The Middle Child

Every family has one, and no one wants to be it.

That's right.....the middle child. 

Our middle child is Jacob Michael Brown. He is loud, goofy, tender, sneaky, smart, mischievous, and sweet. 

This year with all the other chaos that rules our home Jake decided to take up band and strings as well as lacrosse. 

Lacrosse is 3 practices a week and 2-3 games each Saturday, plus going up to the park and practicing his catching and throwing. I am wishing I had my sister Linda up here so she could pitch to him. My aim is sketchy at best when throwing. 

He really love the game though. He loves the shoving, pushing, boxing-out, stick wielding fun of it all.

He has a fun group of boys on his team. None of them have played lacrosse before so it is good they all get to start out together. His coaches do a great job working with them and make practices hard but fun by changing things up often. I must say he sleeps like a rock on those nights. 

Here is his "official" picture. Jake chose number 42 because as any good Hitch hikers Guide to the Galaxy fan could tell you, it is the answer to everything.

Now for Band and Strings. Jake is in the string section. He chose the bass, as many of you have seen before on this blog. Last night the Spokane School District had their Annual Band and Strings Concert. It is held at the arena. It is good they chose such a huge venue because there were 2,600 kids there!! Add in the friends and families there to watch and you have one packed house. 

Here is a small glimpse of the chaos on the floor. Jake is somewhere down there. Luckily we knew what section to sit in so we could find him easily. (click on the picture to get the full view, it is amazing)

Thank goodness for a good zoom lens on the camera or we never would have seen any more than a speck. 

Here is the master musician playing his favorite piece. 

Afterwards we took the clan up to Bluberrys for frozen yogurt. It was a  fun family activity and I am glad we were all able to be there to support our "Middle Child" in his activities. Our family would be very boring with out him. 

Daniel's Mission Call 2014 (video)

Daniel's Mission Call!!

My first born is headed out on a mission!! We are so excited!!!! Technically he is going foreign, but come on it is Canada!! That is really more like northern Ohio/ Michigan. :)

He will be serving in the Toronto Mission which is the Ontario Providence, which is funny because Daniel then asked, "Haven't they switched to states yet?" Oh he will blend in just fine up there. 

 We placed bets as to which continent Daniel would end up on, Maria won! She now gets to serve with Daniel as his house elf.

The official letter, I don't know if you noticed or not so I will point it out.....it is signed by our prophet and president of the church, Thomas S. Monson. Ya, that makes it pretty special. I don't think he does that on every mission call.

Oh wait, I just found out he does. Well I am sure we are still his favorite. 

The other post has the video with all his friends and family that could be there last night, some were on speaker phone, those who were unable to he called right away. It was such a fun night last night! Thanks all for sharing in our excitement.

A family day at the park

What you are about to see really happened. This was not staged and luckily all walked away, some a bit taller that other (Maria because she totally K.O'd Ike). This is just a reminder that it is best when we do let the kids out of the house, we make sure no one else is at the playground.

 Ike vs Jake

 Maria getting prepped. Look and the determination on her sweet little face.

 Getting a little help from brother. Love the surprised look on Ike's face.

 Jake vs Ike round two

 Jakey vs Ike round two

 Maria vs Ike round two

 Ike vs Jake round three

 Anna vs Ike round one

It was a great way to bring our family closer together, both literally and figuratively. (Wow, I spelled that right).