The 3rd quarter at school is finished. Both boys always seem to get better as the year goes on. You would think if anything they slack off as the year goes on, but I just think it takes my boys so long to get in the groove.

We had one of the Saturday ski lessons cancelled due to cold. So the makeup class will be next weekend. Then we are done with sports for a while. I made the decision, for several reasons, not to play spring sports. One of the biggest being that we can't seem to get homework and other necessary things done when we have after school things/practices going on. I have already taken away most of the toys. I have recently put up all but about a weeks worth of clothes. Just amazes how much messy the house can still get. The boys don't even miss the toys! They always find something to entertain them.

A few random pictures that I have found on my computer! Enjoy. Can't wait for the green grass to return.

20 plus elk

The boys are loving day light savings time.  More than one evening they have been out past 7 playing.  I foresee lots of independence this summer.  All three of them rode bikes several blocks with the teen age neighbor boy down to the school to play.  Seems there are more kids in the neighborhood now and they get games of hide and go seek going.  This is when I wish we had front yards for them to play in, but they always make do and they don't seem to know the difference.

I have taken away most of the toys because we were just having too many issues with clean up, etc.  It amazes me how they are able to entertain themselves.  They are playing more games, coloring, etc.  I even think they may be getting along a little better.

I continue to plod through work outs.  There was about a 3 week period where I felt like I had quit making progress and just maintaining.  Part of it was due to my knee hurting.  However, I have rebooted and hopefully back on track.  I have been running sprints at a speed equivalent to 7.5 miles an hour.  I am finding that it is much more comfortable to run at this speed than a slower jog - although I tire much quicker.  I have not run outside yet...I am told it is much different than a treadmill.  I like the treadmill because it keeps my pace consistent.  Maybe this week if the weather holds I will get outside and run.

Found some pictures of when Jbird had his birthday cake that never got posted.  He wanted to put all the candles on his cake.

Another great day on the ski hill....the sun was out most of the day and once the cold air warmed up, it was really nice.  So thankful the boys have taken to it and can find their way around the mountain.  One of these days I will ski with them and get some pictures that are not on the bunny hill.

The ever elusive B...He is figuring out the ski poles.

A rare shot of Jbird still....

You can't tell in the photo, but this kid dances as he comes down.  Next time I need to get a video.

Jbird on the lift....

And guess who is big enough now to ride solo...I was a little nervous, but the lift operator had been watching him all day and she said he does great!

Happy 7th birthday to this guy!

Just a quick check in!

Spring Break is winding down quickly.  We are having some beautiful weather!

We wrapped up our hotel stay and the boys had a great time.  JB was taking off the life jacket and swimming some without it, although he loves the security of it.  He continued to want to do back flips into the water.  However, he was not getting the height or the distance, so we moved him to the top rung of the ladder.  It was more like back dives at that point, but he would jump and climb back up, jump and climb back up.  He did probably 20 in a row.  Can't wait until next time we are in the pool again!

Jbird had his sleep over.  There were 3 friends and it was so nice out, they play outside until dark.  One of his friends decided at 10pm to head home, but the other 2 stayed and they were still awake at 11pm.  Unfortunately they were up at 7:15.  So, my boys are wiped out.

They are currently up skiing today!  Two more weeks of ski lessons.  We are contemplating soccer for the spring.  One of the leagues is not doing a spring session, so I am inclined to sit out a season.  I must admit, I really love the slower paced days and it is so much easier to stay on top of homework.

This past weekend the boys went up skiing with JR.  The weather was beautiful!  From all accounts they had a great time.

Last week B went to the orthodontist.  As expected, all of the work that has been done has been undone over time.  I did not realize it but B has an open bite.  Which means that when he closes his jaw there is a pretty significant space between his top and bottom front teeth - they don't nicely overlap. Every time he swallows (which doc said is about 3,000 times a day) he thrusts his tongue forward because his mouth is so small.  There are 2 palate expander options.  The first one did not work well and is not sturdy enough to handle B's issues.  So, we are going with a RPE-rapid palette expander.  Basically it is an appliance in the top of the mouth that will be cranked every day to expand things.  In forty days we should have gotten a 6mm expansion.  The doc said that in all his years, this is the first time he has had to do both options on a patient.  I told him I was glad that we could be a first for him!  That is scheduled for mid May.  So, we have to expand things, then pull front teeth down and out over the bottom teeth and then bring the teeth together.  Time to start saving for the additional phases that are coming (first phase paid for :-))

The other day I was talking with Jbird's teacher.  He told me, as he was chuckling, that he had to keep getting on Jbird.  He said "I know it is a cliche but just no other way to explain it...he is just 100% boy."  I just laughed.  He said that J tries so hard but just gets excited, blurts and continues to escalate.

So, I recently listened to a radio program on kids learning styles.  It discussed auditory, visual and kinestetic learners.  Audio learners are those they had to learn, not through listening to someone else, but to listening to themselves.  They are the kids that are always interrupting with questions.  The kinestetics learned can't learn unless he is busy.  There are also 2 ways that kids process information.  I don't forget the first but the second is global.  Meaning they can't focus or follow through very well unless they know the end results first.  They are the ones that like the read the first two and last two chapters of a book first, then they read the middle.  Really trying to work through some issues particularly with B, so will be looking more closely at these things and how to implement these things with them.

Spring break is here!  We are currently chilling in the room, in between swimming.
We are here with another family.....

Here is the soon to be birthday boy.  I struggled with what to get him and I was in Costco and found a snorkel set, something he has wanted for a while.  We gave it to him early so he could try it out....

This kid though stole the show....I was shocked at how adventurous he was.  Still not wanting to take the life jacket off, but a crazy jumping little guy.  He will run and jump and spin before hitting the water.  Often times he would jump so high he would touch the bottom, even with a life jacket on.

He was attempting to do a back flip in the water but was unsuccessful with his life jacket.  I was sitting in a chair and talking to one of the other boys.  He walked up and said "watch this..".  I was not really paying attention but saw him do a back flip INTO the water.  I freaked out, turned to my friend and said 'did he just do a back flip'.  She said 'yep!'  He did a back flip from the side of the pool.  Something he had never done before and to my knowledge had never seen anyone else do either.  He got amazing height and was able to fully rotate.  He did it several more times.  We tried to get it on video and camera last night, but to no avail.  Today he obviously did not have the same adrenaline rush but caught it on film.  He was not getting very high so was scaring me how close he was coming to the end of the pool.  We are now trying to teach him how to stand on the edge and jump up and back.  (You can see in the picture how he is too far from the edge.)

 Hoping for better flipping tonight.  He was so cute earlier...he would not flip until all of us started chanting his name.

 This past weekend ski lessons were cancelled due to the cold.  I was very thankful as I read that the wind chill that morning on the slopes was -57.

We are gearing up for spring break next week.  Sounds like Jbird is wanting to have a sleep over for his 7th birthday, so that is on the calendar.  As well as trying to head to the slopes for a day of skiing, as well as another day with the lessons and half a day of free skiing.  We also cashed in our jar of coins and ended up with $143, so we are trying to work in 2 overnights at a local hotel so the kids can swim.  We will go with another family, so should be a lot of fun.

Last week B participated in the Gran Prix at AWANA.  He made a car and ended up getting first in design and third in speed.  He was so surprised, excited and proud.

I am still hitting the gym, but have hit a mental block I think.  I have been having a few issues with my knee, so going lighter on a lot of the exercises.  Still trying to run some.  Slowly getting stronger and faster on the treadmill.  Looking forward to when the roads clear and I can run some outside.  I decided not to do the March 15th 10k run.  However, I did find a 9k Memorial Run in our little town that I am hoping to sign up for.  I actually found all the runs in our whole state and hope to at least sign up for 3 or 4 this year.

Not much else going on. Just desperately wanting to pull out the shorts.  I have told the boys that I will pull their out after spring break.  (I had to take them away because they wanted to wear them when it was 32 out).

JR is staying busy.  We have met expenses 3 months in a row and he has not looked for any work.  It is all seeking him out!  We are talking about what the summer months will look like and trying to plan for some growth.

B goes back to orthodontist on Thursday.  At one point they had put brackets on his two front teeth to pull them together.  Well, all that work has been undone!  They have moved back apart.  I really think we started a year too early for him.  I don't think the doctor anticipated how slowly he would lose his teeth.  Jbird will be 7 soon and we are still awaiting the loss of his first tooth!