It's Magic!

How does this keep happening?  Our lives usually are pretty quiet, but all of a sudden in the last six months there has been enough going on that we keep getting behind in our blog posts!  So, another catch-up post to be had....

In February, we had a couple of sporting outings - the first actually was when Z-parents went sans children to the Tampa Bay Lightning game - it was a work event and as it was 2 hours away, we decided that we would go without the kids and save the super late night (It was midnight before we ourselves crawled into bed).  It was in the box there, and it was super fun as it was right before the Olympics, so we talked about how several of the players were heading out the next day to the Olympics. 


Karis outside of the arena as we walked in

Later that month, we accepted four tickets to the Orlando Magic game - taking the boys to make up for the fact that they had missed out on the hockey game.  We realized right before leaving however that this too was going to be a work event - us along with 12 of Amy's coworkers!  The boys were very well behaved though and it worked out nicely.  One of Amy's bosses, Terry, sat down beside Zachary and started quizzing him on math questions, using the scoreboard as the source for numbers - Zachary surprised him by being able to quickly and accurately do all of the double digit addition and subtraction immediately in his head and come up with the right answer!  Good job Zachary!

Watching the game with their front row seats in the box!

We are slowly trying to recover from the trip to Jackson Hole.  The kids have been sick this week, so it has taking a long time.  With the fact that we "sprang" ahead, we're feeling it here!  One night, TWO of our smoke alarm batteries decided to die, so they of course went off two hours apart, waking up the adults in the family - that day was not a good one, to say the least!

We had another strange night in which we woke up at 4A (Karis accidentally woke Amy up as he got out of bed to go to the bathroom), and we realized that the house at the back of our property (in another subdivision) was rhythmically turning their lights on and off - every few seconds (so too quickly to be a motion light we're thinking).  It kept doing that for quite a while - we laid in bed discussing this for about 15-20 seconds, beginning to worry  - what if this was their signal for help and we were ignoring it?  Karis finally called 9-1-1 and they headed out to determine if there was a problem, but we never heard back as to what happened.  Odd.

A few weeks ago, we had Adventurers Sabbath at the Apopka church - we typically don't attend those events as we go to our normal church, but Zachary was a deacon so we went over there.  Kaleb was indignant that he didn't have a part in the service, so hopefully next time he gets chosen!  At least he got to march in with the group, so that was a good thing!

Beautiful smile!

Kaleb and Jonathan marching in

Brother bonding time:

Playing on the I-Pad together

Playing with their dinosaur collection - trying to keep baby sister from wrecking it!

The weather has been absolutely beautiful here the last month (ahh, the time to be in Florida EXCEPT if you have allergies - if you have allergies, you want to chop your head off every time you go outside for any length of time!!)  We have enjoyed playtime outside on the driveway, and Addison has been playing with chalk etc.


We had a group of friends over for Sabbath lunch in February, so all of the kids were outside on all of the "vehicles" - although Zachary and Esi were playing football instead!

Impossible to see, but Zachary is hiding in the box on the driveway - didn't realize it when this picture was taken until he started to climb out, and then we zoomed in on the picture and can barely see his arm where the 'lid' is open! :)

Addison is recovering from a terrible cough that began while we were away last week.  She is getting all 4 of her canine teeth, so the poor child has been quite clingy and temperamental this week.  She is a big fan of course of Daddy, so they have had some bonding time.

Big helper - loves to sweep the wood floors!

Phrase of the week:  Karis asked the boys where Addison was this week, and Kaleb's reply was "maybe getting into 'mis-drift'"  Ha ha, love two things about that phrase - how Kaleb says mischief, and the fact that she probably WAS getting into mischief!  He knows her well!  This child continues to amaze all of us with her "tornado" tendencies - running from one thing to the next - and she is so crafty (and we don't mean artistic!) - Miss Jennifer uttered the very true words the other day "Oh Addison, use your powers for good, not evil!" as we watched her little mind spinning on what she could do to accomplish her goals at the time.....  Karis one day remarked that Addison appears to be the most mechanically minded of all of our children - the youngest, and the girl!  You go girl! :)  She definitely has the ability to think through a problem and get it solved so that she can continue on her merry way - regardless of whether she is SUPPOSED to be doing any of that! :)