...in my garden. 

This is the first year that Tara has been willing to go under water. I bought her a face mask and snorkel. I had to convince her to just put her face in enough to see how clear it was underwater. Once she did this, she instantly took off swimming and is rarely above water now. It's great. She loves diving for rings and coins and swimming through these big pirate rings we have..

Last summer, Madeline kept going under and now this summer she prefers to stay above water.

I'm not going to push the issue with her. When she's ready, she'll be swimming underwater again. Right now it's all about what makes her comfortable and happy.

And clearly, above water is a happy place too.

Tara on the other hand has become my deep sea diver .

And she's happy to stay below the surface.

Melissa, A childhood friend of mine has battled cancer for 4 years. She has 2 children the ages of mine. Yesterday morning she lost her battle to cancer and at the age of 35 has left us to be with Jesus. Her mother buried her mother this past winter to cancer. She buried her husband this spring to cancer, and now on Monday she will bury her daughter. Please pray for her mother Judy Bas, her 2 siblings, her husband, and Melissa's babies.

Spending all week getting up early for VBS, and swimming all day when we get home will catch up on a little one. Yesterday, after VBS we came home, ate a quick lunch, headed over to a friends house to swim, then came home and swam more. The girls came in the house for a little break and Madeline quickly passed out on the love seat. She fell asleep around 4:00 and when I woke her up for dinner she cried and cried. I asked her if she wanted to skip dinner and go straight to bed. She continued to cry and nodded yes. I laid her in bed, took her suit off, put P.J.'s on (all while she cried), snuggled a little with her and left. She didn't wake up this morning till 7:00. She said she's feeling great now.

Notice the drool in this next picture..

Here's a few of them having fun in the pool.

Tara took this picture of Madeline and I this morning before we left for VBS.

When we got back, I really wanted one with Tara but Madeline is too young for my expensive camera. I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but I got out the tripod set the automatic timer and came up with this one. The girls did NOT want to do this for me. I told them that until I got a good smile from each of them, they would not be able to swim. So they instantly gave the camera nice smiles.

I really love how this one turned out.  They are so precious to me.  I'm so blessed.