Her Time to Shine

Bunny Hops all the way down.
Just was told what the next move is..........
her memory is trying to register the
Straddle Roll.
Straddle Roll.

Cart Wheels.

Can't wait to go to Tumbling "tomorrow"...(Miss-O's time frame meaning next week).

Magical Moments

I love my kids. I love watching my kids experience their new activities. BUT most of all, I LOVE watching my kids make eye contact with me during their moments. It's a magical sign of appreciation of our SUPPORT, our LOVE, and our ENTHUSIASM for them. It's a magical moment that really no words can express...............but maybe a quiet understanding of mutual ACCEPTANCE & LOVE.


All finished with his lesson. He hardly comes up for air the whole half hour. Busy little beaver.

DETERMINED

Hand stands and somersaults are accomplishments of the summer. He will perform and I watch his every move and then, there's the look to me and my smile and facial expression.

PRIDE

Then there's moments when they are not looking at you and they are in their own little worlds.
This too is also magical, cute, and entertaining.

BORED

Coming up for air and adjusting the goggles. The eyes are melting into me through the fogged up plastic. Just finished his "soldier, chicken, airplane" stroke.

SERIOUS

Then there are times when eye contact has been made. Some type of pent up frustration is being blubbered at me through tongue.

STINKER

Caught in the act of thinking. Motors, wheels, whistles, and gears are grinding away. Studying & analyzing.

PENSIVE

A hot and humid environment of the indoor pool is miserable. Miss-O found the vent to stand on for cool air. I joined her after this picture.

REFRESHING

We are creatures of habit and for the last few days, C-man has enjoyed the corner while waiting his turn.

OBSERVANT

First one here for swim lessons today. Can't wait to get started. He's been swimming all afternoon in G&G's pool. Looking at my son looking across the pool, amused by his swim trunk line, and yet wondering what his thoughts are today.

PATIENT

Game on! Basketball camp last week. Last day and playing 5 on 5. 7 & 8 year old boys playing half-court basketball. Sinking in points.

ENERGETIC

Dribbling drills. Left hand. Right hand. Cross-overs. Around the leg. Around the body.

CONCENTRATING

My kids could be in their worst moments, having their bad day. They could be in their glory or enjoying the SIMPLE things. What's magical about these moments; THEY are our children. They are of our flesh, GOD'S design, and we get to experience these MAGICAL MOMENTS with them. For as long as we all live.

It's A Girl!

WELCOME TO THE WORLD!

My sister had her baby!

Baby Gwendolyn Grace was born 5:10 this am.

She weighed 7 lbs. 8oz.

I just knew it was going to be another girl! Now Jackie has a little sister to love on! What's funny is my sister made a comment on my "Life Must Go On" blog entry yesterday. She wrote that she guessed Paul didn't guess the date but was close to his brother's babies. Well, now he's the closest guess for baby Gwendolyn and almost came close to the weight!

CONGRATS! Jolyn, John, & Jackie!

Hope everyone is doing well, staying strong and healthy!

Manual Tree Service.......

We're at it again!

Hours toward cleaning up the tree: 21.

Amount of sweat excreted: Buckets.

Loads hauled out to our neighbor's farm: 2.

Family willing to help with the tree: Priceless!

Seriously, anyone need wood for fireplaces, campfires, give us a call!
Things are starting to look better!

Dad might have gotten a little chain-saw happy and started to take down other branches!

BUT he was able to get the dangerous limbs out of the fork of our tree

AND he was able to cut off some rotten branches that I've been wishing to come down

for the last 2 years!

HOLD ON TIGHT!

That's my Daddy up there!

Thanks Mom and Dad, Danny, & Chris for helping us on Thursday!

Thanks MIL for entertaining the kids!

Thanks Brent for the long-handled chain-saw (for a lack of a better term).

Thanks to our neighbors for letting us pile the tree debris

on their farm!

Thanks Mom for the Yummy lunch!

Chris, you went way beyond you're line of duty by clearing our garden of weeds!

A Good Job is Complete!

We're exhausted!

Life Must Go On........

And so it does.....
Wednesday: we were excited to find out the news of our new cousins (twins!)being born!

Welcome to the World Baby Ada and Baby Evie!

We have been praying for you to be strong and healthy! We've also been praying for your Mommy & Daddy!

Congratulations Uncle John & Aunt Sarah!

Since all the babies have come into our lives, Miss-O has been on a baby kick!

She must take her babies wherever we go and feeds them.
While we watch C-man dive for rings at Swim Lessons.
(His teacher throws his rings all the way across the pool!)

Showing his back float.

Such a good Little Mommy while we watch C-man.

She has not named them, she states," I will name them when they grow up."

The same day; C-man takes the bike on all by himself!

Training wheels are off and after 4 good days of practice;

He's on his own!

Tears came to my eyes, for my little one is getting bigger and taking on those

big kid milestones!

Now there are skateboards dancing in his head.

Playing with the baby in the car.

C-man also was caught playing and feeding

a baby in the car, but he would totally

be mad at me if I posted the picture!

The Wall is Down...

And now is on the curb-side for the city to pick it up! Took the neighbors and myself 3 hours to transfer it over.....

Pool Party with the Wilsons: Take 2!

What better way than to cool down in the pool, after a hot Sunday afternoon.

It was great to take our minds off the damage and just hang out with the family

and float, relax, and just be.

Canon Ball!
C-man got the back float down!
He has progressed in his swimming SO much this summer.
Thanks to much exposure to the swimming pool at G&G Roberts.
He started swimming lessons this week and is Rockin' them!
He's also showing his teacher his hand stands & somersaults under the water.
For a boy who didn't like water in his face just a couple years ago, he has turned into a true fish!
Just me & my Grandpa, floating around.

Aunt Patty is So lucky to play in the little pool with the girls.

They loved playing with her.....

Clean up Crew

Sunday Morning

Paul, his parents, Uncle Phil, Chris & I went to work on the tree/branches/leaves.

Started at 11am and finished around 4pm.

Our goal was to get as many branches and leaves cut up.

Find the A/C.

Cover the roof with tarp for any future storms.

Then see about tree service.

By the end of the afternoon, this is what it now looks like out the window.
The backyard is starting to appear again.

Eureka! We have found the A/C...it still works but sure got bruised up.

The wall of branches and tree debris now resides between the neighbors' and our house.

Time to cover up with a tarp....Rain, Rain, go away!

Many Thanks to our Tree Service Motley Crew!

We are blessed to have our family to help us out the next day.

We are also blessed to have neighbors and friends stop by

the next day to see how we were.

Thanks also to our babysitting service: Aunt Patty, Aunt Angie, Alyssa, Katie and Brett.

You guys helped us out in a big way.

Many hands makes the work light!

Noises in the Night

KA-BOOOM!

What was that?!?

• check the kids
• hear the tornado sirens
• turn on tv
• see that it's high winds warning
• big time thunder & down pour rain & lightning
• husband goes downstairs to shut down computer
• husband comes back and says that wasn't thunder that woke us up..........it was the neighbor's tree!
• check out damage
• not too bad, go back to bed
• hear the tornado sirens
• take kids to basement
• in the clear
• All 6 in the bed for the rest of the night
• hear the tornado sirens again!
• only 40-50 mph winds this time, can't do anymore damage than what we have
• uncomfortable sleep with 6 in the bed

This is what we see out our kitchen window now, kinda looks like a rain-forest.
Gutter, siding, soffit damages.....can't see the roof yet

Would anyone like to grill out at our house today?

Sorry, the neighbor's Sycamore tree crushed it!

C-man has Wii-points floating in his head!

pick up sticks = 20 min. of Wii

If he helps out with this, he's got Wii covered for a year!

This is what our backyard look likes now.

The top of the neighbor's Sycamore tree crashed into

our Locus tree. We are very fortunate that the heavy trunk

of the tree landed in our yard and grill. It was some heavy branches that

landed on our house.

No broken windows! I'm truly amazed by that.

We are all okay, "Glory to God!" says C-man re: this.

Just a big, big mess to clean up

and phone calls to our insurance.......

Hmmmm........if it was just a little bit more damage to the house, I could

have had myself a new kitchen!!!

Owell! and I hope there won't be a next time.

New invitation to those with chainsaws, come on over and cut some wood!

Pool Party with the Wilsons

Miss-O chumming with Katie.
Just love her in her goggles and intertube...

"throw me!" C-man asks Brett and delivered.....

Uncle Phil was invited into the little pool by miss-O,

this is a big step for her!

Girls, here's evidence that you two could fit in this plastic

tub at once.....someday, you'll be wondering how that

was possible......

Fried Soup anyone?

Time to Stretch