Yep, there he is! The little man himself! Except... he's not so little anymore! He stands a few inches taller than me at 5' 10" and easily 165 pounds! Yes, our little man has, for the most part, grown up a little. The big kid turned 18 at the start of this year making him another year older of coarse. And, well, making those of us who parent him feel really old! There have been some bumps along the way with his treatments, but we are still hopeful and still plugging along to get the big guy were he should be. Setbacks or not, we are still keeping the faith that one day we'll get him there. Go Zack, Go!!!
I believe you all know who these three little lovelies are! From left to right, Hope, Charity and Faith! These three have been having quite the year so far! As of now, they are most of the way through with their first year of Homeschooling! I just have to say, and really, I don't mean to brag but... I'm so very proud of them and not just them, but Amy too! Homeschooling has gone better than we had imagined and they are months ahead of their classmates from Kindergarten at this stage in the game! That is a good feeling to know that they are doing well, especially when you are one of the parents teaching them. I'm so excited for them and for Amy. You have to understand... the girls and Amy were all a little nervous about this at first. I think that I believed in all of them more than they believed in themselves at the start of this school year. Now, there's just no stopping any of them! They are all far more confident than they were back in September and that's saying a whole lot! It's such a great feeling to come home from work and see how excited they all are about what they've learned that day! I didn't think I'd ever see that from them. They didn't exactly have a good first experience of school at the Public school. In fact, it just seemed like their willingness to learn had diminished greatly from it. Especially Hope. Being that she has Special Needs, it was crushing for Amy and I to see her basically retreat into herself when it came to school. Hope was a lot of the reason that we decided that Homeschooling would be the thing to do. Hope just wasn't getting what she needed from the Public School system, and they sure did make it clear to us that they were not willing and would not cater to her if they didn't have to! So here we are...Homeschooling! And guess what! Because of our decision, the girls are excited about learning now and can't wait to get started every morning. Now, that's not to say that Homeschooling hasn't had a few bumps along the way, but far less than what we and the girls expected!
As far as getting them socialized...the girls are in a Church group at our church that is kind of like Brownies or Girls Scouts, but with a Christian twist! Very cool to say the least! And they love it!!! And as long as they want to keep going, we will keep them in it! The girls also just finished their first season as Cheerleaders for a Church based sporting group called Upwards, which is where the pic up top comes from in case you didn't guess. Girls and boys participate in Basketball for the group and obviously, girls for the Cheering squads. Upwards also has Football and Soccer. But since we already have the girls involved with Soccer through a Community based group here in town, we did not sign them up for Upwards Soccer. So, last weekend was the last game for Basketball and Cheering is now finished for this season! The girls only have a few weeks off and then it's Soccer season!!! They are definitely excited about that, and so are Amy and me! This will be my 6th season coaching the girls and Amy's 5th! And believe me, we are chomping at the bit to get started! Opening day is the first week of April and runs until the end of May! Then they get the Summer off and we start Soccer all over again at the end of August! But the fun doesn't stop there! Soccer and Cheering are not the only things these lovelies are in besides the Church group! They are also in Tumbling too, which runs all year long! Never a dull moment in the Felton household, that is for sure!
So there you have it! The first official update for 2013! Sorry it took so long, but with everything going on around here, sometimes it's hard to get here to get the updates... um... updated! Never fear though! At some point, I will make it back here to update again! Cheers! And Happy Belated New Year!!!
