A Craft Complete:)

Yes, after six weeks from start to finish I finally finished A craft. I always have these wonderful and exciting ideas of what I WANT to do, but then I get sidetracked or impatient, and put it on the back burner. Anyway, this one came from my friend Lucy, who has something similar in her home about their travels. Being in the military, you tend to travel a lot, so they had a "home" that said this, then had hearts hanging from it of every place they had been. I have always wanted to do it, and when I say this at a craft fair they had here at the school, I knew I could do it for cheaper:) I bought the flag type board from Hobby Lobby during the month of May from their Memorial Day memorabilia. ( I absolutely love the flag theme; as I am sure some of you already know) I decided to add the stars to indicate where we have been, etc. I spray painted them, then I drilled holes and used the wiring to hold them then VOILA! It cost me all of $11 bucks. I hope this will encourage me to finish all the others I have started, but if my weeks are anything like last week, I seriously doubt my endurance will hold up!
I decided to "sprinkle" white on the stars as well since the board already had white dots on it in random places.  I am very pleased with how it turned out:)

 

Swim Lessons

Avery, Audrey, and Josh all took swim lessons this month and Josh passed to Level 3. It was the girls' first time, and they totally surpassed all my expectations. While Avery is very assertive, (Big surprise:)) Audrey was a little hesitant when it came to jumping in the water. She does not like the sensation of her face getting wet we discovered, so it took almost a whole week, just to get her to jump in. She succeeded and learned all the requirements necessary to move up a level! Avery is a natural and absorbed everything she was asked to do. She loves the water like her brother and can't wait to start lessons again! Josh can now successfully swim on his own, so the twins will be taking again until they can do the same. Here are some pictures of what I caputred on film;)

Josh got to go down the slide on the last day. (With a vest on, BOO:()  The twins had to wear vests on the last day because they got to jump in at one end of the pool, and swim back and forth from one side to the other.  Avery loved it!  This last picture of my Audrey is one of my favorites.  She had to dunk herself underwater 3 times and be able to blow bubbles.  She was not happy, but she braved the unknown; so proud of her!

The BIG 10

David and I celebrate our 10 year anniversary this month and I have been thinking a lot about what we have accomplished over this past decade. (Geez, I feel old). We got through nursing school, three children + one adoption; four surgeries, 8 cars, 2 homes, 5 dogs, 5 moves, lived in three states, and no partridge in a pear tree yet!
Overall I have a lot to be thankful for, and I am glad we are in this mess err chaos err life together!! He is my one and only; I don't think I could of handled this with anyone better:) Happy ten years to us, and many more to come! David surprised me with a cruise for our anniversary in October to the Bahamas!!! He ACTUALLY planned part of it; see babe you can still amaze me:)
These are pictures from our engagement photo shoot, and then the wedding....ahhh to be that thin and naive again, one can still dream right?

Bike Riding

I have had three goals for Josh this summer; to be a better swimmer, to learn how to ride his bike without training wheels, and to work harder at mastering subtraction 1-20.  Since all of them to me are a right of passage; I thought it would be important for my kids to learn as well.  Here are some pictures of Josh in action trying to learn with Daddy helping him.  He gets frustrated and intimidated with the breaking part of the bike.  The bike is a little bit to big for him as far as him putting his feet down, he can't quite reach the ground except on his tippy toes (barely).  I am proud of him for trying though, and I know he will get it:)  BTW..I am not sure who was getting the harder workout; David or Josh??

Talent Show

Hailey decided to participate in Bradley's talent show this year, and I was very proud of her!  She had four girls in her group, and they practiced really long and hard for their 3 minutes in the spotlight.  I was disappointed in some of the other musical tastes that some performers chose.  They had bad language and inappropriate gestures in alot of the performances.  I was surprised a school would allow it, but apparently it was ok.  They did a really good job coordinating outfits and trying to keep to the beat of the music.  They were the first ones of the day, and set the bar pretty high in my opinion:)  We are so proud of Hailey and all her accomplishments.
I had someone else take pictures, while I videotaped, so they didn't turn out as great as I had hoped...

                                     

                                                                                                         

   

I tried to download the video twice, but since it is 4:01 minutes long it will not accept it:(