Birthdays And Drivers License

 This week has been a very important week for Grace, Monday was her sixteenth birthday! She was so excited!

Grace's birthday gifts were perfect for her because the two greatest  things in her life are; Music, and chocolate. So this is what she got for her birthday. Some things for her guitars, like a new cord for her electric guitar, and a holder for her classical guitar that lets her hang it up on the wall. She also got a piano and guitar book for all the songs in the movie "New Moon", and a iTunes gift card.

 Grace got a large chocolate bar for her birthday also, Mom did not want her to get too much. Later that day we saw some of our friends, and they all gave her bags of chocolate... So much for Mom's plan.

The day after Grace's birthday she and mom went to go take her Drivers License test. She passed it!!
We are all so happy! She drove all by herself to her job of teaching piano to a little boy we know.

One of the things Grace was excited about with getting her license is that a guy we know is always joking with Grace that he is 57 minutes older. Now Grace can say that she got her license two days before him. She can't wait to tell him.

A City In Our House

This morning Mom told me to build a city for Jack made out of Lincoln Logs. He played with the city for a long time. Here are a few pictures.

He played with it for a long time.

M&M's

One of my friend's family recently received a bunch of boxes full of M&M's.  They couldn't eat all that candy so they shared; last P.E. they were handing out boxes. Each box contains 36 large bags full of M&M's. We were very happy.

Mom was keeping the box in one of the bottom cabinets. Sam likes the, "Mim nims" as he calls them, and he is allowed two every now and then; but apparently that is not enough. One day he came up to my Mom looking guilty, with chocolate smeared all over his face. He had discovered how to open the M&M bags.
Mom understood that the miserable look on his face meant, "Mom my stomach hurts, please help me, I can not stop, and also forgive me." The M&M's have been moved to a higher shelf.

A few nights ago, around 8:00,  Grace and I asked Mom if it would be okay to have some M&M's and watch a movie.  Luke who was working on school that night, also wanted M&M's.  Mom told Grace and me that a movie was okay with her and she would let us all have some candy.  When Luke asked, "How much is some?" Mom said she would trust us to get a reasonable amount.  Luke responded, "Okay" and walked off toward the cabinet then he returned grinning, with a huge bag for each of us.

Mom said "Ummm, no."

(Sigh).

Old Games

Our family has made up lots of different games through the years, here are a few:

A game we made up at our old house was called, "Possum Hunting." It was one of the stupidest games we ever thought up.  We invented it with some friends. Our old house had a very large yard in one of those old neighborhoods where trees and possums are everywhere. We and our friends would stand on the back porch at night and slowly walk down near the wooded end of the back yard. Eventually someone would think they saw something and scream, "I SEE A POSSUM!!!!" and all of us would run screaming back to the porch. We would do this about a million times.

Another game was invented by my little sister, it was called "Baby Run Away." In this game all the players acted like toddlers while one player was the mom. The mom had to put all the babies to bed and then would get a phone call. When the "mom" walked out of the room and pretended to have a conversation  all the babies would hide. Then the mom would come back and look for the babies. She had to tag them before they got back to their beds. We loved this game and we played it with friends all the time.

Our old house did not have any stairs so the game, "Mountain Climber" was invented at the house we live in now. "Mountain Climber" had very simple rules; everyone pretended that the staircase was a mountain. We would climb until one of us pretended to fall. We always had a belt to throw to the fallen player; they would grab the belt and someone would climb down to help and of course would also fall in the process. It was a very popular wrestling/falling/screaming game.

Very recently, Grace and I made up a fun "game." Here is how it is played:

1. I walk into a room.
2. I ask Grace a question.
3. Grace replies sarcastically and in annoyance I lightly slap her arm.
4. Grace says in a whiny voice, "Sarah you hit me" but I reply, "No, I only patted you." 
5. Grace starts walking toward the door saying in the whiny voice that she is, "Going to tell Mom."
6. I run in front of her blocking the door saying, "If you don't tell mom ummm... I will give you... some candy." 
7. Grace holds out her hand and we continue acting childish and wrestle a bit till I run to Mom accusing Grace of a bunch of things like hitting, kicking, calling names.  Grace runs out behind also accusing me of things,
8. All of this is done in a silly childish way. It is very fun.
9. Mom usually laughs and then tells to go do something. 
10. Game over.

Sam's Sick

Sam the two year old is sick. I think he got it at church on Sunday. One of my friends little sister did not come to Sunday morning service because she was throwing up, and that night my friend couldn't come because she had a fever.

Well the next day this little guy was sick. His nose was running and his eyes looked weird.













But that did not stop him from trying to play and cuddle with everyone. Mom kept checking his blood to make sure it was not getting too low, and was trying to stop him from touching everyone else.

He continued to be sick that entire day. That night Luke had a wrestling match with all the little boys, Sam was included, Mom Grace, and I were watching them playing and I guessed that all of them would be sick tomorrow, after watching Sam rolling around with them.

Our Christmas And New Years

We had a very enjoyable Christmas. Our Aunt Amy and our Uncle Gytis came from Washington for Christmas. Mom, Grace, Bekah, and I went to the mall with Aunt Amy, we also ate lunch at the mall. After we finished eating we started wandering around. Bekah asked Mom if she could buy anything, when Bekah said that I realized that I had left my purse at the table where we had eaten. I ran back through the crowd and grabbed it before it could be stolen; though it probably looked like I had stolen it to the people sitting at other tables.

We spent Christmas Eve playing the card game, "Puss In Boots" with our aunt and uncle. It was really fun.

I got a lot of nice things for Christmas. Mom ordered some of the gifts online and three did not come in time for Christmas. Two of the gifts arrived a few days afterward. Mom also ordered a present for me, it has not arrived yet. The really annoying thing is that Mom will not tell me what it is.

I had a really nice last two days of 2009. I was invited to go see "The Princess&The Frog" with my friend and her family on Wednesday. On Thursday two of the gifts that did not arrive in time for Christmas came in the mail, they turned out to be "Up" and "Harry Potter 6". They were very good.

I hope everyone has a amazing 2010!

14 Days Till Christmas

Only fourteen days till Christmas! We are all excited; we are having Mom's sister Amy and her new husband Gytis over.

We have the tree up, and some presents are already under the tree. The littles (mostly Sam) are having a hard time understanding that the presents have to stay wrapped and under the tree.

We are also already doing our traditional "Stocking Shopping." That is when we all put little folded pieces of paper with our names written on them in a hat, each of us in turn takes a name out. Then each of us go out to eat with Dad and we buy a present for the person we got. The rule's are don't get anything too expensive and do not tell who you got.

I am happy about the person that I got, I can't give names because that person will probably read this post.

One Crazy Week

This week is going to be a crazy one. We have piano practice, band practice, Mom's spinning guild, a lock-in at our church, Wednesday night church, one of Grace's piano recitals, Grace's juries at Blair School of Music, our band concert, and Grace, Bekah and I also have a piano recital.

I was begging my Mom to let us off on some if not all our school this week, she is letting us off some school work.

Another thing that is also going to make this week crazy is that I was invited to go see a friend's band recital at her school, Mom says I might go. The friend also takes percussion at her school, she is my only friend that is public schooled.

The only thing that I am really looking forward to this week is the lock-in at our church. (you can't really say I am looking forward to my recitals, I'm looking forward to them being over) For those who don't know what a lock-in is it is where some kids get together in a building and play games the entire night, last Spring was my first lock-in.

I am very nervous about my concert and recital, wish me luck!

Little Brothers

My littlest brothers are so cute; Jack is three, he is brown haired and has big brown eyes, Sam is two, he also has brown hair but he has hazel eyes.

They are so funny. Sometimes when we take away something that Sam wants, he makes a hitting motion and says "bad boy!"

We often get movies from "Netflix". Once we got the movie "Flushed Away". We had been telling Jack that we were going to watch it that night, so at dinner when Jack said the prayer it was like this; "Dear God, please bless da food an thank you for mommy an daddy an thank you for fushed away, Amen."

The one thing that makes Jack and Sam different than other little kids is that they have a metabolic disorder. I have no idea how to explain what that is. If you want to understand it go to my moms blog Her blog is mostly about Sam and Jack.

What I do understand is that if Sam and Jack's blood sugar gets too low they get severe hypoglycemia and that means they have to go to the ER. They have lots of medicine that they have to take at meal times.

They are still very sweet little boys and there is nothing to stop them from having a normal life.