The 4th of July

 

 

A Breakfast of Stars{love my pancake pen}

 

 

Pizza for lunch at our absolutely favorite pizza place

 with a little walk around downtown.

 

Our table all set for our Bar B Q dinner

 

Followed by fireworks with friends and strangers alike.

 

Since I have been the Pirmary President I totally understand when they say you are the President of the children in the ward and that means the ward boundries because I am finally used to strange children come up to me and talking to me and the one pictured above is no exception.

 

I found these great glow in the dark flags and the kids loved them!!!

 

 

Splash into Summer

 If you look at me or my children and think to yourself boy they are tan well this would be why...

 

 

we spent a lot of our summer

 

here!!!

 

I have spent almost 100 hours treading water at the end of the diving pool

 

watching my children jump and dive

 

 

into the pool!

 

All of the younger kids took private swimming lessons this year and can I tell you for all the classes we have taken before they have grown leaps and bounds by far more this year than any other year and I directly give credit to the fact they had a wonderful teacher SARAH and they were taught one on one.  I want to talk about each one a bit.

 

David he could float on his back and do the freestyle a bit but that was about it.  He was very comfortable with the water.  After this summer of classes he is a pro at the freestyle, back stroke, elementary backstroke, and the breast stroke.  He also does the sitting dive, kneeling dive and standing dive and can dive down and touch the bottom of the pool with his hand and  he also can kind of do the butterfly.  He actually loves it so much he has asked to take more classes during the winter months.

 

Julianna  could doggie paddle.  She would stay close to the edge most of the time and when she would venture too far away she would get a little panicky.  Now she is swimming all over.  She can do the backstroke and freestyle and do all the dives David can do.  She likes swimming but soccer is true to her heart and so in the fall soccer will be her activity!

 

Jensen as some might know Jensen's body was about 75% covered with eczema for the first year of his life and was controlled mostly by medication but also no full bathes.  When he was 18 months old this was his first real exposure to being immersed in water and I will tell you he screamed for the first year he hated the water.  It then toned down to crying and then he was fine but in pools he would hold onto me for dear life.  It is at this stage that one day he was going from the dock to the boat and at that moment a wave pulled the boat away from the dock and he fell in and was swept under the dock and his fear of water increased.  Getting in his face was a no no he would fall into a puddle crying if water got into his face.  The last couple of years he has gotten better with the water but still putting his face in to swim absolutely not.  I could get him to jump off the side to me but to just jump off the side and go under absolutely not.  We had a huge break through with him at the very beginning of the summer after 3 hours of trying to get him to jump off the diving board he did it with a life jacket on.  After one class with our gem Sarah he jumped off without it on.  He has no problem putting his face in the water now or having water on his face and he actually braved going down the slide{with a little help from dad}.  He can do the freestyle now but often reverts back to the doggie  paddle.  Huge huge milestones with him!!!

 

I also was able to get all of my children to jump off the boat and the back of the jet ski this summer which I have been trying to do for 3 years.  Even on one boat ride Jensen asked if he could jump off the boat and swim to shore..AMAZING is all I can say absolutely amazing!!!

 

 

 

ARGGGG...He's 7 Matey!!!!

At Jensen's request we had a Pirate Birthday Party and this is what I cam up with:

 

 

To see more details of his party you will need to go here.

 

Happy Birthday to my boy "who was born to be funny", love you little guy!!!

 

He has been such a blessing I still remember the day I felt I should get pregnant again and I started to sob.  I also remember telling my husband he would have to have a holy vision for that to happen and they day he stood in the door way and said this baby is going to change our lives and then I started crying.  I can tell you that for all those tears shed he has made up for it in the laughs he creates!!!

Backyard FUN

 

 

I am always surprised at how much a few simple

items used together can create so much fun!!!

 

 

You can also see in the back ground of the pictures another little

{even though it is not so little now}project going on ~ they love their little gardens!!!

A Graduate...Me...Really!!!

I can hardly believe I have a graduate but I do!!!

 I couldn't be prouder of the young man he has become. 

 Congratulations Christian!!!!

 

{I had to have a picture of Travis too}



LOVE THESE BOYS

I am sitting quietly in my living room when these 2 explode through my front door exclaiming that I need to be ready for a fashion show.  Apparently the went to salvo(salvation army) and went hunting for 70's wear and beach bum apparel and this is what they came up with....

 

 

Not only is this so funny, they did it with the intention of wearing it to their

Track Award Night and they did!!!

26.2

 

If you read this post you would know Christian qualified for states and you would also know he injured himself at regionals...these 2 meets are 2 weeks apart from each other and so for good measure why don't you run a marathon in between the 2.

 I still am shaking my head about the whole thing. 

 

When his injury happend we tried to change it to a 10K but the rules are clear you can't change which race you will run.  We thought the morning of maybe we would be able to change it in person and if it couldn't be changed he just wouldn't run.  Imagine my surprise when David returned with no Christian and I was so excited that they let him change his race and again imagine my surprise when they didn't and he was running the marathon. 

 

He had never to this point ran more than 6 miles and most of his current running training had been running all out for 800 meters.  He is in fabulous shape but running 26.2 miles with no training is craziness and he is just the crazy to do it. 

 

He finished ... not only did he finish he came in 4th in his age group with the time of 3:16 which is amazing so amazing in fact we learned later he was 6 minutes shy of qualifying for the Boston Marathon...6 minutes.  When he found this out he said, "If I would of know the time to beat I would have done it"  and as I have looked at the first half time and last half time I believe he would have! 

We Have an Eagle Scout

 

Boys will be boys I beleive is the saying...love these boys they are the best and I am so proud of each one of them for accomplishing this huge achievement!!!

David on a Bug Hunt

David had a field trip to the Chippewa Nature Center. 

 He absolutely fell in love with this place and we will definately need to visit again and again!!!

 

Julianna's Birthday Party Photoshoot - the after shots

 

WE LOVE THIS GIRL!!!!!

 

*to see more of her birthday party fun you will need to go here

And Let the Race Begin

As much as Christian loves soccer he absolutely LOVES running. 

 

This season was full of hope for him and his relay team they had been looking forward to this for 4 years.  they had states in their sights and they were determined to win. Over the last 3 years they have had their bumps in the road along the way but nothing could have prepared Christian for the phone call he received the day he returned home from California.  One of his teammates Justin broke his back on Spring Break and would not be able to run for at least this season if ever again.  It was heartbreaking to watch Christian talking to his friend on the phone and him trying to console him. I can imagine the same way Justin did with Christian when he broke his ankle.  I remember Christian telling me about his brutal physical therapy and how Justin would be there holding him up as he was taking his first steps again so he would be ready to run track.  This was something that was going to need more time and that was one thing they didn't have.

 

They found a replacement but he was a short distance sprinter and when you run the 800 it is a sprint the whole way and not something a short distance sprinter usually has the endurance for. They did really well in matter of fact well enough to qualify for states at the regional track meet.  Later on in that same meet came Christian's individual race the 800 and as he was taking the last turn on pace to make a new persoanl best time and just as he was ready to turn it up a notch he got a crippling charlie horse in his hamstring and fell to the ground screaming(my heart broke for him).  His last individual High School race was done..but there was a some gleaming hope for him becasue they did qualify for states earlier....so off to States we went....and this didn't turn out well either but they really did have a fabulous season and these won't be his last races becasue he is running in college!!!