Interesting Sleeping...

I walk past Jack's room one night and this catches my eye...

???WHAT IN THE WORLD??"

OH!
(Sam is sleeping in Jack's room again.)
Story:
Sam went tot he NCAAs with Jason on Saturday.  The top of his knees got a bit red..a tell tell sign that you have attended a track meet! Before he went to bed,  I put aloe vera on them to soothe his poor red striped knees!. He wanted them to dry and he fell asleep while waiting!! 

Meanwhile, Jack has built a fort on the lower bunk...hence the blankets draping from the top bunk...

I glance down and see this...Moose tucked in with Jack...enjoying the breeze! 

So Moose is sleeping with Jack, who is wrapped in the Spiderman sheets to the right!!
All in a good nights sleep at our house!!

Snaps of our Busy Summer...

I can't believe that it almost the middle of June! 
Here are a few "things" that we have been doing so far...

Moose is just tickled to have the  boys around so much!  She just grins from ear to ear!!

There has been sword fighting!

Bonfires...

LOTS of flag football...

Much needed new shoes!

Playing cards and cribbage...

Playing "Stack the States" on the ipad...(swim lessons in background)

Drop in crafts at the library.
(Jack loves these and bless Sam's heart..he sits with him!)

Catching frogs...

Getting ready for the Memory Bound garage sale!!!

Loads of baseball...it's all about the socks...

And that is what our summer has been all about...I feel a mini book coming on!!

Swim Lessons...

The boys are on their second week of swim lessons. We take them from one of the Des Moines school's old swim coaches.  These are the BEST swim lessons EVER!!! If you need an amazing place to take swim lessons, and willing to drive to Beaverdale, then talk to me!

Jack working on his "standing" crawl stroke!

 

The "biggies" of the year is Jack doing the crawl stroke and being able to breath at the same time...

...getting a bit better at it in this picture.

Waiting his turn to dive.  Sam and I crack up about his goggles..when he turns his head they bop around and look like little bug antennas!

 

Sam is all business when it comes to his lessons.

When he first started here, he couldn't swim, dive or back float.

No problem now!

He is actually "perfecting" his crawl stroke.  This year, he is working on his turns...he can do a flip turn, but he says, "i have no idea where I am when I do one of those!

  

 

Again, if you need an amazing place for lessons, this is it!!  Jack started when he was just three (or maybe younger.)
I love the lessons and so do the boys!!

An Evening at the Pool...

So I took the boys to the pool...BY MYSELF!! If you know me then you know how I dread this place.  I just don't like to get into tight fitting garments (suits are like girdles, but for all to see!), that show all my unwanted curves and bumps...like the hail damage on my legs...just not something I want all to see.  But the other night,  I put on my big girl suit and my "moomoo" cover up and off we went.

Jack perfected his diving...

 

At times, he showed his diving form was taken after his mom's diving form!

This cracks me up..I am taking this from my lounger.  When Jack dives, he doesn't put his legs together, so he looks like a little frog jumping in!!

Sam, on the other hand, has developed a nice dive...this too YEARS to get to...just like his mom!!

This is one of those pictures that was an oops, but I actually really like it!!

Sam loves to do splashy cannon balls! 

When we first got there, Sam yells "MOM WATCH THIS!!" and proceeds to do a HUGE, on purpose, belly flop!  There were a few middle school girls that observed this transaction.  They covered their mouths and said, "OHHHHHH!!"  And then one girl looked at the other and said, "He did that on purpose!" she may have even rolled her eyes a bit.  Anyway, Sam gets out and his belly is RED!!  No big deal to Sam..off he goes to another part of the pool.  I told Jason about this and he said, "Yea, when they see Sam do that in college they will laugh their butts off, think he is cool and want to date him!"  That made me smile...such a proud parent, pull at your heart strings thought of the future!

 

Overall, I survived and the boys had a good time.

 I am hoping that I will get some time in my scrap area this weekend.  I have a few ideas with the water pictures and one to celebrate Moose's one year anniversary with us! Cross your toes!!

Summer...

So the summer is suppose to be quiet, calm, relaxing and lazy...HA!!
Jack did find a comfy rock to relax on at Sam's football game.
(pin on that Mother of the Year award!!)

So far this summer we have:
Sam training for a triathlon, which means either swimming, biking or running each day.
He then has  tri-training on Saturday mornings.
Sam is playing on a flag football team this summer...which he loves!!
We signed up for the library reading program.
Swim lessons started this week..boys love them!!
Jack is playing baseball.
We have been entertaining at the house almost every weekend!
taking the boys to friends and friends coming over.
Watering all our new flowers..please rain!!
Loads of swimming.
Keeping up our new pool...checking chemical levels and scooping out bugs every morning...our cover ripped.
I have been getting ready for the Memory Bound garage sale...yea!!
I am also getting ready for two new classes and updating four others! 
Moose has decided it's a good idea to roll in some other animals poo at least every other day...so she has been bathed as much as the boys lately!!
And the boys like to be fed for breakfast, lunch and dinner! (UGH)
So, our summer hasn't been a lazy summer, but I do have loads of pictures to share!!
So please don't go away and make sure to check back on our summer follies!!

(oh yea...Jason and I figured out that he has been gone 6 of the last 7 weeks...just had to add that on for some sympathy points!!)

Heritage Album...

I can finally check this off my "To Do" list. (yea!)  It has been something on my to do list for over two years....it's a heritage album for my mom.  About two years ago, my mom gave me a box of old photos and I told her I would like to make her a heritage album. I had been inspired by my friend Pat, who had created a heritage album for her mom. So, I started to work on it. I would work on it, stop...take it up again...stop...and finally I told myself I would finish it and give it to my mom for Christmas (2011) Didn't happen. So I thought I would give it to her for Mother's Day...nope. So I told myself NO MATTER WHAT...it will be her birthday present...DONE!!! (yea!)

It ended up being two albums...believe me, I would have been good with just one album!

It begins with the Shane side of my mom's family. I love this paper!  When the book is opened, it is a WHOLE TREE!!

This is the oldest family photo I have..Joseph Menardi. 

This is his daughter Francis Menardi...she married a Shane and that it where it all began!
I would love to know more about Francis.  She lived in Minnesota and when her husband died, she went to Los Angles, CA. She passed away in Berkley.  Would love to know why she went to LA and what she did while she was out there!

Most of the pictures were ones that my grandma (my mom's mom) had saved.  She also saved copies of the obituaries. 

Most of the album I used Bo Bunny's vintage double dot paper (loove it!!) and Simple Stories Documented collection.

I used a 12 x12, We R 3-ring album. It made arranging and rearranging the pages in the album super easy!! (especially when you think you are done and then find 50 more photos that you somehow overlooked!)  I also love the WE R page refills. So many options to use!  Here I used the 6 x 6 page protectors, which were absolutely perfect for these pictures. (these pictures where from a family album that my great great great grandpa made for his wife while in the Civil War...how romantic!)

This is one of my favorite photos of my great Grandma Thome. 

She is enjoying a cigarette and a beer at a family picnic!!  There was a lot of my great grandma Thome in my beloved Grandma Shane.

I used LOADS of 4x4 page protectors, too.

This is my grandma's sister, Alice, celebrating her 91st birtday.  The 4x6 page protectors worked well with this series of photos.

This is my favorite photo of my Grandma Shame. (miss her!)

More 4x4 pictures!

This is my mom opening her heritage albums on her birthday.  She had NO idea that I had been working on these.  She knew I had the photos, but basically had forgotten about the two year old project.

I was SO happy to pass these on so my mom can enjoy them and I was done with them!!

PS - A HUGE thanks to all my scrapping friends that put up with me while completing these albums!!  For all the times I said, "OMG...just when I thought I was done..I FOUND MORE PHOTOS!!"  or "I've GOT to get this heritage album done!"  And for Sam, he was my little cheer-leader through this entire process and bless his little heart to sit down and look at my album when it was done...and acted like he was interested!! 

PSS - All papers, page refills, albums and adhesive can be found at Memory Bound!!!