Phoebe decided she wants to learn to ride a bike when she's four. I started teaching her today and we worked for an hour then the rest of the day she begged me to teach her more.

Whenever anyone says "dance" or "ballet" both Esther and Phoebe will begin to pirouette, jump, lift one leg gracefully into the air, and twirl like the beautiful angels they are. It is my favorite!

We are getting a puppy. He is going to be called Wally and he is adorable. Max and Sammy and I are all reading books about puppy training and generally getting very very excited! The last time we went to visit him, Sammy got down into puppy stance and played with Wally, and snuggled him close as much as Wally would let him. It warmed my mommy heart to see him having so much fun.

Max has become absolutely obsessed with swimming. He loves it! He did swim team this summer and was just adorable. His first day of practice he could only swim about 5 feet before having to stop and rest on the the lane dividers. He came home crying and so tired. He hated swim team. By the third day everything had changed. He talked about swim team all day and in his prayers he thanked the Lord for giving him the chance to do it. He couldn't wait for practice each day. In the beginning he took about twice as long to finish each race as the others but he never got discouraged or wanted to give up. He liked it that when he was coming in last the whole crowd would cheer for him. Then he got so excited to see how much his time improved each race. He went from swimming the 50 meter front crawl in 2 minutes to swimming it in 1 minute. It was absolutely thrilling to watch! He won the most improved award from his team. Since then, We have been going to the Y before school and he will swim laps with Javier and I. He went from being able to swim about 5 feet at the beginning of the summer to swimming laps for an hour for pure enjoyment in one summer. I am so proud!

In this same summer Sammy has gone from swimming back and forth between parents to being able to swim the whole length of the pool confidently. He is so determined! As soon as he saw Max doing it he knew he had to learn too :)

Phoebe has made huge progress this summer too. She has learned to swim the width of the pool and has decided she is the best swimmer ever. She hates to be helped or worse yet to be made to wear a floatie.

Esther has a ballerina Penguin which has been her security object for a while. She calls it "Baby" and loves it very much. The other day at the grocery store we found a little 2 inch stuffed penguin and she loved it so much I bought it. She has been carrying it around and delightedly squealing, "Penguin!" whenever I look at her. She is so adorable I just have to pick her up and smother her with kisses. She is talking so much! She loves to pray and can say a good prayer without any help. It is short, but complete. I think she must be as brilliant as all the other kids and I just feel so blessed that we have four such brilliant children.