Latest karate news

i do realize that i post things about karate often, but it is something that we do a lot! kevin is not currently attending because he is going to his civil air patrol meetings instead, and kyle has never started, but jordan, zachary, and i all continue on our quest for that black belt! my next test will be for a blue belt, and then black comes after that when i am deemed ready! exciting! jordan is about to test to become part of the regular belt system - she has been part of the "tiny tigers" program until now which helps the little ones progress at a little slower rate and breaks things down more for them. she has been doing this since the day she turned 3! (she had a couple of breaks here and there when she was a little overwhelmed). but now she has a friend who is in class with her, and her competetive side breaks out when i tell her that if she doesn't go to class, vanessa will pass her in rank - that gets her movin! it's too funny. zachary is 2 belts behind me, so if he keeps working hard, he will see that black belt in the next couple of years, too! (as long as his behavior and mind set match the skills he is learning - that is a big part of becoming a black belt!) these pics are from the latest testing, and also the tournament that zachary and jordan competed in...

how cute is it for these girls to be so tiny and doing karate?! this is jordan's friend vanessa by the way, who gets jordan's competetive juices flowing. they are so cute together and love playing together off the floor!

this girl cracks me up!

ok, she's definitely related to me - check out the tongue poked out for concentration! hey, it really works, i'm tellin ya! haha

ok, now i know she saw me with the camera here - what a ham!

i don't know what this kid is thinking about when he's kicking, but he sure makes some interesting faces!

yee haw! there's a good flying side kick!

staff forms...

breaking boards...

and here are a few from the tournament...

zachary won a round of sparring for his first time ever!

jordan took second in her forms, and fourth in her sparring...

zachary took third in both forms and sparring...

Random news

i have been thinking i should put up some more posts, but nothing as exciting as our vacation has really occurred! (ha ha). we took a trip to utah to visit some friends, but i really didn't take many pictures (bad mommy lol). here are just a few random ones for all of you who don't get to see the kids often :)

jordan started violin lessons. her teacher said she was catching on very quickly and she thinks she could be really talented. alas, she has since decided that she really just likes the IDEA of playing the violin, but not the work that goes into it! her actual words were "i like the violin because it's shiny and fancy, but maybe i will play it when i am a teenager." i was suspicious from the start that this is how the scenario would play out, we only rented a violin, and did not purchase it! so unfortunately the violin lessons didn't last long! i really do hope she picks it back up since her teacher seemed to think there was some real talent there!

the kids had vacation bible school at church, and part of how they earn points is dressing up for each night's theme. this was the "ready for battle" night. i especially loved the way jordan looked! the clothes were so big - kevin took some of his old stuff and rolled it up to put them in.

kyle didn't want the whole shebang, but at least he went for some authenticity!

random cute pics...

this was a bird kyle found in angel & william's backyard in utah - william tried to put him back where he thought he came from, but we never knew if the momma came back for him. i couldn't believe how tiny he was!

how sweet is this?!

these next few pics are from our memorial day celebration. we had a pool party & bbq! thanks to kaley's parents again for the use of their place! it was a lot of fun with friends and family there. i do have pictures of all those in attendance, but at the risk of being fussed at because some of them are funny/embarrasing, i did not post any of other people (except a couple that klaus ended up in because he was helping to cause trouble - and yes i will admit we may have encouraged him to to do it! lol)

we started off the party by enlisting klaus to throw the noisiest kid into the pool! guess which one that was!

there was also a slide that was all the rage...

you have GOT to enlarge this picture and check out that girl's face! it's HILARIOUS!!!

ooh, that one may have hurt a little!

kyle took a long time before he felt brave enough to get up on the slide - he tends to take his time with most things - he's not exactly our bravest child! (although he is definitely not scared of roller coasters - yay!)

once he finally did it, he was so proud of himself!

i don't know who started this brilliant idea, but somehow jordan thought it was really neat to take all the noodles down the slide with her - i didn't have a problem with that part, it was the climb up the ladder with those things that was a little scary!

hee hee hee! if you're not laughing at this, there is something wrong with your sense of humor lol!

i love the little arm poking up as jordan disappears among the noodles!

of course if they go down the slide well, why not off the diving board, too?!

this was another thing that kyle needed a lot of encouraging to do, but in the end he had fun with this, too! i am just hoping that someday he realizes that the things we are trying to get him to do is because we know he would like it, and that he will start trying things more often! i hate to see him miss out on opportunities sometimes because he is overly cautious!

we had a plan to get klaus to throw kevin into the pool when he came outside, but kevin caught on really fast and made a run for it!

he still went into the pool, but on his own terms, and he went down shootin!

my latest project - i realize some of you already saw this on facebook, but for those of you who didn't... i redecorated the kids' bathroom. i had to decide between something fun, or something more classic. i went with the more classic look because the "fun" stuff (aka themed things) was way more expensive! i had already started by the time i remembered to take pictures, that's why there is paint tape and some brown paint already there!

now each kid has their own towel rack, so when one of them leaves their towel on the floor, i know the culprit! ha ha! it was my evil plan from the start - in fact it was the whole reason i re-did the bathroom - the whole thing started with towel racks and moved from there. haha jk

have to take time for a mommy brag! jordan colored this in when she was only 4! it was near the beginning of this year. i think it's amazing how well she stayed in the lines, and was so choosy about all of her colors! i promise nobody helped her with it at all - she is very serious about her coloring, and will sit there and be so careful to stay in the lines. it blows me away!