Thursday, September 11, 2008

Summer Swim Lessons

To start out I want to let all our family and friends in the Houston area know that we are praying for you and your homes as you are at the moment either evacuating or hunkering down to weather the hurricane at home. We love you and pray for God's grace and protection to cover you!

It would seem that for a while I may be relating history on this blog rather than current events as I try to catch up on our recent happenings. Aidan and Sarah both took swim lessons for the first time this summer and they were both champs in the water. They loved, loved, loved swimming lessons and couldn't get enough of them. I am so thankful that they inherited my love of swimming and water and not their dad's total dislike of swimming. Here are a couple videos taken with my cell phone-which means the quality is poor but you should still be able to get the idea.

I could not believe that half way through his lessons Aidan was already jumping off the diving board in to 10 foot deep water and then swimming to the edge completely unassisted!




Sarah learned and tried many things and even jumped off the edge in the deep end while holding on to the rope swing and her teacher. The frog board seemed to be a favorite activity as well.


Monday, September 8, 2008

Recent Highlights

As I begin this blog I realize that I am not the best thought putter-downer in the world but hopefully this will at least serve the purpose of keeping family and friends in the loop about our lives--especially those who live far from us.

So, here are some random thoughts from the past couple weeks.

Aidan started 1st grade almost three weeks ago and is super thrilled that homework day has finally arrived. He's been waiting for homework since day one and I will not at all be surprised if he gets home from school and immediately whips out his homework folder and completes everything in it in one fell swoop--even though it's not due back until Friday.

Sarah started Pre-K last week and is loving it! She made me quite proud on Friday when I came in to the classroom to pick her up. Without any prompting from anyone she walked up to the mom who had provided the snack for that day and gently got her attention, then said "Thank you for bringing the cupcakes, they were yummy!" I was amazed with the pose and manners Sarah showed while talking to an adult and the bravery to do it all on her own!



Katie and Jonah are doing well with the older two in school. They do keep me on my toes though-especially Jonah, as his preferred toys are the vacuum, the broom and anything else bigger than he is and that he shouldn't have.

On Friday night Aidan and I were able to go to the Rockies/Astros game thanks to tickets given us by Jeremy's boss. The seats were right behind the Astros dugout and it was really cool to be just a couple rows away from the Astros players as they warmed up to bat. Other than it being a bit chilly (51 degrees) we had an amazing time! The Astros catcher, Quintero, had occasionally been tossing balls up to the fans if the inning ended in a strikeout leaving the pitched ball in his hand. At the end of the 7th inning Aidan and I decided to attempt getting a game ball. As Quintero walked up to the dugout he motioned to all the kids that he wasn't going to throw the ball this time and then he spotted Aidan standing there, decked out in his Astros gear and he intentionally pointed to him and rolled the ball across the top of the dugout straight in to Aidan's hand. Aidan grinned from ear to ear for the rest of the game. Thanks Quintero for making a 7 year old's heart sing!