The Vaulter

I was driving Jo to the gym today when she pipes up from the backseat, "Hey Mom!" Yes, I said. Guess what Casey (her new coach) says is my best event. I started guessing knowing which one it probably was without guessing it. Its the event that is the most improved and that she has REALLY been working on. VAULT, she says! Why don't you come hang out and watch! Her sisters just love when I hang out and watch. Jordan LOVES her new gym. It is brand new and bigger than I have ever seen and beautiful. They have a phenomenal boys gymnastics team, a girls rythmic gymnastics team, a tramp and tumbling team and and of course great girl's gymnastics team. Jordan's coach is terrific!

A couple of days ago I told Jo I would take some pictures of her doing gymnastics. Well I took a couple of pictures and realized flashes going off in the gym when gymnasts are working on flips and flyaways can probably cause a pretty good break in distraction. Jordan tells me later, one of the girls on my team said, hey, who is that lady taking pictures with flashes! Oops!!! Well, here is the 1 picture I got of Jo getting ready to vault.

The Artist

Jon says to me, "So are you going to feature one child a week on the blog?" In other words, shouldn't you do a write up on what each child is doing? He's right, It's just that I started with Tahlia and got distracted.

On Sunday, Taylor got very inspired that she would like to paint the naturescapes on canvas that would add just the right touch to the walls of her room. She now is very specific in her likes and dislikes. Gone are the days of me picking something out for her. She is definitely growing up. Anyway, Jon set up her easle and canvas and she went for it. She was one with nature and her sisters were inspired as well. Jo drew while Tahlia was her water cup holder. Her painting turned out great and is now ready to hang. We LOVE that she sees the world a little differently than the rest of us!

The House

Here are some of the pictures of the house. The front, front/right side (you can kinda see Jon weeding in the right side of the picture and of course Apollo forever by Jon's side) , the right side and driveway of the house and part of the view from the top of the driveway to the backyard. We are loving our new house and all of its spaces. The girls say its like being on vacation. We'll wait and see what they think when school starts! :)

HEADGEAR??!!!

Tahlia, what a character! I decided to cut my hair into a bob a couple of weeks ago. I went and had it cut in the evening after Jon got home. It felt like a mini vacation, being able to go all by myself. The lady that was going to cut my hair was a little stressed that I had to wait a little bit but I was in heaven with a couple minutes to myself and a magazine. Anyway, I'm off topic, when I arrived home Tahlia, actually all the girls but especially Tahlia loved my haircut. She kept following me around all evening stroking and playing with my hair. She has such an appreciation for a good cut. She wanted her hair cut the same way, so viola here she is.... All of the girls got their hair cut... but she is so funny about the way she can appreciate and admire fashion, style, design, etc.... Jon and I know she will grow up to be probably similar in temperment and personality to my dear friend Heather Tomlinson. We told Tahlia she had to go to and finish college first but if she still wants to go to beauty school she can. I can absolutely see it at such a young age. She just cracks me up. Today I sent her up to her room with her clean clothes to put away. She comes out of her room a little while later proudly proclaiming that she had just organized all four of her drawers before she put away her clothes. Tahlia LOVES to sort and organize things.
One last note about Tahlia, before we moved from California the dentist told us we needed to consult with an orthodontist regarding Tahlia's teeth. Well I waited until we got here. Of course her sisters were with her when they did their x-rays and analysis. They laid out her course of treament starting with a heavy duty expander in her upper palet. There were so many appliances they will use in her treatment just in this first phase that I can't remember them all, but when they said headgear, her sisters said together, HEADGEAR!! One of the girls told the ortho, my Aunt Tonya had headgear. It just threw me back to Tonya's geeky headgear days. Kinda like a scene from 16 candles. Anyway, Tahlia will have to wear it at night... Poor Tahlia but in the end, she will have gorgeous teeth just like Aunt Tonya!

A few pictures from around the yard

Shooting hoops, jumping on the trampoline and playing in the creek this is what the girls do most days!

A rare moment

Here is a picture of Jon enjoying his new father's day present. We found a perfect spot for it in the yard. Jon made a rule that no one can swing in it. They have to just peacefully lay down and rest in it. Yah, right!!

Roxy's Sick and Apollo's Peeing On the Seat

Last week we took the boat out just for a quick jaunt on the reservoir. It's not the girls favorite because they can't tube and they can't swim in the water. It's great just for a quick trip to wakeboard, much to Jon's delight! It is about 5 minutes from the house and Jon has discovered that you only have to be 10 to be an observer on the boat. In California it is 12! So that means he can wakeboard when the family goes out. I drive and the girls can watch him and tell me when he's down. Well, anyway we thought we would go out for a quick trip and take the dogs. Much to our dismay, we discovered that Roxy gets terrible motion sickness. She was bubbling like a crab before she even got out of the car. We got the boat in the water and Roxy settled in at Jon's feet. The girls were feeding her ice to make her happy. Jo was first up to wakeboard. I was busy watching Jo happily cross the wakes when all of a sudden Jon slows the boat way down until he stops. I turned to hear Jon keep saying, UGHH with a horrible grimace on his face. He seemed to just be frozen. Looking down, Roxy had thrown up all of her lunch on his foot!!! The girls were thoroughly disgusted when she began to eat it again, all the while Jon is yelling to me to clean it up so that she won't throw it up again! :)

We got that situation handled and went to float on the boat and throw Apollo's toy while the girls jumped in and out of the boat. (against the rules) Roxy threw up 2 more times before feeling better. We rounded out the day before going home with Jon finally getting to wakeboard. I was driving Jon around the lake. I just love towing him around. (Not!!, ever since he got a concussion while I was pulling him) It makes me nervous. The girls are in charge of watching Jon. He fell once after a good run (all while Apollo is whining) and right after I got him up the second time, Jordan starts yelling "Apollo's peeing on the seat". The boat came to a screeching halt a second time, as I threw Apollo out of the back of the boat to Jon. Jon is completely clueless as to what is going on. Jon's turn was cut short as I drove the boat back to dock. That was enough for me, for one day. We got the boat out of the water and the dogs couldn't have been happier to be on land. Apollo peed for about 5 minutes straight. At home we thoroughly disinfected the boat and cleaned the carpets. So rest assured if you come visit us and we take the boat out, there are no remaining dog secretions!