Looks like we got some catching up to do...

1 year + 5 days later, but later than never I suppose.

Ok, so where do we start? A lot has happened in the course of 1 year. C has moved on from the middle school and starts his first year with the big dogs at the high school. 9th grade. YIKES! Don't even get me started about how he'll be driving soon... let us just handle this transition first.















During the spring sport season C began playing soccer for the school and has enjoyed it. He'll be playing this fall with the JV team for the high school. Should be an exciting fall season (and busy!). His skills have progressed nicely for not playing competitively for most his life to this point. Learns quickly and has the desire to continue to improve and be an assest to the team.

He sprained his ankle during the spring soccer season, during tryouts, and on his birthday. Not a good combination of events to have that happen, but he made it through, though his ankle is not what it was and has to wear a brace.

- Ben


Well not only now am I officially even OLDER but I'm a soccer mom and a mom to a Freshman......YIKES, YIKES, YIKES!! I can say though, I'm absolutely LOVING every single minute of it.















As Ben mentioned, C decided in February to go out for the middle school soccer team. We had him start conditioning immediately and his dedication to put out doing sprints in to snow amazed me. He made the middle school team and hasn't stopped since. Now it's time for the JV season, high school, hanging out with friends more and all the locker room mishappenings (I'm thinking as a mother I REALLY don't want to know everything about that!).

It's amazing to see how much he has grown, not only physically but mentally and spiritually also. I can't wait to see what the next four years bring (oh the sleepless nights and the worry once the driving begins!).

Stay tuned to see how we learn from C because I think we've already taught him quite a bit!

~Danine

Summertime

Christian goofing around for his hawaiian themed party


Well summertime is coming to an end, back to school is close. Christian is heading off to be a big bad 8th grader this year and his last year in the middle school (yikes....we're parents of an 8th grader!). We let Christian stay home this whole summer by himself while we were at work, I was a little leary at first, but again, he has proven what a wonderful young man he his. We gave him a daily list of chores to do (nothing to hard and only about 15 minutes tops each day), and everyday he's done them....yes he might of complained a little, but heck he's a teenager! He had a hawaiian themed birthday party to attend just this weekend for a girl friend (not girlfriend, but girl friend..lol), I think he enjoyed it a LOT more than he's letting on and shall I say, *sniff, sniff* I think my little baby boy is now totally interested in the opposite sex! Well we all hope you enjoyed your summer too!

~Danine

Christian and I got into a water fight....and yes mom won!

Boogity Boogity Boogity, Let's go bowling!

Booger decided that for his 13th birthday party, he wanted to have another bowling party. If I recall correctly, this is the 4th bowling party in the last 5 years. He has fun, and the guests do too.

Happy Birthday Bucko!











Don't forget to your leave your birthday comments for the Rhino!

- Ben

The Rhino collection

I put together a short video of a photo collection I recently had scanned in. Most of the pictures are from before we had a digital camera, and they encompass basically the entire span of his 12 years.

Click for the video:


- Ben

The Creative Side of Rhino

Well in this past quarter in school, Christian has had a couple interesting projects to complete. First was in Geography when he was studying Egyptian history, he had to design 2 different types of Egyptian relics. Well he used his brain and Papa Dan's wood carving talents and went to town. Needless to say his Geography teach was impressed (and even showed the wood shop teacher, which Christian has this quarter!). Yes, he scored and A+ on that!

Next was for his Algebra II class. He had to scale a room to size. He came home, went to town on a sports room. Needless to say, with Ben's talents in design and architecture and Christian also being so interested in the same field, I couldn't get a word in edge wise. Being "the woman" of the house, I got to help hang the wall paper.....typical! Again, his teacher loved it and another A+ for the books!

Let's just hope he keeps down this same path in the next 5 years and maybe someday he'll be designing multi-million dollar buildings/houses and sending mom and dad around the world for vacation!

~Danine