Who is this kid?

Every time he puts on his swim cap... I just laugh. He is extremely serious about swim team. Samuel may be the last one to reach the side of the pool in his class... but he is determined to learn the stroke!

You go Little Man!

Daniel's Timeline

Assignment: Create a timeline of your life

Due: one week later

Who is suppose to help: the family

Daniel spent many nights writing and typing about his life. I spent at least 5 hours finding pictures of Daniel as a kid. I have to say it was easier finding them in my photo file boxes of my 35mm film, because they were all labeled. I spent hours looking through my photos on line... I have to come up with a better system than what I have now. (Mandy Ficker, you have to help me!)

The end result turned out great and I was so proud of all his hard work! I know he was too!

Scott's New Toy

I just Laugh out loud every time Scott puts on his new aerodynamic helmet! Seriously is this really going to make him faster?

Playing in the Rain

It poured the entire ride home from school and the kids couldn't wait to get home so they could go run around outside in the rain. After I unloaded the groceries, put them away, I decided to check on them... Samuel was making mud balls, Claudia was dancing and turning around and around in circles, and Daniel, well, I guess he was practicing his cast with the fishing pole. Oh, the many things you can do in the rain.

Not realizing Kaylea was in the house... I walked upstairs to find her typing away and talking out loud to herself. After listening for awhile, I discovered that she had her dolls sitting and listening to her while she taught them about fact families in math. I have realized and come to accept that she turns into me more and more everyday. Oh, how the memories come flooding back when I watch her! I love that girl!

Memphis Tigers Swim Team

Daniel and Samuel are on the Memphis Tigers Swim Team. They practice every Monday-Thursday for an hour. Daniel says it takes up too much of his time and he would rather be outside building things with wood or inventing new toys with rope and other things laying around in our back yard. But I want him to stick with it for a few months and participate in a swim meet or two. The first 15 minutes of every practice is used for land exercises. Samuel tries hard not to fall over on some of the difficult lunges. Samuel just wants to swim. He is the one that loves it and can't wait to go everyday. He is always asking if it is time to go swimming. New to us for swimming is the swim cap. To see the boys wearing these things... especially Samuel is just too funny for words.

The girls are only watching on the sidelines and still aren't interested in joining the team. I really think that Claudia just doesn't want to miss out on her ipod time, which she plays during practice. Kaylea spends most of her time reading to me. The girls hopefully will start gymnastics soon. But for now... they are watching the boys from the sidelines.