Kashann and Clan

Who has time to blog? Life is so busy. I know I always say that but it is just always a fact. Calvin is walking and finally today spent more time on his feet then knees. He took his first steps the dayAFTER his first birthday. He and I have had a horrible last two weeks. Screaming at night, hanging on my legs all day. Finally a molar popped through and I guess that explains all the crying, two weeks of diarreah and I can't believe that I didn't know it all along and thought there was something serious going on. After 6 kids and how many molars have we been through? . . . I am a slow learner.

We had fairly large snowfall yesterday and woke up to find school canceled.  It is beautiful when it snows and you live in the woods. Especially if there are christmas lights strung on those trees.

Kennon finally joined a high school team and is running indoor track. YAY! It's great to cheer her on again. Camille is trying out basketball again and it's not near as enjoyable as watching her run and pass all those girls. She basically doesn't have a clue on the court and we aren't surprised since she hasn't picked up a basketball since last season. Brent came home from watching her last game and cleared out the garage for a serious dribbling/passing/defense bootcamp.

Savannah is spending enormous amounts of time in her bedroom. I would be seriously worried about her reclusiveness if it weren't for the fact that last year we also had a reclusive eighth grader and I know the ropes now. Thankfully Kennon made a complete recovery from the "I hate hanging out with my family stage" and we maintain high hopes for Savannah that she will follow suit once the now infamous 8th grade year draws to a close. Will this really infect Camille also in a couple years? I can't fathom it but I thought Savannah was a piece of cake a year ago and she is not even close to sweet most days now.

Camille was featured on her school's facebook page last week when she won the school slogan contest. Her winning submission was, "Be Brave, Be Bold, Be A Bobcat". They pulled her out of class to tell her that the whole school had voted and she had won. Her slogan would be printed on the new school shirts and she would be getting one for FREE! ! as the grand prize, of course  . . . but did she mind if they just dropped the A? The school shirts are printed with "Be Brave, Be Bold, Be Bobcat".

At a recent teacher conference I was happily surprised to find out that our third grader, Caroline has caught up and is finally reading at her grade level. A couple years ago when I was concerned  I was told, don't worry, almost every kid catches up in 3rd grade.  Hmm, maybe so, but I tend to think it had more to do with Marcus hot on her heels than statistics.

He is officially a 4 year old book nerd. He is currently reading the magic treehouse series and the Book of Mormon. Not the book of mormon illustrated reader version. The actual book that Joseph translated version. He's still a sunbeam mind you and has yet to even be old enough for 1/2 day kindergarten.  He is just as sweet and sincere as can be and is soaking up everything I can teach him.  I guess I am perfectly happy raising him up to be as nerdy and goody goody as possible. We really need to quit bragging about him all the time but hey we waited long and hard for our first son and we just love him to death.

Calvin is shaping up to be quite different so far, but who knows? He pushes cars all over the house, dragging them up all our flights of stairs. He hasn't fallen down the stairs in forever, thank goodness he is done with that. He throws everything the second he is done with it and plays ball with me way more often than Marcus ever will. He doesn't say much for being a one year old though we work so hard on that every day.

These two little boys are already the best of friends. Marcus calls him Pumps. He had a very pronounced soft spot for his very first year. He is pretty bald up top and he has an enormous vein that happened to run right across the the middle of his fontanelle (the soft spot name) and it was always pumping. It was almost disturbing to watch all the time. Marcus was fascinated the beginning with it and couldn't keep his hands off "his pumpy". So that's why he calls him pumps. His hair and soft spot have started filling in finally now he is no longer "zero" (another Marcus term for Calvin) but the name has stuck.

Brent is completely enjoying his new dental digs. There is still much more money to be spent but overall it is just such a nice place to practice dentistry compared to our little rental across the street.

He does complain frequently though that he would like his private upstairs suite renovated since that kind of got skipped when we were busy building him a nice beautiful office.  He has his own bathroom up there and 5 other rooms that he keeps telling me has big plans for.  A work out room,  a bedroom to stretch out and rest his back in between patients,  a TV up there of course, and maybe even a band room since I keep telling him the drums that he dumped in our basement are cramping up our craft room style. Every time I tell him we don't have room for something he just says he will move it over to his office. I see the way this is going.

Naa, it ain't gonna happen.  We are going to have to leave it bare bones up there so we wants to come home to the zoo every night.

So it is past midnight and I only came down here to shut off a light left on. Good night and Merry Christmas to all if I don't ever get to my Christmas Cards. They are still being shipped to my house so that isn't looking good on getting them to your house in less than a week.

I am so grateful for my faith in my Savior Jesus Christ. We live in an ever increasing scary world and I don't know how others can have any peace in their lives without a deep faith that someday we will all be safe, well and happy on the otherside together with all of our loved ones. I hold on very dearly to that faith and it gives me the hope that I need to go on and not despair when things seem to be melting down everywhere.