A Superstar!

I posted this a little while back, but thought I'd do it again. Some good friends of ours are going through the very long process of having their daughter, Marian, get a bone marrow transplant. Her sister, Audrey, was the donor. They've been keeping everyone updated with Marian's blog. It's led to great conversations around the dinner table from the medical aspect as well at the giving nature of Audrey and Marian. Marian needed all new craft supplies(she's a very serious crafter, just like her mom) to take to the extended hospital stay so she raised her own money and then anything extra she is donating to a charity called Caitlyn's Smiles, which gives out craft bags full of fun stuff to children in the hospital. In Sophia's words, "Marian is really thoughtful." Like I said it's been a great lesson for our family and besides the fact that we think the world of the Goates family, we are big supporters of 'Project Superstar'. Here's Sophia in the shirt Marian designed:

If you want to find out more about this amazing girl and family check out her blog: imacraftartist.blogspot.com

She also has a link on her site to see everyone in their superstar shirts. We are going to send our family one as soon as our family is complete here in a week or two.

Kid's Marathon

Jakob ran the Music City Kids Marathon this year (or is it the Country Music Marathon? They changed it from one to the other and I can't remember which.) They have to log 25 miles in the month before they run the final 1.2 miles by the Titan's stadium. They divide them by age group and it seemed like a lot of fun. So much so that they all want to do it next year. They can start when they are in kindergarten and can do it up till 6th grade/12 years old. At that age they can start running the half marathon. I'm thinking that if all goes well, next year I might try the half again. We'll see how it goes with an 11 month old and Phil's crazy schedule. Fitting in runs might be hard.

The people that live above us have 4 kids, ages 5, 8, 10 and 12. They all did the kids marathon, the mom ran the half and the dad ran the full. That's the kind of family I want to be: FIT!

Guessing Game

Well the time is almost here. Three or four more weeks and counting (depends on what due date you want to go by-I just say May 15th because it's in the middle of the two). The question is can you guess the when and what of it all. Post a comment with the day and gender, even the size if you want of the baby and the closest guess gets a prize. You can even leave name suggestions, because currently we are at a loss. All of us (that includes the kids) have some preferences, but maybe because we don't know what we are having, we can't seem to make anything stick. So really we are open to any suggestions. Our only requirement is that it be a name that will stay out of the top 25 most popular names. We seem to be in the habit of picking names that appear in the top 10 the next year or so. Hmmm, maybe we are just trend setters, that's a laugh.

So bring it on, pass it around and let us know. We'll let you know if you win, maybe we'll pick your name if you are the winner (just kidding, I'll think of some prize-probably something dependent on the person that won).

Flying High

The boys (ok really just Jakob by the end of the day) wanted to go to the airshow that was here in the area. When we lived in Maryland, Phil had taken the boys to one and Jakob remembered how neat it was. So with a beautiful sunny day before us (we had really early soccer games), we decided to go, because there was no way the Blue Angels would not fly on such a nice day.

It turned out to be an adventure, me with my big pregnant belly (it did get us a closer parking space though) and 3 kids in tow. By the end everyone but Jakob was hungry and tired and therefore a little grumpy. The kids really had fun climbing in all of the different aircraft and were somewhat impressed with the Blue Angels. Jakob and I were in awe of them (I always wanted to be a pilot). All in all it was a very good day, I just would have taken more snacks.

Quote of the Day

Last post for today I promise. I just had to share the quote of the day said by Sophia at dinner time. We were talking about how the phrase "What the!" even if not followed by anything, is not really the best thing to say, because it usually is followed by something not very nice. Sophia then asked about "What entire nation are you doing?" (she was quoting the sheriff from the animated Robin Hood). I didn't quite catch it the first time, but the second time she said it both Phil and I had a really good laugh. She of course meant "What in tarnation?", but I kind of like the entire nation better.

The Distinguished Jakob

Jakob got glasses. After quite a few hints of not being able to see things like the scoreboard at a basketball game, the hymn numbers at church even though we sit in the front row, etc, I finally took him to get his eyes checked. Seeing as Phil got his glasses at age 6, and Jakob is a clone of him (I know it's supposed to be 50/50, but all of my genes in this child are really recessive, I swear), I wasn't surprised about this. Luckily, they don't seem to be as bad as Phil's, just a little near sighted. We are keeping our fingers crossed. However, he does look handsome in his glasses, just a little more distinguished or wise. He picked them out himself and he said he picked ones like dad's (kind of--they are silver metal rims just like Phil's, but really different shape). So here he is:

Spring has Sprung

I love Spring in Nashville. There are so many things in bloom and it is so beautiful. From flowers to trees to bushes, there are blossoms everywhere you turn. Sophia and I have fun spotting "apricot" trees as we drive along. We have a favorite house that we call the Spring/Easter house that we pass on the way to school. The front yard is just covered with flowers in bloom, plus it has a few tulip trees, red buds and dogwoods (which are sadly not blooming yet-I heard they didn't handle the drought we had last summer very well). You just look at this house and can't help but smile. Here are just a couple of flowers in bloom in our little yard.

Snow Day

I'm posting a lot today, because I have a lot I've been meaning to post and I just haven't found the time.

So about 10 days after our meager snow that actually canceled school, we got a real snow fall of about 4 inches. Maybe more in some places. It was enough to go sledding, have a snowball fight and try to build a snowman (it just didn't want to stick together very well). However, it came on a Saturday and instead of school getting canceled, soccer games got canceled. Sadly, it was gone by the evening.

Sleeping Kids

When I walk in and see them all snuggled and sound asleep, I'm glad I'm a mom. Happy contented, sleeping faces, brings a smile to my face. You can't see it with Jakob, but they all did have something they were snuggling with. If only they could stay little...