Father's Day

Brian is out of town and I just know he hates to be missing THIS Father's Day fun...so typical! Just as sweet as they are bad!

Here they come to save the day!

As you can see from the new title photo, Sam and Brice played dress up yesterday. Sam is obviously Batman and Brice is a ninja warrior. FYI---to all the moms who may not realize this...buy Halloween costumes - on sale - in the days after Halloween and save them for Christmas & birthday presents! Buy a size up, if you're going to hold onto it for a while.

Hello Hollywood!

If you know Brice, you know that to say he's full of personality is an understatement. Well, this week he's been facinated with sunglasses and has had to have a pair two nights in a row as he falls asleep.

I wear, um..hold, my sunglasses at night...


His future's so bright he's got to wear shades!

Lovin' the water but not the lessons...

So, swimming lessons conclude tonight. Although he still loves the water, Brice isn't so fond of the lesson part. Last night we had more tears than not but he still managed to do all that was asked of him and very proudly received TWO stamps....indicating that he JUMPED off the diving board and swam to the ladder! Woo hoo!!! I hope that I'll have some diving board pictures after tonight. Stay tuned!

First week...one stamp!


As we walked in the back door, Brice proudly hollered to Daddy & Sam, "TWO TAMPS!!!"

Brice the Waterbug

Brice LOVES swimming lessons. We've just completed the first week of our 2-week session and he still talks about "Ms. Jew-wee" (Julie) and all of his classmates every night and asks to go back for more. I'm so glad because Brice is my "all or nothing" child so I was a little worried that if he didn't like it, he'd be clawing me like a cat to get out of the pool. He loves to jump and even counts for himself....1-2-3 JUMP! Then says, "I owna do-gen". When his classmates complete a task, Brice claps and says, "Good job Ashby!" In fact, he talks pretty much through the entire class, even when we're supposed to be listening to Ms. Julie's instruction. Our first night she said, "Brice is like a radio, WBRI. He turns on and doesn't turn off!" I would have to agree.

1-2-3 JUMP!


In he goes!


Every night they get a whale stamp if they've done well and Ms. Julie asks, "Was Brice a good swimming boy, Momma?" Then he shows it off and says, "My tamp".

My, oh my!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.
Well, I think these pictures are priceless!

2005


2006


2007 (very pregnant with Brice)


2008

2009

Memorial Day weekend

We went to the lake to spend the long Memorial Day weekend. We had lots of fun, family time, good meals around the big front porch table, fishing, playing in the water; boat rides…all the usual stuff. But, the best memory is of Sam’s grasp of what Memorial Day is all about. On Sunday around lunch time Sam asked me, “Is tomorrow a school day?” I explained that not only was it not a school day but that it was Memorial Day holiday and that we have this holiday to remember the soldiers that have fought in wars and died protecting us and our country. Later, at suppertime, Sam, Brian and several others were at the table when Brian called for me to come to the porch. He said, “You’re not going to believe this.” Brian said that Sam had just asked him, “Daddy, do soldiers have phone numbers?” (I knew where this was going based on our earlier conversation.) Brian, curious as to why Sam would ask that so “out of the blue”, said, “Well, yeah they do, son. Why?” Sam responded, “Because I want to call them and tell them thank you.” I’m so glad that I got the message across to Sam but even more proud that he continued to think about it and wanted to tell a soldier thank you. So, THANK YOU to all the soldiers, especially Mr. Mike!