Swimming Lessons

The boys are taking swimming this week and next week. They are having so much fun!! I don't know why we didn't get them in earlier. I took a few pictures, they didn't turn out great but you can tell they are having a great time.

The first group of pictures are of Jacob in his class. He has improved so much. Last summer he wasn't very comfortable putting his head in the water but that's not the case anymore. I was watching his class yesterday and every time the teacher was working with other kids, Jake was underwater. He's starting to swim some on his own. I noticed yesterday that he would plug his nose with one hand, go underwater and swim a little ways one handed. It was cool!! There's still one more week so it will be neat to see what he can do after next weeks lessons.




We were a little concerned about Luke and whether or not he would actually get in the water with us holding onto him. We didn't need to worry at all!! He's really gotten "brave" this last week. He dives for the rockets over and over again. He doesn't even plug his nose to go down. Yesterday the teacher started showing him how to swim underwater. He went a little ways on his own and he came up with the biggest smile on his face. It's been pretty good for him to be in a class without Jake or Zac. He's on his own. The other cool thing for us, there is only one other little girl in his class and half of the time she doesn't get into the water so it's almost like he's getting private lessons.

Zac isn't quite old enough on paper to be in a class on his own so one of us has to be in the water with him. The cut off is 3 and he turns 3 the day after the lessons are over. It's been fun though. I've really enjoyed being in the water with him. He is one fearless kid though. The sooner he learns to swim on his own the better I will feel!! It's funny, he doesn't have any problem putting his head under. I think his favorite is jumping off the edge. He also really likes it when we tie a noddle around his waste 'cause then he gets to swim "all by himself".

So that's the swimming lesson pictures. I know they didn't turn out great. We are at an indoor pool so it's kind of dark in there. It's nice being inside though. I remember taking lessons (and teaching them) in the mornings and it being cold outside. It was miserable having to get out of the water. So being indoors is kind-of nice.

We went to Silverwood on Wednesday and I've got lots of pictures to post. Stay tuned....

Our baby girl turns 1!!!!

Here it is....a month late but it's here anyway.....

On June 8th Sarah had her first birthday. I can hardly believe that she's 1 already. Where did this past year go anyway?? I guess I am trying to keep her young since she's my last baby. Every stage we get out of is kind-of hard knowing that it's the last time. She's just growing up too fast for me.

She had a fun birthday. We had a few friends over and Grandma and Grandpa came over from Omak too. We just hung out and ate food. She totally soaked up the attention. She must have known that it was "her day".

She didn't really like the hat but I had to keep trying....

She loves this little truck thing (not sure what you really call it). She pushes it around everywhere and she has started riding it too. Her favorite is when the boys push her on our hard wood floors. Sometime they get going to a little fast for me but she always laughs about it....

As you can see here, she had lots of help opening the presents. I felt like broken record "leave her alone", "let her open it on her own", "back up", "I said back up!!".




It took a while but she left this hat on long enough for us to take a picture. She's finally getting a little better about leaving hats on but I don't really think she likes them yet...

Now this is my attempt at being creative....
At least she liked it...

This picture doesn't really show it well. She had cake everywhere!!! I took her straight up the the tub when she was done. She was a little "dainty" at first but she ended up taking handfuls by the end...
I'll end with a video of the "cake eating". She laughed and laughed. She was enjoying herself very much. There were about 10 people just standing around watching her eat and she knew it too...

Sorry it took so long to get these pictures up. I also wanted to mention that if you haven't stopped by to see Becky lately you should hop on over. She announced what Monster Truck's name is going to be and I think you would enjoy seeing it.

Well now I'm off to do laundry, dishes, diapers and more....I'll be back soon!

Sorry, I checked out again!!

So I know I've been gone again for a really long time. All I can say is...summer, new house, crazy kids.....life :) I really don't have any great excuses, I've just haven't been on my computer as much lately. I'm sorry!!

I will tell you what I did last week though. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!! Ben and I got to go on a great 6 day vacation....WITHOUT kids. We went to this great winery just outside of Quincy Washington. If you have time you should check out the website. We were so lazy. Some people would have done some hiking, golfing or rock climbing (all of which was around there) but we didn't. We slept in, laid by the pool, took naps. It was just what we needed and we came home refreshed. It was so awesome!!

Both of our parents were great and split the time with the kids. Little did we know that when we dropped them all off, Sarah was getting the flu, which she then passed the my in-laws, her brothers and then my folks. I felt horrible but I really didn't know she was sick. All the kids were over it by the time we got back so we haven't got it yet...hopefully we won't now.

At the end of our trip we went back to Omak to pick up the kids. RockWall Cellars (my families winery) was having a theater event. My cousin and a friend of hers did a three act show. It was so good and it was a perfect way to end our vacation.

I'm sorry again that it's been so long. I have lots of things to update you on....Sarah's first birthday, Jacob's last day of school, my surprise 30th birthday party, and much more. I will start working on getting out all updated this week.

I will end this post with a few pictures of the view that we had out of our room....