Summer lovin' had me a blast!

Me on my, we are loving our summer! The kids are in swimming lessons four days a week. On the first day swimming clicked for Kevin. He mastered his front float and swimming on his belly. He gets a little crazy when he starts kicking his feet, but if he just uses his arms he can cover some distance. With time it will all come together. He is thrilled with his new found skill and I promise you, I was the only Mom wiping tears at swimming lessons. It was so exciting to watch and see the joy on his face. His teacher, Ben, was surprised the next day when he came to talk to me about Kevin and I told him that this was a new found skill. So very fun. Cody was able to keep the little girls on one day this week and the big kids and I swam out to the dock and jumped in several times together. Kevin could NOT believe I would do something like that. I won cool Mom status (for a day! I take what I can get!) when all the kids wanted to go out to the dock with "Kevin's Mom!" 

One joyous thing about swimming lessons. I seriously have had zero laundry to do. The kids spend the morning in their Jammie's, we do jobs and maybe a project and then have lunch and head to lessons. When we get home they usually play outside in their suits for a bit and then shower for dinner and bed. And the next day, we do it all over again! 

Elena has been a good sport about being at the beach, ALL THE TIME! She is growing like a weed, I weighed her a few days ago at 13 lbs exactly. My back has been hurting pretty badly and I think I know who to blame. She has found her fingers and is always sucking on them. We have caught her sucking her thumb a handful of times as well. She is awake more and loves to watch her big sisters and brother. I hate to wish her babyhood away, but I do love that she is noticing more things and finding interest in the world around her. Her belly button has yet to close, the Doctor assures me that we are okay to keep watching it, if it hasn't changed by her six month appointment, I think we will have it sewn shut. (Ew!)

If you haven't noticed, I'm all about the matching. Kevin was so excited that I found him shorts to match the girls. He mentioned several times, "it's fun that my shorts are like their dresses."

We went to visit the U.S.S Albacore in Portsmouth. It was SO COOL. How neat to be inside of a submarine. I was shocked by how big it is and overwhelmed by how small the sleeping quarters are. Coolest museum ever and it was only ten bucks for the whole crew. Can't beat that! 

Julia Gulia loves swimming lessons too. Hers is more sing songs and practice going under water and blowing bubbles but she loves it. She loves that she is meeting other kids and I love that I've met some other Moms. Julia is excited for school to start and loves that Mrs. Karen, our neighbor will be her school teacher. We started Julia on melatonin about a week ago and our nights are getting much better. We've gone from 5ish wake ups in the night to usually only one, and we even had two nights with none! Falling asleep has been easier and the roller coasters of emotion during the day has lessened. This little girl of ours is so much dang fun. She keeps us laughing all the time.

Our little Lacey baby is at a fun stage. She is talking like ca-razy! Last night she feed me a piece of her fruit and said, "mama eat cantaloupe?" I told her it was honey dew and she said, "no, Daddy yours honey dew dew." She is bugged by the fact that Kevin and Julia both have a dream light and she doesn't. She carries her swimming suit with her where ever she goes and she even sleeps with it at night. She is opinionated and loving and sweet and adorable all shoved in one tiny body. She wants everything Julia wants, mostly so Julia can't have it. She always wants to wear "mine Harley shirt." And thinks she is funny when Julia is naughty to say, "Julia, naughty stinker pot!"

We have a family trip planned for Idaho in a few weeks and we are so excited. Everything I do Kevin says, "oh, are you doing _________ so we can go to Idaho?" On Monday last week Cody learned that he has to be I'm Baltimore the first week of August. He already had a 9 day trip to Denver scheduled and a 10 day trip to Milwaukee. Which left him home for one week, but since we have our two weeks in Idaho already scheduled it means he needs to try to visit all 15 dealerships the second week of August, which means, he isn't really home. On Wednesday evening we decided to have the kids and I stay in Idaho and then drive to Denver to be with Cody while he is there then go back to Idaho for another week, then back to New Hampshire. I think it was an answer to a prayer because, we were able to change three plane tickets and add a return flight for Lacey for the grand total of $8.00! I'm so relieved to not be spending August alone. I could imagine things getting a little hairy scary. I also feel awful for leaving as our branch is mayhem in the summer and being in the primary presidency, we never know how many children to expect. I promise to make it up to these great sisters I serve with. 

Today one of the little girls from primary sang the National Anthem. She was so very excited because it was Mitt Romney's first Sunday back in the branch and she was going to sing it for him! She did an awesome job and I was completely overcome with emotion. I am so blessed to live in this country. I'm so blessed to live in New Hamsphire. I'm so blessed to have freedom of religion. I'm so blessed and I know it. God truly blessed America.