Swim Lessons 2014

 I signed Kael and Eden up for swim lessons for the last two weeks of July. It was perfect timing and the kids had a great time. Elara got used to watching on the side lines. The pool was 5 feet deep everywhere and was meant for lap swimming. The kids couldn't touch the bottom and had to hold the side the whole time. The first day went well for Eden, but I put Kael in the older class and probably shouldn't have. They really pushed the kids and Kael ended up sinking on his swim back to the edge while freestyle swimming and it really was bad for him. He got so scared of swimming and didn't want to do swim lessons, so I put him in Eden's class and he did great. It took him the first week to get back to the level he started at, but by the end both kids could swim a good 5 to 10 feet. They both still need to be able to touch, but I'm impressed with how well they both are doing! It makes me feel so much better and safer giving them this knowledge.

They love the water so much and I'm glad overcame his fears again. They are tough kids and had a fun time. I really think the instructors did a good job balancing the fun with this is important to learn and really pushing the kids. I felt like they pushed the kids to do more than they thought the could, which was actually kind of inspiring to watch. I can't wait for next years lessons to see how far they go. Our community pool is open until mid October so we will keep swimming on the weekends. The kids just need to practice their back strokes now and they both can move up a level.

July part one

The girls started feeling better and got some pizza and then some of Grandma Heaton's chocolate milk out on the porch. They were so happy to feel better and have their special treat from Grandma!

After starting the first couple days out so sick it was a better way to kick off July.

We celebrated the 4th of July with our ward at a ward BBQ. That was all the festivities we dared handle since the girls had only been better for about a day. The kids and I had fun making all these cookies and decorating them.

We officially became Texan's!

Derek bought me a van!!! It's a 2004 Toyota Sienna, and I'm in love!

The kids and I got the Pontiac ready to sell by taking it to the car wash. It needed a bath coming from Utah. We are still trying to sell it.

We went swimming at our community pool and played on our playground.

Derek made us some indoor smores. We really want to get a fire pit!

 Odin started calming down a bit and we got rid of the boxes and junk lying around the house from the move and Odin got to come inside! Kael was super happy.

The not so fun end of June beginning of July

Elara of course was the first to get sick, the next day it was Eden. Poor girls were SOOO sick. Elara threw up about every 30 minutes to hour for about 3-4 days and poor Eden went 5 days ranging from 5 minutes for an hour or so to the longest stretch an hour. We were thiiiiiiiis (me pinching my fingers together) close to the emergency room with the girl even though we didn't have insurance set up yet and medicaid from Utah wouldn't work. She was so bad, I mean she looked like death. Luck would have it from me being sick in May I had some left over zofran. shhhh The girl learned to swollow a pill and did amazing I must say. If it wasn't for the zofran I'm certain she would have been hooked up to an IV. We gave it to her twice. On the last two really bad nights were she was starting to dry heave every 5 minutes and had diarrhea even though she had nothing left in her. She is one of the toughest kids I have ever known! You think puking is hard and she would walk right up to the toilet and do it herself until she had no strength left and couldn't lift her head. Then, she grabbed her own bowl... The kid is SO TOUGH! Elara included. 

Then, a day before Aunt Shelly and cousins were to visit poor Kael got sick. Random enough it only lasted a day for him, but it lost us our visit with Aunt Shelly... It was a sad day. Poor Derek got sick too and had to start his first week of residency on zofran to stay alive...

Needless to say it was a very difficult way to start residency and we learned how tough our kids and Derek are. Heavenly Father was looking out for us though because through it all I didn't throw up once. I must have super human genes or something. Yes, that must be it.

The Projects Post

June and early July gave me an opportunity to try out some do it yourself projects. It was fun, but by August I was done and needed a break. BUT, it kept us buys over the summer and helped make the house look awesome!

 The girls chest of drawers. Before an after. While I actually liked the before look, I really wanted the drawers for the girls room, so it needed PINK. We kept the bronze handles with it and it looks awesome. $3 cheap paint from Lowes and $25 Village hand me down.

Sometimes, just sometimes I impress myself.

Kael's new bed. We got a hand me down mattress from friends in the village and after a day at IKEA in Salt Lake we got the idea for this bed. More play room in his bedroom and he absolutely LOVED helping Derek build it and Mom paint it. If only the dog could get up there to sleep with him.

I have to say having the kids finally grow out of toddler beds is kind of a big life changing event here... It's weird, but they really needed bigger beds. The boy is HUGE!

End tables. We have these 2 end tables and we have darker wood in our house, so my project was to sand these babies down and stain them. I HATE STAINING after this project. It is SO messy. However, the end results were amazing and brought 20 more years to these babies!

 Before

During sanding

 We finally got Derek's degrees hung up. :)

More staining... We also have these two other end tables that needed some life. I sanded and stained them as well. However, the finished product was worth it in the end!

The house coming together! We purchased a curio off of craigslist and put it where the blue rocking chair is and moved the mirror and pictures around, but the rest is pretty much the same if you were to come VISIT us today.

It has been so fun having a garage to do projects in and a home to decorate. Not that decorating cinder block walls wasn't an adventure, we just ran out of space (literally)... We love the home we are renting and are just trying really hard to just enjoy life right now.

The fun parts of June

June was a fun month because Derek was around. We did lots of little adventures together and just tried to have as much fun together in our new house that we could. We have a pond in a nearby neighborhood we went to look for bugs. We went to Rudy's again because it's awesome.

The best days are the days we are together. June was a fun filled month even though Derek still had to get stuff done we had some time to just be together and make some good memories here in Texas.

 Looking for bugs at the pond. We found an empty turtle shell. Got bitten by some ants. Found dragonflies and grasshoppers. And some crazy spider webs. 

The crazy turtle shell we found. Wonder what ate it. We are morbid like that.

Rudy's because we love Rudy's.

Derek got some dry ice from somewhere and couldn't just do small amounts, we went big and it was awesome! The kids had a blast.

 Sisters!

So much alike, yet so different, yet so loved by each other.