Vinny's First Birthday

I cannot believe that my sweet little Vin is one year old today :( That went by entirely way too quickly. I can still smell his little newborn head. He is the most AwEsOmE kid. He is so happy and loving and full of smiles. Everywhere we go, people are just drawn to him and his friendly personality. He loves his sisters more than anything in the world and they love him right back. He has made our family complete and he fills our lives with joy.
Today we took him for his very first haircut. He was such a good boy. He only cried a little toward the end but that was instantly fixed with his very first sucker :)

Before

Doing Well

Uh-oh, the clippers

Happy again!

He fell in love with his new car from Mommy and Daddy

But, not the cake so much :(

He passed out in his new ride :)

Happy 1st Birthday, Sweet Baby :))

Champs at UT

Emma's Austin Aquatic League Championships were held today at The Swim Center at the University of Texas. The facility was AWESOME and Emma did great. As this season of swim comes to a close, we are looking forward to many more years of this in the future. Ava can't wait for next year when she gets to be a Tadpole and then eventually a Frog!!

Defying Death

It seems Vinny has 9 lives. The other night, Beto and I were upstairs and we were distracted for a few seconds...just long enough for Vinny to attempt his favorite stunt. All we heard was "thumpity-thump-thump" as Vinny failed his mission and fell all the way down these stairs :( He was totally fine, just scared because his parents (when I say parents, I mean father) were Fah-Reaking OUT.

Anytime that the gate is not on the stairs, Evel Vin is dashing to get up or down. The little stinker.

Ava is still able to con him into playing "baby" with her :)

Big Girl Ava

Ava has been doing her own swimming lessons this summer. She has graduated the "Preschool" class and has progressed to "Advanced Preschool". She has been working really hard on her "starfish", putting her face under water and jumping in from the side :)

At Emms's swim meet :)

Fly, Baby, Fly

Emma swam the Butterfly for the first time in competition on Saturday. She did awesome! She has swam all four strokes legally this season and will be competing in her first Championship meet this Sunday at the University of Texas. She is still a beginner and needs to work on her dives but she is really enjoying swimming competitively, and we are enjoying spectating :) She has decided to start swimming year-round.

Here she is doing her breaststroke:

Swim FAST!

Emma had her first swim meet with the FAST Frogs this weekend. We all had such a great time! Emma raced in the 25M Freestyle and the 25M Backstroke. She won her heat in freestyle and came in 4th in backstroke. She was so excited...even after getting up at the crack of dawn to be in the water for warm up at 7am. Yes, 7am on Saturday.

Her first race:
Yeah!! She won!
Getting ready to backstroke
What great form :)

It's SUMMER!!!!!

WooHoo!!! School's out, school's out! I know some of you think I'm crazy, but I LOVE having the kids home for summer. No more slave to pick up time. Free errand running for all!! Emma's last day of 2nd grade was Friday. Look how much she's grown since the first day of school in August :(