Pool Day

We spent a Sunday afternoon at the pool and we had a blast! My kids are like fishies in the water and this day was no different. They swam for over 5 and a half hours. 

Rascal is my cautious kid around water. Blows my mind since he has such a laid back care free personality. However I am glad he knows he should respect the water. 

Rascal can swim some in the shallow (4 feet) water but he just doesn't have the confidence to do it all the time. We talked him in to jumping off the side into the shallow water and I thought he'd never do it. One time was enough for him, he would rather chill out in the shallow end and watch his brother do the dare devil tricks. 

Scooter can swim great. he doesn't need a life vest anymore and there is no keeping him out of the deep end. He loves to jump off the side or in this case the waterfall. 

Scooter did want to get on top of the waterfall but he would not jump off it. 

He also wanted to have someone up there with him. 

Baby A has loved the water since she was just a tiny baby. She knows she must wear a life vest (or puddle jumper, like she has on in these pics) but as long as she has that on she is a little dare devil herself. She wanted to jump off the waterfall this time but we wouldn't let her. So she settled for jumping off the side into the deepest part of the pool. 

The kids thought the cave under (or behind?) the waterfall was so cool. 

Would you just look at her face?!?!?! I mean it when I say this girl is a mess! 

And look at that pose! Sassy! 

We had to take Lucy with us since we were in town all day long. She stayed locked up in her crate for the majority of the time. We did let her out to potty and when we did we thought we would see if she liked to swim. She was so funny, she wasn't really scared of the water but she wasn't real sure what was going on. Tim would pick her up out of the water and her feet would still be paddling the entire time. She chilled on the raft with Baby A for a minute and then she went back to her crate. 

It was a fun afternoon that Tim and I needed a week to recover from. Why is it that the kids can swim for nearly 6 hours straight and not be affected (except for their appetite) but Tim and I swim for 3 hours and we need to sleep for a week to recover? I think we are just that out of shape and OLD! 

I love to see the joy in my kids eyes when they are on the lake, at the beach or in a pool. 

It thrills me to no end! 

Happenings

Life has been busy since the end of July. School starts about week after Baby A's birthday so that means we move from party mode into school mode and both are very crazy. 

However we have managed to fit in a few fun things, so here is a quick picture recap of some of what's been going on here: 

We celebrated Uncle JJ's birthday at Red Robin and had a great time. Rascal never complained of a tummy ache and ate every bite of his food. This is very RARE for him because he gets anxiety when eating out. Red Robin is rated #1 in the food allergy community and our experience was awesome! 

I LOVE this picture of Tim and Baby A. 

I hate the lighting messed it up but it still shows that she is daddy's girl. 

I met some friends one night for a fun painting class. 

I will tell you right now that people with OCD tendencies should not be painters. I wanted mine perfect and would end up messing it up trying to achieve perfection. It was still a really fun night though. 

Here is my picture, I will tell you that it photographs well but looks much worse in person. 

I do think it was neat how they teach you to paint the picture. 

I learned a few things but I can't say I'll ever use those tips again. 

I am just not a painter and I am ok with that. LOL 

Henry.... Oh Henry! I have a love/ hate relationship with this cat. I mean I love that he is so loyal to us. I mean the cat never runs away, will greet anyone who comes into the driveway, kills numerous rodents and reptiles and follows the kids around like a dog would. I hate how he gets under my feet, he won't leave Lucy alone when she is trying to potty and he uses my flower pots as his restroom. 

However put that all aside and this cat can be entertaining. He typically chooses the front porch to nap on and the positions he sleeps in crack us up. Most of the time you will find him asleep on his back feet hanging like he is dead. 

Lucy, she is just a sweet heart. The way she loves our family is just the best thing. I am going to try and get a video of her greeting Baby A in the morning. Lucy gets so excited like she hasn't seen Baby A in a million years.Most of the time if the front door is open, she is sitting on the stairs watching out the front door. She looks like she is guilty of something in this picture. 

Tim and I had a date night a few weeks ago. We are pretty laid back people and definitely do not want to go anywhere where we will be in a huge crowd. We love to eat dinner at a restaurant that we can take our time at and sit and talk for awhile after dinner. Then we will usually go to Starbucks and hang out there with some yummy coffee. This date night we went to P.F.Changs and had some yummy Chinese food. Funny thing though, I have recently cut out all sugar and most carbs from my diet. Tim has done the same thing as support for me (My diet is a "have to" kind of thing ordered by my doctor) and to help him feel better and have more energy. So we go to the chinese restaurant where rice and/ or noodles are the primary side dish. HA! We both did really well though and told them not to even bring the rice to our table. We had Ahi Tuna (pic below) as an appetizer and I was scared to try it. After trying (and hating) sushi last year I wasn't sure any kind of raw fish would be good. Tim and I love to try new things and so I sucked it up and tried it. 

It was AMAZING!

He ordered seared ahi tuna for his meal with arugula salad and green beans and I had grilled salmon with asparagus and a side salad. 

We left dinner and since dessert or latte's are not low carb or sugar free, we headed to William Sonoma Outlet and Pottery Barn Outlet to look around. 

It was such a fun relaxing night together! 

Pool Time and Cousin Fun

A few weeks ago we headed to a friend of Uncle Jonathan's and went swimming. My kids LOVE to swim but we don't have any place to swim at regularly. We jumped at the chance to go and my kids swam their little hearts out. 

Levi was staying with us that weekend so he got to come with us. It was lots of fun! 

Here are a few videos of the kids swimming. 

The next day after dinner we headed to get ice cream and play at the new big park.

It was a fun weekend! 

Fishing

One Sunday after church we all headed to a nearby pond to do some fishing. 

You guys really have no idea how much Scooter loves fishing. 

Not a day goes by that he isn't talking about it. And he is good at it too. 

I snapped this shot quickly and knew I would have fun editing it. 

I managed to capture the sweet simple beauty of this precious little girl. 

And wouldn't you know, she loves to fish too. 

We didn't catch any big fish but it was still fun to catch something. 

Baby A even liked holding them and then throwing them back in the water. 

It's pretty obvious by these pictures that I was there to take pics and not fish. 

Rascal isn't in to fishing so he stayed back with Granny. 

After awhile Baby A decided to go explore with her Paw. 

They found a great place to build a fort. 

Fourth of July 2014

Here are some pictures from the fourth of July. We had gorgeous weather that day and spent nearly the entire day outside. 

We bought some fireworks this year for the first time and the kids thought it was so fun to pick them out. 

Here is all our fireworks that we were ready to shoot that night. 

Not sure why I only have a screen shot of this picture but I love her sweet smile. 

Scooter really got into lighting the fireworks this year. He is growing up so much. 

Rascal is still a little cautious about them. He is so much like me. 

We grilled out with Tim's family and had homemade ice cream. 

We stopped by my parent's house to see my aunt and uncle and hand out with my sweet nephews for a little while. They had a blast playing on the slip and slide. 

It was such a great day!