Swim Lessons

I signed the girls up for swim lesson in June. They had never done "real" lessons before and I really wanted them to learn a life skill that was essential to survival basically. And.....it wouldn't hurt to have good swimmers so I could lay by the pool and not worry too much about their safety. A mom needs to have a good time by the pool too people. The girls were scared at first as the instructor wanted them to put their heads in the water right away. For anyone who knows my girls, they have always been terrified to submerge their heads underwater. After a few lessons, they broke thru that fear and were little swimmers. They were brave enough to jump off the diving board into the pool, dive for toys at the bottom, and motorboat to the wall. It was quite impressive.

Summer Days

Summer at the start is a magical time. We make all these plans, we are excited for endless days of swimming, playing and just being with each other. I find that the first two months of summer are always go, go, go. We have our days planned from the time we wake up to the time we go to bed. We made a summer bucket list that included a trip to an ice cream shop, a museum, a new playground, making a lemonade stand and seeing the Atlantic Ocean. Unfortunately, there were two things on our list we did not do. We didn't do a family bike ride or visit AZ's school playground. We did however cross off a ton of fun activities and we made awesome new memories.

                                                

                                                      Hula Part in Downtown Carrollton

Father's Day matching shirts

                                                         The girls first time doing tye dye

                                                        Brielle's first talk in church

                                                               4th of July festivities

Dad and my uncles come for a visit

                                             Saying goodbye to a favorite librarian, Ms. Star

Miami Wedding

While my parents were here for Arizona's dance recital, Daniel and I made the trip out to Miami for his sister, Elaine's wedding. My parents were kind enough to watch the girls for four days while we set off to celebrate. We were excited to have a mini vacation and of course going to Miami was icing on the cake. We spent an afternoon at the beach but most of our time was with family eating out or getting ready for the wedding itself. Elaine and Chris looked radiant on their wedding day and we are so happy to have another brother in law added into the family.



                                       

                                       

Dance Your Heart Out Girl

It was Arizona's last year doing ballet and tap at the Dance Institute. She loved dancing all three years but was ready to tackle a new hobby. It's been amazing to watch her mature, and keep focus during her ballet lessons and especially during the recital. She has always been excited to dance on stage and show off what she's learned throughout the year. We are considering putting her in Jazz, but for now, she will do Soccer and an art class. We love our little dancer.

                                                           Cute group of girls from church

Dallas Symphony

Daniel and I got free tickets to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and it was amazing! I am always impressed with the talent these musicians and singers have. It was the conductor's final night performing with the Dallas Symphony. The mayor of Dallas was in attendance and presented him with an award and a special send off. It was a wonderful night and it was great to be a witness to it. 

Sadly for our family, we had to say goodbye to our stray cat Mange. We did fall in love with her and really wanted it to work out, but Mange had a lot of issues that we financially could not take care of. It was a big stressor for me and I just had to make the decision to let go and give her to a family that would better take of her. The girls were very sad about it but have fond memories of her and knew that this was best for our family and sweet Mange.