Karate Tournament - January 24th, 2009

Jacob participated in his 2nd Karate Tournament. I saw a great amount of improvement since his last tournament two months prior. He really knew what he was doing. I posted a video of his "Kata." He did really well in each of his events. I think sparring with the weapons is his favorite. The pictures above show the gear he gets to wear and use. We love watching him do karate, it's great seeing the determination of a 4 year old. Our next tournament is back in Pittsburg, KS the last weekend of April. Jacob is pretty excited about that.

Karate Tournament - January 24th, 2009 (Video)

Jacob competing in the Individual Kata Event.

Mike's Surgery - January 23rd, 2009

Mike had surgery to fix his Ulnar Nerve problem. They had to cut a good size incision in his arm by his elbow. I guess they moved the nerve from one side of his elbow to the other. I'm not really sure what exactly it is or does, I just know he's been complaining of a problem in his arm/hand for YEARS! So they fixed it and now he's healing and hoping to regain full use of his arm very soon. The surgery went well.

A Trip to the Zoo - January 22nd, 2009

Now we are back to warmer weather. I wanted to take Ashlyn out to snap some photos for her "2-year pictures" (so I can save money by not going somewhere to get them taken). So, I decided to take the kids to the zoo. I took a few pictures (not as many as I would have liked), because the kids were anxious to get into the zoo. The middle pictures show Jacob and Ashlyn BOTH feeding the deer. And the bottom picture is what I see everyday no matter where we are...Jacob practicing his karate !!

SNOW-TIME!! - January 16th, 2009

Okay, about a week after the nice warmer weather, here we are back to cold and snow!! We were heading out to run some errands but the kids wanted to play in the snow for a few minutes. So, I got them dressed in snow pants and coats and off they went. Since we live on a cul-de-sac the snow plows - plow a BIG pile of snow in front of our house!! That is heaven for a 4 1/2 and 2 year old. Both kids got to make snow angels, Ashlyn had a ball doing hers. Since we were on the way out the door, we didn't have much time. We couldn't find Jacob's other mitten, so he got to make 1-armed snowangel while his cold hand stayed in his pocket. He didn't seem to mind. I think their most fun was throwing cold snow at mommy!!

Swimming - January 10th, 2009

We went to the community center to swim at the NEW indoor swimming pool. It's a nice place to take the kids when the weather isn't the greatest. It has a nice little kiddie pool, lazy river and 2 water slides. We went with Shanna and her 2 kids and they all seemed to enjoy themselves. All 4 of them wen down the orange tube slide!! Yes, even the two little girls. It took a little bit to get Jacob to actually go down...okay, it took a lot of kicking and screaming, but a mom really knows what her kids will like - and this time was total proof of that! After the first time with the screaming, he LOVED it. He kept going down over and over...until the lifeguard told him he had to lay down. That he didn't want to do, so we went back to the kiddie pool.

Now, I don't have a picture of Ashlyn going down the slide, because she only did it once and I don't want to be turned into child services LOL. She actually wanted to go again and again, but she was just a little too little. My picture of her is coming down the slide on her back and head first - just picture it!! BUT...she LOVED it!! She is my little daredevil. Nothing will stop her. Watch out roller coasters, here she comes!

Playing Outside!

On Friday, January 9th the kids and I went outside to enjoy the nice weather. Gotta LOVE this midwest weather. I crave these days after all those freezing cold days just to get outside and not turn into an icicle. Ashlyn got to take out her new Dora the Explorer bike that she got for her birthday!! She really did good riding that around in front of the house. Jacob also liked taking his sister for a ride on his Power Wheel. I'm glad we bought the 2-seater!! Sorry for the long delay in-between posts...I will try to do better.