Xander

• Xander has also been playing indoor soccer this winter and is enjoying it as much as last season. Although it's a little painful to watch (Xander is still in the age group where the kids just follow where the ball goes and there's A LOT of falling down and on top of each other) we still enjoy cheering Xander on. At the start of the year Xander had set a personal goal to score 8 goals this year and so far he has 3 under his belt.
  

He's number 12...this is right before he scored one of his goals!

• Xander and Noah really enjoy spending their afternoons out in the snow. For awhile we had a ton of snow on the ground because it just wasn't warm enough for it to melt away. The boys made up a sled run at the side of the house and would spend hours sliding down the hill.

• Xander LOVES school, especially his teacher, and each night at dinner he fills us in on all the many fun things he and his classmates do each day. One area in which Xander is really improving is his reading. Each afternoon Xander and I spend about 45 minutes reading one of the many readers we check out each week from the library. That goal of his to read 5 books by himself by the end of the year will most likely be completed much sooner.
• Xander likes to head down to the basement when he finishes his homework and jam out to some music - Star Wars, Shrek, Disney, Phantom of the Opera and Pirates of the Caribbean are some of his favorite CDs.
• With several snow days keeping us indoors Xander and I have had some fun times playing Gauntlet, a game on the old Nintendo 64 that we still have. We make a great team!
• Xander continues his fascination with "bad guys", his most recent favorite being Rumplestilskin from Shrek Forever After. Xander even decided to copy his hair - Xander no longer has a faux-hawk but "the Rumplestilskin hair". Good thing he didn't want to copy it exactly and dye it red!