Connor- freshman in high school. He was part of the Cross Country team and is currently in the robotics club. He was really looking forward to joining the swim team this winter and then doing tennis this spring, but we found out that Medical Lake doesn't have their own swim team... instead they join the Cheney school district swim team. Practice is Monday-Friday and there is no bus system since there are only 4 kids in the high school interested. Ugh! He's currently debating on if he still wants to join the school swim team or maybe join the Airway Heights Recreation Center gym swim team instead... or maybe even get his Life Guard certificate now that he's finally old enough. Connor is still very quiet and shy. He loves to read and play games on his phone and x-box. His best friends are Mason, Raheem, Rachel, Gerald and Britton. He's a very responsible and mature kid. He sets his alarm clock and gets himself ready and off to school on his own. Does his own laundry and chores. He's always asking if we need help with anything. He was offered a job again this winter with our HOA snow blowing the sidewalks, which he was very happy to accept. Connor is really the easiest kid ever! The first thing he does when he gets home from school every day is to complete his homework. I never have to say a word about it. He works hard and gets good grades. The only thing we have to occasionally talk to him about is hygiene. I have to remind him to shower daily sometimes and once in a while I need to remind him to floss his teeth, scrape his tongue and use mouth wash. That's mainly due to all his orthodontic gear though. He's had to wear braces, a bite plate on the roof of his mouth (which trapped food underneath it), herbst appliance and now Invisalign liners. Hopefully by next year he will be done with his orthodontic journey!
Kaiden- 4th grade, Ms. Spilker's class. Jason coached his flag football team again this year. This was their best year yet... they were undefeated! He plans on playing soccer this spring. Until then he's enjoying with his best friends in the neighborhood. Landry has been his best friend for years, but this last summer he was inseparable with Colton and currently his best buddy is Alex. If the weather is nice you can almost count on the 4 boys (Kaiden, Landry, Colton and Alex) running around the front yards laughing and playing for hours! Usually with Isaiah and Dawson (Landry and Colton's little brothers) too. They remind me of what it was like when I was a kid... outside playing the entire day and only coming back inside when the street lights came on. No video games, no electronics... just running, tumbling, laughing and having fun. I wish all kids lived in a neighborhood like ours where kids are free to be kids and not worry so much about crime and violence. As far as pictures go- Kaiden always picks out his own outfit to wear and insists on "looking fancy." He asked me to buy him a bright green suit for his pictures. The first pictures he had longer hair, which he wanted (Jason hates anything longer than about an inch on boys) and he had styled his hair off to the side in the morning, but Jason messed it up. He was trying to make it look "natural" and not combed. Kaiden said he tried to fix it before the pictures, but he didn't have a mirror and it turned out looking really messy, so we opted for re-takes. Jason cut his hair short for the re-takes so there was no chance of messing it up. Kaiden is so outgoing and talkative. Sometimes too talkative! We find him talking to himself in the bathroom mirror sometimes or talking to himself in bed. He's very assertive and a good leader. He's usually the leader of his little gang of friends in our neighborhood. Size does not matter to this kid! He might be the shortest kid in the group but he has no problem taking charge and leading the group... including bossing his big brother and his friends around. He's very athletic! He's a fast runner and learns things quickly. He can watch someone do something (like a hand stand) and then within a few tries he can do it.
