Speaking of siblings, you probably wanna hear about them too, huh? Let’s see, I might as well start with the next one up, and that would be Aaron Lee, a.k.a Zigity or Zigity Zoo. Whatever his name is, he’s a very busy little dude! He’s apparently pretty popular too because I hear his name a lot…as in “Aaron Lee get out of the toilet” or “No, Aaron you cannot eat glue sticks”. He likes to hold me and doesn’t realize that I am nearly his size. Aaron thinks my eyes are neat and is always trying to grab them when I blink. He loves to play hide and seek and he’s great at sneaking outdoors. We just recently celebrated Aaron’s 2^nd birthday and he was thrilled to get his own vacuum cleaner, it didn’t work to keep him away from mom’s though. Aaron loves to laugh and he loves to be loud…especially when he’s playing with matchbox cars or Mr. Potato head. Most recent development for Aaron is that he’s finally starting to talk a lot more. His current favorite thing to say is “cow” and he calls nearly everything a “Ca-oooowwww”.

Next in line is my sweet sister Magdalyn. Mag is a wonderful big sister, she’s like a little mommy…always wiping my face and helping to change my clothes and she loves to help give me a bath. She just turned four and loves to tell people that she is almost five. Magdalyn most enjoys playing with her dolls and going shopping with mommy. Mag and Rock spend a lot of time together playing “astronaut” and she makes me laugh when she dresses up and pretends to be an astronaut or an explorer. Magdalyn is learning to write and enjoys “writing letters” to her friends.

Rocklin has big news to share…he is reading! Last year, Rock became interested in Astronomy and this year that has grown into a LOVE for all things astronomy related. He especially is fascinated with space shuttles, astronauts and the planet Saturn. There are a couple of things that seem to be never far from Rocklin, a hat, a pen/pencil and paper. He might not like to be called doodlebug anymore, but he sure is always doodling something on paper. Rock just turned six and has begun losing some of his baby teeth. When I’m cranky at dinner time, Rock is the only one that can get me in a better mood. Mom puts me in my bouncy seat and he tickles me and plays with me and I just laugh and laugh.

I have learned, Jerald is the guy to go to if I have a question. That boy reads and reads and reads and reads, I think he must know just about everything because he just reads so much. He especially likes to read books about birds, anything related to Antarctica and any foreign languages. Recently a missionary friend sent him a book to learn Chinese. He also discovered there is a similar book to learn Russian. Since Russia is his other fascination, he  asked to purchase that book and has enjoyed it as well. Jerald loves to bake and cook and has recently become known around here as the “muffin man”. He makes muffins by himself (exept mom helps with the oven) often for breakfast. Whenever I need some cuddle time, I know Jay is the guy for me…he loves to hold me and sing to me and he does a pretty good job at calming me down. Jay is seven years old now and getting very tall, he is looking forward to being taller than mommy in a few years.

Daddy is keeping very busy with work responsibilities. He is now in his second year of teaching and very much enjoys it. He is just about to the one year mark with his job at McFoy Refrigeration. This has been a challenging position and although the hours are sometimes hard, he enjoys doing commercial/industrial HVAC and we appreciate his hard work.

On Sundays, we go to Faith Family Church, I don’t really know much about it, but I get passed around a lot. Daddy is the sound/music guy and I have fun watching him push buttons on his equipment and I ALWAYS jump when he starts the music. I am never quite ready for that!

Turns out all of my siblings have MANY allergies to different foods as well as environmental things. This means that mom is having to cook nearly everything from scratch and without all the allergens. That has been a challenge, because there are so many foods to avoid. Did you know that corn is in just about EVERYTHING in some form? Of course, I haven’t started solid food yet, so I don’t even know what corn looks like.

Mom spends a lot of time snuggling me in her lap or in the sling, while she reads or helps with math or supervises a messy paint project. She also enjoys passing me to dad so she can write on her blog without me kicking the keyboard. This fall, I spent a lot of time in the cold watching my oldest two brothers run around and chase a black and white ball. They call it soccer, but it just looked like exhaustion to me, in fact, I often fell asleep after just a few minutes of watching. Rocklin especially enjoyed it and is eager to play again. I heard mom referred to as “team mom” by Jerald’s coach, I’m not sure what that means, but it sure kept mom busy every Saturday.

Before I go, here are just a few funnies from 2006.

*Aaron calls himself “zoo” because mommy sings to him “Zigity zoo zoo zoo,what am I gonna do with you?”

*Shortly after a discussion about how the Holy Spirit lives in us, Jerald got a case of the “itchies”. Magdalyn knew where the itchies were coming from-”it’s God making you itch. He lives in your body and he’s saying ‘tickle, tickle, tickle’ and itching you.”

*One Saturday afternoon, daddy was doing some maintenance on our van. As he walked through the family room carrying a jug of windshield washer fluid, he heard Rocklin say “is that more horsepower to add to the van?”

*Jerald’s definition of inertia - “If an object is moving, it will continue to move until something stops it. If an object is stopped, it will stay stopped until something makes it move. It’s sort of like a fox and a mouse. The mouse is run, run, running all over the place. He will keep moving until the fox comes and eats him. When the fox eats him, he stops moving. That’s inertia, the mouse is the object and he will keep moving until something, and that’s the fox, stops him.”

*One day, while trying to get Aaron to say Mama, this was the conversation…

Mommy: Aaron can you say mama?

Aaron: yup

Mommy: then say it, please

Aaron: Nup (nope)

Mommy: Come on, you can say my name. What’s my name?

Aaron (with a mischievous grin): Keweee (Kelly)

(he did finally say mama several weeks later. It was during the pediatrician visit when Mom was discussing her concern over the fact that he doesn’t talk. While the pediatrician was giving the reasons she wasn’t concerned and that mom shouldn’t be, he looked up and said “mama, mama, maaaamaaaaa” and then laughed hysterically. We are no longer concerned about his speech and he’s doing fine talking when he wants to talk.)

*A confession from Maggie when I was about 4 months old:

"I gave Parker chicken. I shouldn't be in trouble 'cause he liked it and he didn't choke"

*A few days before I was born, mommy asked Rocklin if he wanted to cut my umbilical cord, he thought for a bit and then said "as long as daddy helps me, I think I'd like to do it. I don't want to have to do it myself though." Jay starts filling him in on how it happens..."midwife gives the scissors and then daddy puts his hand over yours to help. It sort of pinches a little when daddy squeezes your hand,but..." Rocklin cut him off at this point and said "WAIT just a minute! You use scissors to do this? I thought I had to use daddy's saw-zall, that's why I was afraid to do it by myself". Rocklin did a great job cutting my cord, WITHOUT the saw-zall ;-)

*Jerald loves to bake with “all-porpoise flour”

All of this writing has made me tired, I think I’m gonna call mom to come print my letter while I snooze in her lap. Hope this finds you all rejoicing in God’s goodness and finding Peace in his promises. Have a Blessed 2007!

Love,

Parker