Family Update

With the holidays over and getting settled into a new routine, I thought I'd post about what everyone was up to.

Brooklynn - she just turned 3 a few weeks ago and was very excited about her birthday. She just went in to the doctor today and is as fit as a fiddle. She was a model patient today which was a bit shocking as she doesn't care much for doctors and dentists and we were visiting a new doctor for the first time. She is 40 1/2" tall which puts her in the 98th percentile and she weighed 43lbs which was in the 99th percentile. Her Body Mass Index was a little to the high side but that's how I like her. Overall, she was great. Brooklynn's got a great personality and is a lot of fun to have around. We are still working on trying to get fully potty-trained.

McKenna - We just had parent teacher conferences and McKenna is doing fantastic. She is reading above average for her age level and doing great in school overall. She is looking forward to starting soccer again soon and anxious for the weather to turn nice so she can ride her bike again. She takes two after-school classes, Little Sports and Princess club. She loves sports and was really excited to take the class but has been a little nervous because she is one of only a few girls and doesn't know a lot of the kids in the class. She likes to show us what she has learned in princess class, especially how to walk properly.

Lauren - Wow, I am really nervous about this girl. The drama is in full-swing already and we have entered the new arena of friend drama and the dreaded "boyfriend" drama. She came home a few days ago and announced that "This is the worst day of my LIFE!" She had a boy profess his love for her and word is getting around that he likes her and she is NOT happy about it. She asked me what she could do to look ugly at school the next day so he wouldn't like her anymore. She doesn't like him, or so she says, and knows she can't have a boyfriend. Does it really start this young??? Other than that, she is doing great in school (except for being too chatty). She is way above average and actually could have tested for the Accelerated Learning Program at another school but we decided against it for this year. She is half-way through her basketball season and is enjoying it. She also takes an after-school class, Drama. We figured we might as well focus all this natural ability into something positive. She loves achievement days and really looks forward to each activity.

Tyler - This has been a fantastic year for Tyler in school. His teacher is amazing! He works so well with Tyler and does a great job of really enforcing the positive. A lot of teachers claim that they try to focus on the positive and then it is just too much work and end up frustrated, but this one, he is the definition of a positive teacher in action. He has really taken Tyler under his wing and helped him grow and develop this year. He is a straight-A student again was really worried that an A- didn't count as straight "A". He is one of the top readers in his class and that was really exciting for him (he thought he was a terrible reader). He has just finished up his competitive basketball season. It was a tough season as they only won one game, but he gave it his all. He gets into his games 110%. It was our first year in competitive so I think we had a "building" year. We opted not to play on the recreational league, to take a break. He decided on that and we were proud of his maturity. He wanted more time for homework and friends and knows that during sports seasons, he rarely gets time for either. He did decide to take a sports class after school and is enjoying that. He also started piano lessons a while ago and loves it. He is so good to practice without complaint and his teacher loves his positive attitude.
Michelle - My life right now revolves around our schools annual read-a-thon. It takes up a lot of time, but I really like working on it. I really should have been an accountant because my most favorite part is tallying the numbers and making spreadsheets. I have some amazing moms that help me and I couldn't do it without them. You wouldn't think a read-a-thon would be that much work but it is. It's a month long and we have numerous activities throughout the month. I feel like I live at the school these days. I also keep plenty busy with cub scouts and keeping up with the shows I like to DVR. I am totally into the Biggest Loser this season and am trying to find the willpower to implement what I learn. I started playing basketball again once a week and that has been a lot of fun. I am looking forward to warmer weather so I can start walking again too.

Chris - He is busy moving offices. His company merged with a larger one and they decided to move into their office. So this weekend they are packing up and will be starting over at the new office on Monday. With it comes a lot of changes and restructuring, some good, some more inconveniences than anything else, but we are just so grateful to be employed at this time of economic downsizing. We weren't too sure about things for a while. Maybe the worst thing is that his office is twice as far away as it was. We were so spoiled having him work less than a mile away. Now he is a couple of miles away.