Fish in the water

Winter is like a fish in the water. Since the weather has gotten much nicer, we have been using the pool a lot. After naps, the kids love to go out and swim. After just 3 days this week, Winter can now swim all the way across the length of the pool by herself. She still insists that she needs to wear her goggles (with nose piece), but sometimes she forgets to put it on, and still does great.
It's interesting to see the difference between the kids. Winter loves to swim. Sterling is petrified of the water. Ginger takes after Winter and is already jumping in the deep end. Joe is really good about getting Sterling to explore though, and he got him to go in the middle of the pool with arm bands and a noodle. I'm hoping that by the end of the summer all 3 kids will swim as good as Winter does.

New Look

So I took it upon myself to create a new look for my husband's blog. He had mentioned to me a while ago that he thought his blog is probably the worst-looking blog on the web. I agreed, and when my friend Ranell wrote about this website that has cute backgrounds, I just changed all my blogs. Thanks Ranell!

Fleas

Up until yesterday my cats were crawling with fleas. They are outside, so it's not that big of a deal if they have SOME, but it had gotten out of control. It was kind of sad to see these huge ones all over my cute kittens. We took our cats and dog to the vet to get their rabis shot, so I figured I might as well take care of that other little problem. We are down to 2 kittens by the way. We started out with 5. One of them went to my friend's house. The other 2 died. I'm not sure what killed them, but one day the orange one was just dead. Then, we saw our "gremlin" get sick. I put him in a box in the garage and tried to get him back to health, but he also died overnight. I am just happy that my white kitten is still with us. So now we have just 1 kitten to adopt out in a week or two.

...no Polo

I never did find my keys. I think this was the first time I have officially lost my key chain. Last week I started building up my new key chain. One key at a time. First the house key, then the truck. Then the geo. Finally I still needed to get a key for my suburban. I learned from my friend, whose husband is a repo guy, that the dealership can "cut" a new key, as long as the car isn't too old. So I went to the local chevy dealership. I went in anticipation and trepidation (like the long words?) as to what how much money they would steal from me. I was pleasantly surprised when the total came to "only" $24. I mean, that's a lot of money for 1 key, but again they could have charged me $200 and I still would have had to pay it. Now I need to get a beeper/locater thing to attach to the new key chain so I don't have to go through this again! Donations are graciously accepted.

The Mom

Thanks Jenny for this cool video. I decided I liked it so much that I would just straight out steal her blog post, and plagiarize.
Enjoy

Sterling's Tackle

Sterling has been wanting to get a tackle box like mine for some time. His mom didn't want him to spend his DisneyWorld savings on it, so she let him work for some extra spending money. He earned $0.25. We figured we would cover him on the rest. The other day, it struck me that going to the Bass Pro Shops (a HUGE fishing store so large that there are actually fishing ponds in the store!) with his grandpa could be a real fun experience. So I called gramps and asked him if he would be willing. He was, and on Saturday, while all the kids were being cared for by the grandparents (while we were in our adoption training classes) grandpa took Sterling and grandma took Winter and Ginger.
Apparently grandpa and Sterling had a great time and not only bought a tackle box, but could not pass by the opportunity to buy Sterling a new fishing rod combo kit that included:

• rod
• reel
• fishing line
• assorted hooks, bobbers, sinkers, lures, plastic worms, etc.
• stringer line

He was super excited and tonight we used it for the first time. We had a few bites and even landed a small bass using one of his new lures. Good times.

All American Girl

Winter is our All American Girl.

She has developed a cute Texas accent.
She loves riding the bus to school.
She is a great reader and writer.

Winter participated in T-ball this year

She has her daddy's beautiful brown eyes.
She loves to color, and is very talented
She is a daddies girl.
She wants to do gymnastics next year.
She loves to swim.
She is got an "academic excellence" award at kindergarten graduation
She picks up on languages really fast
She is a great speller.
She loves to read the scriptures.
Her favorite foods include pasta, candy, salad
She loves her kittens and dogs
We are scared for her to turn 16