Weekend Recap

Awesome!!! In a word that was our weekend. I know I posted a bunch of swim pics in the last post but this is where we were all weekend and Jack had a great meet. No top finishes but improvements in all of his times and a great sense of team spirit. My parents flew home from Florida to watch and his cousin was along for the ride all weekend long too.

Jack and his cousin Morgan, my niece.

My mom and dad.

Not sure if he's waving or telling me not to take any more pictures of him.

Getting ready to step up on the block.

Our crew camped out with activites in between races.

My mom, Anna and Callie.

And Carter....

So my boy Jack did indeed swim fast. On friday night he told me the t-shirts weren't so embarassing after all. We yelled and cheered and acted kinda crazy, just the way I like it. But when it comes to my kids, I'm all in and lovin every minute of it.

Big Fish, Little Fish

So I'm not a mama that likes to brag about her kids but I'm going to do it, just this time. Jack has been swimming a lot. That means 4-5 days a week, every week. He swims with a competitive team and we spend many a weekend at swim meets. The kid works hard and this weekend we are headed to the Division I Championships. I could not be prouder and any more excited for him. He is one of the youngest qualifiers.


I had t-shirts made to wear this weekend to support our rising star. We love them but he is a little embarrassed. Jack's team name is FAST and team colors are yellow and green.

A big smile at the last swim meet after qualifying for another event.

And the other kiddos. They have been such troopers. They spend a lot of time on gym floors at swim meets. I have a large bag of "stuff" that travels with us. Crayons, markers, coloring books, DS's, DVD players, snacks.....Brian and I do try and alternate going to the meets and staying home with the kids so they don't have to go all the time but we do want them to go and watch Jack swim one day of a 3 day meet.

Jack has had a fantastic swimming season and we continue to be wowed by this kid. He is outstanding, hard working, upbeat, excited, a great team player, and wonderful learner. His coaches certainly get a kick out of him. He has been the big fish. This weekend he will be the little fish, swimming with the big fishes. He will not finish in the top of anything, but the point is he made it there. We are all going, in our embarrasing t-shirts. So swim hard kiddo- you rock!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Belated Birthday Trip

The weekend of Jack's birthday we were supposed to take a mini trip to a small water park a couple of hours away. Our trip got cancelled due to weather and flu so we went yesterday. We made it a day trip instead of spending the night and it worked out just fine. Jack brought a friend and we spent about 4 hours playing at Tantara water park. Everyone had a great time and I love watching the kids have so much fun and know we can take these trips with 4 kiddos and manage just fine.

Callie happy as can be.

Anna having fun on one of the little slides. She and Carter must have gone up and down a hundred times.

The boys stomping.

Jack loving his birthday celebration.

Carter was trying to give me his tough guy pose.

I wish I would have taken more pictures but it's hard to have a camera in a water park AND we spent most of the time in the water with the kids!

Happy Belated birthday buddy.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy heart day from my little love bugs.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday Jack

Somehow it is happening. My baby just keeps on getting another year older. He's not 5, or 6, he's 9 now. Still my cuddle guy, the reality of his little body being not so little anymore is hitting me like a ton of bricks. It won't be long before we look each other eye to eye.
I really love this kid. He is compassionate, smart, talented, devoted and a wonderful son and brother. He says things that sometimes just strike me and confirm what kind of kid he really is. The other day we were driving and saw a women stuck in the snow on a turn. There was a group of men pushing and pushing on her car trying to help her out. We watched for a while at our red light and they finally got her out of the snow bank. Jack says, "for some reason that makes me feel warm inside mom. I'm so glad she is not stuck anymore." He watches insightfully and truly hopes for the best, for everyone.
Jack's birthday weekend plans got cancelled so we still have some celebrating to do. This crazy winter weather is really putting a damper on things. We were supposed to go out of town to the water park but yet ANOTHER snow storm kept us home. He was a good sport about it and we hope to go in a couple of weekends. He was able to have a fun day with his best friend. They went out to lunch and cosmic bowling.

He was thrilled with his gift from us.

I highly recommend this toy for this age boy. It's called snap circuits and Jack has already spent hours creating different experiments.

We celebrated with our whole family.

These 2 brothers are the best of friends.

Happy Birthday dear Jack. You are quite the wonderful 9 year old boy and we love you.

The Storm

The weather forecast had warned, it was to be the "storm of the century." An inch of ice followed by 12-20 inches of snow. Well, we did get a mini storm, but certainly not what they predicted. We got about an inch of ice and a couple of inches of snow. What's really important here is the kids had 2 more snow days. I really don't mind snow days, in the beginning. I have just enough creativity to come up with art projects for a while. But we have had 2 snow days already and my creative juices have run dry. In all honesty the past 2 days with the kids home ended up just fine. We had our best friends over for dinner last night which broke up the time and the kids did remarkably well finding things to do.

Jack, Callie and Jack's friends Grace braved the 10 degree weather to play in the snow (for an hour and a half!!)

They were very proud of their tunnel digging.

Today we were able to drive and venture to the store to get Valentine crafts. I'm never this organized but thought we would get a start on Valentines cards.

Callie was very enthusiastic and worked long and hard on her cards. We don't buy the premade ones but let the kids create their own.

Anna's first Valentine's cards.

Sometimes I have to take a step back from the daily routine and just look at what Anna has accomplished in the past 9 months. Not only has she mastered the language, she has learned to write her name. She wrote her name on 12 hearts and I was very proud of her.

Still don't know if the kiddos have school tomorrow but I'm thinking it's time to go back. We had a good time at home but the natives are a bit restless.