diving

Jakob did a great job at swimming lessons today. He went off the diving board! Scary!! He seemed a little nervous at first but he said it was fun. Noah and Ben did not have such a good time at lessons today. Noah tripped on the sidewalk on the way in and scraped up his knee and hip so he didn't want to go in the pool because the band-aids would come off. And I think there was just too much going on for Ben to be comfortable. There were tons of kids that he wasn't used to.

Deep End!

Jakob swam in the deep end today at swimming lessons!!!
He was so excited after he did it.
The lifeguard was in the water and had him jump in and swim to her.
Of course, at first she stayed put, then she started moving back and he ended up
going about 3/4 of the way across the pool!
He was so happy with himself.
Noah still won't swim without the lifeguard holding him, but at least he gets in! :}
Ben is getting in and having fun. He hangs on the side and kicks and he put his face in the water today.
There is only one more day of lessons, and Jakob might jump off the diving board!

Ben likes it!!

Ben got in the little pool yesterday!! He really liked it. As you can see, he got in with his clothes on! He had fun so it was ok. After that I put his suit back on and he played until dinner. They are already all in the pool this morning. Jakob is trying to skip rocks in the pool right now. It's not working very well. But they are having fun, so it great.
OOOOO. TMI alert. Ben went potty all by himself!!! What a big boy!

pool time fun

The boys have been taking swimming lessons at the city pool and their confidence has grown a lot after only 2 lessons.
Ben is doing well, just sitting on the edge. He let one of the life guards take him in the pool but he cried when she did.
Noah is being bribed with a scuba set if he gets in the pool without me having to force him and he has to learn how to swim at least a little by the end. He did great today. He got in the water with a kick board and kicked around with the life guard holding him.
Jakob stayed in the pool the whole time. There were a few boys that were a little older than him last week and they sort of took over the lesson so there was some chaos that he didn't like. Today was a lot better because those older boys weren't there so he got more attention. He learned how to do a frog kick and he's getting more confidence in going under the water.
I decided to help Ben get a little more confidence with the water and bought a small pool for them to play in. He's playing in the water, but he hasn't gotten in yet!

More Freak Outs

When we got home last night from Vacation Bible School, I pushed the garage door button and Keely walked under the door, so it stopped going down and the warning light started to flash. Ben was paralyzed with fear to even get out of his car seat. He said that the lightning is scary. I don't know how to get him over this. It's almost nap time, so we'll see how that goes.

PTSD

I think Ben has post traumatic stress disorder after the storms yesterday. There was a big storm yesterday that seemed to come out of nowhere right at his nap time. And it went away as quickly as it came on.
Then, about 9:00 another storm came up and this one was worse. The sky was so ominous. It looked like tornado weather. The clouds were dark and just kept on moving around. Ben was so scared of the thunder. He wanted to sleep in Daddy's lap. All the boys got to camp out in the basement and liked it for the most part.
Even now, Ben is crying his eyes out about the thunder and he is terrified to got to sleep and there is no thunder. I almost think he just willed it to start raining again, because it just started.

Favorite game

So, the boys' favorite game now is Star Wars. They run around with Hot Wheels tracks for light sabers and announce which episode they are in and what character they are playing.
This morning, Ben was sitting on the chair with a bunch of pillows and Noah, donning a black spider man mask and a black hot wheels track (the 'bad guys' light saber) started hitting the pillows and knocked one off the chair. Ben kept saying, "don't break my doll house." But Noah did anyway. Ben responded to that with, "I hate you Woah." Noah lifted up his mask and in a grizzly, bad guy voice said, "I'm not Noah, I'm Darth Vader." And Ben, without skipping a beat said, "well, I hate you Darth Vader!"
They are such good pretenders!
Now, Jakob and Noah are playing Tradewinds, a computer game about pirates and ships, but they are using legos and building tons of boats all over the floor.

Updated picture

This is now the most recent picture of the 'rents!! They took an anniversary trip to Sedona, AZ and finally used that time-share they've been paying for!

Bugs

Yesterday, we found the biggest butterfly I have ever seen in our breezeway. This morning, we found this giant camo colored bug (Steve says it's a tobacco bug) Noah and Ben are calling it the 'army bug'. The butterfly was on the floor of the breezeway this morning and Keely decided to step on it and bite it. I don't know if she killed it, but it's gone now.
Noah also spotted a tiny frog in the grass Friday so we put it in the garden. Hopefully, it will eat the little bugs in the garden.

5K Run/Walk

Apparently, for the last 12 years J-town has held a 4th of July race. We had heard that every year was unbearably hot and humid but people still ran it. This year, it was definitely humid, but not exactly hot due to the rain.
So the run was a 5k and the walk was supposed to be only 1 mile. We were never told where the walkers were supposed to turn off the course so we made our own course after going too far out of the way.
Anyway, it was pretty fun even though we had to carry Ben and Noah most of the way. We're pretty sure we went more than a mile, but it was a still good time. Jakob's new friend Drake came with us and tried to keep up with Jakob, but that's almost impossible at any speed running or walking!

4th of July

Rain Rain go away, Fireworks can't go off when it's raining!!!
We had a very rainy holiday today. It cleared up enough for one round of croquet and 3 boxes of snap-its - which Keely did not appreciate. It was a pretty good day, however. We had some friends over and had a good time.

front door

Here is our new front door. Well, it's the same front door just enhanced with decorative lettering from Uppercase Living. I love this stuff! The possibilities are endless. If any one needs info about Uppercase Living, email me or comment here, and I'll get back to you!

Basketball

Steve won the 3 on 3 tourney on Sunday at the company picnic. This is a great picture! His prize is a NBA jersey. He chose Miami Heat's Beasley, of course! Good thing they had the draft already!