Do you Amazon?

If you Amazon, or if you have a Kindle, or if you even read (which is evident by your visit here today...) please check out my little brother! He published a book! Here's the amazon link.

Congratulations David!

Sunbeams?

First day of Sunbeams for Jay Michael! January 8, 2012

Jay Michael is almost 4, Josephine is 7, Charlotte is 9,

Samantha is 12 and Rachel is 13.
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It is amazing to me that Jay Michael will turn four next month. I started this blog just after he was born. It seems like yesterday. He is such the little man of the house.

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This year is a landmark for him, even though he doesn't quite grasp it yet. He moved up, in January, to the Primary at church. This means he is now too old for nursery, where he played with his friends for two hours, while the adults and "big kids" went to classes. He is now one of the "big kids", too. He loved nursery. He had snacks, singing time and coloring pages. He played with his friends, and the adult leaders who were in there with all the nursery kids, and Jay Michael considers these adults his friends, too. This week he asked me why he couldn't throw the fish anymore. Throwing the fish is a game he loved to play in nursery with Brother Smith, who literally tossed a small plastic fish back and forth with Jay Michael - no doubt for the whole two hours. Such sweet service and a valuable time for our little man. I told him that Brother Smith is still there, playing with the younger kids, because now you, Jay Michael, are a big kid and you go to Primary. He misses throwing the fish, but it's time to move on.

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Now he is a Sunbeam, the youngest class of the Primary, which is the church organization for the children, ages 3 to 12. He sits in his chair, with his class, listens and sings. There is a lot of structure, as opposed to Nursery, which was less structure and more play. So far, I hear good reports of his behavior and he always says his teacher is goofy. (That's a compliment, Cherstin. Goofy, to him, means you play at his level and he likes you.)

Ready for nursery - July 2010 - and crashing cause it was so fun!

Charlotte ...

Charlotte turned nine just after Christmas. It's hard to separate the holidays, so we, at the BallTeam, say that we have Christmas Eve, Christmas, Charlotte's Eve and the 27th - Charlotte's birthday. I asked her the usual birthday questions and here's what she has to say: Her favorite color is blue (the color of water); her favorite subject at school, where she is in the third grade, is PE. Her favorite foods are kiwis and sticky macaroni (our homemade version of mac and cheese); and when she grows up, she wants to be a scuba diver or a swim coach or a teacher. She says she'll decide after the Olympics...

Charlotte likes to cook and she is a talented swimmer. She loves to be busy, be outside and be with people. She is the least likely in our house to play alone - she's a great playmate for Jay Michael. She likes to keep up with the big ladies and she's the leader of our youngest three. She's the perfect middle child. Charlotte is doing fantastic in school - her grades are all A's and B's. Her reading is just above grade level, but, she leans to math and science - just recently she tackled division with ease.

In this picture she is wearing her swim team shirt - the script at the bottom says, "My weapon is my body; My element is water; My world is swimming." That sums up her love of swimming - she is always ready for practice, and she's proud of how sore she feels later. (Mom note - don't you LOVE it when your kids discover their "thing"?) Charlotte is the youngest member of the year-round team and she practices with the high schoolers. Yes, some of the kids on the team are twice her age!

Charlotte is also our singer - her New Year's resolution is to join the adult choir at church. Excellent. Happy Birthday, Charlie!

How the BallTeam does winterized flip flops - :)

Happy New Year!

Christmas, 2011

At almost 10:30 on Christmas night, I can hear all the ladies and Jay Michael out in the next room playing loudly with each other and James. We had a great Christmas. We greeted our gifts from Santa, attended a church meeting full of beautiful music and uplifting messages, then opened our gifts and played ALL DAY. We had our traditional Chinese take out for supper, and now we should think about a little shut eye, just so we can play all day tomorrow. We are truly blessed.Merry Christmas, from the Balls....

Christmas Eve traditions?

Christmas Eve this year started out in a new and different way. We had a group Christmas gift to our family - we got tattoos. Now, before any of you readers think I've completely lost my mind, read on.....

The picture above is our friend, Jean Sepe. She uses henna to draw tattoos. They are temporary, lasting up to a month depending on your skin type and the care you take with them. Rachel saw a henna tattoo on her and asked about it. When I read "henna tattoo" on Rachel's Christmas list, I thought it might be fun for everyone.

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You may still think I'm wrong. I believe our bodies are temples. I believe art is expressive and personal. I believe that somewhere in the middle of all this that henna tattoos are perfectly fine. That's what I think. You are welcome to think whatever you think.

In the next to last picture, you can see Jay Michael has a frog. The last picture - the orange one - is the final product, which will fade in about a month. The six pictures above are one each of the rest of us. Can anyone guess which tattoo is on which person?

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After our unconventional morning, we went on to decorate gingerbread.

This afternoon we will visit some family, and see the Christmas lights. We'll finish off the evening with Luke 2 and off to bed to rest up for a big day tomorrow. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Answer guide: top row: Samantha, Josephine, Rachel

bottom row: James, Tina, Charlotte

Hibachi Christmas

The first picture is Rachel and her friend Madeline at the Christmas Choir Performance. Choir in Junior High is different than a musical program for the little ladies. Rachel's choir sang beautifully. Carol of the Bells was amazing - the different parts of the choir were positioned around the room and it had a solid, carol-of-the-bells-type effect. It was great. The other songs were all Christmas tunes, but, they were the HoHoHo type of Holiday songs - like: Baby It's Cold Outside, Deck The Halls, Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree, stuff like that. NOTHING religious, nothing spiritual. The quality was great, the content left me disappointed.

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And for my next review - Hibachi! I have never been to one of those Japanese restaurants that cook your meal right there in front of you. Seriously fun and tasty. The ladies were shocked at the flames and what better way can you imagine to keep a three year bundle of energy glued to his restaurant seat, than to set his table on fire? Fantastic! Thanks, Jim and Jean - this will have to be a new Christmas tradition!