Anja's first dive

Anja's first dive-- my movie shooting skills are terrible. Guess that's why I am a writer not a photog.

Living like fish

Every summer the Coombs/Hawkes clan heads to the Taylorsville pool for swimming lessons. This year, I lied and said Anja was three and signed her up for lessons as well. Not a problem. She's the only one in her class who doesn't cry. This week, she started going off the diving board. Her teachers, Dillan and Mia, are shocked at how comfortable she is with the water and started teaching her how to swim on her tummy and float on her back-- way to go, baby.

Jensen is very comfortable and learning to dive. Next year we'll have to get him Rx goggles so he can see better under the water.

Carter and Nadia are to the point where they swim laps every day for 45 minutes. I don't think I ever learned the breast stroke or the butterfly but they know it and love it. Carter is also doing flips off the diving board which he thinks are very cool.

A mouth full of wires

Exactly one year ago this week we took a chance on a new orthodontic procedure that would hopefully change Carter's life. Carter had a class two under bite that would require jaw surgery when he was older because it was getting worse as he grew. Not satisfied with that option, (and despite the fact that I'm sure uncle Bryce would have done a wonderful job) I found an pediatric ortho who was willing to try a new thing on the market to manipulate Carter's bone structure as he grew naturally into proper alignment. There was the chance it wouldn't work and there was the huge cost associated with it (not covered by any dental insurance) but I knew there had to be something worth trying. We signed on the dotted line and hopped for the best in about 2 years. One year later, Carter is the poster child for this procedure. His jaw is completely realigned. His case went so smoothly you can now find his picture in a couple of publications and his case was used last October to help get insurance companies to pay for the procedure. This week he got braces on to complete the process and cosmetically make his smile look beautiful. I love modern science. Anyone who's in the same boat I highly recommend contacting Dr. Michael Tew near Jordan Landing...

Bowling with the Boys

Anja had a play date with Nadia so just the boys and I went bowling with playgroup this week.

Look at that form!

Look at those gloating boys who beat the heck out of mom (Jensen doubled my score!). The only thing I lost was a few bucks and my pride. We decided the looser had to buy lunch-- we ate at McDonald's, my treat (yuck).

Visitting the temple

We went to the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple as a family last week. We decided the to go on Tuesday, before Rich had to be at the hospital for surgery. My dad took the day off work to watch the kids so he came with us. It's a beautiful building and the kids seemed to enjoy seeing it. However, the best part were the cookies after the tour!

Rich's knee

Quick update--

Rich had the knee scope today. All went well. We got to the surgical center at noon and were home by 5:30 p.m.. It made for a long day but Rich was awesome. It didn't help that I had a dinner at our house at 7 p.m. for 12 people-- couldn't change it-- so we made do. I hosted in the backyard and the kids watched movies inside while Rich made sure nothing burned down. Not may husbands would skip the pain med's in order to help with a dinner party and kids. But, then again, he's Superman.

Pancakes & P.J's in the Park

I love our neighborhood play group. No need to go on and on about how wonderful they are here, I've already bragged about these ladies--

This week we did our annual summer Pancakes and Pajama's in the Park breakfast. LOVED IT! The kids look so forward to wearing the 'jammies while the mom's look forward to good food (Stacey makes killer pancakes) and good conversation. We missed you Crystal and Chantelle!

This week is the big bowling tournament-- the kind you can't loose if you are under the age of 10!

Fourth of July and such

Here's the summery of my week: Last Saturday, we blinked and the computer shut down. We were the lucky family who got an electrical "bump" while Windows was getting an update on the net which corrupted the entire hard drive. Solution? Take it to Geek Box, pay $200 (worth every dime) recover all material, reload all material. The worse part? I finished all my stories for the newspaper three days early and lost all my work and the pictures. My editor was a trooper when I called her crying. Solution-- rewrite and reshoot everything.

On a lighter note: The holiday was very nice. We had big plans to have a family cook out but the Coombs couldn't make it at the last minute, the Bywater's were at the cabin and at 1:30 p.m. Rich and I headed over the to the church to do an impromptu service project we were hoping would take 30 minutes, but because of the holiday there were very few hands helping and it took 3 hours. When it was done, we couldn't move. Our bodies ached from spreading an entire dump truck load of mulch. We bagged the BBQ and headed to Iggy's with the kids.

Chicken fingers and ice cream sundaes always make a good meal.

On to fireworks-- we did very few this year. Our neighbors did it huge, and we let them. Nothing like watching good money burn!

Did I mention they only buy the highly illegal kind that sound like a car is hitting your house in Highland (sorry Todd--is it as fun to be the news as it is to write it?) So I sat on the porch telling my two youngest this was supposed to be fun.

When all the big bangs were over, Anja said it was the best day ever. Time for bed...

I did another round of volunteer hours at the temple open house to help out a friend. This time I went prepared: I took a book. Parking cars is not that exciting. Our last day to "help" is on July 23, yippee!

Knees and fingernail polish (babbling)

**Anja and I paint our toenails weekly. She loves bright pinks, purples and reds. She also loves funky colors as long as they aren't on her. This week she picked a strange aqua color for me. It came out of the bottle and onto the nail looking gross. I really haven't had time to take it off-- it must be really bad because Rich told me it was time to pull out the remover, TODAY!

**Once a week I try to take her with me shopping without her brothers. She makes a big deal of telling the boys it's "just the girls turn." Tonight we went to Bath and Body Works to stock up on soap. Anja did the selecting. We will only be using pink soap in our house for the next year-- get used to it boys.

**Our good friend Crystal's husband (Brent) is my dentist. To Anja, he's just Eden's dad so she doesn't get why at his office people call him Dr. Twitchell (little plug there--he's great). When I had my teeth cleaned on Tuesday, she wanted to watch so she pulled the assistant chair over, climbed up and butted heads with the hygienist, Leslie trying to get a good look. Anja kept rubbing my cheek and saying, "it's okay mommy, almost done." She watched the whole thing while taking breaks to explore the office. When we were done, she asked if Brent wanted to come swimming with us-- he politely said no, he had to work, so she asked the older couple in the waiting room. They said no, too.

**The knees-- Rich is, or has become, very different from his family when it comes to medical stuff. He really errors on the side of prevention not correction when it comes to medical issues. If it hurts a little now, get it corrected now; not later when it hurts a whole lot... That's the story behind his left knee. A lifetime of sports, a 40 year old guy and one wrong twist in the yard means knee surgery on July 14. He's starting with a scope-- and in 15 years-- well, we'll have to look toward other options. But, for now the annoying pain will be dealt with and give him back his quality of life and keep him walking with me every morning.

(no, this is not one of his drawings, It's off the Internet, so if it is wrong, don't get mad at Rich. Amirsys does a very good job of keeping their stuff from being "copied" so I couldn't find one of his).