To blog or not to blog

That is the question I ask myself these days. It is not that I don't want too, it is just that by the time I get around to it, it is almost always late at night and then I just want to curl up with my book and go into MY zone. That is the zone where kids, school, soccer, and housework don't exist for a few precious hours....eehhmm I mean minutes! But I am here today and that leads me to where I would like to start. Kids, and my books.
Amanda loves to read...and I am discovering that she has pretty darn good taste in books as well. She reads anything put in front of her but loves fantasy, and some science fiction. Well those have never been my thing. But after enjoying Harry Potter and the Twilight series I thought I would give some of her favorites a try. I am now reading the "Wrinkle in Time" series and loving it. Amanda is amazed at how long it takes me to read each of these books, though I am not sure that even given the amount of time she has to read I could keep up. I stand in awe of my talented daughter.
I have totally forgotten to blog on this, but thanks to a friendly reminder I will now. About this time last year Amanda kept asking for an American Girl doll for her Birthday and/or Christmas. I told her I didn't think that would happen. (Knowing her past "creativeness" with her dolls and such I was not willing to spend $$$ for a doll.) So she starting saving, she even had a friend selling things at impromptu neighborhood stands on her behalf. She had some ups and downs and then really put her mind to it over the past summer. She had a large portion of what she needed. But then found out that they sell these mini American girl dolls (they are really quiet small if you are wondering, but have wonderful detail) for a fraction of the cost. So she decided that was what she would buy. So she bought the mini Kaya doll and also bought some supplies to make accessories for her. She now has a wonderful collection of leather dresses, an awesome tepee, and her dad even helped her make a traverse (a horse pulled sled). I was pretty impressed with her "project".
And she has taken great care of it, and enjoyed it immensely. She is now saving up to buy one for a friend for her birthday. I love how thoughtful she is.
Another of her adventures lately is the "making of the fort", that she, Maren, and some other friends have been busy with. It is pretty impressive with an elevator (a branch they swing down from) and some sand they drug in from somewhere else to make a nicer flooring for the "living area". They each have a "room" and have even used a few pieces of wood for ramps to get from one floor to another. I had to laugh yesterday when Amanda "swore" Maren in as "president" of their club yesterday. I love how seriously they take their play.

Maren and Spencer have both been pretty absorbed in the soccer season lately. They have two games a week each and one practice (a little backwards to me). So it has been fun, but intense. Spencer really hasn't participated fully.
This is how he usually spends his time while the others are playing. It hasn't helped that most of time he is post nap hour...without a nap. But when he decides he'll play he is fast and furious and very driven. The boys and I have enjoyed having the mornings to ourselves and have been keeping busy with library story time, playing at parks, and going for bike rides. Spencer has recently learned to ride his bike without training wheels, he is fun to watch, but will not ride off of our driveway yet.
Maren's team is awesome. They have not won a game yet, but they play their hearts out every time.

She is a little gun shy at this age, but she plays an awesome defender and is even funner to watch when on the sidelines or bored waiting for the ball to come down to her end of the field. I will try and get some video of that to post later so you see what I mean.
And Jacob and I have been great cheerleaders through all this. He loves to play soccer with me of the sidelines, and is impossible to keep off of the field. Speaking of cheering. He is still not saying much these days. But he knows how to get what he wants. I call it his "monkey talk", it sounds a little like "ooh ooh ooh, aah aah aah" over and over again.
I think he is really looking more and more like Dave. And my favorite thing I have to blog about today is his hugs. He gives the best hugs, sometimes he'll even pat our backs while hugging, (a residual from having been burped so much as a baby I think). And he loves to give them, sometimes too much. Like today when Dave came home from work and walked past him to use the bathroom. Jacob cried until he came out so he could give him his hug.