Catchup: Kids

I decided my own Catchup post was getting too long & I needed to cut things up a little!   Hope you still read them both!

The kids are busy.

James:

3 weeks into his senior year of High School.  Things are going along pretty well.  He is still trying to figure out what he wants to go to college for and where he wants to go to college.  This week’s idea is to be a marketing director.  He has applied to two colleges so far. 

Football is going well.  The team is 2-1.  The first 2 games were big wins.  This last game was a loss.  The schedule that our team plays is a hard one.  A real hard one.  Our conference is a hard conference.  We are one of the small schools.  The other 1/2 of the conference continues to grow while the rest of us stay the same or get smaller.  Makes it hard. 

The highlight of the game on Friday night was that James scored his first Touchdown of the year!!  VERY EXCITING!!!  Made the game for me!

But, then after the game I heard James attitude.  I read what our new coach said about the game in the paper, and I heard what he said on the radio.  He is doing a wonderful job with those boys.  Even in the face of a big loss he was encouraging and proud of them for not giving up in the face of adversity.   He paralleled it to life & repeatedly says how much there is to learn about life from football.  That attitude is reflected in my son.  I am praying for that man.

More about football… when the team came out on Friday night I noticed James was up in front and was carrying a large sledge hammer…

Cool. 

I took pictures.

I asked him later, how it happened he got to carry this sledge hammer in to the game?

Turns out it’s an award!  And award for the defense’s hardest hitter in the last game.

My James?

Hard to believe!! :)  He’s NEVER done well with pain!!

I made this from one of the pictures I took of him Friday night.  He thinks I should make one for each of the boys who gets this award… hum…

I took him & Zach & another of James friends who has asked me to take senior pictures out for a photo shoot on Saturday evening. 

You can see more of these & Zach’s and other things I’ve been working on, on my photography blog Moments... by Pam.

The photo shoot was fun!  What crazy boys!  Look at some of these out-takes…

Zach says, “I am going to be the random pedestrian!”

What I got when I asked them to all three get in the shot…

And how about when they were trying to get their behinds on that window ledge…

Hysterical times!

Zach:

Zach thought High School was going to be easy, academically anyway.  Zach is finding out it’s not easy.  He asked me to switch him to an easier Science class.  I said no.  He needs to work harder.  He’s smart.  He can do this.

While James has an easy academic year, Zach has that had full load of freshman year. 

There is a meeting this week about drivers Ed.  Learners permit will be coming soon.  EEK!!!

Football is going pretty good for Zach.  With a small school, there is always the question of is there enough boys for a JV & Freshmen team?  Right now we have both.  But it is hard to win games when boys have to play the whole game both ways.  And its hard when some of your classmates get pulled up to the JV team and you don’t.  Zach’s had some hard days dealing with that, but he is doing better.  I am happy about his attitude lately about it…

He’s been running the ball some… they have him all over the place on the field.  Please don’t ask what position he plays.  I don’t even know if he knows 1/2 the time!! :)  Their team will pull it together, in the 2nd half of their game last week they did much better than the first half. 

Not sure if I am going to travel to his game this week.  Both games are about an hour away this week.  It’s so hard not to go.

Zach’s pictures are on my photography blog too… here’s a sample…

Leah:

In the midst of Middle School.  Raise your hand if you have fond memories of those years?  BLAH!!  Me neither!  What a hard age.

She is doing well with it though… from where I sit at least!

Then your mom takes goofy pictures of you and posts them on her blog. 

Leah is learning much about cheerleading these days.  She had her first game a week ago Saturday (while I was at Beth Moore).  So I have yet to see her cheer, but I am excited to see her tomorrow!!

Her sister is pretty excited about this whole cheerleading gig too…

Lucas:

Doing well.  Loving 5th grade.  Loving life!

Lucas told me recently that James & Zach told him that when he got older he would like football.  He realizes now that this is true!  I didn’t think he ever would! 

He is playing soccer this fall!  His first game is this coming Saturday morning!  I have been very blessed to have my cousin/neighbor coaching & driving Lucas home from all the practices!  I don’t think I could have let him be in it any other way! 

Jadon:

Three weeks into kindergarten, and I am amazed and thankful for how well Jadon is dealing with it all!! 

YIPPEEEEEE!!!!!!

He’s told me that a girl wants to marry him.

He’s told me that a boy went to the principals office for slapping another kid (and it wasn’t him Hallelujah thank you Jesus!!)

He had his first show and tell.

He was to take in a baby picture…

A-DOR-A-BLE!

I was so curious about what he would say.

Has he ever told a group about adoption before?

O to be a fly on the wall.

In our before school conversation I had asked him what he was going to say.  We talked about adoption, where he was born, birth moms…

AFTER SCHOOL, I asked how it went. 

Jadon:  Good.

Me:  Did you tell the kids you were adopted?

Jadon: Yes.

Me:  What did they say?  Did they know what adoption is?

Jadon:  Yes.  ALL of them were adopted too!

Me: ………..

Me:  um…

Me:  Really?  What does adopted mean Jadon?

Jadon:  I don’t know.

Me:  uhg.

Where did I go wrong?

Re-explained adoption.  I guess its a process that we continually work on understanding.  Such is life.

Life with Jadon = Never dull.

He’s going to bed early  Rarely riding the bus. Learning much. Playing hard.

“I think that kindergarten is more fun than high school.”  --Jadon, first week of Kindergarten

Kiahna:

Kiahna is doing very well!  Her first weeks of preschool have gone great (to my knowledge)  I am thrilled!  She wants to go.  She likes to go.  She is talking about it more.  I am SO grateful. 

She told some friends the other night after they asked what she is learning in school, “To be nice.”  This is so true.  She is.

She had her birthday.  She had her party.  2 in fact.  One just last night. 

She is LOVING the gift I got her…& my mom adapted to have the right school letters on it…

Wearing it every place I will allow her to…

What spreads cheer like a 5-year-old cheerleaders who’s favorite song is “the school song!”  Followed closely by “the star spangled banner”

Maybe she’s been to too many games?

Is there such a thing?? :)

If you visited my photo blog you saw I took a new group pictures of my kiddos too… Vote on your favorite editing option in the comments over there…

I am blessed.

Pam