He Loves The World...

...and that's only part of why we love him so much! He has such a big heart. =) Love his self portrait with his red hair. Love that he wrote that all on his own because he really does love his world. Love you Noah.

Swim Lessons: Mission Accomplished!

They are both swimming like fish! =) Thank you Elisabeth!

Backstroke & No Fear

The kids have really enjoyed swim lessons this summer and we have been really happy with Elisabeth - their teacher. The kids couldn't swim at all at the beginning of the summer and they have both come so far. Noah is swimming freestyle and getting faster every day. He is also beginning to learn the fundamentals of backstroke. Rachel is swimming freestyle and has shown some awesome natural ability when it comes to backstroke. She picked it up right away. I love watching them swim now. Kate took a dive in the pool in her clothes yesterday, so I suited her up and let her play in the water. One of the life guards offered to catch her off of the diving board when she kept asking to climb up. It was amazing to see her march out on the board. She was a little timid because she didn't know the lifeguard who was waiting to catch her. Doug thinks if it had been me down in the water she would have readily jumped. She really does amaze me with her 'no fear' of the water.

Hello Mr. Black Bear

...and before all the chaos....

We went up to the Metcalf Bottoms in the mountains for a morning picnic with the kids and this fellow came wondering along looking for a bite to eat. Mom had gone looking for Christina and her gang and while she was gone the kids had had a quick bite while I set up the breakfast spread. Kate was playing in her booster chair when a lady walked up and warned me that there was a bear coming. I looked up and he was about 10 yards away. It startled me a little so I snatched Kate up and told the kids to run for the truck. We watched while he mosied up to our table, checked out our picnic box, ate a few remaining bits off of the kids plates, ripped the cooler to shreds, stole a jug of milk, a bottle of honey and a few other yummy tidbits. It was quite the show for the kids. While some nice people stood lookout during one of his trips down to the river to eat his stolen goods I packed up our spread. Mom got there right as I was getting it all thrown in the car and we took off for the Y where we spread our picnic out on a blanket and had a long chat about how Mr. Black Bear was a good guy, but was hungry and we were in HIS home up there in the mountains. The kids were a little frightened, so we had some explaining to do about how it all works. I thought it was pretty cool, but was glad he was happy with the milk and the honey. ;)

First Piggies

I attempted to put Kate's hair in pig tails for the first time. We loved the way it turned out! She looks so much older with them in though... She liked having them in, although it was a bit of an adventure getting her to sit still. Rachel was much older than Kate when she had enough hair for pig tails and was much better about letting me fix her hair. Kate is learning though and hopefully it will be routine before too long. In addition to new hairstyles, she is also getting 6 new teeth. She's getting four molars with the two top ones already having cut through. She is also getting her bottom two lateral incisors. They have already cut through and you can see the ridges. Poor punkin hasn't been too cranky though, thank goodness!

8 Cousins: Splash Pad!

We gathered up all 8 of the kids and headed out to the splash pad -- They had fun all running around together and it was cute to watch them all play. The middle girls ran around with baby dolls, while the older kids all wanted to squirt each other like crazy. Kate had fun wandering around in the sprinklers and the bigger kids followed her around for a while. It's fun to see who plays with who and what they all do together.