Our Big Swimmer!

This summer has been a turning point for our Brady & his swimming skills. He has gone from using floaties in the the pool to not really needing them any more. So, we decided to put him in swimming lessons just to be sure he knows what he is doing before he gets to confident.

His first day of lessons was today. He is pictured above with his teacher Ms. McKenzie. She is a really sweet teacher who seems to know a lot about swimming.

They went over kicking...

And ice cream scoops (arm strokes)

And floating on your back...

And even being comfortable with your face in the water.

At the end of the class they moved to another area of the pool to play a game. It seems like Brady is going to get a lot out of his lessons. We are so glad he is able to work at something he can be proud of. It's usually him having to sit on the side and watch Bubba do stuff like this, but not anymore!

Craft Day

This Thursday Craft Day has been a lot of fun! I have a tendency to want to make more "girlie" things, but the boys are keeping me in line. For instance...I had one idea for today's craft, but it ended up getting the thumbs down, so we went with this.

With a little felt and a free printable from pinterest, we were able to make some capes for the boy's men who otherwise would just be ordinary. They dug through their toy boxes and located their people who needed to play a little dress up. After just a few minutes they were all set to play for hours of fun :)

After today, Daddy is home for a four day weekend! Yay!!!

Father's Day 2012

I know I have said this before, but I was blessed with two great dads growing up. Yes, there are a lot of downfalls of being from a divorced family, but I feel like my situation worked out to be quite alright. I have a wonderful dad & a wonderful step dad ( i hate that work step dad though, because there is nothing "step" about my step dad)

So then, I went on to marry Caleb & I got an awesome father in law who also happens to be my Pastor. He taught Caleb how to be the dad he is today. Caleb is an A+ dad to the boys. It doesn't get much better than him and I can't wait to see the dads they grow up to be because of all of the great dad role models they have in their life.

Brady cooked Daddy a German chocolate cake for Father's Day. We went swimming and had steaks and Owen looked super cool in Papi's sunglasses. All in all I think Caleb would say he had a great Father's Day!

A Busy Summer Week

Last week was CRAZY busy! I love weeks like that every now & then during the summer though. You know..the weeks when the kids are just exhausted by the end of the day? I think kids need that sometime, not all the time...but sometimes. 

 Sunday, our neighbor invited us over to pick some vegetables out of her garden. The boys had a great time & got lots of tomatoes and okra. After that we headed straight to VBS for the first night! The boys love VBS and look forward to it every summer.

Monday morning we were off again...Brady & KK loaded up in the car for a trip to Oklahoma to visit EE, Nonah, & Cash. They were gone until Thursday and had lots of fun! Luke started Victory Camp on Monday at Living Stones Church. It was a week long day camp from 9-4. It was such a fun week for him. Above are picture from camp. Alex was in his group which was nice :)

Emma went to Victory Camp with Luke every day and since she was going to VBS too, she came over after camp until time to go to VBS. Above are pics of her and Brady. The last night at VBS they did face painting as you can see!

Thursday night Luke spent the night with Yaya and she took him to get breakfast Friday morning before his last day at camp. He chose to get donuts, so they brought some for the little boys too. Notice how many Owen has on his plate...I guess that's what happens when Yaya buys the donuts :)

We spent the weekend catching up and resting from such a busy, but fun week!

Lately...

 I have been using my phone to take the majority of my pictures, so I needed to get them out of the phone and into the blog :)

 We went to Oklahoma in May to see Dr. Erin Allen (aka EE) graduate. We also learned some other very exciting news while we were there...we are gonna be having a new cousin in December! Super cool! While we were there the boys got to go to the Baylor/OU baseball game and had a blast. It was a great weekend. Congrats to EE, Nonah, & Cash on their growing family.

We kicked the summer off with lots of swimming as usual. Brady & Owen got out of school two weeks before Luke did, so we snuck in some swim trips while he was still in school (shhhh). Don't worry, Luke wasn't left out- he got to go to Jackson's birthday party at ChuckECheese where he LOVED playing skeet ball.

 Luke drew a picture of his school mascot, an Owl. He has been practicing and getting better and better. Owen loves Bruiser (all three boys do) several times a day I catch him perched on the side of the table where Bruiser sits just watching him be. Brady & Luke are also pictured above having fun at their friends Kyle & Little Luke's birthday parties!

Two super cute boys that I love so very much :)

Brady chillin'- Owen's first jump off the diving board- Owen is quite the swimmer now :)

Thursday = Craft Day

Thursdays are our craft day this summer and the boys wanted to make a turtle to kick things off. 

(they are really into turtles these days since we got Bruiser) We made these out of paper bowls, construction paper, and googly eyes. Simple & Fun!

Mine & Luke's 

 
Brady's

We can't wait for more fun craft days!

Summer Fun List 2012

Last year we started a fun tradition of making a Summer Fun List of things we would like to do while the boys are off for summer break. Now that summer is officially here, we made our 2012 Summer List and we can't wait to start checking things off!

 I also made a daily Summer Schedule for the kids this year. I am hoping to eliminate the everyday question of "what are we gonna do today?" This way, they know what days we will be doing one. I have allowed for some activity days and some rest days. Hopefully this will be helpful :)

End of Kindergarten

On May 31, 2012 Luke got on bus #219 for his last day of Kindergarten. 

It was sad to see Mrs. White, his bus driver, for the last time- but we were all ready for summer!

 I was so happy to finally be able to put this note in Luke's lunchbox!

On the last day of school, the kids were able to bring their favorite board game and blanket to have a free day since it was early dismissal. It was a fun time to let loose and say their good byes.

Hugs to Mrs. Soders and his friends & we were off to get our summer started!

Happy Summer Everyone! Let the fun begin!!!