Cousins

The girls love getting time in with their cousins.  We live about one mile apart and I can see their house from my school, yet we don't see each other enough.  While our lives are consumed with swimming, their lives are even more some busy with hockey.  We did get the pleasure to watch Naomi, Jane, and James a couple of weeks ago while Elizabeth had a meeting.  They were all so cute together I had to get my camera out.  Olivia is blossoming into such a responsible young girl.  She always wants to help with the little ones.  I watched her reading to her cousins and realized that my little girl was growing up.  A melancholy feeling overwhelmed me.  There's a sorrow I feel for the loss of my little girl, but pride when I see what an amazing girl she's becoming.

James snuck in on the action too.

Time for dancing.  I'm not sure why girls love to dance so much more than boys.  Both my girls and Elizabeth's girls enjoy dancing a lot, while Elizabeth's boys are mortified at the idea of dancing.  If Elizabeth and I ever want to embarrass them, we just have to dance ourselves and the job is easily accomplished.

Group hug.

Dancing to the singing Christmas tree.

We've managed to make it to a couple of hockey games to watch the cousins this year too.  These pictures are from Asher (4) and Titus' (5) game in Battle Creek last Sunday.

Asher taking a shot on goal during warm up.

Titus on the ice.

Asher at the drop of the puck for the beginning of the games and Titus off to his right.  It's terrific to see the brothers getting to play together.  We've seen one of Jadon's games as well.  Now we just have to make it to one of James' games before the season ends.  They are quite the athletes.

Swim Season

We are in full swim season mode in our household.  Andy is at the pool daily for the high school swim team practices.  Monday nights Mia has swim lessons and has set a goal to try and be able to swim one full length of the pool all by herself.  Olivia is at the pool every Tuesday, Thursday, and many Fridays for swim practice for Stingrays.  Saturdays are often swim meets as well.  We have even traveled to a few more away meets than in seasons past.  The photo below is of Olivia and Mia with good friends the Helen and Jillian Randolph.  The Randolphs also have two sons Graham (seen on the far right) and Jayden who are all excellent children and swimmers.  They were a welcomed addition to the Sturgis community about three years ago, but a new job meant they left straight from this swim meet in Niles to head to Chicago where they would fly out to California the next day.  We sure miss them all.

The Feyes and Randolph girls getting their last hugs in.

Mia getting ready to enter the water.

Here she is after swimming a full 25 yards of the pool.

I love this girl sooooo much!

Time to jump off the block.  I'm so glad she is fearless when in comes to things like this.

Getting to ride on the lift chair after lessons.

Mia with coach Melanie.  We love Melanie too.

Andy's swimmers are having a good season too.  They are in a new conference this year, so new competition and learning about all the new teams has been different, but I think Andy and his swimmers are all enjoying it.