Update on the kids

Let's start with Elias.  He has really been into choir lately.  He loves singing and he recently performed with an honor choir that took kids from all the local schools.  It was a great performance.  I couldn't believe that kids could sing together like that and sound so good.  At home he really likes to sing with power.  I call it yelling.  Anyway, he came home last week and told us that he was going to sing a solo for the last concert.  Tami and I were very excited that he had been chosen.  My excitement was gone once I found out they were singing show tunes.  Tami was still very excited and she was ready to invite people to the concert when we found out that Elias wasn't actually chosen to do the solo.  He was "chosen" to try out for a solo.  He has been practicing every day and Tami told me that if he was on American Idol, she could hear Simon tell him, "I feel like you are shouting at me".  It's a good thing football starts soon.  He really needs some balance in his life.

I'm trying to think of something nice to say about Isaac.  He is really good at teasing his brothers.  He is excellent at pestering everyone until they cry.  When he is separated from everyone, his brothers get a long great.  I'm not sure what happens but his scout leaders, school teachers and his friends parents all tell us that he is a good kid.  Either we have completely different definitions of 'good kid' or he has two personalities.  I'm not sure which one I want to be true.  He is the most excited about spending the summer in Idaho.  He loves to explore and just check things out.  I think he has climbed every tree in our back yard, caught frogs, toads, lizards, beetles and just about every other type of crawling things.  We did convince him not to catch snakes because he doesn't know how to identify which ones are poisonous.  If you ask me, they are all deadly and that's why we have to kill all of them. 

Silas has really been wanting to ask Jesus some questions. The most important question is, "Can we have Christmas every day so that I don't have to wait all year?"  "Why does my mouth always have to be wet?"  He is definitely our most creative.  Tami asked him to help her potty train Jude.  She gives Jude a prize and Silas a prize every time Jude goes to the bathroom.  I can't believe it but Jude goes to the bathroom about 20 times a day.  Silas has gotten so good that he now says, "Jude are you ready to go to the bathroom?"  Once Jude tells him that he is ready, Silas says, "Would it be easier if I didn't go in there with you?"  He is hourly rate just shot through the roof by only doing about a 1/4 of the work and still getting the same prize. 

We walked into the living room this afternoon and found beautiful red marker art all over our floor.  Jude doesn't normally color very long before he gets bored.  We realized today, that he gets bored because he doesn't have a big enough canvas.  If you give him the entire floor, he can spend an hour or so covering every tile and making sure he outlines all the grout lines.  As mentioned above, Tami is in the process of potty training him and he has been doing a really good job.  He gets really excited about peeing outside.  We were cleaning the garage yesterday so he told Tami, "I want pee on trees.  I want pee on grass."  We thought it was great because he was telling us that he had to go.  He stripped down and then said, "I want poop on grass."  He was rushed inside immediately.  I'm sure our neighbors are forgiving because they have dogs that poop in their grass but for some reason, people get weird when it is kids.  I'm not sure how the double standard started but it's okay for people to treat their dogs like kids but if you try to do it the other way around, all heck breaks loose.       

 I have been kind of lacking with blogs lately and Tami has been doing all the work.  I guess this catches me up and I will be blogging more next year.