Sleep Over

Since Reese's playmate is away I had to borrow another one. I met Jodi for lunch and snagged Avery for a while. The girls were wearing the same shirt and we had to do some running around before we came home, so everyone thought they were twins. They basically are. They are so sweet and love to be together. Avery even says her last name is "Underwood, like Reesy". They played upstairs for a while and then came out to the garage when Pete and I had to get on the trainers for a while. It was raining so they got to play in the puddles. Then we came in and made popcorn and watched a movie. Now they are crashed out on the floor. We will see how long that lasts. Before she fell asleep, Reese asked me where I would be sleeping. I am sure one or both of them will find us before morning. I know that when Reese spends the night with Avery she tells Jodi that she wants to sleep in Uncle Zach's bed.

Soren called me for about 1 minute today. The excitement in her voice was so great to hear. She is having a blast and has made a good friend from down the hall. She could only talk for a minute because they were about to walk over to lunch together. I miss her a lot. I thought about her all day today. Wondering if the people there knew how wonderful she is, if she was fitting in with the other kids, if she was lonely last night at bed time, if she was able to do her hair this morning... I feel like I am on standby for something. Not nervous, just a little anxious to know how things are going. Being a parent is amazing. I never knew I could have these kind of feelings. It is hard and wonderful all at the same time. I keep thinking that it will get easier each time one of my kids goes off like this, but then I remember how my dad was ready for us to go to college and after we did he was always calling and asking when we were coming to visit. I guess you always miss your kids.

Triathlon Camp

Reese and I drove Soren down to Austin and dropped her off at Triathlon camp today. It was surprisingly harder than I thought it would be. She is so mature and I am not the overprotective type, so I did not think it would bother me at all. I hung around for a little while until she finally pointed out that all of the other parents were gone and I could go now. She still gave me a hug and a kiss with all of the other kids around. That made me feel good. I know that won't last forever. She was SO excited to be there. It is held at an Episcopal boarding school, so they get to stay in the dorms. It was just like college. She will have a blast, but it still feels weird that she could be old enough to go off to camp. I will pick her up Friday evening and we will get a hotel for the night and do the triathlon Saturday morning. The kids race first and then the parents; should be fun!

Coming home, Reese and I ran into some nasty weather. We were well ahead of it until Hillsboro. As usual we got to park on I35 for about 30 minutes while they cleared a wreck (I never get through Hillsboro without stopping for a wreck!) and the weather caught us. We drove on to Itasca where we decided to pull over for a few minutes. I could not see the white lines on the highway and the radio said there was a tornado reported between Alvarado and Midlothian which was just north of where I was. We played at the Golden Chicken and pumped quarters into the egg machine until the worst of it was gone and finally got home at 8:30. Thank you God for our safe trip!

Coeur d'Alene

I am SO Pumped!!! Pete and his training partner, Mike (the radiology director at Glen Rose), signed up to do the Ironman in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho for '08. We watched the race on Sunday and it was so exciting. We were tracking a friend of ours who was up there competing and it looks amazing. It is located just east of Spokane Washington. The race will be a year from now, but they had to sign up the day after this year's race because it sells out in a matter of hours. I am so excited to watch Pete do this. It is the ultimate goal for a triathlete. He is doing an ironman distance in September so he should be more than ready for Idaho next June. The one in September is the same distance but it is not Ironman. It is in Oklahoma and it is a nice flat course. It will be a great opportunity for him to experiment with different nutrition and hydration plans as well as see how his body handles those crazy distances. Pretty exciting!

Mike, Pete and Soren at the Cowtown Marathon

Another Great Meet!

The Granbury swim meet was this morning and Soren did AWESOME! She missed practice most of the week because of Cousin Camp and they stayed up late and played hard, so she was very tired when we got her up at 6:00 this morning, but she was ready to swim when we got there. She jumped in and warmed up with no complaining. This was a large meet with many teams and there were over 30 girls her age to compete against. She took first place in the 50 meter freestyle as well as the 25 meter backstroke and 2nd place in the 25 meter freestyle. She had to swim the last race with her goggles in her mouth because they slipped down when she dove in. She said it was very hard to get a breath. She swam so well that I could not even tell she was having a problem. It was a great meet; well run and very organized. The Granbury swim team is huge, over 100 swimmers, and they are great hosts. It is so fun to watch Soren enjoy something this much. She is really loving this sport.

A Day of Firsts

Today was a day of firsts for me. Some good. Some bad. I took Reese and dropped her off for Cousin Camp and switched cars with mom so she had room to cart all of the kids around. Driving a minivan is something I do out of necessity. I love the room and the fact that it does not drive like a truck like the suburban did, but it is just not the coolest car on the road. Anyway, I was enjoying mom's little Accord and I was jamming since there were no kids in the car and I got pulled over. This was the first time I have ever been pulled over for speeding. I got a ticket for no seat belt when I was 16 but that was when I was sitting in the line at a drive through. This time the cop was clocking on the side of the road and I got busted. I was only going 70 in a 60 so I was a little surprised he pulled me over. That was one first.



The next one was my bike. For the last 2 days Pete has been upgrading my bike with bar end shifters and a new sprocket and new brakes and all kinds of cool racing stuff. Today I rode it for the first time using my new bike shoes for the first time and it was my first time to ride the Paluxy Pedal route. I was very nervous to try the new shifters on this route. It is known for its MANY hills including one called 'the wall'. We rode 45 miles of rolling hills and my bike didn't miss a beat! Thanks, Pete! Another first on the ride was the rain. We ran into quite a bit of rain and I have not ridden in any rain before. It didn't cause problems except with my glasses. They fogged up and I needed windshield wipers for them. I am not confident enough in my riding to let go long enough to take them off while I am riding and wipe them off, so I just let them slide to the end of my nose and looked over the tip like an old lady. Oh, I also broke 40 mph for the first time. What a rush! It was a very exciting ride for me. I have been wondering if I could ride that route and now I know I can! It was really fun. Pete and I do not get a lot of chances to ride together because of the kids. It is our favorite date night activity. Tomorrow he is going to take me on my longest ride yet. It will be easier than today because it is flat, but I will have to endure 60 miles on my bike seat...ouch. I am excited!









When I dropped Reese off I got a glimpse of what the big kids have been up to. I must say that my parents are the coolest grandparents ever! My dad made a treasure map on a piece of canvas. It was a great drawing of their house and yard. He took the kids and taught them about reading maps and even about overlays for maps. Then he gave them their first clue and sent them on a treasure hunt. The clues were nursery rhymes with missing words. When they figured out what the word was, that was where the next clue would be found. For example, rub a dub dub, three men in a ___. Tub is the missing word so the clue was in the tub. Sometimes they would come upon an overlay for the map and they would have to place it correctly on the map and read the next step. When they found the treasure chest it was full of fun loot and a coupon for a trip to the local ice cream store. I thought that was really cool. They have decorated umbrellas and bandannas and they went on a nature trail and collected frogs, butterflies and insects that I did not recognize. This morning dad cut out the pieces for 6 bird houses and the kids got to assemble them with nails and hammers. When all of the kids are there tomorrow they will each paint one and choose where they want it hung. They are having a blast. Pete and I are enjoying our kidless evening, too!

Cousin Camp, day 1

Today was day 1 of Nana's 2nd annual Cousin Camp! Last year my mom started this tradition and it was a great success. Nana's 6 grand kids think she is the greatest thing ever. They all completely adore her; they like Pops a lot, too! So mom decided to have a special time set apart every summer just for fun with the grand kids. Originally it was going to be for kids 4 years and up just to make it easier to do all of the crafts and swimming without any extra hands to help. After day 2 she called and wanted the little ones. She is nuts. This year she is having Soren, Wyatt, and Ashton (8, 7, and 5) for Wednesday and Thursday and then on Friday and Saturday Avery, Reese and Parker (3, 3, and 2) will join them. She has many crafts planned as well as things like weenie roasts, movie night, and for the big kids, a special trip to the Japanese steak house. I can't wait for the pictures. Pops is a major picture taker and there are sure to be some good ones. The best part is that they ALL sleep in my parents room with them. They make a pallet on the floor and that lasts until Ashton wakes up mad because Soren is kicking her, Wyatt complains because Soren stole all of the covers, and all of this stirs Reese and she climbs up in the bed next to Pops and nuzzles right up under his arm. Classic.




I was able to drive Soren to drop her off this morning without having to take Reese. I always love to be with my kids one on one. Soren is such a talker. She is very interested in learning new things and she loves to tell you about the things she has learned. She competed in UIL at school this year and won 2nd place in storytelling. She had to listen to a 5 minute story and then retell it. The judges were looking for detail, expression, accuracy, etc. That is right up her ally. She really loved it. Right now she is focused on driving for some reason. She wants to know what every sign means (I never realized how many road signs there are that I never pay attention to!), what all the different gears are used for, when you can go on a red light, when you can pass, what is against the law. It cracks me up how many driving questions she asked me on our 45 minute trip. When Pete was in nuclear medicine school, Soren studied with him. She still remembers all about the parts of the body from his anatomy and physiology class. She was only 3. I love spending time talking to her with no three year old interruptions. We are reading the one year bible together and that has prompted many interesting conversations. Another thing I did not pay attention to was how much sex talk there is in the old testament. She has learned a lot; I guess that takes the pressure off of me to bring the subject up, but I was not planning on that being part of our daily bible reading!


This evening when Pete went to ride I had the same kind of time with Reese. Pretty funny. She was on a tangent about bottoms. I had to shower so we could go run some errands and through the glass shower door she commented "mom, do you know what?" "What?" I asked. "Yours bobo is big." Great. That is as bad as when I was pregnant and Soren patted my legs and said "mom, your legs are pregnant, too!" Anyway, after getting ready we went to Hobby Lobby to get some t-shirts for cousin camp and she pointed out to me in her usual loud voice that the lady behind us had a lot bigger bobo than I did and it sticks out a lot. Nice. So we got to go to the car and have a little discussion about manners. I got off easy with Soren in that department. I only remember one time when she pointed out a large person in public. Maybe I will be as lucky with Reese. We will see. These are the days we forget, but I want to remember. What in the world did we do for entertainment before we had kids?

The Slide

I went in with 5 of my neighbors and we bought an inflatable water slide for the kids. It is SO awesome! I had no idea how many hours of fun that thing would provide. Today was another one of our 'in your swim suit ALL DAY' days. After swim team we washed the car and went to the pool. We spent almost 4 hours at the pool because our good friends Kari, Kately, Libby, and Kiley were with us. When we got home our neighbors were outside and suggested that we try the new slide. We did not even come inside. We hooked up the slide (they are simple to use) and at 7:30 I told the kids we had to turn the water off because it had been running for almost 4 hours. yikes!

I thought they might slide for about 30 minutes. It is just a slide! They did not get tired of that thing. I had to teach Reese how to climb up the back; it is pretty tall and the holes for your feet are far apart for short legs. It did not take her long and she was up and down with no problem. I have some really great video that I would love to post. Maybe I will pin Pete down for a few minutes and get him to show me how to upload a clip. We cleaned up and came inside and I had the girls jump in the shower. Within 10 minutes of being out of the shower they were sound asleep.

Summer is the best!

Rainy Day

Pete and I were scheduled to ride for 2 1/2 hours today. The rain had other plans. That's okay. This is more fun.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, Pete! Pete is the best dad in the world. When Soren was born I saw a side of him that I did not know existed. He is really amazing with the girls and they are so attached to him. I love it.

This morning Reese woke me up around 7 am and I told her that it was Father's Day and I needed for her to sign Pete's card. I set her in my lap and said "this is a card for Dad for Father's Day. You tell me what you want to say to him and I will write it for you." Reese's reply, "I want to say to Dad; I love....(pause)...Nana!" Pretty funny. I did not write that in the card. She signed her name and drew a sun. That is her favorite thing to draw and she is actually pretty good at it.

After signing cards we decided to make breakfast. We made blueberry pancakes, bacon, and eggs and the girls helped with all of it. While we were cooking, they were playing with a candle. Soren would light it and they would sing happy birthday and then make a wish and blow it out. When it was Soren's turn, she said "I wish" and then paused in thought for a minute. Reese chimed in "that yours muder would clean the kitchen?!" She says "yours" rather than "your" and sometimes "mother" sounds like "muder".

When breakfast was ready, Reese went and grabbed Pete out of bed and brought him into the kitchen. "Are you surprised by the food?" She was so excited. Pete's cards were under his plate (Soren's idea) and the girls could barely eat because they were waiting for him to find them. When he found them he asked Reese which one he should open first. She chose one and when he opened it she looked at it, saw that it was not hers, and then put it down and told him to open another one.

It has been a funny morning. Now I need to go get the girls out of the rain and get ready for church.

Weatherford Swim Meet

Today was Soren's 2nd swim meet. We left the house at 5:45 am and drove through heavy rain to Weatherford expecting the meet to be cancelled. The rain cleared at 7:30 and they went ahead and started the meet at 8:30. Soren swam the same 3 events as last week, but this meet was so small (only 4 teams) that she finished her last race at 10:00 and we came home. It was raining lightly for the last hour of the meet and the skinny little swimmers were so cold! Soren got 3rd in the 50 meter free style and 2nd in the 25 meter back stroke and again we will have to wait on the results from the 25 meter free style. We still do not have the final results or medals from the first meet (coach issues). I do not have any swimming pictures from this race because they roped off the entire pool area for swimmers only and my camera would not zoom far enough to get a decent shot. Some day I will get Pete to show me how to post a video. I have some really good ones!

Soren is enjoying the swimming a lot so we will probably put her on a real team in the fall. That will mean driving to Ft. Worth, but it will be worth it if she really wants to be a swimmer. She shows a lot of potential to be really good in the sport.

Swimming at Nana's

Yesterday was going to be a water park day with all of the cousins and then to Pops and Nana's house to celebrate Father's Day with Pops, but Ashton is running a fever. Soren and Reese had their hearts set on going, so we went ahead and went to nana's house and Jodi and Avery came to swim. Nana decided that Wyatt needed to be there since he isn't sick, so she picked him up along with Granny and we all had a great afternoon. We missed Ashton and Parker, but next week is Cousin Camp, so hopefully the gang will all be together for that. After swimming, we cooked ribs for Pops and gave him his new tool box and air conditioner for his workshop. We need for him to have everything he needs so that he can build all of the things we want!

I heard Reese say more of her "reeseisms" today so here they are. She and Soren race everywhere they go and Reese always says "me dirst" for "me first". She also thinks many things are "tool" (cool). cute.

Reeseisms

Reese is quickly outgrowing all of her cute ways of saying things, so I thought I would jot a few of them down so I can remember (as Chelsea puts it!). It is hilarious to listen to her talk to Soren. She thinks she is so big. "Hey guys!" is a very common phrase as well as "check it out" which sounds funny coming from a 3 year old. Lately she has been covered with mosquito bites and scratches them until they bleed no matter how much I threaten her. When she bleeds, she says "I am blooding!" Soren and I think that is so cute that we even say it sometimes. She seems to use the "d" sound a lot. Do it again comes out as "do it adin." When she wants to tell you something or ask a question she starts each time by saying "hey mom, you know what? Can you really come help me?" It is always know what and can you really. Sometimes it is "Can you really, can I have a snack?" So funny. She also is very interested in the time. She will ask "what is it time?" all day long. She and Soren play computer games a lot. She will come ask "can we play the puter?" With Soren I was always correcting, but with Reese I can't help but enjoy it. "attend" is pretend, which she does a lot.
I am sure there are many more, but those are the ones that come to mind right now. I am sad that she is growing up so fast, but I am soaking up every minute I can with her. She is my cuddle baby and loves to love on me. She tells me that she loves me all of the time. I don't think I will ever forget that about her. What a sweetie!

Pool Fun

With the surge of hot weather we have really been taking advantage of our neighborhood pool. It is such a great place to hang out with all of our friends and cool off.

I am loving the neighborhood pool so much more than our backyard pool. Every time we go, there are friends for Soren to play with; she is at the age where swimming is not so much fun with just mom and dad. I also love the fact that I do not have to do ANY maintenance! Just enjoy. I can do that. No worries about kids in the backyard falling in when they are playing. I could go on and on.

Here are some pics of us playing on Sunday. The girls took turns doing tricks off of the side; it was great fun.

Soren's First Swim Meet

Today was Soren's first swim meet. It was great. A lot of down time, but it was a well run event, so it went by quickly considering how many races there were. We went to Lewisville and Soren swam the 50 meter freestyle, 25 meter back stroke, and the 25 meter free style. She took 4th out of 15 in the 50 meter, 2nd out of 24 in the back stroke (only 4/10 of a second off of first place) and we do not have the results from the last freestyle race. It takes a while to get results and we had been in the heat for 5 hours by the time she swam her last race and decided to head home. She will get her awards at swim team practice Monday morning.

It was exciting to see her do so well at her very first meet. She only has one week of swim team behind her, so it will be interesting to watch her grow in the sport.

Granny and Nana came to watch and we went to lunch after the race. At lunch we decided that the girls and I would stay and go to the lake while Pete went home to do his 4 hour bike ride. We went to the beach with Avery and Jodi while uncle Zach fished and then it was time for dinner so we headed to our favorite, Ernestos, on Lake Ray Roberts for a wonderful dinner with great family fellowship. Another GREAT summer day has passed. Thank you Lord for all of the blessings in my life!

Sweet Sisters

Have I mentioned that I have the best two girls in the whole world? Soren has amazed me since Reese was born with her patience. She is not the motherly type but she is so sweet to a sister who is 5 years younger. When Reese was going through the "mine" phase, Soren would just go on to something else every time Reese came over and nabbed her toy. Now that Reese is 3, she wants to do everything Soren does and my heart swells just thinking about how often Soren lets Reese tag along to her friends house, lets Reese play computer games with her (even though Reese pushes the wrong buttons and Soren has to start over), reads to Reese, takes Reese on bike rides, and all without being asked to do so. She is the best big sister anyone could ask for.

Yesterday after swim team I was not feeling well and I laid down for an hour. When I got up Soren was doing her summer workbook and had set Reese up on the computer with a learning game. She had already read two chapters of her book and let Reese color. I am just so proud of them. Don't get me wrong, they have their differences and will fight, but 90% of the time they really do enjoy each other.





Since Soren could walk she has loved to perform. She loves an audience and will put on shows anytime someone will watch. Reese is very different. She wants to be far away from the spot light. Soren is trying her hardest to get Reese to be part of the performances and she is actually making some progress. Last night they put on a ballet and gymnastics show for Pete and I. I am sure it helped that we were the only ones watching, but it was so funny to watch Soren organize it all. First there was a ceremony to crown Reese queen and then it was down stairs for the ballet. I love watching them play together. It is hard to imagine that my life could be any more blessed. My neighbor commented yesterday that she has not known another 3 year old like Reese. So loving and kind and calm. I told her that I was very aware of how blessed I am with my kids. They are simply the best!

Summer Fun

Today was the ultimate summer day. Soren was in her swim suit from 6:15 this morning until 9 pm tonight. She went to swim team from 7-9 and then she and her friend had a car wash. Our neighbors are the greatest in the world; anytime Soren and Katie decide to start a new business, all of the neighbors participate and give them their business. Last summer it was a dog walking business which turned out to be quite lucrative. When it gets hot, people do not want to take their dogs out and when a kid comes along and offers to walk it for a quarter and bathe it for 50 cents, they jump all over it. Soren and Katie stayed busy all summer with that. The car wash was no different. At the end of the day 5 kids split the earnings and walked away with 10 bucks each. That includes a couple of swim breaks to the neighborhood pool.

We have a ton of kids on our block and they are all blessed to have caring parents with strong moral values. That makes for great play mates and peace of mind for me. I know there is always someone looking out for my kids when they are outside and I do not have to worry about what is on the radio or TV when they go to a neighbor's house. It is quite unusual. We actually wanted to sell this house and move because we have a lot of road noise from the highway, but we cannot make ourselves leave this street. I don't think there is another one like it.

I am so excited for summer and we are going to take advantage of every minute!

All Rained Out

Today was the Solana Kid's triathlon in Westlake. Start time 7 am, transition area closes at 6:30. Last night I watched the weather and they said strong storm arriving at day break so I thought we would not be going. When the alarm went off at 4:30 I got up and checked the radar. All clear all the way out to Abilene. So off we went at 5 am. We got to the club, set up transition, warmed up in the pool and then it was time for the prerace meeting and line up. All of the kids were lined up and ready to go right at 7 am and then we heard a rumble. Everyone got quiet and listened for a minute. It was hard to tell if it was a rumble or just a motorcycle but then we really heard it and saw the lightening. We went inside the club to check the radar and at that time all we could see was part of the storm so for about 20 minutes we waited inside thinking we would just delay and start when it passed. Then there were reports of tornados and hail so we got out of there. Pete grabbed the bike and I grabbed the kids and we were in the car in 2 minutes. On the hour drive home we had hail and crazy lightening and rain coming down so hard you could not see the white lines on the road. We made it home safely and even had time to take a nap before it was time to get ready for church. They will not make up the Solana race but the kids will get free entry into the next race which is in July.

After church Pete had a 3 1/2 hour ride as well as an hour run and I had to swim 3300 meters, so I took the girls and headed for the YMCA and Pete headed to Granbury on his bike. After my swim I took the girls outside for some fun at the water park. We had such a good time. Reese has really taken off this week with her swimming. Nana had her on Thursday and Friday and said she was a little fish. I told Pete it was time to replace our broken camcorder. I have so much footage of Soren learning how to swim and I don't want to miss that with Reese. Such good times and I know they will pass quickly.

School's out for Summer!

Today is Soren's first official day of summer, but the last few days of school always make me laugh. She was out on Monday, went all day Tuesday, out at 11:30 on Wednesday and out at 9:30 on Thursday. What is the point? It was such a great year for Soren. At the awards ceremony she was called up on stage for all but one of the awards. Many of them were given to only 2 students from each class and she was chosen for those. She made all A's for the year and achieved gold level in the accelerated reading program. I am so proud of her. She is described by her teachers as outgoing and kind. Anytime there is a new student Soren is the first one to go to them and introduce herself and invite them to sit or play with her. She has the best attitude and is very patient. We are so blessed to have her for a daughter. She is a pure delight to have around.