What does a Texas girl wear to a Pool Party????

We had a "party day" Saturday! The kids and I packed up and headed to the Nichols' house for Austin and Taylor's birthday parties (turning 3 and 1)! It was a water slide/pool party! And our little cowgirl wanted to be decked out in her best boots and hat!!! Also sportin' her swimsuit and cover-up! Girl after my own heart! Claire and I stayed at the party for about an hour, then headed to Gracie's 4th birthday party at Monkey Bizness (a jumpin' place), then it was back to the Nichols' for Taylor's party. Daddy met us at the Nichols' before Claire and I left to help Jack swim. They left to nap after Austin's party and met us back there after nap for Taylor's party! We were pooped! What a fun day celebrating with friends!!!

Summer Weekends at the Juenke's House!!!

Summer is in FULL FORCE at the Juenke house! Most weekends, after nap, you can find us swimming! Claire has come a LONG way this summer in swimming! She can swim from steps to steps in our pool. She swims under water with almost no arm movement. Goggles are GREAT!!! Jack was swimming with floaties, but this past weekend, decided to remove the floaties and still jump in!!! He can jump to us off the tanning shelf and swim to us, then go back to the tanning shelf! WOW!!! They are both quite the fish in the water. Both will jump off the side and swim to us or the steps! AMAZING!!!! Daddy enjoys making HUGE waves in the pool by jumping in or bouncing with the pink innertube!!! How many kids do I have?????

BTW....no MRSA for Claire. Praise God!!! Just a bad staph infection. She is much better and will finish out the medication Dr. Crane prescribed!

Big Boy Haircut

Last Thursday Claire, Jack and I went to Sport Clips for Jack's first true Big Boy haircut! After waiting about 20 minutes, it was his turn. Of course I had to hold him on my lap, he cried and fussed, but left waving goodbye with a "poppy" (lollipop) in his mouth. I think it turned out really cute. He even let's me spike it up in the front with hairspray and the hairdryer! He loves it! These pictures are from after church today! How cute is that???? Now I have 3 heads of hair to get ready in the morning!!!

It's always something!!!

Yesterday Claire and I visited Dr. Crane, third time in 3 weeks. Dr. Crane's comment was, "It wouldn't be a week without Jack or Claire visiting me!!!" Very funny, Dr. Crane. Our previous 2 visits were for well baby check ups, but yesterday was not. Claire had a suspicious spot on her right leg right below her bottom. It was red, pimple looking and warm to the touch. It first appeared on Friday at Gee's house. Claire complained of pain and Gee bandaged it up with antibiotic cream. It seemed to get better over the weekend, we were just thinking bug bite. On Monday night it was REALLY red and hurt pretty badly, then on Tuesday morning, it had ruptured and was oozing...YUCK! I called the doctor's office and the nurse said to come in....so, long and painful (for Claire and me) story short, Dr. Crane suspects Claire has MRSA and she is on heavy duty antibiotics... The culture will come back Friday and we'll know for sure, but Dr. Crane was pretty sure herself. We are avoiding kids for 48 hours and should be swimming by the weekend! Hot water for washing clothing and Cloroxing the tub after her bath! Bummer....Claire will miss her last 4 swim lessons... BUT, a trip to Target and a new pink microphone really help in the treatment of MRSA, who knew???? She is feeling better today, she is taking Tylenol for the pain. Here's to a better week next week!

Old News

One weekend in June, I took the kids to Round Rock (Austin area) to visit some family friends of mine. The Wills' used to live next door to my parents in Lakewood Glen and we have known them for 23+ years!! I babysat for Jonathan from the time he was 18 months old. I remember the day Jennifer was born, you know, those kind of life-long friends that you consider more like family!! The kids had a BLAST and so did I. I can't believe how time has flown by, Jennifer is 22 and has a 13 month old precious daughter and Jonathan is 24 and STILL cracks me up! Here are a few pictures from our weekend visit! We can't wait to go back! Needless to say, we returned home to find Daddy VERY sick with pneumonia. He was home for a week in bed... He is much better now and feeling back to normal!

Four Year Old Pictures

Yesterday Claire and I went to have her 4 year old pictures taken! I can't believe she is already 4!!! For those of you who don't know, my friend from Lowery (where I used to teach) takes all my kids pictures. Her name is Karen Butts and her photography company is called Natural Images. She does a great job and worked VERY well with Claire yesterday! I actually had to leave the room so Claire could "pose" better!! She is great with kids! Here are a few sample pictures. You can visit her website too... http://naturalimages.home.att.net/ !

Gettin' Started

Well, it's time for this family to get into blogging...so here goes! I plan to use this as a way to keep friends and family informed on what we have been up to lately. The kids are growing up so fast and I want to keep in touch with my friends and family and vice versa!

Today was Jack's 2 year well baby check up. A little late, I know, but we're finally well and ready for the check up! He only had to get one shot (thank goodness) and screamed a LOT less than his big sister did last week! Hard to believe the kids are 2 and 4!!! Time is flying by faster than I'd like it to! Hug your kids, they grow up tooooo quickly!