Accomplishments

Caile made it into the middle school play!!  They are doing Music Man this year.  She is VERY excited!  She wanted to have a big role, but didn't get the part she wanted.  She's in the ensemble as a citizen.  She gets to sing and dance, and even has a 2 word solo (haha).  She is just happy to be in the play this year.  We are excited she made it in, the competition was fierce!  We have some great neighbors who do a lot of plays and theater camps in our area.  They worked with Caile, along with their own daughter, to prepare her for auditions.  I was so glad to have their help!  Other than my choir experience, Jared and I don't have acting/music talent.  Anyway, Caile did great in the audition and was even on the call back list for one of the main characters....unfortunately the part was given to someone else.  Like I said, the competition was tough.  Even Caile's theater friend (who seems to always get the lead) ended up with a citizen part. We are still so proud of her for the hard work she put in just to be in the show!  It's going to be fun to watch the play....I can't wait for April!  She is still doing indoor soccer right now too.  She'll never give up soccer!  She's got almost all As at school right now.....that one dang 89% is holding her back!  Maybe she'll get it up by the end of the term.

Josh had a Scouts ceremony recently.  He earned 3 badges and a pin!  He received the rifle shooting badge, the rowing badge, the archery badge, and the snow shoe making pin.  We are so proud of him for his accomplishments!  He's been a bit slower at his scouting achievements because of his sports interfering, but he does the best he can.  Speaking of sports, Josh just had his last freestyle wrestling tournament a couple weekends ago.  He took 6th place, which was good enough to earn him a trophy!  He was happy with it.  There's some good kids out there, and this is Josh's first year wrestling.  Some of those kids have been wrestling since they were 4!  It's been interesting watching Josh become so serious about his sports.  He even lost 3 lbs to get into a lower weight class for his last competition!  He ate grapefruit for breakfast!  Grapefruit!!  I never thought we'd be trying to get him to lose weight....he's always been such a skinny boy.  He just started another season of a different style of wrestling....don't ask me the name of it, I can't remember.  He's doing well though, really loving it!

Peyton just finished his first season of wrestling.  We only took him to one competition, where he took 4th.  He just had a hard time getting serious about it.  He loved going most of the time, but had rough days too.  It's funny to watch the boys his age wrestle.  Either they are super serious, or they are playing.  Then you have at least one kid every day who cries through the entire practice.  Peyton has had that kind of day before.  He also had a day that he complained that his leg hurt during the whole practice....and it magically got better at the end.  Weird.  He's still learning.  He had such a big group of kids his age to practice with, it made it hard for him to get the one on one attention he really needs.  If Jared wasn't with him, he had a hard time getting the moves right.  He has the half nelson down though!  If he wants to, we'll try it again next year.  I don't want to push him though.  Peyton is loving school right now!  His teacher loves him.  He's reading so well.  I don't know when the transition actually happened, but in the last couple months he's just taken off!  He reads his books all by himself, and very seldom gets stuck on words.  He's like a little sponge right now and repeats things he hears word for word.  He told me all about red blood cells and white blood cells the other day, in detail.  I don't think I even knew what that stuff was until high school.  He's passing me up in the smarts department!

Little Preston just turned 18 months old!  I can't believe it....it's sort of heartbreaking.  I can't believe how fast they grow!  He's a rowdy boy.  He climbs everything and gets into everything!  I'm surprised he's survived this long without any major injuries.  The constant bruises to the forehead explain a lot though!  The doctor said that kids his age constantly have bruises on their foreheads and shins from falling so much.  So he didn't accuse me of beating him haha :)  Gosh I love that little Monster!  It's like living with the Tasmanian Devil!  His fit throwing and screaming has decreased slightly....maybe ignoring him during these 'episodes' is finally starting to pay off?!  I hope so!  Preston has always been a little on the small side.  I'm not sure if it's the non dairy diet I had to eat while breastfeeding, or if it's the soy milk he's been on since I stopped.  He just didn't get all that good fat that Peyton had.  He's growing consistently though....even after a month of viral diarrhea!  (latest stats: wt-24 lbs-24% ile, ht-31 3/4"-33% ile, head-43 3/4 cm-76% ile...my kids always have big heads!).  Poor baby, he had a rough start with all the sicknesses!  He's been really good lately though.  No ear infections for a few months.  He's had runny noses here and there, but nothing that required a doctor visit.  He sleeps pretty well through the night.  He still wakes up sometimes, but just long enough for me to lay him back down, tuck him in and rub his back for a minute.  I wish he'd sleep in once in a while too, but he's just not that kind of kid, dang it!  He's starting to talk more.  I was getting kind of worried....maybe because Peyton seemed to talk early.  The doc says he's right on though.  His most recent words are, "Hi" (he tries to say "hello" when he pretend talks on the phone) and "doggie".  He's copying me more often when I speak, but it's more mimic than actual understanding of the word.  I'm excited to see what the next 6 months bring us for this little guy!