I've been meaning to update this for awhile now. The girls are ending their swimming lessons this coming Tuesday (although they are signing up right away again). They are doing so great.

Kaitlyn has made a lot of progress with the water. She can put her face in the water. She can swim on ONE noddle around the pool kicking her legs and moving her arms and blows bubbles while doing this. We are very proud of the way Kaitlyn has overcome her fear of the water.

Michaela is our little swimmer. Anne has to stop her from running and jumping into the pool. Michaela is putting her goggles on and putting her head under the water; which is a huge step for her stage. She loves to blow bubbles, play water games, and float. Her love for water really comes from Anne; Olympics next? Or at least swim team?

Matt's New Blog

Check out Matt's new Blog!

http://matt-getting-real.blogspot.com/

Sharks, Nemo and More Fish

We took the girls to the Shedd Aquarium on Tuesday. We had a great time. Kailtyn enjoyed playing with the interactive games and finding out more about the fish. Michaela really enjoyed the turtles.

At the Wild Reef exhibit we saw the sharks. We also saw the highlight of the day, NEMO! which the girls really enjoyed. It ended up being really nice outside to get some pictures of Chicago with the girls. We drove home and spent the afternoon watching "Finding Nemo."

Da Gangsta Girl!

The girls were playing dress up and Michaela wanted a bandana on. Then Matt taught her some some gangsta moves. I had to post it. She's pretty funny looking!

MVP 4 Pujols

So he didn't make it the playoffs. So his team didn't even finish 2nd in their division, they finished 11 1/2 games out of 1st. But without Pujols it would have been 15 games and counting.

The funny thing about this years MVP is that Pujols had the same numbers he's add for 8 full seasons as a pro. He's a machine, every year, year after year his numbers are the same, 30+ homeruns, .350+ batting average, 100+ RBI. He's the most feared hitter in the NL. He was walked 104 times this year.

This should be Pujols' 3rd MVP, Ryan Howard won it in 2006 when Pujols out hit him by a .100 in batting average but Howard hit a lot of homeruns that year and writers think that counts for something. The Cards won the World Series that year and this year Howard made a move to win the MVP again but instead got his first World Series ring with Philly.

Congrats to Pujols. The writers finally got it right this year. Next year they will award to someone else, but Pujols will still have the same numbers and continue to be the best hitter in the NL.

Trick or Treat

This year we had a great fall and Halloween!

It started off with the girls having fun visiting the apple orchard with Grandma Kathy. They went to Royal Oaks and picked their own apples this year. They really enjoyed it and eating apples for weeks after it.

A couple weeks later the girls went to a pumpkin patch with Grandpa Steve and Grandma Sharon where we rode on a hay ride to pick out our own pumpkins. The girls enjoyed picking out their own pumpkin.

And of course it was finished with a great Halloween. It was a beautiful 70 degrees for the girls to walk around and get tons of candy (which dad has eaten a lot of). We decided this year to go to Grandpa Dan's and Grandma Kathy's neighborhood to be able to walk on sidewalks. The girls had a great time. They of course were princesses, what else would you expect?

Katilyn had a Halloween party had her pre-school this year. She was able to go and be dressed up all day. Michaela ended up being dressed up most of the day as well. They really enjoyed this year's Halloween!

Phillies Win it All

Congrats to the Philadelphia Phillies! After a crazy World Series and one of the least watched in recent years they finally finished Game 5. Will we ever see a Game 7 again? Tampa Bay was clearly the surprise of the year and the team I was hoping would win it. Remember who the favorite coming into the post season was? (Cubs choke again). Reminder: It's been 2 years now since the Cardinals won it all.

We let Kailtyn stay up after Awana to watch the final outs and watch the Phillies celebrate. She thought it was pretty cool, she didn't understand why they jump on top of each other. Baseball is finally over and on to the off-season, let's hope the Cardinals pick up some pitching and one more outfielder and get back into the playoffs in '09.

Funny Shoes


Michaela has finally received her "inserts" for her shoes to correct her pigeon toe. She is being a great trouper with the change in her shoes. She has an inside shoe now and a outside shoe. The only thing she has said about them is "they feel funny." These inserts should last 18-24 months depending on how fast she grows. Then we will need to re-evaluate her feet and see if we need to continue with her inserts.


Here's what they look like.

Carving Time!

My favorite time of the year is Halloween and carving pumpkins. The girls enjoyed it this year though they still won't put there hands in to take out the "goup". Maybe next year.

Carving Pumpkins is another great way to teach the kids about what Christ has done for us:

When we take Christ as our Savior he removes all the sin in our lives, i.e - "goup" in the pumpkin. Then He shines His light in our lives, i.e. candles inside the pumpkin shine for all to see. The girls really enjoyed singing "This little light of mine" as we carved our pumpkins.

Everyone have a safe and great Halloween.

Finally We are Blogging!

We have finally started a blog - we have finally joined the rest of society.

Anne is a little worried about the the "blog" since I spend most of my day on the internet; i.e. St. Louis Dispatch, ESPN, Fantasy Football updates, and USA Today. I admit I'm a internet-junkie...

But I thought this would be a great way for friends and family to see how our family is doing and to stay in touch more often. I think that Anne will enjoy it as well.

Below are some pictures of the girls and the "bonfire." They are really starting to enjoy bonfires, though they don't like smore's very much, just making them. They perfer to have a graham cracker and just melt the marshmellows. It's nice that they are getting older to enjoy stuff like this.

The last picture is the girls next to flowers they got free at vacation bible school. They begged me to plant them and they watered them like 2 or 3 times and they just took off. They are very proud of their "garden."

We will try to keep up on pictures and updating the blog two or three times a month.

Thanks for reading,

The Finks