Hannah's Favourite Day of the Year is...

...Her Birthday! Happy 9th birthday Hannah! We love you!

What I Learned Today From My Kids...

Sorry, there's no pictures with this one. I didn't take any tonight. I was busy...counting. Tonight was a Swimathon. I didn't know what that was - until tonight. Parker, Sara and Hannah have joined the Lethbridge Amateur Swim Club. It is a fantastic organization that helps kids develop their swimming abilities at their own rate. Tonight, all the swimmers were challenged to swim for two hours straight or 200 lengths - whichever came first. I thought that was crazy. Have you ever tried to swim for two hours - or do anything for two hours? In my mind, if they made it for one hour, I was very impressed. But not them. Tonight, they taught me determination.

Sara actually didn't get to participate. She had basketball. But, I have no doubt she would have shown the same fortitude.

So, I was the counter. I had a clipboard, a pen and a sheet for each of them. We were instructed to count by twos because that's easier they said. There was a sign up by the pool that said, "Parents/Counters - While you are counting, don't get distracted. That makes the swimmers mad." Point taken.

At 4:30, they rang a bell and they started. I actually felt a little upset. Two hours is too long I thought. But, not them, they just kept swimming. After 20 minutes, Hannah got a drink of water. That's allowed. I asked her how she was. She said "Fine! I'm going to try flippers now." That's also allowed. She just became a little pink swim cap back and forth in the pool then. And I kept counting.

Parker did not stop. He had told himself he would just keep going. At the end of each length, he would pop up, take a quick breath and keep going...and going...and going.

At the end of one hour, I would have stopped. I would have said, "That's pretty good! I'm done." But, they didn't. They both swam for two hours and completed personal bests. Next year, they can try and top their personal best because they keep their results.

By 6:30, they rang the bell again. All swimmers were to complete the length they were on and then get out of the pool. I marked off their last length. Hannah had completed 122 lengths (with the aid of flippers). Parker had swum continually and completed 152 lengths. Me, I just counted - in awe.

I am not blogging this to brag about their accomplishments though I'm fiercely proud of them. I'm blogging this because this mom learned a great lesson in tenacity, or never giving up - from her kids. Thanks guys.

It's a Girl Thing!

Hannah loves to get her hair done. For the past number of months, she has researched and found many fun hairdos. She has found a favourite site which she searches every day, picks a hairdo, we watch the video and then we try to do it. (Notice the "button" we posted on the sidebar.) Mindy is fantastic and she's now one of Hannah's favourite people.

Occasionally we've taken photos of attempted hairdos. Here's a few of them. The heart shaped one is in honour of Valentine's Day. Thanks Mindy! It's been a lot of fun and trial and error for Hannah and Mom!

Alberta School Attire

We have had absolutely frigid weather here for the past few days. After swimming lessons today Hannah tucked her braids under her hood because she was afraid they would freeze and crack off on our short walk to the car! This is what a typical morning looks like when Sara and Hannah head off to the bus! On the bright side, it means that we'll be skating and skiing very soon!

Halloween!

Remember how you couldn't sleep the night before Halloween? And you would dump out all your candy as soon as you got home to count how many of each kind you got? What a fun holiday!

We had a Trunk or Treat at the church on Saturday and then carnival games inside. The weather was not your typical Southern Alberta Halloween weather. It was about 15 degrees and sunny! Later in the evening we made homemade rootbeer with our cousins using dry ice. What a delicious treat! But, right now, I think we'd all agree that we do not want to see any more chocolate until NEXT halloween.

What Makes You Happy?

This is what I asked Hannah and told her to give me her answer in pictures. I thought you might enjoy her responses as much as we did. To be fair, her siblings were not here at the time so her creativity is evident! I took the photo of her because she's one of the 5 biggest reasons I'm happy! What makes YOU happy? :)

Hannah's Biggest Day Yet!

As I was reviewing past posts, I noticed this one never got posted! What a day to miss. So, we'll add it now.

Hannah was baptized on June 26 of this year. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we had a ton of family able to come! Hannah could barely wait for it and was thrilled to be baptized by her dad in the same dress as cousin Samantha and her sister, Sara.

It's a little sad for a mom when her last "baby" makes such a big decision and the arms of "grown-up-ed-ness" seem to be beckoning. But, so far the vial of "freeze time" has not made itself known to us so we'll just have to keep cheering on all the milestones that make up the chapters in Hannah's (and everyone else's) storybook.

It was a great day, Hannah!

At school one of the teachers, Mrs. Firth, has started a running club. This year for the first time in 4 years we got t-shirts. On the front they say "I believe..." and on the back they say "...do you?"

We ran in the Little Souls Marathon on Saturday.