A Little Fight

Joseph's teacher was having them practice what it would be like to be in a real sparing match. Before this match began she told the older boy not to get too confident because he may be bigger but Joseph is fast. What she didn't mention is how much Joseph loves to spar. This video is so adorable!!! It is one of my favorite of his Karate shots. I am still not exactly sure how they score the points except maybe you have to get in a punch or a kick without being blocked. There are actually three judges. If the judge covers his eyes then he didn't see the point, if he puts his hand toward Joseph then he saw Joseph get in a point. Each point has to have two judges view it for it to be good. A very exciting match for me.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas!!! What a great time of year!!!

JOSEPH

This is Joseph in the big kids class! He was in Little Dragons since he was 4 years old. The brown stripe on his belt indicates that he was in for quite a while (first solid white, then yellow stripe, orange, blue, green, purple, brown, then black). The stripes are to keep them excited and feeling promoted for time. Now that he is in the big kids class the belts are solid so basically he has a solid white belt again and it will take skill to build up to the solid yellow belt.
He keeps up really well and is less likely to goof off in the older kids class. He is doing really well.
Joseph's last soccer game. He always tried so hard to outsmart the other team. :) Here he is playing as goalie. Below is a video of the last goal of the season he made and of him going for the ball.

At Marlaina's birthday party

What a great party this was and the kids had soooo much fun. It was a video game party so Marlaina was dressed as Princess Peach from Mario bros. There were boxes you could jump and hit and chocolate coins would come out too. So much fun!

Rebekah's Last Soccer Game

Rebekah was more interested in finding things like leaves some of the time. LOL

Rebekah and some of her team getting practicing with the sun in their eyes. So cute!!!
Rebekah's soccer coach letter her throw the ball in. He wanted to her to throw it to the child furthest down but she has this thing for the blond behind the orange players there so she threw it to him. Silly girl. Good choice though since he is the coaches son.

Rebekah running. She sure didn't seem to like soccer at the beginning of the season but more towards the end she was playing the entire game. Her season ended two weeks before Joseph's and she still wanted to get ready for a soccer game when she didn't have one anymore. I just helped her and didn't tell her that she wouldn't have one. Hopefully, she won't notice this Saturday at Joseph's last game either.

Joseph is such a big boy!!!

Total of 6 teeth lost (with two new ones already in).

First starting ballet and then doing much better.

What a great Sunday!

Today is the day before our anniversary but we decided to enjoy it today instead because Jon has to work all day tomorrow. It was such a great day. Here is Rebekah all dressed up for church. She wanted to wear a costume but this is as far as I would let her. I made her the skirt for Easter this year but the shirt I made is very stained. Luckily she had this beautiful shirt that matched nicely. And, of course, she wanted flowers in her hair too. The situation is that she is beginning to love her Barbie Mariposa video. In the video Mariposa gets a crown of flowers.

And Joseph, who wasn't too thrilled to be showing of his new hair cut and so gave me a funny face. Since Jon cut his hair it was very easy to convince Joseph that it would be best to cut his too, especially since he was experiencing mom combing out the tangles.

Below is Jon showing the kids how magnets work. Jon and I teach the kids' Sunday School class and that is the room he is in.
Then off to the Rodeo. Although it looks like these two aren't having a good time (and I admit there were moments of agonizing boredom) they are really just waiting for everything to start. Yup, Jon couldn't resist getting them both a hat. Joseph chose brown and Rebekah chose purple.

Rebekah's hat didn't stay on long. I think it was bugging her. The rodeo was a little to grown up for her but she did her best. The problem was the time in between events.
Of course, I tried to keep her occupied. I don't know why but I just love this picture. Strange, huh?
Joseph was pretty into it. He liked it when they roped the calves and, of course, his highlight was when they rode the big bulls at the very end.
Isn't the desert beautiful behind this scene of a poor calf being roped. You can see for miles and miles out here.
Oh Ya, He loved running around the corral too. LOL

School Work

Joseph writing his "Thank You" notes for the guests that came to his party.
Rebekah loves gluing.

Joseph and Rebekah's First Game

Joseph team is called the Super Heros and Rebekah's team is the Goblins (mostly because they are green). Joseph is number 7 and Rebekah is number 4. They did so great! I am so excited to be included in their wonderful lives and to be able to be a part of this beautiful day. You can speed up the slide show or slow it down with the plus and minus on the lower left. Also, when you put your mouse over the picture it gives you a caption of what is happening in the photo.

Here is my sweet princess. She was so excited to be going to her first dancing lessons. I have been wanting to put her in for a long time and now I feel the time is right and the teacher is even better. She looks so beautiful in her sweet little little outfit and darling tiny shoes.
As her instructor, Nicole, was helping others stretch Rebekah watched in the mirror and tried on her own. Made me emotional. I am so happy about her being in ballet. She is definitely a girly, girl.


Nicole is so great! This is Rebekah's first lesson and already she began warming up to her. She is patient and yet energetic and inspiring for the girls. This is her helping Rebekah stretch for the first time.
We are going to try and get Rebekah the black leotard before her next lesson but for now she was easy to spot. lol She is the only one in white. She was really excited about all the mirrors and she really wanted to be able to do what the other girls were doing.Meeting new friends!
She was such a trooper at trying new things in front of other people. I am not sure what fancy name they call this in ballet (believe me it has a fancy name, just like all the sweet things they did) but in Karate they call it the duck walk.This is a kind of tiptoe scoot. You know how they do where the right leg stays behind the left all the way across the floor.

And then Nicole would try to get her to stand with her feet in a first position "V" and her arms in a low circle position at the end of each exercise. And I have two videos for you all to see of my sweet princess. I am so excited about this I can't tell you how much it made me happy to see Rebekah loving this.


Check up next week because this Saturday is both Rebekah and Joseph's first soccer games.

All About Joseph

This summer we went to Uncle Pat and Aunt Carole's house and Joseph got to swim freely in a big pool. He only got to do that one time this summer but next summer I think we will get him swimming without swimmers and then he will get more opportunities to swim in the big pool.
We went to another Karate tournament. He didn't get much sleep the night before so he was tired but he sure enjoyed it anyway. Plus his dad bought him the stick.
Here we are showing off some of his moves.On the day of his birthday (August 21st) he wanted to get down all of his trophies and get a picture with them. He is so proud of them. What a great looking 6 year old!!!
Here we are all ready to go get his professional pictures done (something we do every birthday) and just before we go- some showing off for mommy's camera.Plus one of my favorite pictures of the year!!!This picture was taken as we were waiting for his professional pictures to develop. I have a hard time getting a picture in this play area because he loves running like crazy. Can you see him coming out of the cave towards the left? Further down I have a video of Joseph and Rebekah playing here."Is it time for the birthday party?" On Saturday, the 23rd we had his party.Let's get it started!!!
Uncle Cameron brought his pool so that we could have two pools. One for the big kids and this one for the smaller kids.And here are some of the "big kids." Also, my good friend Kim drove over 2 hours to bring her boys. Thanks so much Kim. They had so much fun.
And Rebekah and Marysa did lots together, even brought out Rebekah's princess tent.Rebekah and Jacob playing.
Since it was a swim party... and who can resist SpongeBob? Also we had a Phineas and Ferb poster of them surfing and tons of fish and stuff hanging like the living room was underwater. PRESENTS!!!And the prize of the day... a new bike. What a fun party! As it got later I handed out tons glow sticks, bracelets and necklaces to all the kids and they had fun swimming with them. The next day Rebekah exclaimed, "It was the best party ever."These two videos are of the playground at the mall on the 21st and then, a few days after his birthday, of Joseph figuring out the slip and slide he got from his birthday.