Recent Happenings

On the 19th (Jon's b-day) we had a jogathon at school. Our kids had a great time and earned quite a bit of cash (thanks grandmas, grandpas, aunts and uncles!). Derek ran with all of the kids. DJ, Michael and I walked with the 1st grade. I had a very enjoyable conversation with a little girl, who approached me and asked, "Are you Jonathan's mom?" When I answered in the affirmative, she said, "He's my boyfriend." Now, I don't really condone 1st grade romances, but I have to say, this one is now about a year old. That's pretty impressive. Of course, I think to Jon, she is a girl friend, not a girlfriend. But, at least, she is a very cute girl friend, and she was incredibly sweet with Michael and DJ.

This is Nina's friend, Grace.

Michael was in his element.

I just had to put in these pictures of DJ pulling faces. He will do anything for a laugh.

Naomi was blessed September 28th. Isn't she a doll? I love having a little girl to dress up...

Jon has lost both front teeth. He's also still missing the one Michael pulled out with a Mickey Mouse light saber. (Jon, crying: "Michael pulled my tooth out with his light saver." Michael: "Jon was biting my light saver and I told him not to." Later, Michael said he wouldn't have done it, if Jon had "unbitten" his light saber.)

Daddy tried to highlight Jon's resemblance to Mike Ricci. Unfortunately, the only hockey helmet we have has a face shield. Sorry about the glare.

Jonathan

Just as DJ (only four years earlier), Jon began this life as an infant in arms -- aunt Lil's, in this case.

Unlike DJ, his parents were not (yet) equipped with a digital camera. So for the first couple years of his life, we must depend on his Uncles' (Craig and Trevor) pictures of him. And so we see that Jonathan vacationed quite often in his young life.

Here we see him modeling his new quilt in Duchesne at 3 1/2 months old.At nine months, also in Duchesne, he had discovered the joy of frozen sugar water (aka: popsicles). And mom had discovered the joy of allowing other people (aka: Lil) to feed them to him.
At 1 1/2 he began taking possession of things at the homes he so frequently visited. For instance, he will to this day tell you that this is his rocking chair (though he will now allow his siblings partial possession). Strangely, I have long since believed that it was mine.
Playgrounds have been a favorite of Jon's since his early months. Dad began putting him down slides at the age of four months. Mom was a bit more cautious and didn't allow him in the big swings until he was over two (and then just for the photo op).

In the middle of winter elsewhere, it is summer in Phoenix. Jon enjoyed playing at his cousins' at 2 1/2.

At nearly three in Crestline, he was so exhausted that he'd resorted to sleeping on Grandma's stairs. (yes, he's still traveling, but now Mom and Dad are taking the pictures)
In Tampa Bay, at 3 1/2, he felt he could conquer the world, if he could just conquer this hat...

Jon was a great big brother and a fabulous Spiderman at 4 1/4 (okay - so he wasn't a bad big brother before then, but I had to somehow account for DJ in this picture).

At just over five, he could balance on one leg (still - he may have been my first, but I sure don't have many pics of his firsts).

At 5 1/2 he was a ham amongst the gorgeous Korean cherry trees.

At 6 1/4, he finally lost his first tooth (yeah for me -- finally a first caught on film)!

And, at 7, he had another birthday (imagine that)!
Happy Birthday, Jonathan!
We love you! (Even if all your teeth are falling out.)

DJ

Since I missed a couple of birthday spotlighting opportunities, I thought I'd put up a few pictures of my kids over the years. Here are some of DJ.

He began this life, as many do, as a baby:

Month by month he grew. He looked like this his first Christmas.
By the ripe old age of 6 1/2 months, he was attending his second wedding (Meg's).
At nearly one, he was feeding himself -- sort of.

By 1 1/2 he was cool enough to consider himself "Uncle Roy."

A few months later found him sitting pretty.
Then traveling in style (isn't that kid old enough to walk, yet?).

Bubble blowing brought great joy to him at nearly two.

By 2 1/2 he had developed into quite the character actor.

And now he's 3!

Happy Birthday, DJ!

Meg's hair

Meg and I were discussing her hair. Much to our surprise, she is not a blond. How and when this happened we are not sure. So I was looking at her wedding pictures to see if she was blond back then. I would have to say she was not, but I did come across this picture that I wanted to share. Doesn't she look happy?

Janina's Wisdom

I overheard Nina giving directions to her brothers as they were playing. She told them, "You can marry that girl and be husband and wife, because you don't know her. When you find a girl that you don't know, then you can marry her and become husband and wife. But you can't marry a girl you know."


Here are a couple of pictures from Jon's birthday yesterday and a cute one of all the kids from today.

Here are a couple of pictures

It's late and I'm tired, but because I love and care about all of you so much, I am posting some pictures. (I expect many thanks...)

Nina and Naomi are dressed in very similar dresses -- it's just a little hard to tell. They are a bit poofy.

I had LASIK last week so here's a picture of my cute eyewear.

Naomi just gets cuter every day. She pulls funny faces often. I like this one with her bottom lip missing.

Michael was practicing for crazy hair day.



Jon likes to climb the doorways in our living room. Derek was trying to get him to touch his head on the top. He was certain that it was much too far away. We took this picture to try to convince him that he was only an inch or so away -- it didn't work. He did not ever touch his head to the top... and to think -- he could have been so accomplished.

Ouch!

I'd like to apologize for my lack of posting. I realized that I haven't posted anything since Naomi's birth other than a quick little note on Jenn's birthday. I need to get back to the blogging world, and it starts now.
Next, I would like to thank Beth and Lil for getting my kids those swords. Apparently a freind made these swords out of PVC, wood, and a water noodle. Quite inventive if you ask me and loads of fun for me and my kids.
On that note, today I was in a sword fight with both Michael and DJ. They were dressed up as superman and Spider man respectively. Well in the course of our fight, DJ's Spider man mask fell off. I put my sword down to help him put it back on. (I'm a compassionate villan.) Well right as I neared DJ, Michael swung full force and got me right where it counted. Mind you I was holding Naomi also. Well, I did as any man would do, I went to my knees and doubled over in pain. As I was doing this DJ yelled, "Michael, you killed my dad!!!" He yelled it so dramatically, I had a hard time letting the pain subside while trying not to laugh. It was awkward at best. If you look at the picture of Michael on the side bar, you will notice that he is posed with the weapon in question. Though I'm not asking any questions, I know what happened. He may look cute and innocent, but trust me, he's capable of some of the most vicious attacks.
On to other things, my military camp went well this summer. I managed to be in the Seattle area for a month and we only got two little drizzles of rain the whole time. I went in expecting something like basic training all over again, but the people in charge were actually very nice to us. We did a lot of marching, shooting guns, throwing hand grenades, hand to hand combat, confidence builders along with ten days in the field.
The field was the hardest part, but it also went by the quickest. We moved out in patrols and either set up an ambush, attacked a bunker, or just met up with enemy forces. It was a good learning experience to lead people into fake combat.
I normally am not afraid of heights, but there was one confidence course that I don't want to ever do again. We had to climb a latter 30ft, cross a 6in wide balance beam with an 18 in. block in the middle of it, that was suspended over water. If you fell off you went into the water and had to do it over again. When you are trying to keep your balance, having to step up on the block was really difficult. It's not over. Once you cross the balance beam, you climb another latter ten ft. to a rope that is running horizontally. You hook your feet around the rope, and while hanging bring yourself to the middle. At that point you let your feet off the rope, hang there for a few seconds, yell your name, hometown and state and what corps you want for your Army job. So I yelled Derek Curtis, San Jose, CA Medical Services Corps and let go of the rope. The 40ft drop was so much, that you could yell twice. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (take a breath), ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, splash.
So anyway, I have a new respect for divers even though I think that synchronized diving is the stupidest sport in the games. I'd rather watch the US get creamed by China at Ping Pong than watch 20 minutes of synchronized diving. I'm just glad I didn't have to do three and a half twist on the way down.