Well...I believe that it's very easy to underestimate my children. All day long, Emily has been walking around the house saying "my Daddy swim with Emmy". So tonight for family night, we went out for a family swim. Mark and Em were swimming around and all of the sudden, I looked over at the wall of the pool. Mark has his hands on Emily's and is showing her how to hold onto the edge of the pool wall and do the monkey crawl. I thought - there is no way she can do that alone! Well within moments, she monkey crawled the whole width of the pool by herself (with daddy's hands only inches away in case she slipped). My little girl who is not even two is growing up way too fast!

Well, there are not many things that I'd rather do on a Saturday then go to the lake! It was 109 degrees today and the lake was emerald green in color! We all played way too hard and got TOO much sun! The kids did awesome - brave little souls! They even got to see mom do a 360 on the knee board! Oh what a thrill :). In the meantime, I think that I drank half of the lake and fell so hard that I'm not looking forward to waking up in the morning! :) We left at 8:00 this morning and got back at 8:00 tonight! Needless to say...the kids fell into bed!

Emily's sleeping space! What a great place to have a nap!

Garrett taking a little doze!

Jordan wake boarding!

Jordan knee boarding!

Relaxing while the kids are taking a dip!

Emily with Nick and I on her maiden tube ride! She loved it and would have stayed on the tube forever!

Goofy kids! Jessica's friend Maddie came with us today.

My view from the back of the boat as we are speeding to the other end of the lake. What a day!

I love watching my big kids helping out my little ones..just using their intuition...it makes me smile! Today, as we were walking out of the store, Emily was determined to walk alone and she started to wander off. I quickly picked her up from the middle of the street and she was not happy with her mama! Jordan was walking next to me with bags in his hands and she lunged at him crying "BUBA!" She was not happy with me and only wanted her Buba. I quickly took Jordan's bags and Jordan carried her to the car.

As we were driving, Em decided that she was going to pester Garrett and she began to continuously whap him! Little Pill!!! Garrett was mad and the next thing you know, Nicholas is hovering over Emily from the back seat and gently stroking her face. "Em...please don't hit Garrett...it's not nice," He said in a soft singing voice. It was so precious and she instantly stopped.

I just love it when they watch over each other and are AWARE of each other. I always tell them that NO ONE is more important then their family. Sometimes it's just nice to see them observe what one of their siblings is in need of and then act on it.

I've decided that I'm most assuredly in the perfect phase of life :). I'm sure that there are many that might disagree, but I know that it is what it is! There are very few sleepless nights, and we all just have so much fun together...especially being entertained by Em and GT. They've never experienced a broken heart. They are all as innocent as can be. They want to do what is right. They still laugh at their dad when he breaks out in boogie! They still think it's cool to hang out with mom. There is a song that says "I wanted it all and that's what I got." That's how I feel and I'm so grateful!

Okay...so this is my typical life:). No, Emily is really not going...just pretending to. She wants to be just like big brother nick! Hmmmm...maybe this is why the tree is dying!!!

My sweet Jessica! I love this picture. She would be in the pool all day if she could!

Jordan and Nicholas are practicing their "start off position" that they learned in lessons. They swam lap after lap that morning.

So, Nicholas has had "long" hair for EVER now! But, with summer here, he decided it had to go! This is his "before" picture! What a little stud!

This is the hottest barber in the world, doing the big haircut!

Here is their audience! It was quite an exciting night at out house.

And this is the finished product! Such a cheese!

This is Jordan and Nick after swimming lessons (Emily too). So much fun!

5 good things:

**Jordan and Nick started swim lessons today! Hooray!! They love it and are just focusing on swimming strokes!

**Jessa made up 5 (at least) new cheers and has signed me up for cheerleading lessons every Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. (She is the teacher of course :))

**Garrett tried with all his might to convince his friend Porter that he was "either 10 or 8 years old" today

**Emily says she has "happy feet" and breaks out dancing!

**I got a surprise phone call from one of my bestest friends today...made my day! Got a sweet card in the mail from another one...I miss them all so much!

Well, okay...so I've decided that if I'm on the computer already, I might as well do something productive :).. My little ones are growing up so fast and I figure that this is a way to journal a little bit of our life and share it with those we love. So having said this, I have no clue what I'm doing as far as "Blogging" goes. What I do know...I have 5 amazing children and an even more amazing husband. Our life here in AZ is crazy, but there isn't one thing I would change. I'm just loving this crazy ride I'm on!