Family Update - January 2012

I wrote this in an email to Ben's siblings but felt like I should post it here for others who might be interested too. I am horrible at keeping up this blog! :/

Ben:
He passed his 2 year mark of being bishop, so only 3 years left. Woot woot! :) He is still enjoying his job and just hired a new employee last week. The employee that left actually filled a spot in Southlake, so Ben was able to give a good recommendation for that guy to his old boss! He plays basketball 3 times a week with his boss and another co-worker before work and plays Wednesday night with the guys from church and wishes he could play more. Actually he'd prefer to play soccer but it's just not big here! :( He was playing keyboard in a rock band for the past couple of years but the lead singer and organizer of the band got deployed to Afghanistan for a year, so the band has broken up (so sad). ;/ It's actually nice to have him home on Thursday nights!!! :)

Jillian:
She is in 3rd grade and LOVES her teacher and has a lot of her old friends from her 1st grade class in her class again. It's been nice for her to have some BFFs and she is always having them come over and "hang out." Her current obsession is Harry Potter and she loves to play Lego Harry Potter on the Wii or on the DS and has read all 7 books twice in the last year. Almost every conversation brings out an, "Well, in Harry Potter..." comment and it's driving her mother batty but it's kind of fun to have an HP expert in the house. Who knew that everything in life relates to Harry Potter? Ha ha. She is also in the community children's choir for the 2nd year and her voice keeps getting better and better. Her director is amazing to take this group of chatty, fidgety kids and get them to perform so well! She has a speaking part (in the middle of the song "Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious") in the next performance and it cracks me up when she does it. I think we might have a drama girl on our hands. :) We took a break from piano lessons for budgetary reasons but Mom has decided to start teaching her own children piano (the horror!). ;) It's actually going pretty well but I think they'd do better with a real "teacher." Maybe some day...

Miranda:
She is in 1st grade and does very well in school and tells me all about her friends. When I volunteered in her class last week, people were talking to her and hugging her and paying attention to her but she just kind of goes about her way and rarely responds. I asked her why and she just shrugs. I guess she can't be bothered by too much socializing??? :) She is our giggly, boy-crazy girl. Recently she started wearing her pink-tinted sunglasses to school. I asked her why and she said that Drake wears glasses and she wanted to be like him. I asked who Drake was and she said, "The cutest boy in my class!" ;) She also loves to read. She's currently working through HP #1 slowly but takes breaks for Rainbow Fairy books and other short chapter books. :) She also joined the community children's choir this year and is really coming out of her shell. She loves to sing but is actually doing the actions and dancing as well now. I started teaching her piano (only 3 weeks so far) and she is super excited because she can already play, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." It must be the fabulous teacher. Ha.

Natalie:
Super funny little Nat is 5 and will start kindergarten in August. We have to tell her how far away that is every day. :) She has started to read but gets bored with it after a few pages and says, "Ok, now you read the rest, Mom!" She is obsessed with horses and loved riding a real one when we visited Kansas a couple of weeks ago (all the girls loved it actually). She has a new friend that moved into a neighboring ward and we have play dates almost every week. It's so nice for her to have a friend since all the kids her age in our ward are already in kindergarten or go to preschool and there's noone to do play dates with ever. Miranda doesn't have anyone her age in our ward and her friends from school haven't been able to work out a play date yet (parents schedule conflicts!), so she's awfully jealous of her sisters always having friends over lately! We measured and weighed all the girls today and found that Natalie is only 1 inch shorter and 2 pounds lighter than Miranda. And Miranda is a stick, so I guess we have two sticks. :) I checked their BMI on a health website and it shows Jill as normal and the other girls as underweight but I can't get them to eat more! Any suggestions??? Natalie enjoys singing with her sisters and by herself. She's actually quite shy but ask her to sing a song and she'll belt it out. She sang with her sisters in church at Christmas, then again a couple of weeks ago in my Dad's church, and then today she gave a talk in Primary about the creation of the world and sang, "I Will Follow God's Plan For Me," all by herself. Then she sang it over the phone for Grammy to hear tonight. :) So that's kind of fun that my girls can all enjoy doing that together.

Lucas:
Adorable, crazy, cute, funny, talkative, bossy, sharing, talented with a spoon, always on the run. That about sums up Lucas. :) He does like his own way like all 2 year olds but he's getting better about sharing and when he does he says, "Uh! Uh!" in this little squeaky voice that makes it sound like he's saying, "See? See? See how good I was, Mom?" It's so cute. He's still a rough and tumble boy and other than the literal run-in with the desk last month resulting in stitches, he's been pretty coordinated in his craziness and hasn't been hurt lately. Now to pay off the $1000 stitches bill. Yes, I'm serious... $1000. I tell the kids every time they're being crazy, "Be careful! I can't afford to take you to the hospital!" :) I didn't measure him (he wouldn't stand still that long!) but he's very tall and most people think he's 3. His favorite way to greet a friend is to grab them around the middle and throw them to the ground. Yes, unfortunately, I'm serious. He is a born tackler and I hope he makes millions with that talent some day. :) He doesn't try to be mean at all but he acts like he's giving them an exuberant hug! :) Most of his friends love it and they love to wrestle on the floor but some don't appreciate it and I have to keep a watchful eye when I'm babysitting! He's always gentle around babies and all girls (other than his sisters) but little boys watch out! He's a pretty good eater when he wants to be and can get 90% of his food actually in his mouth with a spoon, which is pretty impressive to me. :)

Brandi:
I am... tired. Ha! I'm doing well. I'm the Relief Society secretary and feel like that's been a crazy busy job lately but hopefully things will slow down a bit. I'm the Attendance Taker for the girls' choir and that is fun because I get to see all of their rehearsals and I exchange my time for tuition which makes it affordable for us! I have a million projects I'd like to get to around the house and at the school but I think I'm doing ok accomplishing a couple of things each day. :) So what are YOU up to??? :)