Happy sigh.

Whew. Went silent there for a bit, didn't I? ;) 

Well, rest assured that we're all still here and doing just dandy. Just enjoying a much needed week off. ;) We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving...just us and a lovely little meal that Nathan made:

We had a petite turkey, a skillet of cornbread, a sweet potato casserole, cranberry pomegranate sauce, pomegranates, mashed potatoes and (for those of us over 21) a lovely apple cider sangria that we tried out for the first time. We also watched "Brave" (so beautiful to watch, though Micah declared the male bear too scary, lol) and continued our annual tradition of watching Punkin Chunkin' on tv. Perfect. :)

Black Friday dawned without us scurrying out to hit the sales, save the one at Karate West where we dropped some dough on new sparring gear for Micah (who will graduate to a high enough belt to start sparring within the month or so), new pants for Asher and some Christmas presents for both (that I managed to order while they were "trying out" the sparring gear, lol). 

While I had the younger two at Karate West trying to find sparring boots that would fit Micah's fat feet, lol, Nathan took Noah over to Rocky Mountain Archery where Noah was scouting out things for his own Christmas list. It was one of about four times we've been in there in the past week...mostly to practice and tweak things for the upcoming tournament and also so that Asher could let the coach know that he's needing to take a sabbatical from JOAD for awhile, as he's just not enjoying the tournaments and competition like his brothers and is feeling busy enough with his additional karate stuff. (He still intends to go to the range with his brothers weekly-ish, as he still loves shooting...just not at tournaments.)

Saturday, we actually got our holiday decorations out and up, with the exception of the tree, which we'll wait on for another couple weeks to ensure it'll still be fresh at Christmas. The younger two decked themselves out:

and helped mostly by staying out of the way (whilst battling each other in the front yard with pool noodles, of course). Noah, meanwhile, helped test all the strands of lights and even hang some of them:

And, amidst all that, we even managed to get most of our holiday shopping sorted out and ordered. Woohoo! Whew. Feeling ahead of the holiday curve for a change. But, don't worry. I'm sure that will change any minute now, lol. ;)

Micah, Micah, Micah

Three things...

1. All three boys had their second JOAD tournament of the season on Sunday. It was a really long day, as the tournament was down in Colorado Springs (2.5 hours south) and we took the time to eat both lunch and dinner down there (the dinner part was to avoid Broncos game traffic coming back through Denver on our way home, lol). We left the house at 8:30 am and got home a bit after 9 pm. Yeah. Long. Neither Noah nor Asher had a great tournament. Well, in their eyes, they didn't have a great tournament. For what it's worth, I thought they both did a great job of controlling their frustration, something we've really been working on. Noah didn't even blame his equipment...monumental progress! :) 

But. Micah had a fabulous tournament. :) He took first out of the four boys in his division, by a wide margin (total score of 526...next two high scores were 397 and 212). He set a new personal best round (10 ends, so 30 arrows) of 267. It was the first time his total score broke 500. And he scored a perfect 30 during one of his ends:

Yup, by the end of the 60 arrows they shot, his target still looked pretty much like this...with only two shots beyond the red. The kid can shoot, folks. ;) At the end, though the other boys in his division had already left for home, Micah was quick to jump right up on the makeshift podium:

If you haven't noticed, this one's not overly shy. ;)

2. Remember Micah's mohawk and declaration of being a Moala? Yeah. He's still at it. He's created an entire little way of Moala life in his head and is really too cute for words sometimes. Yesterday, though, I overheard a conversation that had me busting up:

Noah: (said slightly menacingly) Hey, do you know how much people are willing to pay for Moala skins?! 

Micah: Noooooooo!

(brief pause)

Micah: Wait. It's okay. I'm in jammy mode. You can't get my skin in jammy mode. And no one knows where the Moala forest is. I'm safe. 

3. One last Micah moment that had me chuckling this week...yesterday during Asher's karate class (Asher sits with me during Micah's class then Micah sits with me during Asher's), one of the little girls in Micah's class (who is newly finding herself staying longer since her brother recently graduated to Asher's class) sat right next to Micah and started talking to him. She loves talking to him. He's finally admitted that he knows her name, lol.

Anyhow. She was asking him what he was doing and if she could play. (He was on his iPod.) He grunted. I prompted him to possibly at least answer her and say hi, lol. She took off for a bit but eventually came back, having been instructed by her parents to stop running around.

This time, though, she had it all figured out. She borrowed her mom's Kindle and brought it to sit next to Micah again (note, there were plenty of available spots all over the place...she just kept sitting right next to him...like close enough that she was touching him...it was pretty entertaining, lol). This time, she started her own game (Angry Birds) and then leaned over and asked Micah if he could please help her pass this level...with her cute little girl face looking at him all pleadingly. Man. If Micah attracts girls already this "in the know" at age 6 or 7, we're in trouble. ;)

For the record...

Noah had his annual well check today. In the past year, he's grown 5" and gained more than 15 pounds. Yikes!

What a difference a year makes...

As promised, I took birthday photos of Noah last weekend (after I did haircuts). I find it hilarious what a difference a year makes. Remember last year? He was such a happy eleven year old:

Now, at twelve, it's not that he's not happy any more. Truly. But, look (click to make 'em bigger):

Yeah. He's pretty much done with me taking his picture, lol. (I had him laughing there toward the end but didn't manage to catch him facing anywhere toward the camera...can't say the boy doesn't learn, lol.)

And, as is tradition, here are twelve things about my Noah...

1. His wardrobe has been Steve Jobs inspired for about the past year...initially, just dark rinse blue jeans and black tops and sneakers, though now he's branched out to tops that simply lack color, lol. 
2. He's pretty obsessed with all things Apple and anticipates their keynote addresses like they're new movie releases.
3. He has a great tendency to put things off till the last minute (and then complain about not having enough time). We're working on this. If it kills me. ;)
4. The boy can eat. We joke that his birthday this year, though not a huge celebration, was basically an eat-a-thon. He requested a steak dinner on Friday (and proceeded to eat all of what would have been leftovers as well...Nathan made enough for three of us plus leftovers for the next day...we had none left). Then he had a double cheeseburger Saturday at lunch...and a couple slices of pizza and a cup of gelato for a snack...and a good portion of a lasagna for his "official" birthday dinner. Yeah. If this is any indication, I'm not really sure we can financially handle Noah with a teenage boy appetite, lol. 
5. Beyond all things Apple, Noah enjoys watching Mythbusters, Good Eats and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Though he enjoys history, he has a strong bias toward all things new and technology-related.
6. He's really enjoying learning to play the guitar.
7. He also likes swim team still and is definitely an even stronger swimmer this year.
8. He's struggling right now to make a decision about money...whether to spend on new archery equipment now or just continue saving for a Mac. Stay tuned... ;)
9. His bedroom remains impeccably clean and continues to lack any color.
10. He's incredibly averse to attention, preferring to observe. So. If he seems like he's ignoring you or refusing to engage in conversation, it's probably not personal. ;) 
11. He highly dislikes long division and fractions. He can do both, fortunately; he just dislikes them. ;)
12. He'll likely never live down what a big baby he was, lol. (He was my biggest for sure at 9 lb, 4 oz!)

Yup, that's my Noah. ;)

Extracurriculars...

Since I'm mostly avoiding election day hoopla (given that my family and friends are all pretty split and I don't feel compelled to try to argue with people whose opinions are already set, though I *did* go vote)... ;)

Lest you think we've just been homeschooling and haircutting and getting older... ;) Here's a quick run-down on our extracurriculars of late (or you could consider them PE, lol)...

Asher & Micah had their annual "official" karate pictures not long ago. Asher was all serious; Micah had the giggles...serious giggles. ;) (Is it just me, or does Asher's kicking photo seem like "look at my great form" and Micah's seem like "I have a big foot"? LOL) No, no one instructed Micah to stick his tongue out during that block. That's just pure Micah. And, see those giant sword/knives in the bottom center photo? Yeah. After picking the most ridiculous weapons to pose with, Micah also managed to whack the photographer in the head with one of those. Lovely. (Fortunately, the photographer wasn't hurt significantly and was a good sport, lol.) And that last picture is Asher during the Demo Team's photo session. (Yes, he can still do the splits, lol.) :)

That same day, btw, Noah had his first swim meet of the year. Like last school year, his meets are internal. He managed to best his personal times in the three events he swam, though, and then fed himself happy afterward at the spaghetti potluck. (Sorry, no pictures, as it's an indoor pool and pictures turn out crummy...also, I was at karate with the other two, as the events overlapped.)

And, all three boys are now through their first JOAD archery tournament of the season (October thru April). We've been making time to go in about once a week for practice on our own:

(awesome benefit of homeschooling and being able to hit the range while most everyone else is in school or at work, lol)...and, then, also have team practices once a week. October 28 was the first tournament, down in Denver:

Because of the way it was scheduled (by age division...and we're in three different divisions), we ended up splitting up into a morning and afternoon wave...with me taking Asher and Micah in the morning (getting down there by 8am and leaving a bit after 2pm) and Nathan bringing Noah by noon (they got home about 7pm). Micah managed to take first in his division and is quite thrilled with himself. He also set a personal best tournament score, so did pretty well. (Though I should also mention that his only competition was one other little boy on our own team who is new to JOAD, lol.) Regardless, I think the happiest time was when Asher and Micah were done and able to just gather round with the other younger archers and play on someone's iPad. ;)

And that, my friends, is how our extracurriculars are going. :)