Jack

Culture Fair Project 

Christmas gift

Jack is 10 years old and is definitely in the tween years. He is smart, funny, and handsome. He loves school but mostly for the social scene. He is a good student and always gets his work completed and maintains good grades. He plays touch football and basketball with his school. He likes to win but gets frustrated when his team is not doing well. He enjoys legos, pokemon, minecraft, playing board games, playing on his iPad, and hanging out with friends. Above he is presenting his research on Portugal. Below is his latest game. He loves to play games, strategize, and win. I will admit, I enjoy playing board games with him. If ever there is a loss for what to do, I can always count on some Mom and Jack time via a game of scrabble. He likes talking. Often we will all sit in the living room and just talk about anything and everything. We share stories, laugh, plan and dream as a family. Jack also loves to eat. Food is his love language. He is willing to try new foods and has a sweet tooth. He is rarely full. He has started attending youth group at our church and is eager to find out where he will attend middle school. This has yet to be decided. He is in a new developmental stage. Like other preteens, he can be moody, sarcastic, and a bit egocentric. It is a new and interesting world for us. He will request that I pick out his clothes, yet will reject the ones I pick out. If it's cold outside, he refuses to wear warm clothing. I have purchased him pants. He wears shorts. We buy him new shoes, he chooses to wear the old ones. I provide him with a jacket, he wants to wear only a hoodie. These things I can handle. I know to pick my battles. The girl/boy thing has started too. He is now dealing with many emotions, confusion, and sometimes some bad choices. I struggle with this more. One minute he is playing legos with his brother and the next he is requesting to be able to instant message or email a girl from school. My baby changed over night. And with this change, our parenting has to change too. I am studying up on tweens and teens, praying, and asking God for guidance with this new stage. We love Jack so much and I pray God provides us with the wisdom and knowledge to raise our precious first born into the young man that God has purposed him to be one day. Years ago when we decided to start a family, it didn't magically happen. It took time and there was much heartache and tears in the process. We prayed and prayed for a baby and then God gave us Jack. We are so honored that God has allowed for us to be his parents. Parenting continues to be hard work and brings new understanding and enlightenment regarding our own relationships with God. “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” (Luke 12:48).

Luca

Time to empty out the backpack

Making stop motion lego movies 

More stop motion lego movies

Our Lucaboo is 7 years old and is full of imagination and energy. He loves Star Wars, Legos, Pokémon, playing pretend, minecraft, and being creative. He prefers to play pretend or build something over playing a board game. However, he enjoys activities where he is able to be social and active. He is not a fan of board games because he has to sit still for too long. When he talks to us and sometimes when he eats he likes to walk around and move. He will sometimes walk around the kitchen table or island when telling us a story about a book he has read or a show he has watched. He is for the most part joyful. He gets upset like any other child but can quickly shake things off and move forward with life. I love this about him. He does not dwell on negative things for too long. He is still quite the picky eater and is probably still the smallest in his class. He loves school and loves being with his friends. He tends to hold on to things and not want to give them up. This includes his artwork, toys, clothes, shoes, and even recycled containers that could be a potential craft or construction. The first picture above is his backpack. He carried an empty egg carton around thinking he would use it to build something. We finally got him to get rid of it. Not to worry...he has plenty more paper towel rolls and shoe boxes to work with when he has a chance. Over the Christmas break he spent a lot of time using his iPad and legos to create stop motion lego videos. This is a skill he learned from his older brother. It is such a joy to watch him be creative. We encourage it and hope that it sticks around for a little while longer. He still loves to cuddle and would absolutely sleep with us if we allowed him. He enjoys being tucked in at night and talking in bed. He will often begin the conversation by asking us, "What was your favorite part of your day?" He is a sweetie and I am so grateful he is ours.

2016-2017

The closet thing we have to a family photo right now. Post Christmas brunch.

Opening Christmas gifts at our house before heading to visit family. 

Christmas morning mess in the boy's room. Lots of Lego building. 

I realize it's been a LONG, LONG time sense I last posted. However, the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017 seem more significant than other years. We hit quite a few milestones last year and I sincerely feel we are entering into a new phase of life as a family. Therefore, I thought it would be significant to document these happenings before the academic semester gets the best of all of us! Below are a list of our 2016 milestones. I hope to post again for each kiddo individually.

2016 (This is a list we composed as a family.) 
January-Packed up our lovely ranch home and prepared for a move
February-Moved into our lovely new home down the road from our old one
March-Todd turned 39
April-The only month that we could not think of something for...
May-Jack went on a week long sleep away class trip (no family members went on this trip)
May-I had surgery...One I'd rather talk about in person than via the family blog.
June-Jack hit the double digits and turned 10
July-Todd and I celebrated our 15 year anniversary
July-Luca turned 7
July-We took an awesome family trip to Yellowstone
August-Todd became the acting Director for the Instrumental Division at work
September-I turned 40
October-We hosted our first annual Halloween Party at our new house
November-Trump won the presidential election ? Still scratching our heads on that one
December-Celebrated Christmas and the New Year for the first time in our new house

In addition, over the course of the year I got a chapter in a book published and Todd wrote a book on the triangle and tambourine. Todd also started doing videos for his latest percussion endeavor. His book will be published in 2017. Hope to post again soon but we all know how that goes!

Luca Talks

Todd and I are really enjoying Luca's age right now. He is so funny at times. He is a sponge and learning daily. He is such a good reader and has started to write sentences. He sits in big church with us on Sundays and seems to grasp way more than we ever thought possible. He turns 5 this summer and will be in kindergarten next year. I can hardly believe it. He is still in love with his Mommy and still wants to snuggle with me. I plan on savoring it as long as I can. This was one of our funny conversations yesterday while I was preparing dinner.

Luca: Mom, Dad usually comes home at dinner time.
Me: Yes. He does but today he is working and extra job so that he can get paid extra money. (I mumble under my breath the following statement.)  Mommy works extra and I get paid nothing. Now how is that fair?
Luca: Well, it's not because he is a boy and you are a girl right?

Ha! I realized I was grumbling for no reason while making dinner. Luca made me laugh. I realized a couple of things from that conversation. 1) I must cry double standard quite a bit. 2) It was actually fair. Todd has a talent that others are willing to pay for and I am appreciative of that extra income. 3) I have been working too much and not getting paid for it so I am going to say NO more. It puts me in a bad mood and makes me complain and mumble under my breath in front of my kids.

My Dad's Oak Tree

This is the oak tree in front of our house. When we moved here Todd and I set out to find our first home. When we did, as a house warming gift my father gave us this tree. This tree was not purchased at Lowe's or Home Depot or from any nursery at all. My father has always enjoyed growing plants. When we were little we had an orange tree, banana trees, a mulberry tree, a peach tree, chili plants, and on occasion a random plant like watermelon. Today my father is growing a papaya tree, a mango tree, and who knows what else! Back to the story, when Todd and I moved into our house my father was in an oak tree phase. He had a zillion oak trees in pots and in the ground behind my parent's home. (My mother was not thrilled.) My father would go to local parks and pick up acorns. He would take them home and plant them, nurture them, grow them in pots, and then put them in the ground. When someone wanted one, he would dig it up by the roots and transplant it for them. He did the same for us. 

He grew our oak tree from an acorn, nurtured it, and helped it grow. He then dug it up and put it in the back of his truck and drove it about 7 hours. He and Todd planted it together in the front yard. It was a small, weak tree back then. It needed to be fastened by strings and stakes in order for it to stand up straight. When the wind blew it would lean over and bend back and forth. Sometimes the wind would knock the supports loose and Todd would have to go readjust the stakes. There were times that I thought we were going to lose the tree for sure. One winter we had an ice storm and the tree top was completely frozen over. The leaves and branches were too top heavy with the ice and it began to hunch over. We were out of town and our sweet neighbors propped it up with their ladder. It was the funniest sight to drive up to our home with a ladder propping up a tree. Needless to say, the tree survived. 

Today this tree is so strong and so pretty. The roots are deep. The trunk is wide. The branches umbrella the front yard. The wind can no longer cause this tree to tremble. The spring sun is shining today and as I sat in my front room looking out the window I began to admire this tree and to be grateful for all that God has created. I am blessed to have such a caring and sincere father, both heavenly and earthly. My earthly father is not a rich man and he is not a big gift giver. However, when he does give gifts they are heartfelt, sincere, and usually homemade. My heavenly Father is an abundant giver. His are the gifts that when flourishing provide the most joy in life. Below is a picture of a humble little bird's nest. Apparently, I am not the only one enjoying the tree this spring. :) 

A Todd Update :)

So here is Todd, not on most days but on a photo shoot day. I couldn't find a good up to date photo so I went with this one. He has photos taken here and there for his press packets and stuff. 

Todd has been very busy this semester. Teaching, performing, applying for jobs, and taking care of the boys. He is coming up on tenure next year. It has been a long journey and we aren't sure exactly how we are feeling about it. There is no doubt we want for him to get tenure. However, it does mark a milestone of sorts and causes reflection. Since I was applying for jobs and the possibility of change and a move was an option, Todd decided to explore his options as well. In the end, God made it clear that we would be staying here. No major changes for this family and we are both content with this outcome. 

Todd was granted sabbatical this summer and will be working on a book. It is not a Barnes and Noble cuddle up with a cup of coffee type of book but rather a book written for a target audience that has the need for more cow bell... heehee. It is a new endeavor for him and I hope to be as supportive as possible. I am looking forward to posting his final product. 

Right now Todd is judging the state percussion ensemble contest. He does it every year. When he gets back he will be on major Daddy duty. I have a bit of work to finish up before next week and I am totally dependent on him to watch the boys. He has been doing A LOT of Daddy duty lately and I am extremely appreciative of all that he does. (i.e. cooking, cleaning, getting up with children in the a.m., packing their lunches, picking them up) He is quite the SuperDad these days. :) I think it is safe to say that he is looking forward to me being done with school too.  

A Jessica Update :)

This is me on most days. 

Sometimes I work from home (like today). Other days I work from school. When I work from school I wear headphones. At first it was because I was transcribing interviews but then it became a way for me to tune out the distractions outside the door. I am still chopping away at the dissertation. I am getting closer everyday. My defense date is set for June 26th. I am going to keep working and try to keep that defense date. Am hopeful. Some days I am super productive and other days not so much. Below is a little bit of what I feel like I have experienced the last couple of weeks. I think I am just past the panic and despair stages and am well into drudgery now. Ha!

So what is up next for me/us? The truth is I am not sure. I have prayed and prayed for direction. I am simply going to wait. In the fall I applied to about 15 job postings at various universities. I had three phone interviews, one skype interview, and two on campus interviews. I was offered the job at one university and turned it down. I have not heard from the other school yet but if offered I will turn that down as well. While on these campus interviews it became painfully apparent that these locations were not well suited for all members of our family and I feel God guiding me to simply wait. I am not exactly sure what He is calling me to do nor do I know if I will ever actually teach at a university but I am grateful for the experiences and am hopeful that God is preparing me for something in the future. It has not been an easy process and has been rather emotional at times but for now I am trusting that these are not missed opportunities but rather good judgement and Godly discernment. For now, I wait, I write, and I anticipate enjoying the normalcy of non-grad school life that awaits me.