October 22, 2012
Jarom's real b-day is TODAY, the 22nd of October. Being a Monday, Brooke and I just got home from dropping off lunch from McD's and donuts from the bakery to share all around for the b-day boy! We had a party for Jarom's b-day in celebration of FOURTEEN years over the weekend. We had a family party here at the house with a steak and potato dinner, a green/blue Seattle Seahawks theme and the company of Grandma and Grandpa Jackson. Grandma took Jarom to the mall to pick out some goodies earlier in the afternoon (he's sporting one of his gifts in the first pic, a new Seahawks jersey.) Jarom had his eye on two swords that he had wanted so that's what he was surprised with for his bday from the parents, that and new rollerblades since his foot is now like a size 9 and he's grown out of his prior ones, how did that happen right? Happy Birthday Jarom!!! Jarom will be ordained a teacher this Sunday at church which is hard to believe. Ellie had a good time decorating for the party with me Friday evening, only Jarom wouldn't take a hint and go to bed (we were trying to surprise him with the decorations to wake up to) but being Friday night he just didn't want to hit the hay...we were up until 1:30am decorating since we had to wait for him to call it a night and FINALLY head to bed! Ellie put up yellow CAUTION tape across the room and Jarom's bedroom door, it was cute and she was excited for him to see all of her hard work when he woke up.
Speaking of Ellie and her creativity, for her elementary school walkathon there was a t-shirt design contest and guess who's art work won the title of t-shirt? Yep, Miss Elllie! Very cool, congrats...
The theme was "Lights, Camera, Action," I actually think that's the theme for the entire year's PTA sponsored activities.
Jarom just had his last track meet of the Fall season with districts on Wednesday. He had a good season and improved so much from last year, probably can be thanked to his growth spurt as these kids hit puberty and grow and fill out. His track area of choice is the sprints and long jump. His 100, 4 X 100 team, and his long jump made it to districts, it was fun to watch his season and he's wanting to compete in the Spring/Summer in the Hill and Valley team for the Sumner/Bonney Lake area.
Matt and his sidekick Josh have been passing the cooler Fall weather away with the new found hobby of model airplane constructing. They have been busy with it and are having a good time spending time at it. They are both excited to actually get them in the air with a remote control unit.
Spencer may or may not be the smallest player on his football team but it doesn't slow him down. He starts as Running Back and can not be more THRILLED to be playing flag football this season. No helmet or pads, just a mouth guard and flags. It's his first football experience to be playing on a team and he's loving every minute of it, two practices a week, more practice at home inside and out, weekly games rain and all! Spencer also continues his piano lessons with Sondra Stuard which he likes, I still haven't quite figured out if it's his piano teacher or the actual learning piano that he likes better though...he loves going to his once a week lessons (Spencer is easy to read in that aspect, he will let you know by his words and actions if he doesn't care to do something.) Take for instance practicing the piano, not always the easiest thing for him to do or remember to do, then the dragging of feet and procrastinating comes in when the reminders of practicing from mom come. He loves the lessons, it's the practicing where the struggles come in. I'm quite certain I hear Josh get on Spencer's piano and jam out not knowing what he's doing more than I hear Spencer practicing. I finally put my foot down in that we are not going to pay $60.00 a month plus music book fees if he's not going to take practicing more serious, I do want him to take lessons and play the piano but it's a waste of time, energy and money for all involved if he's not going to step it up and take it a bit more serious right? Last year piano all came very easy to him so I think he felt that a lack of practice was no big deal but as he's advancing and it's getting more difficult, he really needs to be practicing more. He's eight...I know he can be more responsible. He does seems to be doing better at practicing since I put my foot down...hopefully it'll last.
Matt a Good Sport, one of our Awesome Sunbeam teachers sports some Super-Shades during singing time at church weeks back. Ha, Ha :)
Aunt Hilma Betenson (Matt's Grandpa Glen's sister) turned 90 years old, she's doing amazing! What an inspiration. Shar headed up throwing a big shabang surprise party in her honor, it was really nice to see and catch up with so much of the extended family that we haven't seen in so long there.
Ellie's been trying out some different curling techniques, here's a sock curler technique that she slept on, the curls turned out nice, flowy, bouncy and a natural looking curl.
BreAnna continues her performing group for dance this year. They just did their Christmas performances for the Tacoma Arts and Crafts festival this weekend. They will do the same numbers for a few other events this season so I'll get better pics then (I know these pics are lowsy, a bad view with the camera phone...) Bre is taking six dance classes this year and she would take more if allowed, it's no secret that she loves to dance. Actually since we have all three girls in classes this year, we've maxed out the amount that we have to pay out of pocket (so that means that anyone in the family can take more classes at no charge.) If we lived closer to the dance studio, it'd be a no brainer. It's the time commitment and juggling of schedules where things get tricky, then I suppose the extra recital costume fees as well. We've lumped all of the classes into Mondays and Tuesdays (then Sat for performing) typically I drop the older girls off while they dance and run errands or drop other kids off at their activities to be productive or go back home to get life accomplished or organized and we pick them up when they are done with their classes later in the evening. This past week one night I stayed to watch and it was really fun to watch Ellie's tap class and to see her improvement, that's some fancy feet work! Since Bre does the performing we get to see her dance more often than Ellie unless we stay to watch practices. Wednesday evening we keep free for church activities and this year it's so great, they have designated Wed nights at 7 pm for all the wards youth activities, we hit them all in one stop- cubs, activity day girls, Scouts and Young Womens, then about every other week I plan our primary pres mtgs at the same time to even be more productive with one stop. Between the kids activities and my calling (being that time of the year with the primary program, baptisms and prep for the new year) just holding down the fort and family keeps a mom on her toes. I help out as a volunteer for Josh's kindergarten class this year, it's a lot of fun (I just bring Brooke along with me,) Josh has a good group of kiddos in his class! Both Ellie and Spencer have earned their self manager badges at school and Josh has received his application. Some kids go the entire year with out earning their badge so it's good to see our kids as some of the first in the school to earn them! Matt and I have the elementary kids parent/teacher conferences this week so we will get a better idea of how the year is starting off for them as well. BreAnna was just called as the Beehive president in her young women's class at church so she now gets to serve and go to BYC, Sunday she attended her first meeting. So fun for all, keeping busy...
