Summer Swim Team

One of our favorite summer activities is our neighborhood swim team. I am so glad that we got it up and running. The kids love it and it is fun for the parents. We all get to meet new people and be part of our community.



Carson moved up to the 8 and under division this summer. Macie also got to participate. They can not officially compete until they turn 5, but she got to practice and swim in a few meets.



Since Carson swam all year, he got off to a good start. He got 5 first place ribbons in his first meet. He had to swim butterfly and breast stroke a lot because he knew how to do them. They are not at all his best strokes. As the other kids got use to it, he did not get as many first place finishes. But, he kept improving his time. Every event he swam was in the fastest heat. Even though he did not get a lot of first place finishes, he would have if he had been swimming in all of the other heats!



Back stroke is his favorite. We think if he continues to swim he will be really good at it. Right now, he is a lot smaller than the kids he competes against. Many of them outweigh him by 25 pounds!



Carson finished out the year at the district swim meet. At this point we just had to sign him up and pick his events. He did the 25 free style and 25 back. He placed 6th in back stroke out of 20. We were really proud of him.



Macie liked to pretend that she could not swim. She had several of out young coaches convinced she needed help getting across the pool. Her first meet was a little rough.



She thought she was only swimming back stroke. But, when we got the meet they had found a lane for her and put her in free style. The only problem was she was swimming against the boys. She was not having anything to do with being on the boys team!



They ended up adding a heat of girls. I moved her into that heat. But, the damage was done! She was crying and saying she did not want to do it. I of course made her. She got across with a little help from a coach.



When it was time for back stroke, she did great. Of course, I was on the other end of the pool holding a nerds rope. I promised her she could have it when she finished the race!



The rest of the season she never had a problem. Our biggest concern was she was not placing 6th. She really wanted the pink ribbon. But, you have to finish last to get it! (She was not swimming in the fast heats) The very last meet she was put in a relay with all 4 year old girls. She was very excited that her team finished last and she got her pink ribbon!



I think the kids would tell you the best thing about swim team is hanging out with friends and eating a lot of junk. Really what more could a kid want?



We finished the season 4-1 or 5-0. We lost the last meet by one point. But, there was a question about one kid (who happen to be swimming against Carson). He should have been disqualified but was not when counting the points. So, they went back and looked at it and gave us the win. We now get to move up a division next summer. We will be there swimming as fast as we can!

(The pictures are just randomly placed. If I ever want to get caught up, I have to make it easy on myself!)

Four and a half

This crazy little girl is 4 1/2. Where oh where has the time gone with her? So many of her little friends will start Kindergarten in 2 weeks, and I keep thinking how little time until it will be her too.



Macie girl is so full of life. She is so loving at times. She tells me "Your my favorite mommy in the whole entire world." She gives me great big hugs. She recently told me she wanted to stay 3 forever because she didn't want to have to leave Ms. Janet's class. (I am so glad I know and love her pre-k teacher because I feel the same way about Ms. Janet)



As I am sure you can tell from the pictures, Macie is just beautiful. When she wants to cooperate, I can get such great pictures of her. Her eyes can be so expressive, that it is very easy to read what she is thinking or feeling.



I think Macie will always be a challenge to parent. She says exactly what she is thinking and that gets her in to trouble. I just can not convince her that it is not good to tell your best friend "You're not my friend anymore."



Macie loves all things girly, She always talks about who she is going to marry. She is still very disappointed that she will not be able to marry Carson or her daddy. I spend a lot of time praying for the man God will bring in to her life.



The last few months, I can see that Macie is starting to mature a little. She still has her moments, but we are having so many more good time than bad now. If she ever figures out that sometimes it is best to just close your mouth, we will be in heaven!



I know God has great things for my sweet little girl. She just naturally draws people to herself. She is learning about Jesus and what it means to be a follower of Christ. She doesn't get it, but she talks about it with me often. And, I always thank God for blessing and challenging me with my princess.

Camp Sasser

Macie has just left on her first road trip with out mom and dad. She went home with my sister, so she can go to Ann Bennett's birthday party New Years Eve. The plan is for me to go get her next weekend. We will see how it goes. She was very excited all morning.

It was challenging to get an extra child in the car with all of their luggage plus all the Christmas stuff. Here they are getting in the car.
Hopefully Bryant and Ann Bennett will survive the ride with a car seat between them.
Can you see Macie in the middle of the back seat? She's playing on her Barbie computer already.


I am sure Macie will have a great time. We are going to try to entertain Carson for the week with no school and no sister. So far it is very quiet! I am sure we will all be missing her by Saturday.

A phone call

This morning Addison called to talk to Macie. Listening to Macie's end of the coversation is so sweet. Here is a little of what I am hearing...
I love you too Addison...
Best Friends Forever?

You can be a mommy with me when I get big..

Someday I will get married I just don't know who yet...Putting down the phone Mommy did you marry daddy? Oh I wanted to...

Well, I have a Roudolph the red nosed raindeer with your nose so bright ornament...

We can pray to God and talk to Him anytime we want to...

I love you too Bye bye.

These two are so much like sisters the way they fight and can be mean to each other, but every now and then you can see such sweetness between them.

Thankful for little things

I need to upload some pictures from Thanksgiving, but I thought I would share this picture of the girls a few weeks ago. They (and their brother) are the top of my list to be thankful fo.

Ellie is starting to think about crawling. Two weeks ago she was happy to just sit in one spot, but she is tying to get around now. I was thinking she would be faster than Macie, but then I watched this. Ellie is about a week older now and not moving as much. I seem to recall Carson skipped the rolling everywhere and just got up and crawled. I still have hope that the Ellie will stay a little less challenging than her big sister!

Adventures of Macie

Macie has had an eventful medical week. On Monday, she hit her head on the hardwood floor. She was complaining that her head hurt, and then she threw up a few hours later. After chatting with the nurse, Jeff took her to the ER to get checked out. They decided they should do a CAT scan to be safe. She checked out just fine and other than loosing a bunch of sleep she seemed fine on Tuesday.

But, Wednesday, she threw up again a few minutes after she woke up. She had not eaten, so I kind of thought it was just drainage. While we were at the beach, she had a runny nose and had complained about her head hurting even before she hit it. As the day went on she was lethargic and did not want to do much. She took a nap on the couch and was still puny when she woke up. I decide to take her to the doctor to make sure all was well. It turns out she has strep throat. I had thought she might, but I looked in her throat. Her tonsils were big and red, but they did not have any white spots. This is the third time in about 6 months she has had strep. I have a feeling we will be getting her tonsils out before she goes to Kindergarten. (It is very hard to tell she is sick because she really does not act like she is very sick.)

She had to stay home from school today. For most of day, she has been incredible. She has played nicely by herself and been very sweet. It makes me wonder how long she has been sick. Here is another picture of her at the beach.

A sneak peek..

We have been at the beach for a week. We had an incredible week with awesome weather. September is the time to go. Here are some pictures I took of the kids one morning bright and early.
There are not as many of Ellie since she can not sit alone. It makes getting pictures in the sand a little more challenging. But, I was pleased with what I got trying to get 3 kids to cooperate! (I found sponge curlers at the CVS while we were there. Macie had to have her hair curled the night before.)

Soccer part 2

We have now entered the world of two children playing sports. Macie started her first season of soccer on Saturday. I was not planning to sign her up, but they are having a league in our neighborhood. It is just one hour on Saturday morning. Jeff and Brad are coaching like they did for the boys. So, we are again spending Saturdays at the soccer field. I think Macie might end up liking it better than Carson. Here are some pictures of the cutest little player.

Walking down the sidewalk to the field. I don't know if you can see how big the ball looks over her left shoulder.
Getting a hug from coach daddy after one her own team mates stole the ball from her causing her to start sobbing.
You can not tell by all the parents of the field, but this is during the game. She is actually touching the ball. It took Carson a couple season before he got this close to the ball in a game.
The last two are of practice before the game. I just think she is adorable!

Click here to see some pictures of Carson's first game. It was just about 3 years ago to the day! He is on a year round swim team this year, so we don't have to be in 2 places at once very often. His first meet isn't until October 16th.

Funny story

Macie loves the show Max and Ruby. I have always had an issue with the fact that there are no parents on the show. There is a family picture hanging in the living room that implies they might actually live with adults.
Macie just told me she wished she were on Max and Ruby. She said "Then I can be their mommy." Apparently, she has noticed they don't have parents too.

Her first week of school seems to have gone well. She likes her class even though she does not have any of her good friends in there. But, she does not tell me what is happening in class. I think she makes up about 90% of what she tells me about her day. On top of that she goes through carpool, so I am really in the dark about what is going on everyday. But, I LOVE her teacher. I know she is in good hands for the 12 hours a week she is away from me.

First day of 3's

Today is the day I have been waiting for since May! Preschool has started. Macie is in the 3 year old class with Ms. Janet and Ms. Niki. These are the teachers Carson had. They are in for a treat if they are expecting Macie to be anything like her brother. Just check out the pictures and you can see!Macie insisted on going through carpool the first day, so I did not get a picture with Ms. Janet. But, here is Ms. Niki getting Macie out of the car. I have to admit I was a little teary. I am exited for Macie to have something to do, and I am excited about this year. So, I was shocked. As a side note, this is the 4th year we have been at this school and it is the first time I have been able to drive through carpool and pull away. Every other year someone has had to be walked in to school.
This is Carson on his first day of 3's. You can also see Ms. Janet. The funny thing about these pictures is Carson can still wear these shorts. He has had them on several times this summer. I guess maybe it is time to get rid of them!

Baby Pool and Sprinkler Fun

I recently read a camera tutorial in a blog. I actually found a few minutes to pull out my camera book and figure a few things out. Today, I decided I would play around with a couple of cute subjects while Macie played.Cropped a little.
I love this one. She might drive me crazy at time, but I really think she is beautiful!
Doesn't she look like she is loving this?

And then she moved to the sprinkler.
She was ready to be done with it! You can see how funny her hair is right now. If you look closely, you can see it standing up on top.
Other than one being cropped and shrinking the picture, these are all straight off the camera. There are a lot more from today, but I will leave you with one last picture. I love the way the color of the rings stand out and she looks so crisp.
Which one is your favorite?