Elijah Roger is 7 years old!!!

Can you believe it??? Eli is 7! I know I can't! What can I say about Elijah. I can say he is truely the most passionate and loving little boy I know! He has so much of the Ream traits that I sometimes say he is my brother and dad all in one!! But, I can surely say he loves us with all his heart!!! He will probably be the only one of the boys that will take care of us when we get old and all the traits that he has now will certainly get him through the tough times ahead as a teenager and young adult. No one is going to tell him to do something- he will be a leader not a follower. He is so strong willed and stubborn that I could see him successfully doing anything that he sets out to do! We are so lucky to have a son like him! He keeps us on our toes and without him I don't know what we would talk about!! He certainly makes life interesting and we love him very much!!! We are so proud of him! Happy Birthday Pete!!! Eli had five of his friends over to spend the night. It was fun! At times, crazy! At times, maddening!! Like one of the mom's of the little boy said "you are crazy!" Eli hardly ever gets to have anyone of his friends over to spend the night so I thought he needs to have this! I know he had a blast and thought he was pretty cool!! His friends all to himself!! There was not much sleep that night. Last I checked around 1:00 Am they were still awake! Then they were all up before 6 AM! I'm getting too old for this!!

Shipshewana here we come!!!

We had a fun Mid-Winter Break in Shipshewana, Indiana. We took the boys to an indoor water park and they had a blast. Here is Zachary on the lazy river.

Elijah is also enjoying the lazy river.
Aidan loved it!!

Here is Aidan coming down one of the body slides.

Eli going down another body slide.

If you notice - no pics of Jacob. He only went on the big slides and I could never catch up to him to get his picture. It was a fun place but it's definately not as big as Great Wolf or Double JJ. By far Doule JJ is the boys' favorite place. But it was a welcome break from the business in our lives. We then went on to stay a few days with Dustie and Adam and had a great time! It was a nice, relaxing and family bonding trip! I think Kevin and I have as much fun as the boys going down the slides!! We love it!!!
Just a little funny story. If anyone knows Shipshewana they know it is primarily Amish country. The boys were amazed by them- they have been there alot of times but we never stopped and really seen them. Well, after seeing all the horse and buggies Eli speaks up and says "hey dad, it's like the 1970's huh!" We just laughed! Boy, did we feel old since we were born in the 1970's!!!

Basketball time.....

Well, another Basketball season has started and it's been exciting! The boys are loving it and I really enjoy it! I think Basketball by far is my favorite sport to watch! Jacob is playing for the 4th-5th Grade Montague team. Zachary is playing for the White Lake 3rd and 4th grade team. Kevin and I were surprised to see Zachary play. He is quite the scrapper! He handles the ball really well. I guess him playing against Jacob has really helped him! He is so fun to watch. He's very confident playing and it's good to see him really enjoy the game! Jacob is doing really well too. He's fun to watch- he's so aggressive on the court. I can't help be proud of my boys! Just a little bragging right- both Zachary and Jacob made it to the semi-finals in a Free Throw contest. They ended up both in 4th place out of 7 boys. Jacob had a shoot-off for 3rd but lost out by one basket to take 4th place! They only take the top three places to the finals. I'm glad they both ended up in the same place - they even made the same amount of baskets- to funny!!!

Sunday School Christmas Program

It was time for the annual Sunday School Christmas program and it was so nice to be able to just sit and watch. For the past, oh, 6 years or maybe even more Kevin and I helped out with it and this year we decided to not participate. It was fun. I do have to say it was not as entertaining as it was last year but it was fine. Here are the kings... Zachary was King Herod. Now, they nailed Eli's personality and made him an Angel. He was such a cute Angel!!!
Aidan was a sheep- the costumes were adorable!
Jacob had a really big part this year- he was a boy that could talk to animals. They all did a great job! They had all their lines memorized with no mistakes. It was fun!