KID OF THE WEEK # 2

Nathan Michael

September 2, 2000

Nathan is the first born of a set of twins. He is 15 minutes older than his identical twin Jacob, who will be featured next week. Nathan weighed 6 pounds and 2 ounces at birth. He was about 4 weeks early. He was born in St. Louis, MO. He is now 8 1/2 and is in third grade at Britton-Macon Elementary.

His favorite color is Green. I like to think this is because he wore green as a baby, a lot! I dressed him in green and Jacob in blue to tell them apart. I still tend to buy these colors for them but now Nathan also likes to wear red. So if you see a twin in green or red you know you are most likely right if you guess it's Nathan.

Nicknames aren't widely used around here, but if you ask him Nathan's nickname is Nate. It will probably stick sooner or later, but I still almost always call him Nathan.


Nathan and his brothers are all boy. Here are a few example: Nathan's favorite movie is Star Wars ~ all of them, all 6 of them and the cartoon ones too!! His favorite books are "The Magic Tree House" series. He has read a lot of them and continues to enjoy them. His favorite food is Pizza and his favorite place to eat out is Bob Evans. He can eat a whole Belgian waffle or a plate full of pancakes plus eggs and bacon. He loves breakfast food. His favorite sport is baseball or playing Wii or playing baseball on the Wii. It all depends on the weather outside ;-) He is very good at all sports. He catches on quickly and is good at what he does. We are hoping to get him into a rec league or something this summer.

As to my other interview questions, I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. After just a few seconds thought he said a Pastor. That was not the answer I was expecting but it made me proud. Of course it will probably change 100 times over the next 18 years, only time will tell.

I also asked who his best friend was and he immediately said Everett from Hillsdale. I kinda expected him to say Jacob, but I think that is a given. They have always been best friends and they are just now starting to let others into their inner circle of twinship. I am excited to see Nathan grow into a fine young man.

So now you have met Kid of the Week number two. Keep checking back for new pictures. I had to out source some again. And I had to be sure the ones I picked were actually Nathan ;-)

KID OF THE WEEK

GRACE KATHRYN

Grace was born on June 30, 1999 at 7pm. She is in 4th grade at Britton - Macon Elementary School. She was our first, so she is also our first Kid of the Week. I thought it might be fun to feature a different one of my kids each week. You can meet each kid individually and I gave each one a questionnaire to fill out so they could have some input to their feature.

Grace is adjusting just fine here in Britton. She struggled at first and missed a lot of her friends from Hillsdale, especially Anne, Lauren and Alana. She was playing the violin, but we haven't found her a teacher here yet so that is on hold. She has asked several times for piano lessons. All that requires is a piano ~ which is coming, I just have to go get it :-)

Grace's favorite color is HOT PINK! Hence the Hannah Montana motif in her room. Her favorite animals are dogs and horses. She likes to think she knows as much about dogs as the Dog Whisperer ~ maybe someday. She has never ridden on a horse, but really really wants to someday!! She has made some very good friends here in Britton especially Emma and Beka!!

When asked what she wanted to be when she grew up she said "A teacher like my mom!" I did not put her up to that one either ;-) Her favorite song is any song by Sugarland and they are her favorite singers too, next to Hannah Montana, the Jonas Brothers and Taylor Swift. Her favorite thing to do when she isn't helping me around the house, doing homework or singing is to read. She gets that from me ;-)

So now you know a little bit more about Grace, our KID OF THE WEEK! Enjoy the pics.

Cel-e-brate Good Times ~ Come On!

OK so maybe all the kids being in school isn't a normal thing to celebrate, but we did. After several weeks of the kids, and parents, being sick with one winter virus or another, they finally all made it to school on Friday. So to celebrate, Doug took me on a day long date. Now, before you say Awww too loudly here is a look at what we did.

First, we dropped ALL the kids off at school, even Sarah. Then, he took me to Bob Evans for breakfast. The plan was breakfast, then coffee at the Coffee Beanery, then we would play it by ear after that. While at breakfast we discussed many of the things parents talk about when they are alone, mainly the kids. We also drew up a floor plan on the back of a place mat for the basement and talked about what colors we wanted to paint the various rooms being built. When we finished breakfast, a little before 9am, we headed to Ann Arbor to go to Lowes to look at paint, with the promise of coffee at Starbucks once we got to Ann Arbor. We didn't have to pick Sarah up from preschool until 11am. We spent more time at Lowes and Meijer that we planned and so we had to hurry back to Britton to pick up Sarah. The plan was to pick up Sarah, get coffee at the Bear Claw in town and then head home. Well, we picked up Sarah and decided to go to Adrian to shop and have lunch, the opposite direction of the Bear Claw by the way.

We got to Adrian and ended up at the mall. There isn't much at the Adrian Mall. A JCPenny, a Sears, a few other stores, and a small food court. We had hot dogs for lunch and shared a soda. I did pick up a few new shirts and an Easter dress and sweater for Sarah. Then we went across the street to Hobby Lobby. I spent way too much there, but we got Valentines for the kids parties at school and a few other not really needed items. We finished up there just in time to head back to Britton to pick up the kids, in the opposite direction of the Starbucks ;-)

Finally, we picked up the kids and headed home. We had fish sticks and mac n cheese for dinner followed by popcorn and a movie, Madagascar 2. All in all a good day, but I never did get that coffee!!!

Getting Healthy ~ Sort of

We have been quite busy since I last posted. Not the kind of busy I like, but busy none the less.

Before the sickness began we made a trip to Hillsdale for Joey Weidmeyer's birthday party. We had lunch with the family and then waited for the kids to arrive. The girls all went upstairs to play dance and dress up. Sarah was in HEAVEN!! Marie and Ann love playing with her and Grace puts up with her because she likes Marie and Ann ;-) The dress Sarah is wearing is Ann's first dance recital outfit. It is Sarah's favorite to put on when we go over to their house. She wore it all day!! We had a lot of fun and really do miss them.

Then we began to get sick. First just a cough or two, some sneezes and runny noses. Then the fever's began. We missed church on January 25th and kept the kids home that Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday I took Daniel into the Walk in Clinic in town. He had an ear infection and a nasty cough, but thankfully no pneumonia. He stayed home the rest of the week and we made it to church on Sunday, Feb 1. Then Sarah got a fever, Nathan was still coughing and now so was Grace. They all stayed home on Monday, I sent Daniel and Jacob to school and took the rest to the doctor. Grace and Nathan only had Upper Respiratory Infections but Sarah had a Urinary Tract Infection, totally didn't see that one coming. Tuesday Daniel was the only one at school cause Jacob woke up at midnight with a fever. That brings us to today. Nathan is the only one home because I want him to take more cough meds with codeine before I send him back. Sarah is doing much better now with antibiotics. Hopefully they will all be in school on Friday for the first time in weeks!!!

I really wish I had more to blog about than sick kids, but that just seems to be my lot in life during the winter. Prayerfully after this round we can make it to spring! They have already missed so much school. I am going to have to do some after school supplementing just to get them caught up again.

One bright spot in our last few weeks was last Saturday, before Sarah got sick again, we took the kids to Toys R Us to spend some of their point money. We use a reward system of quarters. They get so many at the beginning of each day and if they misbehave or disobey or step out of line, they lose the quarters. The goal is to have more money at the end of the week than they started with :-) Then every two weeks or so we take them shopping to spend the reward of their efforts. They had a great time and so did we. Sarah picked out a Dora bag with beauty shop supplies in it. Doug is modeling some of them in the pictures below.

Nathan has also become quite the smart alec lately. He isn't mean, just quick here are a few examples:

While talking about the HSM 3 movie and how much she wanted to see it Grace said that she hopes they make a HSM Wedding movie and Nate in a sarcastic voice says "I hope they make a HSM Funeral movie!!"

The boys were horsing around and side bumping each other. Doug told them to stop or he would "side bump them into next week." Nates reply, "Oh great time travel by side bump!"

Then Doug gets in on it too. After watching Big Jake with John Wayne, the boys went to play cowboys and Indians and Grace and Sarah were having a tea party. Grace came out to ask for water for her tea pot. Doug's reply, "No. The boys don't get real Indians, you don't get real water!"

See what I have to live with!!! Blessings all!!