BIRTHDAYS, SAT, SNOW, SOCCER, SYNCOPE, ZOO, TENNIS, LACROSSE, OH MY!

Our lives have been busy as usual. A few highlights of the past months:

Barry turned @#$% and celebrated by working until 10pm. He has been putting in a lot of hours at work since the beginning of the year, but is hopefully back to a normal pace now-at least for a while.

We have our first teenager as Tanner turned 13 this year! He got a guitar-a gift I hope we don't regret. We celebrated as a family, but it was tainted quite a bit because the poor guy got his ipod touch-a Christmas gift-stolen right out of his pocket at the arcade. His absent-mindedness does seem to get him in trouble a lot. (Not that it was his fault in any way-this kind of thing just seems to follow him around. I don't even know if I can name all the electronic items, notebooks, papers, tennis racquets, etc. he has "misplaced".) Poor fella. Evidently its an idiot savant (no, I don't think he is an idiot in any way) kind of thing because he got invited to take the SAT in January and scored higher than 89% of graduating seniors in the US that took it last year. We are both still trying to figure out how we got this genius kid and what to do with him. He's still playing Lacrosse and tennis which adds to our full weekends.

Parker just joined a flag football team, so between that, his indoor soccer schedule, his outdoor soccer schedule, his social life, and his first year in middle school, he stays occupied. Football games haven't started, so those will be fun to watch I think. His outdoor soccer team is doing great and although they have beaten the first place team, because of the point system, they are still in second place. The rain has made this soccer season somewhat sporadic and I think we will be playing make up games into the summer at this rate. Last week, the other indoor team were short players, so Parker's team loaned them a few of theirs (including Parker) and Maddie played. (Way to go Maddie! Playing with all older boys-you rock!) So, for the first, and probably only time, Maddie and Parker were on the same team. Kind of cool to see. (I didn't get any great photos though-still learning about indoor lighting with my new camera. Madelyn is the player in the black shorts and the grey shirt. Parker you can find from his hair.)

Madelyn is playing soccer like something fierce. She is on her recreational team as well as an academy team this season. She really is doing well-so fun to watch. She ran a really clean campaign for student council representative and won, so she is loving being involved with that. She was doing the school play-Beauty and the Beast-however, doctor visits got in the way of rehearsals and the nazi drama-music teachers kicked her out. She wasn't too upset about that, maybe next year. On a scary note, she had a seizure episode at school. It was a nerve racking several weeks of more tests before we got in to see the neurologist and he said that she is just "prone to fainting" which then leads to her having a small seizure (syncope). So, it really ended up being the best outcome we could have hoped for. She knows what can trigger them and what to watch for, so hopefully, it will be something she will outgrow. If not, she just might have to live with it. We are very grateful that this turned out to be a fairly minor issue.

Cambren recently got to cash in one of his Christmas gifts from his aunt & uncle (Thanks Sam & Kim!)-an overnight stay at the Fort Worth Zoo! He really just loves animals and had a blast. He is still playing soccer and just loves it. We found out at the recent open house that he wants to work at a pet store. We'd prefer him to own several as opposed to be an hourly employee at one, so we'll see how that pans out. For now, he will have to be satisfied with his hamster, fish, cat, and two-soon to have puppies-dogs. (Yeah, that's a whole other story.)

Lucky for us, Sam and Kim (Did we mention they are really thoughtful gift givers?) gave us padded and personalized bleacher seats, so all our game watching is done in ultimate comfort. We really don't have time to do much else and we do enjoy watching our kids play their different sports.

I am still really enjoying my job. It's great hours, she is super flexible, and the extra money never hurts! I am now on a search to find someone to help us out this summer when the kids are out of school. So, if you know of any reliable college students looking for part-time employment, let me know!

We are looking forward to Spring Break next week. To get away from all this snow, we are going to visit the Alabama Gulf Coast and get a little beach time. We are hoping to take in a swamp tour as well.

We are hoping that Jacque and Trevor are still planning to come visit us the following week for their Spring Break. Then, Ben and Rachel's family comes to see us for the last time before the move to Hawaii for two years. (Oh yeah, we will most definitely be visiting. We missed an opportunity when Jill and Ryan lived there, so we aren't going to let this one pass us by.)

Kind of fast and furious around here and evidently, that's the way we like it!