Suzuki Graduation

The Suzuki Violin Graduation is always in February and this year Abby graduated from Book 4, playing Concerto in A Minor, 1st Movement by Vivaldi. (They ‘graduate’ by completing a number of songs in a book, usually the last piece, but not always.) I think the smile on Abby’s face in this photo says how she feels to be moving on! :) As they would say in Japan, “gokorosama!” Or, in other words: keep up the good work!

What About Emeron

The other day Emeron was standing by my side as I was at the computer and said, “what about Emeron?” He was wondering why there were no pictures of Emeron on the computer screen, as he saw pictures of David, Jacob, Anna, Farrell and Abby, but no Emeron. So this post is your spotlight!

There is a little bit of me that feels sorry for Ems on occasion, especially when he says, “What about Emeron?” I remember a while back, my Mom was talking about who was giving whom Christmas presents and Emeron was by her side listening for his name. When he didn’t hear his name he said to Grandma, “What about Emeron?” She quickly said, “oh, yes, Karen gives Emeron!” On another occasion, Emeron was playing with his cousin Seth at his Grammy’s house and Seth was looking at a some of his own pictures and a look came over Emeron that has become a little too familiar lately saying, “What about Emeron?” Grammy quickly said, “let’s get Emeron's photo album” Ems beamed and enjoyed looking at page after page of pictures of himself. :)

• Emeron is a great kid! He has big dark eyes and dark lashes and light hair.
• He is the fourth child and four years old. He is happy and kind.
• Emeron is super smart! He is ready to read as he knows his letters, sounds and is blending well.
• He loves boy-ish stuff, he doesn’t want anything to do with pink. We have a pair of ‘magenta’ gloves and if he ever gets stuck with them, he always says to me, “these aren’t pink, they are red, huh!”
• He loves anything Star Wars and is known to hum the theme-song regularly.
• The first thing Emeron does when he wakes up is he will walk up to me and just stand and look at me until he gets a hug and hears me say “did you wake up?” after which he looks to see if Jacob is awake.
• Ems is a very thoughtful, caring and compassionate boy. When given a snack, he always makes sure he gets some for Jacob. (Maybe he found this was easier, rather than having Jacob snatch some - as Jacob would.)
• He loves to give his baby brother David kisses. He sings to him and loves the feedback of ‘coos’ and smiles.
• Em is very imaginative and loves to pretend. He can’t wait for Anna to get home from kindergarten so he can play ‘the other baby game’ with her.
• He also loves to dress up – with his favorite as BATMAN, a COWBOY or a BAD-GUY. Recently he likes to pretend with a ukulele and a microphone while listening to Ryan Shupe.

• There isn’t anyone who can get Emeron to laugh like Fare, he loves to rough-house and be silly with his older brother.
• When looking for comfort however, Emeron will often go to his older sister Abby, for she will help him with anything. She is always making his day.
• His all time favorite thing is to listen to stories Daddy tells. Daddy is Emeron’s #1 favorite person afterall.

How about that Ems? – a super long post all about YOU!! We love you Emeron!!

Flip Flop

Regarding the title….Is it about Politics? No. Cute comfortable summer sandals? Nope. It's all about our baby DAVID!! He flip-flops all over the place and thinks it’s pretty neat. He loves to reach and hold things in his Velcro-like hands. David is almost 5 months old.

Will You Be Mine

I have been the luckiest girl to have a sweetheart Valentine like Geoff!! Thanks for being mine - I love you! Happy Valentines Day! I love it that Geoff gives me flowers and I love receiving them!! XOXO This weekend we will celebrate our 13-year anniversary. The years keep getting better and better!



For valentines this year, in lieu of sugar cookies and frosting, we went easy-gourmet and made chocolate dipped strawberries and gourmet rice-krispie treats… can rice-krispie treats be gourmet? Sure, cut them diagonally and drizzle a little melted chocolate over them, walla! Gourmet. We had a valentines dinner at home with the family and I tried to make it noticeably valentine-ish by pulling out special dishes with the glass goblets to drink from. I paid so much attention to detail as to even have heart shaped ice cubes in the glasses – to which only Abby and Anna really cared about. Love you girls!!

We have another tradition of something we call ‘kick-a-valentine’ that stems from when I was a child and my Mom would go from the front door to the back door and then the front door and so on leaving treats and valentines for us. We would run from the front to the back giggling and finding prizes at each door repeatedly. We love that tradition, and love it that Grandma still does it – for the grandkids. I wonder, however, why we called it ‘kick’-a-valentine? Did we used to kick the doors as we would drop valentines and run? Now, thankfully we drop valentines then ‘ring’ and run.

Proud to be a Cub

Farrell is so proud to finally be in the Cub Scout program. He wears his shirt every week to school and buttons it to the top, even when I suggest otherwise. You see, he likes to look 'sharp'. Can everyone give Farrell 'a big hand' for being enthuiastic about scouts?!

Catching Colds and Zzzzz's

We have done a lot of resting and sharing this last week…. sharing fevers and sore throats, that is. Monday Jacob started acting like he was not feeling well and came down with a fever (peaked at 104), earache and sore throat, next it was Emeron with the same symptoms, then came Abby-who didn’t want to-but did anyway, and then our little David without even knowing it found himself congested. Farrell decided today that he missed out on the sharing and joined in as well. As far as the kids go, Annie is the only one who didn’t participate in on this bout of sickness. Lucky girl. A look on the bright side however, we only had one co-pay and one prescription to fill! Enough of the sharing, now for the resting part….Look at this funny picture of Jacob, he found a warm and cozy hide-out under David’s crib to relax and catch a few “Z’s”.



I think it’s so funny how when all the kids have tried to forego naps, end up crashing in the most unlikely places to rest. I remember Farrell falling asleep on the pack porch, cheek against cold cement and all. Just last week Jacob fell asleep snuggled up on the kitchen rug. Then there are all the times they fall asleep during meals and while playing with toys. It seems they are sleep deprived and exhausted. Wait, that's me. ;)