Summer!

Oh how I love the month of June!!

School is out.

The weather isn't too hot yet.

It's all around a great month.

Here are a few highlights of week one of summer.

Kylie: Hanging out with me. Talking. Talking. Talking. She is adorable and crazy and has way, way more energy than one child needs.

Sporting a few tats.

A new bike. Her old one was so small that her knees hit the handle bars every time she pushed the pedal!

Swimming Lessons. Finally. This is the third year we have tried. Third time is the charm in at least this case. She is doing fantastic!

 

A little running. Can't keep her off the thing! 

 

Lexi is reading (of course) and chillin' and doing her best to avoid cleaning her room. She is also playing with her younger sister like a champ. Last week she participated in volleyball camp. This week she joined Kylie at swimming lessons. She is working on her dive!

   

And both little girls have helped me cook.

  

Maddie started the summer with color guard basics camp and even was awarded the "beast" award the first day! Woohoo!

She even spent time after camp hours working with rifles and sabers. She is disciplined that girl.

On Friday we went and watched Maddie perform with the YellowJacket Band and Colorguard for the first time. I had tears. It was rather emotional for me. It was just two summers ago that I had to take Maddie to physical therapy twice a week so that she would be able to take junior high dance class in school. Now here we are with Maddie trying out and making a dance-type team! I am so proud of her! 

Maddie is second girl middle row closest to the viewer.

Here they are performing the fight song.

But by the end of the week and after only swimming twice this summer so far, she has swimmer's ear in one ear and an ear infection in the other.  Not right.

It has been a while, but I'm bringing out my research again and starting to read medical journals. I KNOW that there has to be a link to having almost constant oral ulcers (that get so bad they have to cauterized) and ear infections that last for months on top of her daily life issues with kidney disease, asthma and allergies. I've let her state of "doing pretty good" lull me into non-action. But I'm starting again. Just today I made an appointment with a new pediatric rheumatologist that specializes in sports medicine. I am really hoping that he will be as good as his bio on the hospital page makes him sound.  I'm tired of the lackadaisical attitudes of some of our other doctors.

And what have I done this first week of summer? I ran! Lots. Love. 

 Kylie took this picture of me. not bad.

While the girls have had swimming lessons, I've been running trails out at the ranch were the lessons are. I have absolutely fallen in love with running with dogs. I wouldn't want to have to if they were on a leash, but I love running with dogs when they are keeping the cattle at bay and making sure that there aren't any creatures that I don't want to see close by!

Here is where I have been running!

 

And that was about it for week 1. We swam and played and cooked.. but I won't post EVERYTHING we did! :)

But here is one last picture. I heart her.

A Visit to the Children’s Museum

The girls and I went to the Fort Worth Museum today with a friend of mine and her daughter.  We all had a great time.  It was a little bittersweet though as the museum has had a total renovation and doesn’t resemble the museum of my childhood at all.  So many wonderful childhood memories are tied to the old museum… but times change and life goes on and the new museum is awesome!

What was really nice is that with 4 kids aged 10, 7, 5 and 10months, all the kids had fun.  If you live in the metroplex, you should make it a priority to visit here.  One of the best things about this place, they have staff everywhere! Including the restrooms.  And they are nice and even helpful!  Amazing!

Here are some of the highlights:    

Sweet Summer Fun

Some of the sweetest moments come unexpectedly.  Tonight was one of them.  We didn’t get great pictures, but oh the memories created will last a lifetime.

The other day I bought a big blowup pool 1/2 price (thanks Walgreens!!) and this morning Doug set it up.  The girls were so excited!  They swam this morning and then tonight after dinner they were getting back into the pool when my dad (Papa) showed up to return tables from a garage sale today.  Needless to say, he was not dressed for swimming, but he shocked the girls by emptying his pockets and jumping into the pool with them!

They were enthralled! Oh how I wish the pictures were clearer, but the joy on their faces while playing with my dad in the pool will stay in my memory forever!

 Here are a few more pictures of tonight’s fun.

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And in case you were wondering what I was doing the whole time…Do you know how hard it is to try to do a pedicure on yourself at almost 34 weeks pregnant???!!!?!