The Pooooooool!

I have to get some of these pictures in before summer is over. Our kids have had a blast at the pool this summer. To them, a day isn't complete without a dip! Two of them conquered the high dive. First, Ellie...

...and then Joe. (It's hard having a little sister with so much nerve!)

Erin has learned to swim under water ("wif" her eyes open!). She also has perfected the art of looking completely un-goony while wearing orange goggles.

Actually, she may still be working on that one.

And, as usual, Daniel just goes along and has a good time wherever he ends up. He could crawl over the whole baby pool except for the middle, and when he got there, his legs would lift up and he'd be sort of walking on his hands (which was quite fun to watch).

As for me, it's been fun to be at the pool without a support stocking (like I had last summer). Something about the water still makes me feel like a kid. I even wore the orange goggles for a while. I'm not attempting the high dive, though. That wasn't even that much fun when I was a kid.

Cousins

Here's Erin with her BIG cousin, David. It's amazing how many currents there can be in a gene pool!

You've Gotta' Try This!

When a baby is alone in a room and you hear him laughing hysterically, you know it's gonna be good...

Daniel found some of Ellie's Polly Pocket Princess gowns and was getting such a kick out of throwing them and watching them bounce. Some of them actually bounced back toward him, so maybe that was the funny part. I don't know, but he was laughing so hard! I guess we know what to get him for his birthday.

One of the Nice Things About #4

Besides being great entertainment for Daniel, the three older kids can be really helpful. Joe has figured out how to do the whole feeding routine (except for food preparation). When he told me he wanted to feed Daniel, I made sure he knew what he was doing, and then I left the room! I'm sure I would have worried him to death if I had hovered, and as it turned out, Daniel eats very well for him and doesn't get any messier than usual. I think Daniel may even like Joe's feedings better...he's just funnier than Mommy.

I don't know which is better, having three older kids to help out or being able to let them do it.

July 18

1998

2008

(On our anniversary picture, I always make Matt hold up the number of fingers with me to show the year. He loves it!)

If you had told me ten years ago that our anniversary date ten years into the future would include a nursing baby, a mini van, and a bonus buy of a lifetime supply of sidewalk chalk (for $2.99!), I probably would have been depressed. Praise the Lord that it did include those things, and it was a wonderful night!

Gold

"Nature's first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold." Robert Frost

For the past week, we've been working on our office/schoolroom, the last room in the house to get a makeover. Last Friday I stripped the last piece of wallpaper(!), and after going through all the paint chips, we selected what we thought would be an earthy, stimulating, golden wheat color. We painted one coat last night, then woke up this morning to walls the color of the stripes on a road, "road stripe yellow", I call it. It was a big OOPS moment, but pictures can never do it justice.

We got another gallon of paint, and Matt got to work while the kids and I were at swimming lessons. Fortunately, only one more coat was required, and we now have our desired color! Yea! You can see it in the background of this picture.

Matt is such an organization freak. (Really, I love that about him!) Here, he's teaching our boys, so they can grow up to be just like Daddy.

Fishin'

My dad got Joe a fishing rod for his birthday, and he tried it out at the camp when we were there for our reunion. It was a great place to learn to fish because he'd no sooner cast his line, than he'd have a fish. Granted, the fish were all about three inches long, but that didn't matter to him. He had a good time, and Erin did, too. I don't know if Erin is a tomboy or if she is just eager to do anything the older kids do. They made a pretty cute pair. Ellie wanted nothing to do with the fishing...she's my daughter, I'm afraid.

Wahoo!

Last January we decided to homeschool Ellie for the rest of her kindergarten year. Any of you who know us, know how EXTREMELY difficult this decision was for us. We had never intended to be homeschoolers, loved her teacher, and, of course, have a great respect for the school (as it is where Matt teaches). Nevertheless, it was a necessary measure at the time, so we reluctantly became some of those "weird" homeschoolers. And now we love it! It is so clearly what the Lord had intended for us, and we are thankful for the blessing of being able to teach Ellie faithfully during what could have been a somewhat chaotic time (with baby Daniel). The Lord met many needs, especially in my mind and heart. It was just a really great experience! So now we are looking forward to having both Joe and Ellie home next year, and tonight I'm saying "Wahoo!" because the curriculum and materials (which I have had a ball picking out) arrived on the big brown ups truck. I can't wait to dig in!

Family Resemblance

The Conger Clan gathered this weekend at beautiful Camp Conger. (It's just so cool to have a 4-H camp in the family!) Each color of T-shirt (green, orange, red, and blue) represents a different branch of the family beginning with my Grandma's generation. She was one of four kids, and now the whole clan numbers 98! Not all of them were there, of course, but we were thinking of them.

Here's our immediate family with my dad. You can really see we're related...It's something about the eyes! (Thanks, Jodi, for one of the best laughs I've had in a long time!)

This one is my favorite!

I found out that some Clanners actually read this blog, which makes me feel motivated to start at it again. It's no longer October 7, Marianna...Life goes on!