Here are the stories of our busy life. We hope that you see God's Hand at work in our various adventures! Running/Flooring Vice President Al, Teacher/Photographer Lisa, Swimmer/Writer Addie, Master Mischief Maker/Swimmer Alden, Jewelry/Hello Kitty Lover Annalise, and Water-Obessed/Car Expert Asher.


Monday, July 18, 2011

Beach Bums -- Through April's Eyes

April takes amazing pictures- and we were blessed enough for her to bring her camera on one of our beach trips!! These pictures are so sweet they deserve their own post!

The Quads- even though they are almost 3 years apart in age, they are basically the same size so they could easily pass for quads. They were all SO excited to be at the beach!!

Addie showing off her prized possession- a dead sand crab that she sweetly named Candy Cane. She carried it everywhere and then made a habitat for it in an old red plastic cup...

Here is what happened when she lost the red plastic cup. The poor thing was heartbroken. I suggested she call to Candy Cane and she sobbed out "I can't call to her Mommy, she's DEAD!"- which made me just laugh and her cry even harder (with a chuckle stuck in there too as she knew it was just silly to be missing a dead crab)....

And now she's happy as she had just found a bigger and ALIVE sand crab! She's laughing because as it moved it tickled her hand!

Alden LOVED all the sand.... He's attempting to dig to China in this picture... He takes his work very seriously...

And here he is showing off the fish he caught- he caught it because it was dead (what's up with my kids finding and loving dead sea creatures??)

His 2nd passion at the beach was riding the itty-bitty waves on his boogy board- we had been the day before and the waves had been bigger, but not so our 2nd time. He just sat on his board and waited for the waves to carry him out....

Good thing Mr. James came with us- he was MUCH more fun than the waves!!

Friday, July 15, 2011

Random Moments from This Week

The kids love the diving board- Addie has perfected the cannonball!

Alden goes freakishly high off the board....

These 2 miss school- here they have over 50 dolls lined up, reading to them, while they play school!

Free Chicken!

Once a year Chick-fil-A offers free meals if you dress like a cow. What fun!!

Addie is a princess cow and Alden a fire fighter cow- we got lots of complements and our picture is on this CFA's website!

We met up with our friends Hannah and Avery- aren't they adorable?

Cute cows!

Checking out the malls ride-ons- no money needed for them to have fun!!


Monday, July 11, 2011

Big Boy & the Deep End

He did it!! He passed the Swim Test!! After weeks of being able to- he finally did it!! For some reason he had some mental block- every time he tried to take the Swim Test- swimming the entire length of the pool, 25meters without stopping- he would start crying and would have to stop. Today, he just decided to swim a lap with his friend, Elena. He did it with ease- and just like his sister- at the end, jumped out and without breaking stride, went straight to the slide and went down! I didn't have time to grab my phone for the first slide, and of course, I didn't have my camera... But here are a few of the over 20 jumps off the diving board and 20 slides down the slide.... He was SO proud he had a little swagger in his walk. We are so proud of him- what an accomplishment before his 4th birthday!!





Breathtaking...

I have hit the jackpot- I have the best babysitter who also happens to be a pretty amazing photographer, too!! Here are a few pics she captured of the kids while I taught Summer School last week!

My grown-up little girl...

My little man

Thinking deep thoughts...

Crazy hair!!

I love these 3 pictures in sequence...



Tuesday, July 5, 2011

July 4th with Cousins

For the 4th, we headed to Jen and Frank's lake house!!

The kids jumped in and had fun like they had not been apart at all!

Aren't they cute? They amaze me at how similar in size they are!

All life-jacketed up and ready to hit the lake!

Getting advice from Nate

Sweeties!

Addie trying to keep the boys in line- they were making sand angles on the beach next to the house....

Looking for buried treasure...

These 3 love each other!!

Dare Devil Alden

Alden fully embraced his inner dare devil this trip to the lake!!

Ready to go tubing- they were bounced around and laughed the entire time!!

Next up- trying water skiing!! Uncle Frank had a trainer- and Alden took all Uncle Frank's advice to heart!

Al held him up as Uncle Frank started the boat

Can you see how proud he is?? He made it a looooooong time!

Can you tell how proud we both are?? The sky's the limit- I'm just a tad bit nervous HOW he will get to the sky....