Pools, Princess(es), and Pianos

Anna had her first swimming lessons! She loved going to her everyday lesson for a couple weeks in the summer. We got really lucky when we found an opening in the little class at the last minute. Anna loved her teacher, a sweet woman in our stake who teaches private swim classes in her backyard pool. Apparently Anna was internalizing everything she learned quite well--Dan and I got a really good laugh one night after the kids were asleep when we heard a loud thump upstairs, then repeated thump, thump, thumping quickly on the floor. We darted upstairs and discovered Anna "swam" her way out of bed and was still kicking and "swimming" on the floor in her sleep. She woke up pretty confused when Dan picked her up, to say the least! We'll see if she does anymore sleep swimming when the weather warms up enough for swimming this year...

Of course, Anna loves all things princess. Dressing up is one of her favorite thing to do, and David didn't want to be left out of the frilly fun. Poor kid, tutus and bows, Anna and I must be torturing him. We carefully put away all the dress-ups before Dan got home from work, but we still had to document with pictures! Dan decided we didn't have nearly enough "manly" toys around, and has since remedied that with cars and trains and all that good stuff.

We also said a fond good-bye to the old beautiful piano we brought with us to Houston 3 years before as it left on its long journey to San Francisco. My brother Jon graduated from BYU, accepted a job offer, and moved his little family out to the Bay area and decided that it was time to claim his piano. We miss it, but I'm grateful for the time we had with it and glad that Jon and Carrie and baby Shayla get to enjoy it in their home now.

Testing...

Testing, testing, 1...2...3 Testing...

Is this blog even on??

...must be...

some major...

technical diff...

.....difficulties going on since......

been MONTHS with...

..without posting...

Hello?

Hello, world? You're really there? Can you hear me now? Good!

Now that my typing/blogging connection has been worked out, I might just actually crank out a post--even if it is short-lived. Ok, ok, I can't really blame blogger for my lapse in blogging. We've kind of gotten sucked up into this vortex known as preschool, work, juggling the family car, teaching piano lessons, church callings, sewing and "crafting" a bit, choir rehearsals and singing in choir concerts, celebrating birthdays for 3/4 of the family, and the holidays. Oh, and cold and flu season, always cold and flu season, blech!

Of course you're all rolling your eyes saying, "But Liz, those are all the important things to actually BLOG about!" I know, I know, but apparently I suffer from this disorder that affects my living-life-versus-typing-and-uploading-pictures-to-the-good-ol'-family-blog ratio. The diagnosis is half the battle, though, and I have high hopes of improving the journaling and documentation of everyday happenings around here. So bear with me as I take you on a wonderous journey of a few highlights of the last 6 months over the next few days and blog posts.
That is, if there's anyone left in blogland who remembers us!

Eat Mor Chikin

Yesterday was Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-a, so we took advantage of the "holiday" and dressed up as cows for some free dinner! David even got to make good use of his old Halloween costume from last year (huge back then equals tight but manageable now). Funny kid, I can't understand why he would possibly want to lose the pajama-ish long pants, long arms costume in this hot summer heat before we got the camera out, though...

I love a good Chick-fil-a sandwich, they're so yummy. And we had a fun dinner with some friends we met up with at the restaurant. We'll definitely be waiting for Cow Appreciation Day next time again!

Family Pictures

We had some family pictures taken a month or so ago by a friend from the ward. I just love how they turned out! It's nice to have a family picture for the wall finally, too.
Here are some of our favorites.









If you live in the area, give April a call for your next photo session!
http://photosbyaprilwilliams.blogspot.com/

Happy 4th of July!

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Fortunately...

And at the end of the day, we made up for the fail of the morning! The sun came out, and we loaded the stroller and walked to the pool for a nice hour and a half swim. Just long enough to get all nice and raisin-y in a good way, of course, and all is right in the world again for the little ones.

Oh, but during the rain, we also made popcorn, played Uno Attack, watched a movie, and ate lemon bars to cheer up the sadness of no swimming. I'm pretty sure Anna and David had the best day they've had in a while. Lucky kids.

The pool really did feel great, though. Many thanks to our friend, Allison, who came and helped in the pool with the kids. Good day!

Fail

Ever have those days where you just have Mom "fails"? No? Shoot, I'd better work on this.

There are all kinds of little things, like when Anna asked for a popsicle the other day. That's a special treat, mostly because I don't like dealing with the mess, and I said yes. She literally squealed in excitement and hopped up and down. Upon searching the freezer, however, I could not find the last popsicle that I KNEW had been there. Try substituting apple slices for the yummy popsicle she'd built up in her mind.

FAIL.

And then slightly bigger ones.
Last Saturday, 10:30 a.m. I had a wonderful, lazy, sleeping-in morning as Dan was heroic enough to get up and turn on a movie for Anna before lying back down and falling asleep. Miraculously, David was still sleeping. Movie over, Anna excitedly came running into the room asking, "Mom, is it time for my a-tivity at the church?" My eyes pop open as the realization sank in. It's not so fun telling your 3 almost 4-year-old sunbeam that the 9:30-11:00 Primary "a-tivity" will be over before you could even drive her to the church.

FAIL.

Last night, in an effort to be Super Mom (why do I even try?), I promised Anna and David that we could walk to the neighborhood pool to swim this morning. I woke up to an overcast sky this morning, but held out hope that it would just be a nice, less sunny swim. Murphy and his law must have gotten a good chuckle out of that one, and sure enough, as we were finishing getting dressed for the pool a little while ago, the skies opened and buckets started pouring.
David is still blissfully ignorant of the loss for the most part, not fully understanding why he's dressed in his blue and green alligator swimming trunks. But poor little Anna knows and feels so greatly the insult-added-to-injury of walking around the house still dressed in her cute blue suit while not being able to go swim. Or at least swim yet? Here's hoping the rain will blow over soon so I can have a little mother-redemption. (And after typing that, I just went to weather.com and checked out the forecast for the day--thunderstorms all day. Yeah, I'm not liking Murphy very much today.)

FAIL.

I hope I get this week turned around and quickly. Man, life sure is getting harder as Anna is getting older and remembers more. Because I really don't like being the one to crush this cute little spirit.