorgeous weather.




These cinnamon rolls were meant for serious bartering. Incredible. Came from friend's recipe titled "Clone of Cinnabon" and I'm telling you what. They were delicious. I love that in this picture Mike caught the boys picking at the flour. The crazy kids love to lick it. yuck!



Trip to the mall playground. Thought it would be a nice quiet outing. Ummm...28 kids there running around. We didn't last long, but Amelia loved the slide.




I think my boys are the coolest fort builders. They built this out of garden edgers and sticks.

Amelia sneaks in while Andrew makes repairs and then wonders how long til he notices her and hauls her out. This would happen over and over and she thought it was so funny. He is actually repairing the last section she snuck through, and does not know that she just walked right in through the entrance. I was greatly amused. (Oh- and if you look closely, there is a jar of caterpillars and leaves. Isn't being a kid so great!)

Me and Doons. I LOVE him! I love watching and listening to him play. I'll miss him when he goes to kindergarten.



Back at the ranch. Another boy moment. Andrew rigs up own parachute and decides to put it to the test.

Climbs to highest point he can find.

Makes the leap and then repeatedly tells us how cool and awesome it was. Repeats process. Is this dangerous? Yes, I'm sure. Especially when he began jumping with two large sticks for his "bracers." Mom put an end to that. Ahh, boys.




Mike took the boys out golfing on MLK day. They loved it. You must notice the polo shirts. The boys took care to "dress the right way." Thank you Jacob/fashion consultant.




Andrew was Robin Hood today. He was extremely proud of the clothesline he set up and insisted that I come out a take a picture, "because it really does look like the real Sherwood Forest, Mom. I even put clothes on it, but some of the clip things were really hard."



While making dinner I heard Jacob and Amelia laughing. Found them in the bathroom with Amelia intently putting "make-up" all over Jacob and combing his hair. He was such a good sport, and even though Amelia would occasionally laugh, she was very intent on what she was doing.


Andrew has friend over for playdate. They play cowboys, on a ship. He reads the map and she punches in the calculations to send them to Africa.