The Summer of Swim Team

This was the 2nd year I was the manager for our neighborhood swim team.

We had 85 swimmers on the team.

We won 1 meet, tied 1 meet (with a team we've never beat before)

lost 2 close meets, and had 1 blow-out loss.

But my kids had a great year.

Russell doing freestyle

Julie after her IM (Individual Medley)

She swims 2 lengths of the pool for each of the 4 strokes.

A total of 200 meters.

Janelle preparing to start her race.

Janelle set at the block.

Where is a picture of Rachel, you might be asking????

That would be a very good question to ask.

Since I worked every meet the picture taking was left up to Todd.

The girls all swam at the Smokey Mountain Invitational.This meet is the biggest outdoor meet in the United States.

Janelle got first place in her 2 individual events and helped her freestyle relay team take first in their heat(at Smokey).

She also got to help coach the rookies and the youngest group of swimmers.

Rachel improved tremendously as noted by her coach.

She also took a 1st place in 1 individual event at Smokey and swam on the same freestyle relay team as Janelle.

She helped with the little swimmers as well.

Julie enjoyed swimming with some of her good friends this year as they joined our team.

We joke that we need to put her on a stretching machine. She has sooo much drive but not the height that most of the girls in her age group do.

Russell took first place in his heat in one of his races at the City meet and got to "swim up" for a freestyle relay in that same meet.

He did not swim at the Smokey Mountain meet as the younger kids swim on Sundays.

We hope that next year, Christian will feel comfortable enough to swim with the team.

The Shaggy Look

Russell wanted to grow his hair out.

He said that girls liked boys with hair that could "flip".

It got to the point that he got just a bit too shaggy for me.

I insisted on a haircut.

I think he looks soooo much better.

More sewing....

This spring I got to take a trip to southern Utah to visit my sister.

She had just had a baby.

Her first boy after 4 girls.

She wanted me to help her sew a nursery set for her new "little man".

Her idea of "help" was she wanted me to do the sewing.

She picked out the fabric and the construction was up to me.

After much deliberation in the fabric store and putting back 2 other "groups" of fabrics,

this is the fabric combination she came up with....

I did consult my grandmother on how to make the piping.

My great aunt and grandma helped turn all the ties for the bumper pads.

My mom cut the fabric for the bedskirt so that all the stripes matched up.

She even had to make a last minute trip to the fabric store about a half hour before they closed

because she ran out of fabric in the attempt to match those stripes.

She bought all they had left.

The sheet above is a mint green. We made a tan sheet to match as well.

I hope she likes how it turned out.

I was a little nervous in the faith she had in me to pull it off.

But I'd do it again.

Happy Birthday Russ

This is the second (actually third if you include mine) birthday we had in our family that I am now catching up to blog about.

Russell turned 9 about a week after school got out for the summer.

I don't know if you can tell but he has been losing quite a few teeth.

He has several holes in his mouth where teeth will soon be coming in.

We were sitting in church just this last week when he leaned over and asked if he could leave to go to the restroom.

I told him he would need to wait.

He then showed me his loose tooth.

I gave him a kleenex and within the next 2 minutes he had pulled it out.

Unfortunately, later that day he had it back in his mouth playing with it and he accidentally swallowed it!

He was devastated.

High tops!!!!

Big kid water guns.

Can you hear the man-child whoop of "YEAH"?

Happy Birthday, Son!

I've done some sewing lately

I never would have guessed that I would be doing as much sewing as I did the first 6 months of this year.

Janelle is in the colorguard at her high school. Before Christmas, I had several Colorguard mom's call and ask me if I would be willing to make their girls' dresses for the Winterguard season.

I made 5 Colorguard dresses at the first of the year.

(and Janelle wasn't even part of Winterguard)

Then, a friend from church asked if I could do some sewing for her daughter's bedroom.

I had fun making pink/brown pillows as well as the drapes for this little girl's room.

I made a total of 8 pillows, 2 floor length tab drapes, and a seat cover/cushion.

My girls asked if I would make them each a dress.
I started with one for Hannah.

Actually, I made a few for Hannah in different sizes mostly using scraps I had from other projects.

This red one is the one she is currently wearing.

Janelle asked if I would make one for her for her Band Banquet and Dance. It's a little more formal than just Sunday best(or so she said).

She picked out the fabric and actually watched some of the construction.

Rachel wanted a new dress for the end of school year Seminary dance. I don't remember if I got her dress done in time for that event, but I finished it and she loves it.

She picked out the fabric as well.

She wanted green and it to be the same fabric I made her Glenda the Good Witch costume out of a few years ago(taffeta).

Both Janelle and Rachel have worn their dresses to several functions including a tri-stake Youth Conference dance.

Our good friend is the Stake Young Women's President and she told me after Youth Conference, that she pointed my girls out to Sister Dalton (the General Young Women's President) at one of the Youth Conference dances and told her about their dresses.

I made a dress for Julie as well from a pattern and material that she picked out but I can't find a picture of it. I'll have to post that picture later.

P.S. to my niece Berkeley, your twirly skirt is the next thing on my table for completion. I ran into a bit of a glitch but will get it finished soon.

Double Take

Did you have to look twice to tell who it was??

You wouldn't be the first to if you did.

Yes, that's me (in the red) with Janelle.

Whom others sometimes think is me.

She even sounds like me on the phone.

You know that mother's curse is the real deal.

Not only does my child act like me (not always, Dad)

But she looks just like me as well.

I wanna be a cowboy/cowgirl

Hannah and Spencer had their own little birthday party with their friends this year.

We had a BIG party in their honor when they turned 1 but that was more of a "Thank you" to all those people who helped us get to that one year mark.

So this was their year for a friends party.

But what do you do when you have both a girl and a boy?

A friend of mine suggested a brown and pink theme and this is what I came up with...

Brown bandanas for the boys and pink ones for the girls. And a sheriff's badge for everyone.

We ran horsey relays,

drank out of brown and pink cups,

had strawberry cake with chocolate ice cream

and everyone got to take home a balloon in the color of their choice

(brown or pink of course).

A HUGE thanks to Grandma B for sending me the horse heads so all I had to do was attach them to the sticks, add hair and bridles.

P.S. We will need to borrow the doll hair needle to make a new mane.

Spencer's horse got a new hair-do thanks to the puppy.