Austin

Austin just finished kindergarten, he had an action packed year.  He did really well for being the youngest kid in the school!  This summer we are working on our writing nicely and spacing.  He is keeping a journal of the things he does this summer, so far he does not like it, I hope it gets better.
Austin is still doing BMX.  He has gotten better, only 1 more win before he his moved up in class.  We took him to his first State and Red line cup.  He struggled in the beginning, but when it was the finales he came out in 2nd place both days.  His little calf muscles are so big.
About a month ago he finished Tball.  He is going to take a break from it in the fall and try tackle football.  Please keep him in your thoughts and if you pray in your prayers, that he doesn't get crushed.  He made the minimum weight requirement by 2lbs.  But this is something he has been asking to do all year.
Swimming like a champ as usual.  The pool opened March 30th and he enjoys every minute of it.
He completed his first true run with me.  It was an amazing feeling to keep encouraging him, to help him cross that line.  He has no idea how much I cherish that 1 mile run.  We trained for 2 weeks and I was supper proud.
He is a little social butterfly loves to play with someone at all times.  His interest other than sports have been Ninjago, Ben 10 Wii Supper Mario Brothers, Nintendo 3DS and sleep overs with daddy.
We implemented a check system to help motivate him in the morning and it has help a great deal.
He takes recycle out each night (maybe every other night) and gets $5 at the end of the week.  He is great at saving his money to buy something.  He has bought about 4 wii games and 1 Nintendo 3DS game.
He is getting so big so fast and I hope he enjoys these days as much as I do.

 Valerie snapped this cool picture at one of his races

 after a scary ride a Disney

 Everyone's favorite ride

 He loves to dress up like Savannah when he attends Disney

New glasses

Austin's glasses came in today. At the moment he seems happy to be wearing them and cleaning them. His eye exams showed a stigmatism.

Valerie

I guess the easiest and fasted way to update so I can keep on track is to do each kid separately.  First up is Valerie.  What can I say except that she is 13!  I sure hope I was easier, but I am sure I was not.  I don't have many pictures of her she either likes to be the one taking the pictures or hides behind something when I am it at her.   I guess we are alike.
This year she had some ups and downs, but who doesn't.  She experienced going to TCBY, the park, friends houses after school, not coming home until supper.  Spending her weekends at friends houses or meeting them at the park.  She also experienced the normal teenage trouble.  Grounded, no phone, no friends, no internet, and paying off dept by doing chores.  She decided she didn't want to BMX anymore but wanted to try Baseball.  We could only get her into a softball league here and she chose not to do that, so this year she didn't participate in sports.  She attended Fruit Cove Cares for most of the summer and Bible study after school.

 My favorite picture of her this past year

 Cake she made me for my birthday, she seems to really enjoy baking

 She asked for red hair and I delivered!

We just dropped her off at her dads for the summer.  Savannah keeps asking for sissy and is missing her a bunch.     Once I can get a hold of her computer I have more pictures to post.

Let's see if this works!

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No luck with mobile yet

So lack of post mostly come from the Ipad.  I use the Ipad mostly and rarely touch the computer.  I have yet to find a way to blog via my Ipad.  I will work on it in an effort to keep up with the blog.  I have decreased the amount of picture on facebook to help with the need to blog.  It is so easy to take a picture put a few words and go.

But for now a little update.  We just got back from a 1.5 week long tour of PA.  First stop was Nanny and Poppy's.  The kids attended Olivia's last baseball game of the season, went to the park, and a ride around God's country.  Also lots of play time with Nanny and Poppy.
Then off to Beam and Poppy's where the kids played with Benjamin, Maddie and Nate.  They all got a long really well and we are excited for a vacation with them at the end of August.  Here I  also got to visit with Jennifer and Melody.  Then it was to drop Valerie off for the summer at her dads. 
Next stop was Pap and Ama's.  Here we attended a Curve game where Austin got to play Angry birds on the filed with Steamer the mascot.  Then a trip to Penn State to appease daddy.  There was a picnic with all of Robs friends and family members.  You can tell your getting old when the head count has more kids than adults.
For the last stop we visited Granny and Grampy.  The kids enjoyed playing kenext and would really like one (mostly Austin).  We went to see flight 93 memorial, trying to explain to Austin without going to far and scaring him was hard.  We got to visit Weezy everyday.

I am hoping to back track a little.  Some will be without pictures.  I used Valerie's computer to take pictures of off my memory card and well, she has her computer with her...Darn!