November 2017

Teenage Mutant Ninja Cake

5 years old

Thanksgiving pic

Sinterklaas in Holland

Telling Santa she wanted a panda 

Cuteness 

There goes the old carpet

 Band Concert

Broken foot

Going after the turkey drumstick

Asha and Julia

Nutcracker Tea with the Petersons

-We replaced the carpet on our stairs and 2nd floor. Moving furniture out of 4 bedrooms- challenging! The carpet looks great.
-Julia, Asha, Rebecca and myself attended a Nutcracker ballet tea in Holland.

-We celebrated Stephen's 5th Birthday! He loved his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cake. His favorite toys right now- Star Wars lego starships. Stephen loves school, he is starting to read and his handwriting has improved so much since September! He wishes he could stay all day at school. Stephen has developed a stutter. Right now we are monitoring it, may just be a developmental thing. He loves to be included with his older brothers and is Julia's playmate at home.  Stephen and Lexi have a close relationship. They fight, but they play well together. Stephen still likes to cuddle up and smell me. Stephen jumped off the playground at school because there was snow and he thought it would be soft- oof. Turns out he broke his foot, not very bad. It was in his metatarsals and the bone buckled.  He wore a boot for a couple weeks. He is in the 90th percentile for height and weight and brings joy to our family. We are blessed by our sweet boy.

-We celebrated Thanksgiving in Wheaton. It was good to see Great Grandpa/Great Grandma and to stay at a hotel and swim with cousins and Gpa/Gma J.

-Caleb had a Christmas band concert.  The trumpet section is quite good.  Caleb finished out his basketball season- he grew in confidence and skills, had fun and was one of the better players. Caleb is doing fantastic in school and he is firmly in the middle of puberty. Caleb wants to hang out with friends more on the weekends, but he is still ok hanging out with the family too.  Caleb and his friends play chess sometimes during lunch break. He is taking a season off from sports and will play lacrosse in the spring. We are appreciating that Caleb can babysit the kids for short periods of time.

-Julia participated in sacred dance at church for the first time and it was beautiful. She is enjoying gymnastics and becoming more flexible- she can almost do the splits! The orthodontist put a device on the roof of her mouth to help her stop sucking her thumb. She only sucks it during her sleep and its an unconscious thing, but it's messing up her mouth so hopefully this will help. Julia sees Miss Molly, her therapist, twice a month.  Sometimes she complains, but she mostly looks forward to seeing Miss Molly. Julia is doing well in school and has a good ear for piano. She doesn't enjoy practicing, but she picks up tunes quickly. Julia can usually be found reading a book or listening to music. 

-Isaac is playing basketball thru Holland Christian on Saturday mornings.  He is athletic and enjoying the game.  He is doing well in school, but the teachers this year are not his favorite.  His closest friends are Luke and Levi.  Isaac is a typical 10 year old boy with alot of energy.  He loves to tease and mess with his siblings- he sees it as good natured, they may not always agree. Isaac can play with any of his siblings, loves to laugh and make others laugh.  He is good at piano, but he still thinks about playing the drums in 5th grade band next year.

-Lexi is now staying dry at night! She is independent and wants to do everything herself.  It makes me smile to think we used to be worried about her language development.  She speaks clearly and isn't afraid to share her mind.  She often speaks in declarative sentences- You do this, I am going to do this.  She spells her name, saying L E X I, "yexi." She can say L when spelling her name but not when saying her name, its cute.  Or it's "toot" as she would say. She is drawing people and can be very focused and meticulous when coloring.  She likes school and wishes she went more than twice a week. Lexi acts like Stephen's guardian at times and she melts my heart when she squeezes my neck and says, "I love you lots and lots Mom."  Her baby and panda often come along on errands.  People always ask her what their names are and she says, "baby and panda." Obviously.  She loves listening to the Frozen soundtrack and now wears the Elsa dress- just like Julia a couple years ago.