The painted turtle experience

One night in Ludington, we decided to take the kids down and build a campfire for s’mores after dinner.  Dan was reluctant to go fishing and leave me to this task alone. I think he was having flashbacks to my previous ‘camping’ failure.  After much reassurance that I could handle it, he left to go find some fish.

Now, I can do a lot of things and if need be, I’m sure I could have figured out how to make s’mores happen but

Baby Jacob

My new nephew was born a week ago today.  He got his holidays confused and instead of being born just after Valentine’s Day, he was born Christmas Eve.  Since his sister was born 9 wks early, we weren’t shocked to have his early arrival.  I was able to see him shortly after he

A huntin’ we will go

As I do every year, yesterday I joined all the other crazed shoppers for Black Friday savings.  I planned on going with Megan, Joy & Sandy to the various stores to claim our winnings.  The ads rolled out Thanksgiving day and we made our plan.  Megan & I decided that this year, we would have to play with the big dogs… Walmart.  They had their Leapsters for $30 and there was no way we could pass up that savings.  Add in the other steals and deals they were offering and we knew we had to brave it.  “We ran a half marathon, Megan.  We can do this!”  I assured her but I was nervous myself.  One of the Walmarts here in town made national news in ‘05 when a woman was trampled.  She ended up being ok thankfully but some othershave not been so lucky while shopping at Walmart the day after Thanksgiving. 

We decided that we would go to the one near Megan’s house even though that was a 28 mile drive for me instead of a 5 mile one.  We figured it would be worth it since the store was not in Grand Rapids, we would increase our chances of getting the coveted Leapsters.  Joy was going to spend the night at Megan’s house and I would make my drive out to pick them up early in the morning.  Sandy decided to brave one of the local Walmarts since they were the only ones carrying the TV on sale that she wanted.

3:15am arrived and I rolled out of bed. 

Life lately

What a difference a month can make.  What was my life a month ago, is just a faded memory at this point.  Summer was so relaxing and fun, I guess it’s only fitting that now I have to work my butt off.  It’s only fair.  And in this post, I’m not complaining.  I’m merely stating the difference in what was my life and what is my life now.

The same day as Emma’s first day of school, I started watching a 10 month old baby girl.  Her name is Nadia and she is adorable.  In a lot of ways, she reminds me of what Emma used to be like as a baby so it’s nice to have her around.  She is a sweet baby girl and I love having her around 3 days a week.  In fact, she’s so sweet and easy to handle that I almost feel guilty taking money for watching her.  Except at mealtime.  I actually  earn my money when I feed her.  She hates to eat and I have to trick her into eating the majority of bites at every meal.  Just one more thing she has in common with Emma LOL.  It’s been almost a month exactly since I started watching her regularly and I’ve grown very attached to her in that time.

The next baby to come into my daily life is my nephew, Rylan.  Of course, he’s been in my life before now but now I am watching him on the days that my sister in law works.  Rylan in so many ways reminds me of Gerrit and always has.  While being

Lions, tigers & bears… oh my!

Last week Sunday, we went on a family trip to our local zoo.  The weather was beautiful for it with sunny skies and a soft breeze.  The temperature couldn’t have been more than 76.  It was great!  Not too hot that the smell (you know the smell I’m talking about) of the zoo stifled the air but warm enough that the kids could stay warm in summer clothes.  Perfect.

We don’t have the biggest zoo here but the kids got to see some cool stuff and the grown up kids got to do some cool stuff.  Dan, Kevin & Claire (Kevin’s stepdaughter) went on a rope obstacle course.  I was taking pictures of them getting their harnesses put on and while taking the picture, I saw a look of extreme discomfort on Kevin’s face. 

Big Kitty

We went to the zoo on Sunday with Dan’s family.  There are a ton of pictures that I will be posting later but I thought I would start with the lions.  They were really cool to watch and were actually playful.

The week of Emma part cinq

 

Emma’s 3rd birthday was fun and came fast.  That was a crazy year for us.  We already had a rental and decided to purchase the house next door to ours to flip.  It sounded great on paper, but real life is rarely as you plan.  Little did we know that our renter was going to bail on us and that the housing market would take a big dump.  It was a tough year but we somehow managed.  Her birthday party was a nice

The week of Emma part quatre

Emma’s 2nd birthday was HOT!  We had just cut down a GINORMOUS tree in the backyard and I spent the week before the party splitting logs whenever the kids were napping.  Ya, can you even picture me splitting logs?  *Phew*  It wasn’t pretty but it had to get done.  Dan is always the busiest during the summer (like 16hr days busy) so he had neither the time or the energy to do it.