Jared will kill me if I don't put this in. Maxwell wrote his name today. While I was doing my computer stuff, he sat behind me on the floor and started writing on some handwriting paper. (Red, blue, and dashed lines on gray paper) I am just going to tell this story in sequence, it lasted around twenty minutes. He came up to me and asked me how to write his name so I wrote it down for him. He looked at it, turned the paper over, and preceded an attempt at writing his name. First he wrote MAELL from memory. I again wrote his name out for him, telling him he missed some letters. Again MAELL, so I again wrote his name out for him on that same page. Every time he went to write his name again, he would turn it over or get a new page once I wrote his name on it. For whatever reason or logic he did not want to copy what I wrote. He would put numerous of his own attempts on a single side, but mine apparently ruined that side. Then there was MAXELL. I told him he was missing the W and showed him a few times how to write a W. He had a meltdown over the letter W saying, "I can't do it!" Finally he got the W and from there it was a few tries until he got it all together in order with what he considered to be legible enough or good enough letters. When he finished he got up and did a touchdown shuffle, shouted, "I did it!" and ran over to give me five. I don't know at this point if it will stick or not but it was still quite amazing. He definitely has Jared's determination and follow through. He puts superhuman pressure on himself in everything he decides he is ready to do. I will have Jared scan the final version in tonight and post.

Xander has a fascination with giant and colossal squids and squids in general. For squid lovers this has been an exciting year. Some Japanese scientists caught a giant squid a few months ago and now New Zealand has caught another colossal squid. The colossal squid weighs around half a ton and is longer than a school bus. Yesterday I told Xander when Elijah's bus pulled up that the colossal squid was longer than that. Xander said to Leila, "The colossal squid is the biggest squid in the solar system."

Having two three year olds was fun. This is the age I would start enjoy having twins. They're potty trained, have a better understanding of consequences and discipline, and they're goofy personalities are really starting to come out. Last night after dinner, I told Maxwell and Leila they could have fruit snacks for a treat. We started back in my room at the other end of the apartment from the kitchen. The whole run to the kitchen was filled with echoing cries of, "Fruit Snacks!" "Fruit Snacks!" back and forth between Maxwell and Leila. Then it was time to choose between Finding Nemo or Pirates of the Caribbean. Both chose Nemo and then the echoing cries became, "Nemo! Nemo!" until they finished eating them.

Elijah just lost his third tooth. He thinks he swallowed it while he was eating a cherry fritter. He didn't notice he had lost it until after he was done eating. Quite amazing considering there is still a good amount of blood. The blood is something they should definitely warn parents about. He is writing a note to the Tooth Fairy to explain his situation.

We had Leila spend the night last night. She is Maxwell's good friend that is just two weeks older than him. They both have these totally goofy three-year-old senses of humor and fun and have each other in giggles most of the time. She is bigger in size than Elijah so Xander and Elijah sometimes confuse her talking to her like she is a lot older.

This past weekend was hectic but great! Elijah's soccer team won his game. Elijah has become more aggressive on the field and although he prefers defense he works hard at offense when the coach assigns him there.

Our friends, the Rossels, came to visit from San Diego (Vista). We worked hard at trying to convince them to move here and Jared set up a family blog for them. Summer (my friend from college) had a baby boy on January 15th. We enjoyed having an almost 5 year old girl, a two year old girl, and the baby in the apartment. Elijah and Renee really got along. At church Elijah introduce Renee as his cousin and was calling Summer and Phillipe Aunt and Uncle. We teased Elijah and Renee that they couldn't marry their cousins and when we told them they actually could get married since they are not related they got all smiley and shy.

After church the Primary secretary came and told me Elijah had said Happy Valentine's Day to the whole class and how he is so sweet. Curious about it, I later questioned Elijah about it. I thought she was talking about just his class, but it apparently was the whole Junior Primary in Sharing Time. I am quoting Elijah now. He said, "Valentine's Day is a day we celebrate love. Jesus Christ loves us all. I hope you have a Happy Valentine's Day." I had him repeat his little speech for Jared during which we both tried to hide our giggles. Jared asked Elijah why he did that and he responded, "I just

Wow! January just flew by. We had a hectic January. Yesterday was only the second time I had the opportunity to take Maxwell to Sunbeams. The first time when I tried to take him to Sharing Time he said, "No Mom. Not in here." After much coaxing and introducing him to the teacher I finally left him there. This week he was prepared and he was not going to leave my side for a second. The teacher bribed him with treats. I pointed out his friend in the class and that the teacher had a baby. He would not budge so he came with me to Sunday School. He had to sit still and be quiet in there. I told him there were no treats, no fun, no toys, and no coloring in my classes but he still would not go. In between Relief Society and Sunday School, I again tried to take him to Sunbeams. Again he was promised treats, coloring, and even more of his friends were in the class since another teacher didn't show up. He still would not go. He would rather spend another boring hour with me then go to Sunbeams. We returned to Relief Society. He obediently got in his seat next to me in the front. All the sudden I was inspired to ask, "Do you want scriptures like Elijah and Xander have?" Maxwell excitedly nodded yes. I then told him he needed to go to Sunbeams to get them because that is where they hand them out. He immediately jumped down and went into Sunbeams. I hurried and told someone in the Primary leadership that they had not handed out scripture bags to the Sunbeams yet and if they could please hand them out in there before the end of class as that was how I bribed Maxwell to attend. Our ward hands out scripture bags and Books of Mormon to all the new Primary children and even replaces those that are lost. At the end of Sunbeams he ran into Relief Society and yelled, "Mom! Look!" and held up his scripture bag for me to behold. When we got home from church he did the same to Dad and he even brought them out to show all of our guests at our Super Bowl party. I hope he is cured of his timidity of going to Sunbeams now. I will let you know how it goes next time. I found the Primary President after church and thanked her for that.