Current Events...

Hayden's aerodynamic team project made it to nationals and he will be headed to D.C. with 4 other kids from school and two teachers!! They were able to do what the team last year could not and they are pumped:)

These three have been sick the last two weeks! They all came down with a fever within hours of each other. The fever stayed for three days, Jack had to go to the ER for croup, Marah and Jack both got leg cramps from their fevers, and all three of them were coughing for two weeks- it was crazy. As an added bonus that was the same week-end that Ken got his tooth pulled and was in a percoset and motrin haze!

The girls with their new haircuts- they are pretty impressed with themselves:)

There is so much snow we had to get our roof shoveled off. This is the view from our kitchen window. The little peeps think it is magical having their own sledding hill in the backyard.

As an added bonus we will be the only ones in the neighborhood to have a sledding hill in the middle of summer!!

My insides are screaming TAKE ME TO THE BEACH!!

Dedication

Hayden is always asking why I put the weirdest pictures of him in our Shutterfly calendar that we get every year- my response, um hello these are the faces you make when I take your picture!! He has been working on a huge national project with some kids from his school. It involves math- such as sign and cosign-YUCK and lots of aerodynamic things that are beyond me. These kids have shown such dedication- they had to start over just days before it was due because of an error the company that they were working with made. Not only were the students dedicated but the teacher came to school on the week-end and stayed until midnight the day the project was due-seriously who does that?? Here's to hoping they get to go to D.C.!!

On the home front we finally have a fish tank that I can support 100%!!

And this piece of deliciousness...I really sometimes think my heart can't handle the enormous amount of joy he brings me:)

Spaznastics

Kenisms:
spaznastics= gymnastics
fraud meyer= Fred Meyer
Taekwonleap= Taekwondo
bal let= ballet
com in a sarry= commissary and the list goes on!!

The girls love gymnastics and I'm so grateful that our homeschooling program pays for their lessons!! It is their p.e. and gymnastics is very expensive up here. Autumn is one seriously bendy girl!!

Jack is always happy when it's over because they let the siblings play. He has his own skills:)

I see braces in this kids future!! I'm thinking our orthodontist should implement a buy 3 get one free policy- I have my doubts he'll think that's a good idea:)

Marah's favorite is the uneven bars which is a surprise to me since she is scared of just about everything!!

I can only imagine Ken was saying something quite humorous to get those smiles!!

Snowed in...

Every year I tell Ken I can think of more and more reasons why we need to move all of which involve winter weather and darkness!! This winter has either been sunny and absolutely freezing or cloudy and crazy snowing!

I am forever grateful for a snowblower that someone gave us and a husband who will use it:) The snow is too high for me to shovel it anymore!

Of course, this is the first year that we didn't take down the trampoline. I'm afraid it will not recover!!

We finally got the wii fixed after two years! Jack had put what we thought was a playing card in it but it turned out to be Ryker's military ID card from when he was about 12!! Sorry Ryker, I'm sure I was mad at you for losing it:)

I was reminded of setting limits on video stuff even the wii- I should have realized when Jack took his shirt off because he was hot and sweaty that he may have been playing a wee bit too long:) pun intended!!

Heartwarming...

A few weeks ago we went to a variety show at Hayden's school. His school is an alternative school that is standards based- meaning that there are no letter grades- you must be proficient in something like 800 standards in order to graduate. This means that no child leaves the school with anything less than a B in any standard because you cannot move on to the next standard until you are proficient in the one that comes before. I LOVE IT!!!

Hayden played guitar and read a poem- slam poetry style and he was awesome!! I spent the whole 2 hours marveling at how lucky these kids are to have a place to be themselves without judgement. You see, most of these kids would be considered nerds or geeks at any other school. I am sure most of them would not have the courage to be themsevles for fear of being mocked.

Every single one of those kids touched my heart but most of all were two girls. One who has cerebral palsy- she did a comedy routine and was really funny. Most touching were the boys who quickly and with skill helped her on and off stage. She walks with one of those walkers with wheels and a little basket and you could tell that the kids were used to helping her- it was amazing. The other girl had autism. She sang beautifully and was cheered on by all the kids. My heart felt as if it would burst watching the loving kindness of all these teen-agers.

Ken and I are major homebodies both with some social anxiety issues- it takes a small miracle to get us to social events and Ken was not really looking forward to going to this. He ended up being so touched that it was brought up in conversation for days afterward. I am so thankful that Hayden has had such a positive experience with high school and cannot believe he will be graduating and heading off to college!!