A heavy heart this morning.

My dear friend lost his mother to a terrible illness yesterday. It was a hard thing to witness as they waited several days for her to take her last breath. My heart aches for the loss this family is feeling today. Jean and I will be there to support them through this.

Last night their teenage son came to spend the night with us - my kids can be a good distraction and they have certainly lived up to that expectation. The girls were up at 6:00 AM and we kept them in our bed until 7 to allow him just a little longer to sleep. When they did get up, the didn't know he was here with us so they were shocked to find him sleeping on the couch. The girls giggled and acted like we brought home the BEST gift ever! It was cute....Marleigh does not have the ability to whisper or be quiet whatsoever and her voice is often piercing first thing in the morning....a definite distraction from your thoughts! I have to close the door when I'm blogging or she distracts me from the next room.

This weekend Marleigh discovered the fun of swimming in the big pool without being clung to Jean or me! She was playing in the shallow end of Tracy's pool when she lost her balance (with water wings/swimmies on her arms) and discovered she would stay afloat and could swim on her own. I heard her yelling to me "Mumma, look I swimmin myself!" We took her into the pool at camp and I kept telling Jean to just let her go - he worries way more than I do - so I crawled into the pool, took her from him, plopped her into the water and said "swim to daddy" and that was it. She totally loved being on her own from that point on. Until this weekend, she was always content playing with her bucket of toys on the side of the pool! Yesterday I put her in our little pool in the yard (she can barely touch the bottom) and I struggled to get her out of it! She felt like a big girl and didn't want it to end. I'm so proud of her accomplishments.

She wants to do all the water stuff now too.....

I decided that the photo of my four children walking down a pathway was going to be my "yearly" updated photo of them. Its hard to get them all looking and smiling (Marleigh is a bugger right now) so walking away is perfect for a series. I saw this dirt road and the time of day was perfect....Jean was so great and stopped so I could click a few. The kids were awesome, jumped out and walked up and back for me :) I can't decide if I like the color version or the chocolate for this one better.

I'm still gathering the photos for the contest and plan to get it started tomorrow!

Have a great day!
~kel~