Swimming Lessons are over for this summer.

We just finished our second two week session of swimming lessons for the summer. It was really fun to watch the kids' progress.

Caden is not into swimming yet, he is a great watcher.













Here they are just warming up for the lesson.

Grace actually got less brave throughout the lessons. It was a good thing for someone so small. She is great at blowing bubbles and doing her kicks.



Robyn can now swim by herself for a bit - hooray! She will be swimming all over the place next year.







Here is Colin coming up for air. He will be off like a rocket as soon as he will get his legs out behind him. He is awesome at treading water.

Busy Weekend!

We went "home" for Rodeo weekend, my 10 year HS reunion, and to say goodbye to Uncle Mike who is now at the MTC preparing to serve his mission in Thailand.
These are pictures we took on Friday. Auntie Ky gave us all lovely haircuts. Here is a picture of her with the kids showing off her excellent work at the Rodeo Parade. I am a lucky girl to have the talented sisters that I do.

After loading up on parade candy, we headed over to the Rodeo. We made it about half way through before the claustrophobia set in. The rodeo stands aren't exactly roomy. We listened to the second half of the rodeo from the carnival where we ate popcorn, corn dogs, and snow cones and the kids each got to do two rides. Fun stuff!

This is one of the very last pictures taken with the old camera. It's Robyn on the "sand mountains." Much fun is had on the sand mountains, but not if you are a camera.

Randy got me a new camera that is very tiny so I can take it with me easily. I am very excited. Colin will have to wait until Christmas and see if Santa brings him a new camera before he can take one with him again. :)

Happy Birthday Gracie!

Grace turned 3 yesterday! Time sure does fly. We had a lovely time decorating the house with balloons and streamers. Grace wanted a "triangle" cake so it would be "big." I told her to find the pan she wanted to use and it turned out she meant rectangle, not triangle. We will do a bit more work on shapes. She can find the right shape when she is asked to find a certain one, apparently it is harder to come up with the name of the shape you are thinking about in your head. Anyway, she knew she wanted "BIG." She is so her mother's girl. :) Together we made a lovely chocolate cake with purple sprinkles. It was delicious!
I wish I could show you all pictures, however, the camera is no more. The valuable lesson learned would be: sand and electronics don't mix! Actually we learned that lesson when Colin was 3 with his CD player - we must have forgot. Anyway, Randy took the kids on a bike ride and they stopped to play on a "sand mountain." Colin, of course, had the camera in his pocket. At least this time it was an accident, the CD player was a deliberate experiment. The bright side is that we got to dissect the camera and see all of it's guts. Pretty cool stuff.
Caden survived his first month of life and is still a happy little guy. All he needs is a clean diaper and a full tummy and life is good. I am enjoying that he never complains about what I fix for supper. Maybe I'll nurse him forever so I don't have to hear "Ew, green stuff!" :)
I guess a more realistic plan would be to learn to cook. I currently have five cookbooks from the library, next step - open them. I actually did read a few pages of one and it said that I can't cook because my knives aren't sharp. I bought a knife sharpener that is user friendly enough to actually use today and, Wow, sharp knives really do help. Maybe there is hope after all.

"If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or
other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who
achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while
the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come."

--C. S. Lewis, "Learning in War-Time", The Weight of Glory

Mud Monsters!

Here is proof that Colin does not spend ALL of his time on the computer. This is Colin and Robyn being "Mud Monsters." It was all fun and everything until Dad came home and "mud dog" came in the house! Yikes! That was exciting.

Happy Birthday Robyn!

Robyn is five years old today! I can't believe how fast time flies.

Here is a picture of Caden - all fresh and clean.
Goodness, I love this boy. I love to rub my cheek on his fuzzy little head. Babies are great!

Does Unschooling really work? YES!

Last week Randy and I were talking in our bedroom when Colin burst in and announced, "Since you won't teach me PHP, I am going to teach myself. I put PHP for Dummies on hold at the library."

I love initiative!

Apparently Colin asked Randy to teach him PHP and Randy told him he would in a few years. Randy changed his mind after Colin was proactive and they started working on a menu planning webpage for me. It is looking pretty cool.

Lest anyone think that the freezer full of meals was my doing, I must give credit where credit is due.
My amazing neighbors had this fabulous idea to throw me a freezer meal baby shower. That was the best idea I had ever heard before in my whole life! I loved it.
Shelly and Raylene threw one heck of a party and I got about 10 meals to put in my freezer. So far, each one has been delicious!
Fabulous idea, fabulous!