Birthday Boy!

It was Braxton's 10th birthday today! What a handsome young man he is turning out to be. We have been so blessed to have this little guy enter our lives. He brings so much happiness and joy to our home. We have loved every minute that he has been with us. He is so smart and clever and loves to read. He is learning to play the piano and enjoys Taekwondo. Happy Birth Day Braxton! With the privilege of turning 10 Braxton is so excited about getting his first military ID. He has been wanting a few things in particular that he is becoming old enough for. A Swiss Army knife (the face tells it all), and a skateboard. Wow! Great day for our tweener! His friend Selena from school came over to celebrate with us, she fits right in being a Tomboy herself. We had pizza and watched Aliens in the Attic, then to top it all off had a Nerf gun war.

Christmas 2012

I spent a long time the afternoon of Christmas Eve making cookies for Santa. We know that he loves chocolate chip and made sure to come up with all the correct ingredients. Then right before we put the kids to bed, Brandon got onto a chat with Santa from his sleigh and they got to talking and asking Isaiah some special questions when Santa told him that he loves grilled cheese sandwiches. Humm.... I could have spent 5 minutes making just grilled cheese had I known. We were expecting Isaiah to be up and out of his room very early to start eating candy and looking through his stuff, but at 6:15 am Braxton came into our room and asked if it was time to get up yet. We had to wake Isaiah up this year. Thanks for the extra few hours of sleep little guy! Isaiah was totally thrilled with all of the goods he acquired and Braxton was just thrilled to death to be spoiled. We has a quiet and relaxing day in our pj's.

Sledding

We celebrated this little cutie's adoption day at an amusement park that they have here. It's open year round and I am so glad! We had a great time celebrating Isaiah and his special time being ours legally. We let the boys decide what they would like to do on their special day and he wanted to eat at what the American's call "beef and leaf." It is where you cook your own meet and veggies on a small grill that is on your table. Then your wrap it up along with rice in a lettuce leaf. Yummy stuff! Isaiah didn't care for them when we first got here. But then again he didn't like seaweed at all either, but asks for it everywhere we go and stuffs his mouth full of the stuff! He was disappointed when he found out that his adoption day fell on a school day, but was excited to know that he would have two days of fun. The amusement park makes their own snow and lets everyone sled down the couple of hills that they have. They also have an area for kids to build igloos and other things. Our family used this area to have a big snow ball fight. I think we put on a great show for the Koreans there, they all watched in amazement as we all ran around chasing each other with snow. I think I even hit a few children with my bad aim. I even conned one little boys to help me gather snowballs to throw at Brandon, but it then backfired... he started handing Braxton the snowballs to throw at me. Hummm.... Oh well great day for all!

We skipped lessons for this...!

Yesterday school was canceled because there was one area in our school zone that the buses couldn't get to because of a little snow. So yes, I stayed in my pajamas just about all day and the boys loved getting to stay home from school. We had to finally get dressed when it was time to go to lessons. But today it was a half day of school because of teacher training. Because I am already half day I got to pretty much go home when the boys did. So we hurried home because of the weather reports stating that we were going to be getting a big snow storm tonight and right as we walked in the door it started to snow. After about an hour of the snow we decided rather than driving to lessons we would just stay home and the boys were even more excited because they were going to be able to go out and play in the new fallen snow. Last year the snow wasn't the type that you could make snowmen, but today's was. The boys talked some of the bigger kids into helping them make snowmen. My kids were the experienced ones when it came to making them, and the larger kids were the brawn, so it worked out quite well for everyone. And the snowman turned out pretty cute too.

Broken, broken, broken

Friday night was exciting night for Isaiah as he was tested for his Yellow belt at Tae Kwon-do. He was asked to break three different boards in addition to passing off his forms. The first board generally used for Kindergartners which he broke through with no problem, then was asked to break through another which had a crack which he broke through. So Master Song asked him to break through a third thicker board. By this time Isaiah's hand was hurting as he attempted to break through the more challenging board, but he did it after a few attempts he focused passed his pain and fear and did it. We are so proud of him and what he accomplished.

Turkey day fun!

We decided as a family to go to the Turkey Trot here on post. They had a 5K and a 2 mile walk. Braxton really wanted to participate in the 5 K like he had last year and went for it with Brandon. Braxton was the youngest participant his year. His age group was 15 and younger. He came is second to a kids who looked to be in high school. We are so proud of him and how determined he is to compete in these events. Isaiah and I walked and we sometimes ran. Isaiah was so funny after about a mile he was ready to be finished. But then he looked back and saw that there were a few kids behind him and kept on going. He was the youngest kid and came in first but somehow they put the tags in the wrong order and the girl that he was determined to beat took the trophy home. He and Braxton both came home with teddy bears and all were happy. Then we went to stuff ourselves with goodness on post. This year they decided to add King Crab to the Thanksgiving meal and Braxton was one happy boy. Maybe this will be a new tradition. Crab with trukey! Yum!

50 Nifty!

This month Isaiah's multi age class have been working on state reports and Isaiah was given the opportunity to have Utah to work on. He keeps talking about how all of his grandparents live in Utah and so his teacher just assigned him this state. He worked his little tail end off night after night completing the assignment. And finally got it done. The first and second grade put on a wonderful program for the parents along with a little feast from each of the states. Being from Utah we were supposed to come up with a special food that state is know for. Hummmm! Green jello, I think not so I went for the beehive state theme and put honey butter on crackers. Isaiah was perfectly pleased with the brownies that someone else brought in. He had three of those. And they sent him home all sugared up. One funny fact about Isaiah is that he has a problem with wanting to be in the front of each line. It doesn't matter where he is. It can be getting on the bus each morning or getting in line for our branch's potluck dinners. He somehow makes it to the front. I took a picture of him standing right behind his teacher ready to head for the food! So proud of my little first grader.

Star Kid!!!

Braxton was awarded the Principal's Honor Roll Award this past week. He was under the impression that he was getting an award for his grades and didn't quite know what he was getting. They had called all of the Honor Roll kids (A's and B's) from the fourth grade and hadn't called Braxton's name. He was getting very worried and you can see it in the first picture. He was worried that they had just forgotten about him until after the fifth grade Honor Roll kids they then talked about how each of these students they were about to call had gotten all A's on their report card and so he has an extra special honor. We are so proud of him and all that he is working so hard on in school. His teacher has really helped him to grow and develop these past few years. He has had the same teacher since we have been here and she is so willing to work with his need and his special talents. Yay us! We don't know what we will do next year when she doesn't move up with him. But I bet we'll manage!