Jack Victor - Yesterday and Today

Today is Jack's 7th birthday!  

Jack is an important part of this large family.

AND an important part of this smaller but large family.

And an even more important part of this smaller, large family.

He's our first great grandchild and sets the bar pretty high for all the great grandchildren who will follow. 

Following are pictures of Jack taken about every six months since he was born.

So you can see that Jack has been busy growing bigger and stronger all the time.  I've written about how he's changed in previous posts.  You can check them out by clicking on the year:  2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015.  So now we're going to concentrate on Jack throughout 2015.

During this momentous year Jack lost two teeth and started at a brand new school.  He's doing well in this school because he loves it - or because the school loves him - certainly his teacher does.  He's reading at a 4th grade level and the teacher who he loves says he's the best reader in his class.

His little sister Emma was born this year and he loves her very much so he tries to be very helpful with her.

He also played soccer this year and is considering switching to hockey or maybe baseball.  During the summer he and his family visited his Grandpa's house 'Up North' where they hunted for Salamanders and went to the swimming hole.  They also had fun riding around on Grandpa's new golf cart which he even let him steer sometimes.

But the very best part of the year for Jack was the trip to Alabama during Christmas break and seeing his friend and second cousin, Zachary.  He loved going to the beach,

finding shells and sand dollars, watching Star Wars with almost the whole family and having ice cream cones.  He also got a hermit crab named Spike who lives with the hermit crabs that his brothers and sisters got. 
But most of all he loved having all his cousins and aunts and uncles together in that big house, being with them every day, and sharing a room with his fellow posse crew - Zachary, Trey, Eli, and Dane.

Left to right.  Clara, Jack, Aubrey, Zachary, Eli, Dane, Wade, Trey

You can see he loves his family by this project he did at school.

So that pretty well covered Jack's 2015.  I must add that Jack was a super baby and he's grown into a super kid!  He's loving, kind, smart, adventuresome, and sensitive; and we couldn't be more proud of him.  So, Happy Birthday, Jack!!  Grandpa and I hope you're having a wonderful day that's only half as great as the many more birthdays to come!

David Michael - Yesterday and Today

Today is David's 18th birthday.  It doesn't seem possible that it's been that long since that wonderful day in Tennessee when he was born.  David is an important part of this large family.

And an even more important part of this smaller family.

He was our 7th grandchild and our 5th grandson.

David's been busy growing and changing for the past 18 years.  Here's a glimpse at how he went about it.

 

We've written about David before.  To see his previous posts click on the year:  2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015.  So today we're going to concentrate on David in 2015.

Somehow he's a senior already.  While taking three college level courses in high school, he's managed to continue with all A's and B's.  He's done this while playing football as a defensive end for his highly ranked high school and club volleyball at a very competitive level.  His football season was highlighted by a defensive touchdown on a fumble recovery and he was named First Team All Conference and Second Team All Region.  He was an outside hitter for his club volleyball team and has been recruited by several Division 3 colleges.  And today he was accepted at a private school in Pennsylvania and offered an academic scholarship since Division 3 schools don't do sports scholarships.  This school was a school that he visited over summer and really liked and has been recruiting him for volleyball which is their best sport.

 Yeah they thought they were going to block him.

But you can see it didn't work out for them.  (These shots are  a couple of years old - but you get the picture - he's good!)

Also this year, David became an Eagle Scout. Click on this link to read about his ceremony.   After summer camp he has not been as active in Scouts as he'd like to be because of the demands of school and sports but hopes to be an assistant scout master in the future.

David and his family vacationed in Myrtle Beach for a week in August and in Orlando the week before Christmas.  Then they headed to Gulf Shores for a Christmas/New Year's week with the big family.  When I asked him how he like it, he replied "Oh it was so much fun!  I like how we have our own hangout room downstairs and that's where we do a lot of bonding and catching up".

I asked how he'd be celebrating his birthday and he replied that they have their football banquet tonight and he was going to take cupcakes for the team.   He said he hung out with his friends this past weekend and that he and Jannell had gone to Sweetwater.

The plan is to do his birthday dinner at one of his volleyball tournaments when the whole family is there.  Which is great because David has always been very family oriented.  He's also always been sweet, sensitive, and thoughtful.  He's helpful, understanding, considerate and has a great sense of humor.  In fact, I feel like I could never run out of good words to describe him so I'll leave it that we've always been proud of him and can't wait to see what the future holds for him.  So, David, Happy Birthday from Grandpa and I! We're hoping it's amazing but only half as amazing as the many more to come.