Heat Wave

It has been morbidly hot these last few days! We don't have central air. We do have a window unit in the living room (thank goodness) but leaving the living room is unbearable! Dave is still home this week (a truck repair situation) so we all got in the pool today. Now, this isn't unusual except for the fact that Levi got in too. He loves going to the rec pool but so far he hasn't been a fan of the floating in our pool. Today, however, he finally made friends with his floatie! He had me a little scared though, because he kept trying to dunk his head into the water. I was afraid he was going to flip over.





Sienna was obviously unhappy at that moment. Here's a little piece of video of Levi enjoying the water and the girls trying to grab all the camera time! (No shocker there).

The Basket Festival

We all went to the Basket Festival today. It's nice when Dave is home. Very rarely do we all get to be together as a family. His mom went with us too so the kids were extra excited! Anyone who is familiar with the Basket Festival will agree that the Basket Festival is pretty much just for food. There are no rides or things like that. However, they did have rock climbing and some giant jumping thing. Sierra of course did both. We tried to get Sienna to jump but she was perfectly content to watch.

The Basket Festival is also good for seeing people that you haven't seen in years. Sue saw several people that she hadn't seen for awhile. Levi got to meet his cousin, Brittany (Steve & Kathy's daughter). Dave always sees familiar people. Even Sierra saw a teacher from school, who of course she had to go chat with. I was waiting for Sienna to spot a friend from the rec! And then it was my turn - Ben & Alarie Matthews. They were my Sunday School teachers once upon a time. I rarely see them. Every now and then I will bump into them somewhere and it's always so nice. These are timeless people - no matter how long it's been since you've seen them every time you think of them you feel love. On those days when you're convinced that everyone in the world is evil you bring yourself back to reality by thinking of them. Basically, seeing them again today made my heart feel good. Do you know anyone like that?

It was just a nice family day. So rarely do we all get to be together (while enjoying eachother's company). I hope all of you have had an opportunity to enjoy your family this week! And to all of the family and friends who are far away - We love you and you're missed!






Sierra doing the rock climb.

















This is the jumping thing that Sierra did. To see her in the second picture you have to look at the top of the picture in the trees.

Levi Got In Trouble

Daddy and Levi hung out together while Sienna and I went shopping this morning. Levi loves to stand at the back of our couch and look out the window. He finds all the traffic (that drives way too fast on our road) very exciting. We have a table with a lamp on it next to our couch. Levi has never tried to mess with the lamp before. Until this morning with Daddy. Dave told Levi "NO", that he wasn't allowed to touch the lamp. Levi got very upset with Daddy and was done playing with him. I came home and Dave left for awhile and I didn't find out about any of this until the evening. Well, while Daddy was gone and Levi was playing with Mommy he made another move for the lamp. However, this time the outcome was much different for Levi. I thought it was cute and ran for the camera! This is probably why the kids listen better to Dave than me.

Summer Days

We've really had a great summer! Thank God for the rec this summer. It still amazes me what a difference it makes in our days around here. If we stay home for the day it's a wreck!! The kids fight all day, I fight with the kids, they drive me crazy, I drive them crazy - it's just miserable at times. Don't get me wrong- getting the kids ready, packing the cooler, gathering swimming necessities (towels, toys, sunscreen, etc), loading the van, unloading the van, getting everything inside and then doing it again to go home is a HUGE pain but definitely well worth it in the end! We're able to enjoy each other much more and that's always a blessing.

I really like this picture of all of us. But I just had to post the 'other' picture too. All I'm going to say is poor Maddie. Click the picture to enlarge.





These last few days have been sooooo hot!! Sierra's been at summer school all week but we've still been finding time to swim. As I was going through all of our summer pictures so far I noticed that I don't have as many of Sierra and Maddie. That's because they're always off swimming in deeper water! Or going down the slide. I think Sierra is wearing that slide out ever since she passed her swim test! Just about the only time we can get a picture of her is when she is headed back to the slide.






The rec has a mushroom (that's what we call it anyway) with water coming out of it so that it creates a waterfall. Sienna doesn't have anything to do with it. Until yesterday. She got very brave.

These pictures of Brandon show the waterfall better.



Here's a little video that Maddie made.

Happy Birthday Sierra!!

Happy Birthday to my baby girl!! It's so hard to believe that she is 8 years old already! Sierra had a couple of friends from school stay for a sleepover on Friday. They had so much fun! They swam until dark and then played in the tent until about 10:00 until a spider ran them in the house! They did makeup, watched movies and danced around enough to make my legs sore! I have no idea what time they finally went to sleep. I went to bed at 1am and they were still up! Sierra had a High School Musical cake. For her present she wanted the Hannah Montana DVD and CD. Her friends each got her a new Bratz doll (you can't wrong with that).

On Saturday I took the girls to the Rec to swim. The Rec has a really big slide as part of the outdoor pool. You have to be 53" tall to go down the slide. Sierra is just a touch too short. We found out that they have a 'swim test' and if you pass it they write your name in a book and give you a bracelet each time you come so that you can go down the slide even if you're not tall enough. Of course Sierra wanted to take the test. The test involves jumping into 11' deep water and swimming the length of the olympic size pool and then doing the backstroke the entire way back. I was worried about Sierra being able to go the distance because she's never swam the distance before. However, the problem seemed to be Sierra working up the courage to jump into the deep water. She finally worked up enough courage and she did it!! I was soooo proud of her! She's so happy that she can go down the slide now anytime she wants!

Saturday night we went to the drive in with Shell and the kids and saw Live Free or Die Hard and Transformers. (Both were excellent from what I got to see.) Sierra was so wore out from her sleepover and swimming that she fell asleep 10 minutes into Transformers. Maddie and Brandon seemed to enjoy the drive in, especially Transformers.

On Sunday (Sierra's actual birthday) Mom, Shell, Maddie, and Brandon came over to celebrate with Sierra. We had another cake, this time it was a Tinkerbell cupcake cake. Levi even got his own cupcake. He absolutely loved it of course! Later, Sierra went shopping and out for dinner with her Mamaw (Dave's mom). She got to pick out a new outfit and an awesome pair of boots. Mamaw had the servers at the resturant sing happy birthday to Sierra and she really liked that. I think she had a really nice birthday. I hope so anyway. I know that I tried really hard to make it special and so did everyone else!

Levi is too curious!

Levi is just too curious!! He is the only baby I have ever encountered that is constantly moving. Even when you hold him he is trying to reach for something behind you. His newest thing though is that he loves to crawl under things. Anything, it doesn't matter what it is he will try to crawl under it. He even managed to squeeze himself under one of our dinning room chairs! Of course, he couldn't get out though.

Lunchtime with Levi

While Levi was eating lunch yesterday I thought I would try to get just a little piece of video of him. You know, something cute and simple. A nice little video to show Levi being a big boy eating by himself. I got a little more than I bargained for. However, this video is very typical of my life at this point. It's quite funny. Enjoy!

Get Off My Back!!

I've been receiving some complaints about not posting enough. I'm not going to mention any names (Shell) but the complaints have been coming in. So let me address this issue now - My life is not all fun and games!!!!! Everyday isn't fabulous and picture worthy. I don't know where this idea is coming from. The weather has been a little cooler this week so we've been mostly indoors. And I think we all know what that means - the kids have been fighting alot.

But for those of you (Shell) who feel you're missing out on something fabulous I'll post some random shots from this past week.

This is what happens on rainy days! And it's usually followed by one of these.....................

Then of course we must have one or two of those off the wall shots of Levi (give me a break, he is on my hip afterall)!



However, I did manage to get a few cute pictures today (notice that I'm also posting them today). Sienna got to drive the Barbie Jeep today! Her driving record is horribly damaged already!! Here's some pics of the girls washing the ride!




Here's a little piece of video of the girls' car wash.