Communion

All of a sudden our boys have wanted to drink out of the Communion Wine Cup instead of dipping their wafer in. Well, slowly one by one at church they would go up to the alter rail and brave the new world of sipping the wine. After the adventurous one would accomplish his goal, he would get this big smile on his face very similar to the cat that ate the canary. Well, the only one that was left was Blake. Yesterday at church we went up for communion and right before my eyes Blake took his first official sip. He grinned ear to ear afterwards. We walked back to our pew and just as we sat down he turned to me and said, "Mom, I'm a big kid now!"

John and basketball

John has been asking us forever to sign him up for basketball. To be honest time would fly by and we'd miss the sign up or we'd think maybe next year. Well, this year he has been relentless about reminding us. So, over the holiday break we proudly signed him up for basketball at First Baptist down by our church. When we told him we signed him up, of course, his response was "oh no, not this year". What? Did he really not want to? Of course he wanted to he just liked the idea of being able to have something over us when we didn't sign him up. John is very wise beyond his 7 years. Anyways, the day of practice came. I ran out to Academy to get him a new shirt and new basketball shorts. I know none of the kids care but as a mom I wanted him to at least be the nicest dress basketball star on the court. :) Both of us wanted to be there but with 5 boys and it was a school night that wasn't happening. Yea for Poppo! He graciously stepped in to attend Sean's basketball game that Steve was missing that night. John was very nervous and kept telling Steve and I how he wasn't going to do good and how everyone was probably better than him. Poor lil guy. This was his first experience of being put on a team and having to fight for his place. At least at home he knew his place....he is John...the baby of 5....truly every one's favorite....he could do no wrong and if he did all he had to do was bat those baby blues and say "I'm sorry" and we'd all forgive him. Oh no this was not the Filley Five Team...this was the big leagues. Steve took the camera to take pictures and kept me informed by texting me at least every 5 minutes. Sad, huh? I know but we're like that with all of the boys. Well after a grueling hour long practice Steve called to say they were on their way home. I could hear John in the background. He was so excited and proud of his accomplishment. When they got home and I asked him how did it go. His typical John response was....."I thought I'd suck. But, I am actually really good!" YOU GO JOHN!

My daughter

This is Lacey. She is my daughter. She will be 5 in July. She has attitude. Can you tell?

2010 is already here!

Hello, my name is Jackie and I am the worst possible blogger! It's been forever since I've posted anything on our blog. I don't know what my problem is.......geez, it's not like I have anything else to do. I'm going to try and get this blog up to date and have decided one of my New Years Resolutions is going to be to keep up with it more often.

Since my last blog entry was in the Fall, I'm trying to remember what's happened since then. Think, think, think. It's so much easier for me to just go down the list of each child to jog my memory.

Sean (17) is first. Let's see...... I think Sean would think the most exciting event that has occurred to him since the Fall would be him getting his truck. Since there are 5 boys, we truly needed Sean's help around here. Not so much for him to be chauffeuring his brothers around but more to get himself to where he needs to be. It has been wonderful! He hasn't made it to the point of running to the grocery store or any major errands but little by little hopefully. His grades have been outstanding this year! Basketball is still his passion and now that he is about 6'3 he is dunking like crazy! Steve and I can not believe that he will be out of our home soon. Before you know it he'll be off to college and we'll be worrying even more than we do now and I'm sure I will be obsessed with sending him all sorts of care packages to make sure he is surviving! Until then, we are enjoying his silly dancing, funny sense of humor and the clomping of his slippered feet as he moves towards the refrigerator pretty much every hour.

Blake's (14) next. Blake has been taking guitar lessons and is really excelling at it. He has a really great teacher, Obeth, who is turning him onto all types of music. Blake loves the Beatles right now and is learning to play Paperback Writer. He was so excited when they got Beatles Rock Band for Christmas! I think he's mastered almost every song of the game. Another one of Blake's hobbies lately has been branching out on his cooking skills. He has moved on from making smoothies every night to real cooking. He loves to get my cookbooks and find a recipe that sounds good to him and try to make it. The other night he decided that he wanted to make a homemade cake out of one of my new cookbooks...and he wanted to do it all by himself. Me being a little bit of a helicopter mom, I hung out in the kitchen making excuses to wash the dishes. He actually did really well, only made one small little mistake that was simply fixed. The cake turned out great!!! I think I've had it for breakfast at least 3 days in a row. Steve and I have nicknamed him "the whistler" because you can always tell where he is in the house because of his continuous whistling. School is going well.....straight A's or A's and B's. I can't believe that next year he will be a Freshmen in High School!!! Where has my lil monkey gone??

Jason (14) is our middle one. Two above him and two below him. Jason has grown overnight and is going to be built just like Steve. Out of all of our boys, Jason has really come into his own. He did wonderful in football this year. The picture above was taken right before this amazing interception. Ok...so I didn't get the picture of the catch itself. I was so excited when I saw the ball coming at him and realized he was going to intercept it that I started jumping up and down and dropped the camera. Soccer came and went and once again he showed his maturity by even being the captain during the last game of the season. He's onto basketball next and can't wait to play. He will be a Freshmen in High School next year too! Where has the time gone?

Austin (12) is picking up the rear of the group. He's in band this year (taking over the trumpet from Blake). One good thing is Austin is loud and has a lot of hot air so the trumpet has been easy for him. Before school ended for the winter break he learned that he made the percussion team at school. Yipppeee for us...now he gets DRUMS! This year, Austin has joined the exclusive "Filley Brothers Phone Possey" and he can't be more excited. He now has a phone and isn't afraid to use it. Having Jason and Blake with him at Middle School has been good for him. They've shown him the ropes so next year he'll do just fine by himself. Austin is still as sweet and thoughtful as ever. He's as tall as me now, and reminds me of that all the time.

And of course then there's John (7). Wow! He is seven. I can't believe that. It just seemed like the other day that he was 4 and so little and cuddly. Well he's still cuddly but not so little anymore. John is our baby and will always be our baby I don't care how big he gets. He still likes to sleep with us, he still enjoys playing with us, watching TV with us and I will take that as long as he wants to do it. John is in 1st grade now and is one lil social guy. He will be starting basketball soon and I can't wait to see him play. One thing about being the baby of 5 brothers is that you learn faster and are stronger than all of them were at that age. I think you have to be in order to survive....lol As you can see from the picture above John loves anything to do with Wars, Armies and battling......and still Clone Wars of course. After writing this blog entry, I have come to the conclusion that when John is Sean's age I'm going to officially have a break down. He can't ever leave!

Khaki and Forrest (our dogs) are doing well. Lacey and Kooter (our cats) are good too. Bubba (the bird) is happy as can be so I guess that just leaves Steve and I.

Steve and I are doing great! I know it sounds mushy, but every year gets better with us. I know it sounds like an ad but Eharmony definitely works! Speaking of Eharmony....we're still blogging for them and they've invited us to speak at one of their monthly corporate meeting in the summer. How exciting!!! Escuela Montessori is doing great! Steve is still chugging along with organizemydad.com and I am loving Mary Kay! We're enjoying all of our crazy, hectic, fun, silly moments with our boys and look forward to many, many more.

Happy New Year to all of you!