Storytime...

Even at 7, 5 4 and 3, the boys still appreciate it when Mommy takes the time to pause in her day and read them a book. Usually it starts with one child asking, but before we know it all 4 are seated around enjoying a little storytime. It is interesting because I have even noticed that when Zeke starts reading for school. Usually we are seated at the table in the dining room and Zeke will be reading his book and before we know it, everyone has stopped what they are doing and are listening intently to the stories.

A sledding story...

The hill is big, Seth is small, but that doesn't stop him from carrying his own sled up the hill "all by myself." Seth is our independant child. He insists often that he can do things himself. One of these times happens when we are out sledding. Seth has as much fun zooming down as his brothers do. Then he climbs the hill, sometimes carrying a sled as big as he is, or pulling a sled bigger than him. He struggles, but he often succeeds and is offended if we offer to help him. The poor child tires himself out.

Well in recent sledding trips, Chad and Seth have worked out a system. Seth sits in the sled and pulls up the back of the sled while Chad pulls up the front.

Shhh, don't tell Seth that he is getting out of all the hard work!

SNOW DAY!!!

This morning at aroudn 6:30 a.m. the phone rang. The alarm had just gone off and we were still trying to convince ourselves to get up so Chad could get ready for bed. I answered the phone to the familiar sound of "Concordia Theological Seminary will be closed due to bad weather today". I say familiar because this is now the 3rd time this year we have gotten this call... It was quite the surprise because we don't pay much attention to the news and hadn't realized that the snow that had started falling the night before was going to add up.

Chad got out of bed and looked out the window... The assessment was a few inches. Of course this phone call carried the same excitement that the words Snow Day did when we were kids and we could no longer lay around in bed (even though now we really could lay around in bed). So we got up and got started on the day.

After breakfast Chad did a little studying and the boys had a little school time (the drawback to being homeschooled is that a snow day doesn't really matter. On the other hand the only reason we needed to have school today is because we had taken off a day earlier in the week, so don't feel too bad for the kids.)

Chad and I ventured out after lunch to clean up the driveway. We checked out the snowfall and realized that the snowfall total was closer to 6 inches. After snowblowing our way out, we went and helped out our neighbors Grace, Max and Mike to clear their driveways. Then it was off to the sledding hill.

We met up with some friends and played and laughed as we slid down the hill at top speeds (ok, not really, this was new snow and we did a lot of plowing while we were sledding, so it wasn't terribly fast.) The kids all had a great time! After our years in Hawaii, we appreciate more than we used to the fun that can be had on a winter day with fresh fallen snow.

After we were done sledding, we came home and the boys all got new haircuts. Then we went out to Pizza Hut for supper. All in all it was a great SNOW DAY!

Zeke at 7...

A friend of mine posted the following questions with answers from her kids on her blog. I decided to give Zeke a chance to answer them in honor of his 7th birthday. I will hopefully get a chance to ask all the boys throughout the year, but decided it would be a fun birthday tradition, so for the other boys you will have to wait a few months...

Here is a glimpse into the mind of Zeke at 7-years-old...

If you could do three things, what would they be?
1.Football 2. Swim 3. Basketball

What's the most fun you ever had?
Playing Sports and having Birthdays

What's your favorite meal?
Cheeseburgers

What's one thing you do well?
Football

What's one thing you want to get better at?

Even better at Football

What makes you angry?
When Noah messes with the stuff on my side of the room.

What's something you would like to see?
Disneyland

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Football player...

Well, there you have it a glimpse of Zeke at 7!

JJ the Gymnast

This winter JJ has been taking a gymastics class at the Y! He is really enjoying it and seems to be learning a lot. They have a low bar that he is learning to jump up on. He is perfecting his sommersault. They are learning some jumps like the tuck jump and straddle jump and they are learning a few other fundamentals of gymnastics.

Here is his backroll... They start at the top of a cushioned ramp.

He is also learning to do a pretty good cartwheel...

He is excited to be in the class and looks forward to it every week!

What's new since Christmas...

Since I have finally finished updating all of our Christmas activities and travels here is what we have we been doing since then.

Our first week back, Chad was still off of school. We spent the week getting caught up on things around the house, taking down the Christmas lights and cleaning up the branches outside (the day after we left for Wisconsin there was a ice, wind, snow storm that blew down tons of branches and some of our Christmas lights), celebrating Zeke's brithday and just hanging out and catching up on some rest.

Chad went back to school on Monday, January 12th and so did the boys. It took us a couple days to get back into the routine, but after a little over a week, we are back in the swing of things. In addition to school, we have gotten back into the routine of exercise and have been back at the YMCA again. It is a busy place in the winter.

Also over the past couple of weeks, Zeke and JJ started their winter sports. Zeke had his first basketball game last weekend and JJ is taking a gymnastics class (more on these two activities to come)!

During this time, Fort Wayne has also recieved a few significant snowfalls opening jup the doors for sledding! We have a hill not too far from the house and have had a chance to get there several times! We have been having a great time in the snow and have at times gone over to the seminary to walk home with Chad at the end of his day. They have a big open field to run and play and dig in!

Zeke turns 7...

On January 8th, Zeke turned 7! It is hard for me to believe at times how quickly he is growing up. At 7 years old his favorite thing is still sports. He is homeschooled and in 1st Grade. His favorite subjects in school are Math and Bible. He also enjoys science when we are learning about animals. He is learning to read and enjoys the level 1 readers that we check out at the library. Reading is not his favorite thing right now, but he is excited to learn so he can get his first real Bible when he starts 2nd Grade Sunday School next year.

This year Zeke asked for a cross shaped cake. I decorated it with all of his favorite things.

Each Birthday we light their Baptism candle in place of putting regular candles on the Birthday cake. This is to remind them that God has chosen them in their baptism to be His children and that they are now to share the light of the world (Jesus) with all that they meet.

We also have a Birthday bag that is filled with Birthday presents. For his Birthday this year, Zeke recieved a carrier for his matchbox cars, several packs of Baseball cards and a toy monster truck.

Zeke's Second Birthday Celebration.

Birthdays in our home are seldom a one day affair. Our family tradition includes a trip to Chuck E. Cheese (though for recent birthdays we have offered other places, this seems to be the place they always choose). Zeke's Birthday trip to Chuck E. Cheese happened the day before his birthday.

Zeke invited his friend Harvey to join us... Hiding behind all the boys somewhere is Harvey's sister, Catherine.

After supper, it was time to hit the games. Zeke's favorite game is a hunting game. He plays it every time we go there and he plays it several times while we are there.

Back at home...

After over two weeks in Wisconsin, we arrived back home on January 4th. On January 5th the boys had a chance to open a few presents that we had recieved from some friends at church.

Then we unloaded the Christmas presents from the car and the boys set to playing with their new toys in the toy room. Our toy room is overflowing with new toys! The boys recieved several sets of K-nex toys which Zeke is playing with here. They also recieved other building toys and a new set to add to their train box.

JJ's Big Catch...

A couple of days after Zeke's big catch, came JJ's big catch. This time it was a 28" Northern Pike.

We took it back to Grandma and Grandpa's house and Grandpa helped clean it up. The boys decided that this was a very smelly job.

Mommy and Daddy have a date...

As the week wound down a little bit, Chad and I did take some time for each other. Chad's Mom watched the boys a couple of days so that we could get out.

Our first date included The Olive Garden for lunch, a little shopping and bowling. During this bowling trip, Chad and I both had record setting scores. For the first time we broke 300 in one game (both scores included), Chad had his all time high of 187 and I had my all time high of 182. Not bad considering that we hadn't gone bowling in a long time.

The second opportunity we had to get out came right before we were heading home. Our initial plans were to head home on Friday, January 2nd, but instead we decided to let Grandma play with the boys a little longer and take another day away. We drove up to Wausau and played at the indoor waterpark all day. We also had lunch at Tony Roma's.

Zeke's Big Catch

Grandpa Potts likes to ice fish and when we are visiting them in the winter, we usually get to head out to the ice at least once. This is a fun family activity for all of us. Grandma likes to jig fish with the boys... We weren't catching much here though.

That is Noah under the mask there...

While waiting for some action from the tip-ups, there is usually a little time for football or wrestling on the ice. Somewhere at the bottom of this pile is Uncle Sherman.

Zeke did have some excitement as he caught his first big fish. The tip-up went up and the fish started running. Chad taught Zeke how to yank on the fish to hook it and then carefully pull it in so it wouldn't get away. The fish was 25" long! Not quite long enough to keep for this lake, but Zeke was still pretty excited!

Zeke's First Birthday Celebration...

No, we haven't gone back in time... Due to our time in Wisconsin close to Zeke's Birthday, we had a 7th Birthday celebration while there with Grandma and Grandpa.

There were presents for the Birthday boy and of course the brothers looked on!His favorite present from Grandma and Grandpa was a Lightnig McQueen wall clock shaped like a big watch. When we got home, he had us hang it up right away. Later that day there was ice cream with our dinner!