Christmas Card Pics by Erika Knox

I love this time of the year because I really put great value in getting a professional picture of each of my kids. I love photography - especially nice photography - and seeing how the kids grow each year. To be honest, if Matt and I were never photographed I don't think it would bother me much, but maybe I will feel differently about that in the future. Matt has always said he wants a picture of our entire family on our Christmas card and we have done that every year! That's quite an accomplishment. When Jill Baumhover moved away to Michigan two years ago I wondered who would photograph us and then Erika Knox moved across the street! She does a great job with her "Mini Sessions" which last 20 minutes. She captured the kids beautifully this year. Thank you Erika!

This beauty. . .Kim Truss ran over and curled her hair. She is 9 years and 10 months old

Sigh. . .adorable. Will is 7 years and 11 months old.

Love this one. . . Matthew is 3 years and 9 months old.

Heartbreaker! John is 5 years and 7 months old

We just celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary and I love him more now. . .

Laughing at John's bare feet and Matthew's grumpy face

This was the winner of the whole family! Love Will's pose, Matt's arm on Will, Matthew's shirt and John's arm up in the air like that. It was all I could do to get John to wear this outfit!!!

ADORABLE!

Me and my girl. I just turned 43 years old.

The pro at work! She is pregnant with her 4th child - baby girl Eloise!

Friends. . .So Thankful for Them

My kids have found some good friends.
Alivia - Anna Kinslow, Lainie and Josie Crager, Paige Mangum and her cousins
Will - Tanner Ledlie
John - Blake Mezger, Shepard Knox, Beau Knox, Teague Ledlie
Matthew - Nora Ullrich, Blair Mezger

I feel so blessed to live in our neighborhood and go to our school. These two places have provided some deep and rich friendships for me and my children. I hope this will only continue in the future.

John and Blake on Halloween 2015

Anna and Alivia on the last day of 3rd grade

Will and Tanner - summer 2015

Blake and John - last day of CUMC Preschool

Celebrating completion of Take Flight Program with Miss Shonna and her bestie

The Ledlie crew and Will!

Alivia, Josie and Lainie

Alivia and Anna

Anna, Alivia and Will 

Tanner, Will, John and Teague

Nora and Matthew

Paige Taylor at the Davis Elementary Carnival

Cotton Candy at the Carnival!

Avery and Alivia have a sweet friendship that I hope will continue through their lifetime

On our way to Mr. Gatti's with this awesome crew! Will was hunting with G-pa

Alivia and Lainie

Lainie and Alivia

Matthew - 3 1/2

"Baby" Matthew is now 3 1/2. He is a joyful child (unless awoken from a deep sleep). He gets along great with his brother and sister and is pretty easy going. He still needs a nap every day but the hardest part is waking him up! He would sleep for 3 hours but then not go to bed until 11 pm. But awakening him is brutal. He wakes up really cranky! He still cannot ride a bike or swim but I am hoping to work on these things this summer. I would love to have all kids be independent swimmers in the next few years. 

He goes to a Mother's Day Out program at Covenant United Methodist Church Monday-Thursday. His teacher (Miss Michelle) is super lame, but he does not seem to notice or care. For the most part he enjoys going. He has a great friend in the class named Nora who is so cute! We have started trading off play dates every other Thursday which has been fun. 

Matt's brother Rusty remarks that Matthew looks so much like Matt. Having Rusty be 10 years older than Matt, he can probably remember! Bob and Ruth don't really have any pics to give or show me which is such a shame. I have seen a few but not enough to really know for sure. I do know that Matt was really blonde until he was about 8 or 10 years old. 

I think Matthew is going to be funny and the comedian of our family. He loves to be the center of attention and yells and screams very loudly to be heard. We are constantly telling him to "use his inside voice." When he is not getting is way or fighting with his brothers, he tends to scream a high pitched ear piercing scream that is terrible! 

He says "hello" to anyone that walks by and has never met a stranger. He is quick to smile. He is confident most of the time, but sometimes can be clingy to me when it is a new situation like a birthday party or a loud restaurant. I still love to snuggle with him and lay down with him several nights a week to help him settle down. He still sleeps above his covers and wears a pull up. But he is waking up dry many mornings so we probably can drop the pull up soon. 

One quirky thing about him is that when he has napped too long he often gets up after being put down for the evening. He will turn on all his lights and play in his room quietly until who knows what time! I often have to go check on him before I go to bed at 11 pm to make sure he is actually in his bed. I have found him in various places in his room including his closet! Sometimes I have trouble opening the door because he is laying right in front of it. 

What I want to be when I wake up: Builder

Favorite Color: Blue

Favorite TV show: Myles from Tomorrowland

Best Friend: Nora

Besties - Nora and Matthew. Matt remarked that Nora was really tall, but Matthew is sitting and she is standing!

He sat on this stone and asked that I take his picture. So cute. . .just love it.

I never buy the preschool pics but thought he looked SO CUTE!

My Sensitive Sensory John

My sweet Joyful John. . . has had a rough go of it lately. I think it began at the end of the school year last year and has slowly been becoming more of an issue these last few months. We decided to hold him back and send him to Pre-K this year at ACS after his scores on the Missouri Kindergarten Readiness Testing revealed some concerns. I was thrown for a loop after the testing last year but since that time I have been paying more attention to this little guy and am so thankful we did not send him to Kindergarten. Kindergarten at ACS is pretty tough and requires about 3 hours of work on the homeschool day. It became very apparent that John was NOT ready for that. I was sad to hold him back, but now several months in I am so thankful God led us in that direction. As I began to work with John a few months ago I started to see some similarities and struggles that Alivia had. At this point I am confident that John has dyslexia as well. I mourned and grieved about this (and still am in some ways) but know that he is exactly the way God wants him to be and will have some qualities that are groomed through his struggles. It is very difficult for him to recognize letters and numbers just like his sister and it just pains me to see him struggle so. I know he knows that he should know! And he gets frustrated. . . I have gotten some good material to prepare him for next year, looked into starting a Pre-Take Flight Program this Spring and probably will have him tested by the same Neuropsychologist, Dr. Sarah Avey sometime in the Spring as well. I feel so much more prepared this time around but that does not make it any easier. I will be interested to see what severity he is classified as. 

Another interesting issue that has started is difficulties with clothing. After we were at the beach this summer and he had chafing on his legs from sand in his swimsuit, he started demanding jammers - and not just any jammers, but a certain type and brand that I bought on the fly at the beach because we were in a bind. They are SUPER thin! They are meant to be worn under board shorts but he will have none of that. Then it progressed to his shoes not feeling tight enough - he will only wear two types of shoes, these boots and Native rubber shoes. Next, he began to have issues with his shirts feeling "too big" and started stealing clothes from his little brother that fit more snugly. Now he has settled on this swim top (clearly too small), athletic shorts (without underwear) and his cowboy boots. We lay down the law on Sundays and for school but otherwise I just wash this shirt every day. We have hired an Occupational Therapist (Miss Lisa) to come work with him twice a week as well. I am hopeful that with some time and therapy some of these issues will get better. . . I want my John back!

Daily outfit - swim top, athletic shorts and BOOTS!

The Amazing Race with Will

Our church did the COOLEST bonding activity for mothers-sons last weekend. I was on the fence about doing it but was so glad I did. The activity was based on the show, "The Amazing Race" where teams race around the world collecting clues and trying to get to destinations before the other teams. Our race was around Austin. We showed up at the church and were paired off. I asked to be paired with Angie Phillips and her son, Gavin, which was a great pair for us. We started of figuring out the first clue that took us to Pillow Elementary where I had to get into a Captain America suit, take a selfie with Will and then put together a big puzzle. Then we were given another clue which we had to solve and then raced to a restaurant where Will guzzled a milkshake and I played putt-putt as quickly as I could. Then we were off to another nearby elementary school and had to shoot 20 points in basketball (probably the most challenging for us!) Next we headed to a location where graffiti is allowed and spray painted our names and took a picture. The off to Central Market where Will had to tell me how to make a Lego truck without me seeing the directions. Then we went to Town Lake and canoed across the lake to buoys. Next we headed across the rive and played frisbee golf. Then we went to a nearby park and sang "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" to someone who had a costume on. Next we ran up a hill while the boys turned around bats and the moms chugged a soda and had to burp! Next it was off to an arcade where we played pinball and had to score 9,500,000 points (Will rocked this!) Then we raced back to the church. There were 10 stations in all so I am sure I missed one or two. We came in 5th place out of about 20 teams! I was SO hoping we would get 1st, 2nd or 3rd because they had some cool prizes. . . but honestly the experience was so fun that it did not matter that much. I can't wait until next year. It was so well organized! It was truly one of my most fun days in a long time. . .

The team! Me, Will, Gavin and Angie

Will's selfie with Captain America!

Slurping a milkshake at Twisted Root Restaurant - he did it in 25 seconds!

This crazy graffiti park - had NO idea this was here!

Great pic from the day - see our names on the wall?

Angie drove - she was awesome. A true race car driver. :-)

Example of the fun clues we got along the way - the answer: Pillbalz Arcade

Will's First Buck!

Will specifically asked to go "hunting with Grandpa" for his birthday "without my brothers or sister." And said "I don't want a birthday party. I just want to go hunting with Grandpa." So we got a weekend on the calendar. In anticipation for the weekend, my dad bought Will a deer rifle for his 8th birthday (gulp!) I was really unsure about it but Grandpa and Matt both assured me that he was ready. 

We all went to Cabela's as it was purchased. Thankfully we did because Matt quickly realized the one that my dad was going to get was not the correct size or power for him. The weekend they went down to Freer (Rancho Venado Grande) and sighted in the scope and practiced. Will was a natural and was hitting the targets correctly. So Grandpa took him out into the stand the next day (Saturday, November 7th). 

They saw a beautiful buck and Will shot it perfectly without any hesitation. My dad said it could not have been a better shot. Right in the heart and he went down immediately. WOW! When dad was texting me those pictures I just could not believe it. Will was so proud. It scored a 160 and he was placed up on the wall along with others at Freer. Very cute. Will cried when we picked him up because he did not want the weekend to end.

This is the scoring for his buck from the local convenience store that has a contest for the area.

Getaway to Denver with Matt