My Little swimmers!

My kiddos are becoming quite the little swimmers. Luke is swimming freestyle all the way across the pool... 25 meters. It isn't the prettiest, and he still needs to work on breathing to the side, but that is a very hard comcept that many adults can't even do! He is doing awesome. I'm so proud. :) He is also swimming backstroke. He can't quite go half the length backstroke yet, but if we could straighten it out he probably could. He is doing so well!! What is so amazing is how far he can swim without taking a breath. He probably swim 10 meters under water without breathing... that's really long for a kids his age. I am so impressed with him. I think he will for sure be ready for swim team next year... if he wants. :) He is also going off the diving board.... that took some pressure from his little sister. Once he saw her going off ALL BY HERSELF, he decided he had better do it as well. And he did and he now loves it. We went up to the pool just yesterday and the kids spend an hour just going off the diving board over and over and over again. I loved watching them!

Here is Luke going off the board and his friend Shelby about jumping on top of him.



Emma is also doing quite well. She has a really great kick and she is dog paddling as well. If I could just get her to take her swimmies off, I think she would be dogpaddling enough to keep head above the water. She LOVES swimming. She is sticking her head in the water and paddling around. So cute. She also swims her own version of butterfly with her swimmies on. Cute. She is going off the diving board all by herself and swimming to the side. She loves it and I love watching her!

Here's Miss Emma jumping off the board.



I hate that Luke goes back to school in 2 weeks... crazy!! I feel like summer just started. I will miss our pool time and watching my little swimmers.

These kids are cute!

The kids love to use our dining room as a stage, because you have to step up into it from the living room. This is a video of them dancing on their "stage." I love Miss Emma's moves... she is a sass for sure. She even takes a tumble, but keeps going. I love how Reagan just keeps jumping around through the whole thing. so cute. And if you listen closely you can hear Luke singing. He loves this song. Just thought I would share. These kids are fun! and super cute.

One month later

One month later and Miss Emma's ear is basically all healed up with NO scarring!! Thank you again Dr. Ogden. It is still a little red, but mostly all better. She still calls it her "bad ear." Luke though is still missing his two front teeth. He had a dentist appointment last week and she said those can take months to come in. So Emma's ear may be all healed up, but I am going to have a toothless little boy for a bit longer. :)

Emma's ear before


After

Mini Vacay!

Not this past weekend, but the weekend before the kids and I went on a little vacation with my parents, my sister and the her kids. We went to Opryland Hotel for two nights in Nashville and then we stayed in Bowling Green with my Aunt Gayle and Uncle Mike. It was a really fun little get away. I really did miss Andy and wish he could've gone with us, but he was at Ignite Your Torch with the youth group kids which is always a really great experience for him as well.

The drive down was rather uneventful... all the kiddos were really good. After arriving at the hotel, we decided to explore the place and all it's gardens. We also ate lunch at a "build your own hamburger" place inside the hotel. The Opryland Hotel is kind of like it's own city... shops, lots of restaurants, gardens, pools, convention rooms. There is even a boat ride through the place. It's massive and easy to get lost and turned around in. After lunch, we took the 15 minute boat ride. Here are some pictures.








After the ride we headed up to our room to get ready to head to the pool. When we got out to the pool, it was thundering, so we had to hang out in the indoor pool for a while, which the kids didn't mind at all. :) After swimming for a while we got cleaned up and ate a pizza place in the hotel for dinner.




Emma is becoming quite the little swimmer... like her momma. :) Here she is swimming at in the hotel pool. This is her "butterfly" she says. :)






The next morning we woke up to rainy, cloudy skies, so that kind of ruined our plans of hanging out by the pool. So, we instead drove into downtown Nashville and after getting a little lost, we found Riverfront Park and the General Jackson Showboat. It took us on a cruise down the Cumberland River. We had a wonderful 3 course lunch and then we got to walk around on the boat for a little while. Then we watched to Shotgun Red Show. He is a singer, comedian,and ventriloquist. We also has a band with two singers who impersonate other famous country music singers. It was a wonderful show.







After the cruise, we got back to the hotel and toured some of the gardens inside the hotel. The kids loved this. They thought it was so neat that all the flowers, trees, waterfalls, creeks were all inside the hotel. so cool.




After touring the gardens the sun started to shine again, so we headed out to the swimming pool area where line dancing and karaoke was going on. The kids swam and the adults watched to karaoke and line dancing. It was lots of fun. Sydney even got up and try a new line dance.






We stayed out by the pool until almost 8PM. So when we got back to the room, we just ordered some room service for dinner which the kids thought was so cool.



After dinner, Yaya, Syd, Luke, Emma and I headed down and watched the Dancing Waters Show in the Hotel. It is about a 15 minute show where the fountains are set to music. The kids absolutely loved watching it. I did too.





The next morning we got up and headed towards my Aunt Gayle and Uncle Mike's house in Bowling Green. The original plan was to drop off Yaya, Grandpa and the little kids are Gayle and Mike's house and my sister and I would take the big kids to Beech Bend Amusement Park. But, once we got to Gayle and Mike's house the big kids started having too much fun and just wanted to stay there. They have air hockey, Wii... all kinds of new toys. They also have a beautiful pond and hammock in the backyard. The kids had just as much fun there. Gayle made us a wonderful dinner and a wonderful breakfast before we headed home Sunday afteroon.

It was a wonderful little getaway with my parents, sister and kiddos. So much fun and so many fun memories. But I was excited to get home and see my sweet husband and hear all about his trip too! :)

7 years.

Today is our 7th wedding anniversary. We didn't do anything to super exciting for our anniversary, but thanks to Audra and Matt (who took the kiddos this weekend) we got to spend some time alone together on Friday night and Saturday till around noon. It was nice to have time for just us. That really is a rarity these days. We went and ate Mexican, took a long bike ride together and then watched the movie, The Lincoln Lawyer, it was a really good movie... strange ending, but good. Then we got to sleep in Saturday morning... fabulous! :) Low key anniversary... kind like us. :) Thanks Matt and Audra for keeping the kiddos... it means more than you know!!

It's hard to believe our wedding was 7 years ago... time passes so quickly. I remember how in love I was with Andy on that day, but I fall deeper in love with him every day. Our love just seems to keep growing stronger. I am so thankful to be married to such a compassionate, kind, faithful man who happens to also be a wonderful and super fun dad to our children. I'm a lucky girl. I am so thankful for him and our kiddos. I am truly blessed. :)

July Fourth Flag Cake

For the past three years Luke and I have made this simple cake on each July 4th. This year Luke did most of the work and Emma helped out. It is such a fun thing for us to do together on this holiday.

What you need:
-Yellow Cake Mix
-Large tub of Cool Whip
-Fresh Strawberries (cut in half)
-Fresh blueberries

Directions:
Bake the cake according to directions on the box, then let cool completely. We usually let it cool overnight. Then, spread to cool whip all over the cake. Next use the blueberries as stars on the flag and the strawberries as the stripes.

This is such a fun and easy thing to do with kids. They love it. Luke put most of the cool whip on our cake this year as well as the strawberry stripes. Emma helped with the blueberry stars! It tasted great as well!

July 4th

Hope you had a wonderful July 4th weekend. We sure did. We went to a picnic and watch fireworks on Breenie Circle, spent some time at the pool, went to the Wilmore July 4th parade, then a cookout at my parents house where we set off some lanterns. So much fun! Here are some pics!