man I'm old (aka t turned 9)

T turned 9 today. I would really like to know where my baby went... He wears a size 10 jean, a size 4 shoe, and is 50 pounds lighter then me... The day of him being smaller then me are numbered, and that to me is a scary thing.... We took him and 2 friends out today for his birthday. We went to tech to go bowling (gotta love the student rate of 1.25 a game!) then out to Red Robin (yummmmm) for dinner. We had a great time, and I won... (oops, not abt me, sorry!)

only in blacksburg does an outing require a picture with a bird... blacksburg is home to 75 of these hand painted hokie birds, and everywhere we go we run into them

yay! his very own Ipod! it was really funny to sit down with him and load it today. When Jo got his, we wanted the killers and fall out boy on his. T wanted Dave Matthews. They have such different tastes.

no cast!

John and I (ok, fine, I) am always amazed at the dress code in this town. All three of ts friends were wearing hokie shirts, John had on a hokie shirt, and I had on a VCOM shirt (same thing). Over our hokie shirts, three of us were wearing hokie sweatshirts. Obsessed, or is it just just because blacksburg could be the best place ever (Katie!!!)??

oh, look... did I mention I won? this was the grownups lane scores... I (kindly) kicked John, Carol and Seans trash! (and yes, i know 107 is not a great score... and yes, t's friend got a turkey, and almost beat me...)

CL was clearly impressed with her mothers amazing bowling skills. She told me herself.

ok! since I did it for Jo...

9 little known facts abt T:

(and I am bragging. It's his birthday!)

9. He reads at a 6-7th grade reading level. His favorite books are the Harry Potters.

8. he is a great soccer player

7. he has the ability to listen to a song a few times and memorize all the lyrics

6. he loves listening to musicals and singing along. Les mis and urinetown are his 2 favorites

5. He got glasses when he was 3. he saw a plane in the sky and bark on the tree for the first time ever.

4. He misses his best friend Andrew and hasn't made a new best friend since Andrew moved, which led us to discover he is actually kinda shy.

3. he loves scouts. he earned his bobcat in a week, his wolf in 10 months with 3 arrow points and is super excited to start bear now.

2. when he is embarrassed his (big) ears turn the brightest shade of red I have ever seen. It is extremely adorable and I love to make him blush by calling him my T smoochie kins

and number 1: He is such a loving and thoughtful big brother. if cl is crying and i am busy, I often come in to find him bouncing her, singing to her or even just holding her hand. He gives up his last piece of candy to a brother who is sad, and his seat at the table to avoid fights. He is awesome!!

The crowning of MR. VCOM

Move over Miss America.... there is a much more prestigious beauty pageant around.... The Mr. VCOM pageant.... here are the doctors of tomorrow donning their most impressive scrubs, evening wear and showing off their very intense talents. Only 12 guys from the first and 2nd year classes were nominated, and John was one of them, so I made him do it!
Gone are the days where frilly dresses, spray tans and hair extensions win the award....














Check out the new generation of pageant kids.... the only thing missing is the stage moms (thank goodness!)

Here are all the contestants doing their very intense choreography to Sexy Back...

the talent competition was awesome! here is John performing his talent (reading a story to the boys, complete with awesome voices, and the Darth maul song from star wars during the wild rumpus in the wild things book)

Van kept waving to the judges and cracking them up... he was to cute!

Tommy ate chicken wings... Very impressive!

rapping... don't you love the outfit??

The overall winner (daniel), who tied for talent performing if you like it then you shouldve put a ring on it....

Chris singing an original song abt the evil prof. at VCOM (he tied for talent, and rightfully so!)

The best talent by far... a ribbon dance to the song chariots of fire...... it was absolutely hilarious... complete with Molly Shannonish leaps and stirrup pants... i was in tears

more talents...

the sashing.... these guys tied for best talent

and Daniel taking Mr. VCOM

all the guys... this was def. so much fun!

and we finally finished around 10 p... it was a LONG night for the kids but we had such an awesome time.. i don't remember the last time I laughed that hard! (and John shouldve totally won... I mean, look at him)

Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh

The naughty leprechauns came again... they of course made a huge mess, and ironically, it was only on surfaces that needed to be scrubbed... those smart creatures! they traipsed across our dining room table (hadn't been cleaned from breakfast), the oven door (cleaned never) the fridge doors (over a month) and ALL over the kitchen floor (don't even ask) then, the worst part of all, the left a huge rainbow on the dirtiest window of our whole house... man, how horrible. And the worst part? In order to eat the candy from the pot of gold.... that's right.... the kids had to clean up the leprechaun mess first! happy St. patricks day to all of you (even if you ain't got a drop of Irish blood in you)

van (Irish for black eyes) had to get his cast redone (he broke his first one) on St. Patrick's day, and opted for a very festive green one over his existing black cast. Here he is (sideways?? whats up w/ that??) showing you not only his new cast, but his perfect form high block. GO Van!

Ever see the movie the three ninjas? Be scared..... a few of them will test for yellow belt in April. We have really enjoyed trying a new sport this spring!

Happy (much belated) birthday Jo!!!

Jo turned 8 (march 6th) and we had so much fun celebrating his birthday! Since this was a big b-day for him (we do a big party at 8 since they are getting baptized, and it's a big deal, we also do parties at 5, and will do them at 12 and 16) he choose to have it at the bowling alley. He invited 9 friends, and they had a great time bowling. they turned off all the lights and did a boogie bowl- where all the kids bowl under the black light. He has the nicest friends!
The coolest part of the whole day was present time. Jo is a bit of a ham, and him and his friends all have their little inside jokes... Jo always claims his favorite food to be ketchup and that mustard is his worst enemy. he takes the joke so far as to claim to invent ketchup ice cream when he's older, and takes dares to eat ketchup on all sorts of weird food. For his birthday, not one but 2 of his friends brought him bottles of ketchup.... It made me think of a shirt his aunt has that says I put ketchup on my ketchup.... He should make her proud!

We scheduled his baptism for April so that more of his family can come into town for it... we are so excited to see all the cousins, aunts, uncles, and g-parents!!!

I am so proud of him. He is such an amazing little guy!!!

Here are 8 little known facts about Jo, to celebrate his birthday:

8. He loves to draw. He makes little books and illustrates them wonderfully! They usually involve a bad animal like a scorpion or a monster truck with fangs.

7. He has the most creative imagination.

6. He was 90% deaf until he was almost 2, suffered seizures as a baby, has gone through years of speech therapy, has to wear an eye patch several hours a day, and has a few other ongoing medical problems that would isolate other kids and he NEVER complains (other then abt the eye patch)

5. He weighs the same as our 4 year old and is often mistaken for M's twin

4. He is named after the weezer song, we didn't realize until later (when we started going back to church) Jo is a name in the scriptures. It makes me love the name even more now that we know who Jo was.

3. He is an Irish twin, born 11 months after his brother (technically, my first 3 kids are considered Irish, or Vatican triplets...). He was a huge surprise and his first few months of life are a complete blur. thank goodness for pictures! We are not however Catholic.

2. He has no athletic ability. He would much rather draw or build then to do anything sports related. TAekwondo is the only exception at this time.

and the #1 interesting fact abt Jo: He is the coolest kid I have ever met in my life. He prefers hoodies and baggy jeans, vans, picks out the coolest glasses and wears his ball caps crooked. He cracks me up every day with his quirky little ways and idioms. He is all around his own person, and he honestly doesn't care what people think about him.

Jo- thanks for being you! You make our family complete!!