Before 2015 is a distant memory...

January 04, 2016

Before 2015 is a distant memory...

Before memories of 2015 fade into the background as the fast pace of a new year begins all too soon (oh, how I loved and appreciated the break from school/ activities the past two weeks...), I thought I'd document a few changes/ milestones that occurred in 2015.

Jacob- Jacob's year was full of change. The biggest and most obvious visual change was his growth spurt. From February 2015 to the end of 2015, Jacob grew almost five inches in height and gained over 20 lbs. That was by far his biggest growth spurt to date; it still takes some time getting used to his larger size. He overtook me in height and weight in the summer.

Jacob began high school in the fall. What a huge change that was for him (and for us- it's hard to deny you have a "big kid" when he's in high school :(). He seemed to make the transition from jr high to high school fairly smoothly. He retained his same set of friends. He's enduring electives like German and choir. His grades aren't quite as good as they were in jr. high and elementary which is a shame since now is the only time that they really matter. His grades are above average but not as high as they were :(.

Jacob played soccer for Boro United for the last time this spring. He and many others from his BU team planned to try out for one of the high school soccer teams. Ohio has a rule where a select soccer team can't have more than five kids on it who also play soccer for the same high school. His BU coach was going to have to cut some kids from the BU team to get the number of kids playing for the high school team down to five. We decided, along with another of Jacob's BU teammates, Evan, to have Jacob try out for another another club's soccer team. Jacob and Evan made the same CUSA team (yeah!) and Jacob knows a couple of other kids on the team, too. During the summer, Jacob participated in the school's soccer conditioning program that was quite robust, to put it mildly. The conditioning paid off and Jacob made one of the high school teams. He had the distinction of scoring his team's first goal of the season (at the very end of the first game against Beavercreek). Jacob also tied (supposedly- we think there was some less than stellar book keeping) the assist record with Evan. After high school soccer ended, he had a few practices with his CUSA team. So, in spring of 2016, Jacob will play select soccer for CUSA. We can carpool some with Evan which will help since taking Jacob to CUSA practices is not nearly as convenient as the BU practices were.

What strikes me the most about 2015 is that it was the last year that Jacob will not have been a driver. If all things go according to our current plans, Jacob will get his temps in June of 2016 and then there will be no looking back. He'll be a driver in some capacity either with his temps or his license for the rest of his life. YIKES! I don't doubt that he'll be a good driver. I do doubt that I'll ever stop worrying about him every time he gets behind the wheel. So, 2015 will likely be the last year that I didn't have to worry about one of the kids and his or her ability to operate a vehicle. Oh, I miss 2015 already!!

Other notables regarding Jacob and 2015- no girlfriend/ girl drama (that we know about anyway :)). No broken bones to speak of either.

Abby- Abby's 2015 was also full of a lot of change. In October, she became a teenager. With the commencement of her teen years, the number of teens in the family equaled the number of adults. By the end of 2015, teens accounted for 2/3's of the children. That statistic (teens accounting for 2/3's of the children) will remain for the next six years.

Anyway, back to Abby. Abby grew a lot this year, too. I don't know exactly how much but she's now over 5 feet tall. We can wear the same tops (whether we should or not is a different story) and we enjoy having two closets to look at to determine what to wear each day :).

Abby started 7th grade and that put her in a new school for her, the jr. high. She seemed to adjust to that just fine after the first couple of days. Her good friend Hanna is in 8th grade so she enjoys getting to see her dance bestie at school. She's retained the same school friends in 7th grade as she had in 6th grade. Happy to report that her all time favorite bestie is still her sister. I sure hope that doesn't change in the new year!

Abby had a very successful dance competition season but by the end of 2015, her enthusiasm for dance had waned a bit (it's waxed and waned ever since she started dancing). I'm hoping that she gets her excitement for it back since she's so good at it. We shall see... She stopped taking gymnastics in 2015 which made me sad. She took gymnastics classes for six years and was so good at tumbling. But she didn't want to continue with it and we certainly weren't going to make her continue.

Alyssa- Alyssa's 2015 probably consisted of fewer changes than the big kids 2015 did. She turned nine in January and started 4th grade in late summer. Her school remained the same (Dennis Elementary) and even the teacher that I requested for her and whose class she was placed in, was someone that Alyssa knew a little bit from the previous year. Speaking of school, Alyssa was so pleased to renew her friendship with Kara. Kara was in her second grade class and they were best friends. In third grade, they were not in the same class and both made new friends. In fourth grade, they are in the same class and they became BFF's (again) on the first day of school.

In terms of growth, well, obviously, she's grown. I wouldn't say she's had a big growth spurt and will be curious to see where she falls on the growth chart. She still has a very small upper body (skinny minny arms and her ribs show despite consuming more calories each day than Jacob and Abby combined :)) and lean, muscular legs. Must be from all that running from soccer.

Speaking of soccer, Alyssa played club soccer for Cincinnati United in the spring and fall. Her team played a lot of games (don't know how many games in the spring but quite a few and they played 27 games in the fall). Donnie put her in a futsal league in the summer and she continued with futsal after fall soccer ended. Futsal is similar to soccer in many ways but the the biggest way that it's different for Alyssa is that she can't stand futsal but loves soccer! Futsal has improved her foot skills (why Donnie wanted her to do it in the first place) but since she dislikes it as much as she does, she will only do it one evening a week (she was doing it three evenings a week for awhile and that was brutal for her).

Alyssa had braces put on her upper teeth in the fall and did better with them than I ever could have imagined. She complained about discomfort for the first two days but that was about it. Her crooked teeth have already become less noticeably crooked.

I'll remember 2015 as it pertains to Alyssa as the last year that her age was in the single digits. She'll turn 10 at the end of this month. It's hard to convince yourself that your baby isn't a big kid when she's not in the single digits anymore.

I pray that 2016 brings us closer to God and to each other. I hope that we spend more time together as a family and use the time we have together wisely. I hope and pray that the kids go to bed each night in 2016 knowing how loved they are by the Creator of the universe and by their parents. I hope they feel cherished in their relationships and challenged in their activities/school.

Here are a few pictures of the kids throughout 2015. I have probably five times (at least) the number of pictures the girls as I do of Jacob. Jacob has no desire to pose for me and isn't exactly in pose practical activities. The girls on the other hand, goodness, I have probably thousands of them from 2015. I'll just post a few.

Jacob: