So I haven't felt like blogging.

Lately I have been getting a little bit of grief over ignoring the blog. I just haven't felt like it lately. Tonight at dinner the conversation turned to some of the interesting things that our kids did when they were little that completely caught us off guard. Jeff suggested that I write about that, so here we go.

When Jeff was either 3 or 4 years old we were driving down the freeway. He was in his car seat and we heard him say "Channel 3 news". We didn't think much of it until he said another random thing, we looked around and realized that he was reading the billboards that we were passing. We questioned him on different billboards and he seemed to know what the majority of them said. We still don't know how he did this because he was too young to read. We are just glad that he didn't have a comment on the Crazy Girls billboard that used to be by the downtown area. When he played his first year of coach pitch baseball, his team was getting creamed. He went up to his coach and asked what the score was and how many innings were left. The coach without thinking about it, told him. Almost immediately Jeff said "That means we have to score 5 runs in 5 innings and they can't score anything." The coach didn't think much of it until he got home and realized that Jeff had been able to do the math and figure the averages necessary to win, and I think he was 5 or 6.

Tim was different, because he was a sports nut. We didn't know he was a sports nut because we put him in soccer and he hated it. Then he found ESPN and football. Our lives have never been the same since. While most kids would wake up early on Saturday to watch cartoons, he would sneak down to catch sports center. One day after church we were looking for for him so that we could go home. He wasn't in his class, or the bathroom and we started to get a little nervous not knowing where our 6 yr old had gone to. Finally I found him in the opposite side of the building. He was surrounded by three adults and they were talking about the BYU, UNLV game that was coming up. Tim is a huge BYU fan and the adults were UNLV guys. Tim was trash talking sports explaining why UNLV was going to lose, but he was backing his talk up with information as to how UNLV had key players that were not able to play, BYUs stats on winning home vs away etc... Since then I have been amazed at how he knows so much about sports. I think this has been one of the reasons that he gets along so well with Grandma T. She loves to watch games with him because he is like watching with Al Michaels. He knows the history, all the players, what they need to do to win in a tight spot etc.

Amanda was our little sweet independent girl. When she would watch her brothers do something, she would decide that she wanted to do it also. One day when she 3 or 4 yrs old her brothers were riding their bikes. She came in and asked me to take her training wheels off because she didn't want them anymore. I took off the training wheels, and took her bike out to the street to teach her how to ride. I stood behind her and put my hand on her back to steady her. She started pedaling, I started running, she slammed on the brakes, turned her head and gave me a dirty look. "No, I want to do it myself". I let go and figured "maybe she needs to crash first and then I can help her." I let go and sat back waiting for her to fall so that I could teach her how to ride. She took off and pedalled up the street, I was shocked, but figured that I would wait until she tried to turn and then I would go help pick up her bike. She turned flawlessly, rode down to the bottom of the hill, slammed on her brakes coming to a complete stop, put down her bike and left me standing in the street scratching my head wondering how that had just happened. When I taught Jeff to ride it ended up with a trip to the emergency room and a face full of stitches and permanent Harrison Ford Scar. She still does stuff like that where she will see something, do it, and then move on to something more challenging.

Jake was our athlete. His first word was ball. When he was little he could throw HARD, before he could walk. When he could stand, he would hit just about anything that we could throw at him. He didn't realize that he was little. In nursery they played a game with a beanbag. The poor teacher tossed the bag at Jake and waited for his little toss back to her. Instead he threw a screamer right at her face. When I picked him up from class she pulled me aside and said "did you know how hard Jake throws?" When he was a baby he tried jumping a skateboard ramp on his belly, because he was too small to ride it standing up. Two days ago we went to the park so that he could shoot goals on me. We go over to the park and he kicks against the bathroom walls while I try to defend. It keeps getting harder to stop his balls, but against the block wall he has found that if he kicks it hard enough he can score on one side and before I can turn and reposition myself, he can get another shot off and double score on me.

This is my blog for the day. Hopefully I will feel more motivated to write, you never know. Kathy and I are both so proud of our kids. We are sad to see them grow up, but are amazed at the things that they do now that they are older, and realize that there are many more funny stories ahead. Some of them we will share, and I'm sure there will be some that they will share with us once they are grown and out of the house.

P.S. This is my 100th post