Busy Jarom

Just an update on Jarom this past month:

At the end of April, Jarom was invited to receive a Gilbert Golden Scholar Award. That means he has had all A's with up to one B the first three quarters this year. (Good thing ALP grades are weighed and his teacher doesn't give letter grades on turning work in on time!) It was a great night with three other schools at the Highland High School Auditorium. They really made it special for these kids and acknowledged their hard work.

Thomas is our little parrot- he usually will say what we say back to us, sometimes repeating it up to four times with different voice inflections. (It is cute, but should I be worried?) Anyway, when they called Jarom's name to walk onto the stage Thomas repeated Jarom's name-loud! Jarom even said he heard it.

This was my picture of Jarom after he had got his award, on his way back to his seat. We are proud of Jarom and this was a great night for him. I loved that Jarom congratulated and gave high fives to all his fellow students as we were walking out to the car.

Had to post pictures of Jarom's birthday party with five of his friends. Jarom is blessed with lots of great friends his age in the neighborhood. They could have kept swimming all afternoon!

Jarom had his last band concert of fifth grade. Both sets of grandparents came to hear him. My kids love how supportive their grandparents are to them and the activities they are involved in. Ben and I have the best parents!
Lastly, Jarom received his Arrow of Light and is moving on to Boy Scouts. It has been so fun to have Ben in cub scouts with Jarom. After three years I still feel pretty clueless about the whole program- thanks to great den leaders that told us what to do to keep him up!

Busy Evan

Evan finished his second session of soccer with his friends Michael and Dalen with Coach Amy.

All the kids had fun during soccer playing with friends.

Evan loved his trophy and Coach Amy gave him the Best Hustler Award.

For Mother's Day I was invited to Evan's classroom for a Mother's Day Tea. He had told me that they were practicing "You are my Sunshine" to sing to all the mothers. That morning he insisted on wearing his Sunday clothes. I gave him the option of just wearing a nicer shirt and pants and he insisted that he had to wear a tie. I got to his classroom and he was the only boy in a shirt and tie. He looked so handsome! Mrs. Humes told me that one day they were practicing the song and Evan started crying. He couldn't even sing, and he told them that he loved his mom so much. Then that made his friend Arella start crying, then Mrs. Humes and Ms. Arsola, the aide, were crying too. What a sweetie! He made me feel so special at the Mother's Day Tea!

Evan has a girlfriend- he has never told me, but this is what I see everyday when I drop the carpool at school.

The Madison carpool, Early Learners- Olivia, Drew, Arella and Evan.

Graduating from Early Learners with his incredible teacher! His class sang Baby Beluga with the cutest actions for us.


Thomas did a great job sitting still and watching during the program!

just being Thomas

I guess Thomas thought the best way to smash his playdough was with his feet.

"Ring, Ring..... Hello, Daddy"

My favorite quirky things Thomas does right now:

He calls me "mom-mee-moe" when he is looking for me.

He unloads the silverware for Evan, and when he tries to match the silverware in the drawer, he'll say no outloud to each utencil until he finds the matching one and says, yes.

When he talks on the telephone to someone he does really well, but when he says bye, he takes the phone off his ear and yells "bye" into the mouth piece.

Jarom's Birthday!

I am stunned that my oldest has grown another year older!

When Jarom was born I was at the end of teaching first grade. He wasn't due until the last day of school, but surprised us two weeks early weighing 7lb 15oz. It was so fun to be new parents. All of a sudden everything evolved around this new little person. I remember in church Ben and I would actually fight over who got to hold Jarom!




Jarom decided from the first bite of baby food that he would be a picky eater. I got so frustrated trying to get that kid to eat! There was a point that we were seriously worried that he wasn't gaining weight, but looking back it probably wasn't that big of a deal. At one, he loved the Carnation chocolate instant breakfast drink and ever since, chocolate milk is still a daily food for him. Now he eats lots of food, including asparagus, but not mixed together. We seldom have any casseroles for that reason- and his dad is in a constant fight to get him to enjoy our favorite homemade macaroni and cheese, but by now he probably just refuses to get a rise out of Ben.
One of Jarom's favorite past times is reading. When he was in first grade we were worried about his progress in reading. From October to January he was in the pull out class to get more help in reading. He really started "getting it" after that and by the end of the summer he had read the first two Harry Potter books. Now we can't get him to stop reading! There is a big joke in his class this year that everyone has to hide Jarom's book during class parties or he will sit and read.

Jarom has loved being in cub scouts and is looking forward to 11yr old scouting. He has a great sense of humor and keeps us laughing. He also loves to swim, go bowling, eat steak, help plan and cook meals, help teach Thomas to do new things and sleep in. We love you Jarom, Happy Birthday!!!!

Just hanging around...

In Las Vegas we bought a huge hammock that our whole family could relax in. We had it outside between two trees, and it entertained us all. Sunday afternoons Ben and the kids would nap outside in it. I remember sneaking outside during naptimes to read.

When Evan was born he loved being swung in it.

In Las Vegas 2003/2004

Jarom and Camille with cousins- Maryn, Maddie and Wyatt
When we came back to Mesa and bought our home, I realized when we were unpacking and pulled out the pink Pull-Up box with our hammock in it, that there were no big trees to hang our hammock on. We kept it packed in the garage, for the past 5 years. Lately, Ben has been working hard on redoing our backyard. We now have a covered back porch which we can hang our hammock from! In fact, his is the first back porch we have had since we have been married. We love it!

We had the hammock out for about a week and a half before the summer heat hit. We look forward to using it more in the fall.

All our friends love to swing too!