Caydens Braces

One last hurrah!

It was so fun to enjoy our family time together for a week or so. We slept in, watched movies, swam until our ears were full of water and the kids even taught me how to play marco polo (wink wink), ate way too much great food, and took fabulous pictures. But most of all, we squeezed every moment of sheer joy out of each other and it was a great close to summer.

Fun in the fading days of summer

I have a difficult time believing that summer is coming to a close. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that it was something like 97˚ today...or maybe it's that time has gone too fast, yet again! My babies are growing too quickly and I'm trying to bargain with time, but it seems to speed up every time I turn around.

Cayden is turning 12 in two months or so, Hannah is turning 10 in a little less than that, my Madelyn will be baptized at the end of this year, and Eliza Jane can't stop reminding me that she will be "this many" as she holds up her proud five fingers (in February)..."the seventh"...she even knows the day. But on to less sappy things...sniff sniff.

Eliza and Maddy are so proud of the harvests from the garden- and with good reason: they planted almost everything out there, with some help. Eliza shouted just Saturday from the kitchen door, "Daaaaaaddyyyyy??? Do you have any seeeeeeeeeds for me to plant????" to which Cord replied, "sure, come on out!" and the girls when out with glee and grabbed their shovels to help in the garden like they were going to a party!

We have wild kingdom and Animal Planet at our house...who needs the zoo? We caught some grasshoppers and watched George and Clarence (Cayden's sugar gliders) devour them and rip them to shreds. Now I love most living creatures, but this was fascinating to watch and I love our gliders and knowing that they were getting that much enjoyment (and protein) made it bearable.
The final swimming lessons. We loved swimming at the Stewarts. I loved watching my kids excel at their skills and bonding with their Aunt Missy and friends and they loved having Aunt Missy teach them and playing after with their friends and especially their cousins! Red Cross is for sure the way to go and I'm so proud of them for learning to be such champs in the pool! Eliza is the only one who I would even put a life jacket on in the pool and with that she can (and does) do anything- that's pretty impressive for a four-year-old in my book...and without it she can swim by herself- but after a little while she's tired, so I'd rather she be in her little safe jacket after those few minutes of braving it! Yay kids!
SAY CHEESE!
YES!!!
LOOK MOM, MISSY'S NOT HOLDING ME!