Christmas, part one

Because of the logistics of getting a huge stuffed horse down to Florida, along with paintball stuff, etc., we decided to have Christmas early in our house, a full 8 days before Christmas. Jordan named her new pet "Rosa," and also got a Rapunzel Barbie, along with the horse from the movie. She got a new Leapster game, Fuzzoodles, and a couple of pairs of new Crocs. Zach got paintball stuff, the Knight's Kingdoms LEGO castle, a baseball bat, and a LEGO game. Nathan got paintball stuff, Harry Potter LEGOs, new headphones, and 2 video games. Mychael got paintball stuff, a watch, a video game, some high end noise reduction headphones, and something else I can't remember without my list in front of me! They had a little bit of time to play with everything before packing up for Florida, and Christmas part two...

winter, etc.

December has been a very busy month for us, with birthdays, dinner parties, and many other activities (not to mention our trip to Florida, which I'll have as a separate post).

In mid-December, while Jon's parents were on a cruise, my sisters-in-law and our children had a birthday breakfast for Jon's maternal grandfather who turned 88. He still does yard work and golfs!

I just realized out went out of order chronologically, because the weekend before Jon's grandfather's birthday we had a combined birthday party for Jon and my brother-in-law, Jonathan. Check out the cake: apparently Jon's mom ran out of room while doing the icing letters, I thought the end result was great!

I'm going to skip ahead to the arrival of my neice, Lily, weighing 8 pounds and just gorgeous (none of us is surprised). We kept the three little boys during the day, which was a treat for everyone, especially when it snowed (apparently only in our neighborhood!) and they got to get out and play in it awhile.




Zach looks like he's in love! OK, not like THAT, we're in NC not WV!!

Here are the kids with some students and parents from Mychael's school (under the leadership and piano playing of his music teacher) caroling at a local nursing home. I can't think of a better caroling experience I've had, the kids were so sweet and joyful, and the residents were clearly touched by getting to sing different Christmas songs. They even asked us if we were coming back the next day!

late fall...lots of catching up

Just a few pictures from our fall...Jordan wearing a scarf that a nice lady from Jon's work knit for her; Zach and Jordan having a "picnic" with their stuffed animal; a sunset maple; and some family pictures from Thanksgiving at Jon's parents' house.

Mychael started school in August and just loves it, is making straight A's, plays the flute in the ensemble, and has great relationships with all of his teachers and classmates. The plan is for Nathan to attend in the fall, I think he would enjoy being in middle school with Mychael, and since the middle school grades do a lot of combined activities they would get to see each other a lot during the day (which I think would be nice for Nathan since he's never been to school-school).

Nathan started volunteering with the Humane Society at their cat adoption center in PetSmart, cleaning cages and playing with the cats to help them to be more sociable, and therefore more adoptable. This is a very successful way to find homes for these animals, as opposed to having them at the shelter. He is wonderful with the animals, I can see him doing something in his future involving animals.

Zach continues to do Isshin-ryu karate along with Mychael and I, and even though we identified that he has dyslexia he is making big strides in his spelling and reading (he was slow to get going for obvious reasons). He still has a tendency to read words from right to left, but I've noticed him self-correcting and figuring out what makes sense in the context. He plans to play baseball this Spring, and has quite a swing!

Jordan is still doing ballet and enjoys it, although as soon as we decide to let her she wants to switch to horseback riding lessons. Gee, I can't imagine where she gets her love of horses! I'll post a picture in another post of her "horse" she got for Christmas...

Jon's work has continued to go well, even though there seem to be some changes on the horizon. He doesn't appear very concerned, but we will see what 2011 brings.

I'll do another post on winter happenings in our home...

Zach's blog

Zach has been after me for months to start a blog for him, so check out the link on my link list called Planet Zach (or planetzach.blogspot.com). It's very new, so he's not done much with it. Also, Nathan has added something to his blog at natenarlynews.blogspot.com.

deep thoughts from Zach Forbis

How cute is this boy?!! Jon and I laugh about how chatty and philosophical he becomes when you get him alone for any period of time. With four kids, we try to alternate taking them individually with us on errands, just to have that alone time with them, and we usually get them a treat of some sort (for Zach it's usually a diet Coke and his own pack of sugarfree gum!). Anyway, Zach wasn't tired last night at ten o'clock because he'd taken a long nap earlier in the day, so we sat in my bed and I read him Calvin and Hobbes. After I'd turned the lights off, maybe five minutes later the deep thoughts began. He talked about...

• how much easier mine and Jon's lives would be if none of our children had asthma, allergies, and diabetes (I told him they were worth it)
• how there shouldn't be anybody in the world doing without, because all everybody had to do was to just share what they had with others...and he said, I quote, "Then there would be peace." (we talked about Jesus)
• how the worst thing about life (I was bracing myself for "life with diabetes," or something like that) is that by the time he's old enough to afford a REAL full-body storm trooper suit, he won't be into "playing" anymore (I taught him the word, "irony")

Anyway, I decided I must be doing something right if that's the worst thing about life in his mind! I hope this put a smile on your face today!

I mean, this guy is livin' the dream, right?!

if I may brag...

My family in Florida celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday, since my mom and sister both worked on Thursday. So, as they're getting ready to sit down and eat the doorbell rang, and it's one of these door-to-door salesmen trying to get you to buy a magazine subscription. What does my mom do? She asks "Jamel" (or something close to that) if he's eaten yet, and since he hasn't he joins them at their dining room table for Thanksgiving dinner with the family (along with my dad's octogenarian mentor and his wife). When my adopted brother, James, got up from the table for a minute (he's Haitian, for those that don't know), "Jamel" asked if he was adopted. My dad said, "Yes, but don't tell him, he doesn't know!" James is like, 28 years old, for those that don't know!

I love my family.

Zorba the Greek

"I remember something Zorba told me once:

'One night on a snow-covered Macedonian mountain a terrible wind arose. It shook the little hut where I had sheltered and tried to tip it over. But I had shored it up and strengthened it. I was sitting alone by the fire, laughing at and taunting the wind. 'You won't get into my little hut, brother! I shan't open the door to you. You won't put my fire out; you won't tip my hut over!'

In these few words of Zorba's I had understood how men should behave and what tone they should adopt when addressing powerful but blind necessity.

I walked rapidly along the beach, talking with the invisible enemy. I cried: 'You won't get into my soul! I shan't open the door to you! You won't put my fire out; you won't tip me over!' "

from Zorba the Greek, 1952

my little monster

time for Fall again!

Fall usually presents some of the best photo opportunities, I just love North Carolina this time of year. We had a "holiday meal"/family reunion with Jon's dad's side of the family in early October, and we've grown to be such a large family that we had to use space at a church to accommodate everyone! It turned out perfectly, and it was neat to see all of the new babies (not mine, anymore!), and to reflect on the blessing of family.

Hanging Rock

Back in early October, we spent a Sunday with our good friends up at Hanging Rock State Park, about an hour and a half from where we live. We hiked close to 3 miles with 9 children ranging in age from a year and a half to 13 years! Boy, were the parents worn out by the end of the day, but it was a wonderful way to spend a beautiful day.

Dragons

I have gotten really behind on posting! Since it's so quick to upload onto Facebook I tend to do that, now, but it's not the same to me. Anyway, here are some pictures of my little goalie, Nathan. He started off the season with a reluctant attitude, but got on board quickly with lots of enthusiasm, learned a great deal about the sport with his wonderful coach, Rhonda, and made some really nice friends. It was neat to watch how much he improved, starting off being sort of timid and then ending the season as one of the more aggressive players.

fall, this and that

Mychael's nana made him a "Matrix" jacket, it is really impressive!

Jordan cracked me up one day last week doing her school work with a monster claw...

Playing in the leaves with cousins...

We celebrated Thanksgiving a month early with Jon's extended family, the cousins were all happy to see each other. Now that a lot of them have started school we don't see them as much.

We went to the "church of the creation," aka Hanging Rock, a couple of Sundays ago with some friends, 9 children in all, and hiked over 3 miles!

And this weekend we celebrated with Jon's sister, Meagan, who turns 30 in a couple of days. Their backyard was lit up with Christmas lights hanging overhead, some of which hung down into clear vases creating a lovely atmosphere for eating, drinking, and visiting with old friends. There was a bonfire, the biggest marshmallows you've ever seen, tons of food, beer, margaritas, a pinata, kids, old people, young people, friends and strangers...very cool.