2 BIG milestones in one week

Joe is the one in the water - notice the NO TEARS aspect

Sierra and her friend dressing up Joe
At Skyler's family birthday party, the ice cream cake was so hard we had to pull out the power tools to cut it.


Jojo received swimming lessons for Christmas from Grandma and he attended his first lesson last week. We had tried lessons last spring and Joe screamed in the poor instructor's ear for a half hour each week. Not to be a quitter, I tried the lessons again hoping his maturity would lend itself to the fun of swimming. Well, it didn't look like he'd stay so I went to put Seth in the nursery and to get my suit on to jump in to help (or enable depending on what type of parent you are). I glanced through the glass and to my delight, he was listening intently to the instructor and wasn't standing by the door waiting for me. So I copped a squat and watched him. I did feel a bit bad for not going back to the pool but he obviously didn't need my help. I will not gloat however because round two is this thursday - and I'll hope for the same results.

Big milestone # 2 is that Jeff and I are the proud parents of a .....(scary movie music) TEENAGER. Skyler turned 13 this weekend so we threw a slumber party to celebrate. The boys ate tacos and of course cupcakes and ice cream and spent the evening running between the PS2 and WII. They were a pleasure to host - good manners, very polite - and the best part is that they were in sleeping bags watching a movie at 11:30!!! They always threaten to stay up all night at sleepovers.

Since they were so good, I said we'd have another slumber party to wrap up basketball this weekend.

Happy Birthday Poppo!

Our passenger pooch. Her first car ride to pick the kids up from school. They had so much fun showing Mia off.
Doccy hard at work on Poppo's birthday gift. Doc and Sierra hammered this tool box kit together then painted it for Poppo's 69th Birthday.
We are still very thankful to be around our family to celebrate these milestones together.

Our First Art Show

The family attended our first art show at a gallery this Saturday. Skyler's teacher entered his art project in the "color wheel" category into a contest of 5-8th graders. He won a blue ribbon for his dart board interpretation of the color wheel.

Jeff entered an idea of mine into our Christian radio stations "ideas that simplify your life" contest. This idea arose out of necessity - all the odd socks are impossible to manage and they rarely come through in the same load. I can't wait to listen to the radio and hear all the ways I can simplify my own life.

Happy Noon Year!

Skyler's trying to explain to the cat that the dog is not so bad.

This new year's eve we spent at the Children's Museum with Grandma and cousin Kennedy. The kids made hats, masks and noise makers and at noon we counted down and confetti fell. It was cute.

Later we celebrated with the grandparents after a visit to Sam's Club. We dined on filet mignon, scallops, shrimp and lobster. We were all tucked in bed by 9 but did watch the ball drop in New York. I had really wanted to be there this year but watching it from bed when it was really cold outside, I realized I wasn't missing anything.

We started out 2008 with a good breakfast then did laps at the mall. We came home to watch Illinois in the Rose Bowl. The parade was pretty spectacular.