Blankenbehlers

Here is a little update. Our family is doing well. Jared is growing fast and his personality is coming out a bit more. He loves attention and gives lots of smiles when he gets it.

Bobby has been playing in a Tawas Community Band for 2 months now and last night Bobby had their first performance, It's theme was American composers. I was very surprised how well they sounded. Since we live in a small town I though that would affect the quality, but the band is full of people that are very talented and have played for years, or teach music, etc. There is several members that have retired from down south and moved here. Our town is a touristy town, and the population doubles in the summer time. Bobby will be playing with the band every Monday night at near by park by the beach. Bobby is enjoying the band which is great. Sometimes he feels that being here in Michigan there is nothing to do, especially in the winter time when it's all cold, so it's nice he found a hobby. Yesterday when I was at the concert I had a flash back when I first met Bobby. The very first date we went to was a faculty Jazz Brass concert at Ricks College. When we went on the date I thought it was a bit strange thing to do, since I wasn't into that stuff, but anything can grow into you. I was happy to see Bobby playing trumpet again, since he hasn't played it for 8 years. The kids love it too when he practices, and Bobby plays fun songs like "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" etc..

Spring is finally in the air. The grass is starting to turn green, and it's really nice to have the sun out after the long cold winter. We have been looking to buy a house for few months now. We are thinking we'll stay here long enough to make it worth it to buy a house. Of course you can never predict the future so I hope that things will just work out. The house prices are low here and the lot sizes are good about 0.5 acres or more. However, there is a lot of older homes on the market and not that many new ones, also most homes are too small. We found that had a nice open floor plan with 4 bedrooms and a basement that could be turned into more space with some work. However, the house needed some work...new carpets, paint. We gave a ridiculously low offer and we got counter offer, and gave an other counter offer, but I don't think that we are going to find happy medium. This house is going to be foreclosure soon, so maybe if things work out we can have an other try on it when it will be auctioned off. So we are still looking for the "perfect home". We hope to make a really good deal since it is a buyers market and our student loans are still huge, and I want to get a very good deal also that when we move out of the area, we wont make a loss on the house. We'll see what happens in the future. 

Let see, what else has happened... Matthew had his birthday and turned 4 years old. Matthew is doing great. He loves going to preschool and it has helped him a lot this year. He is speaking so much better. This is area that I was worried about him, but he has been catching up in leaps. It's fun to hear him say funny things and his reasoning, he also does better playing with other kids, and talks about his friends in school. Timo is still as social at can be. We went to a children's museum and Matthew was playing with all the displays, but Timo run where some girls were and tried to amuse them and they played right along. Timo is such a charmer and we are up for a trouble in future ;) Timo is talking pretty good. I think he is about where he should be for his age. Recently he has been a bit jealous about the baby. He says put the baby in the swing, and then he wants me to hold him. The boys are doing a lot better with the baby though what I was expecting. Jared is loving all the kisses and smiles he gets :). OK, Jared is up gotta go...