It's a girl -as most of you know!

These are the first outfits I bought for our baby girl! I still can't get used to saying that! We had to get the cute swimsuits for next summer, they were so cheap at Old Navy. My sister even had to by her one! Now, I'm watching the stores for all of those cute winter dresses with the adorable tights! I can't wait! The Lord heard our prayers and we feel so blessed to have a daughter!

The boys taking a break from all that playing- staying cool- playing game boy! Preston and Hailey after a chocolate chip cookie!

Johnsons Shut-ins

Definitely worth the drive(almost two hours)! Jeff and I went several years ago when we were still dating I think (Ok, I guess that was almost over 9 years ago) but we forgot how neat it was there!

Homecomers - oh the fun!

Actually, we were a little disappointed this year! Since it was the 100th anniversary, we thought it may have more stuff for the kids. Yet, it actually seemed like less! Oh, well, the kids still seemed to enjoy it! Austin rode the scrambler with Sydney and absolutely loved it, he was laughing and smiling the entire time I couldn't believe it!

Eating green eggs and ham and drinking danimals! Yummy!

More Fun at the lake

The day the boys had the best time feeding the starving ducks!

Here I go again, getting behind with my journaling... What we've been up to... yesterday I met the first grade teachers for lunch at Pasta House, the kids played afterwards while we continued to visit. The boys got a cookie for being so wonderful at the restaurant while we waited for our food! I also took them to play games and we had to get a bigger shell for Austin's hermit crab.

Tuesday we picked up the beautiful pottery the boys made from Pottery Ewe. We do this every summer and they still enjoy it! Afterwards, we picked up Parker and Hailey for a play date! We went to McDonalds for lunch, then back here to play, and eventually to my mom's to swim because it was super hot out! The kids had a blast as always.

Monday was catch up from the weekend, cleaning and errands! I got several of my 'boring" things to do this summer checked off, like cleaning the windows, baseboards (not painted yet), cabinets, and couches ! I feel like I'm nesting early or something! Once I got started I couldn't stop!

Over the weekend we went to the Johnson's Shut-ins, the kids loved it there! Jeff and I did, too! Climbing the rocks through the waterfalls is just great fun! Saturday Jeff worked, we went to church, and then the Fisher's came over for BBQ and visiting! It was a great night with great friends as always!

Friday, Jeff and I, had date night! Ok, well it was just dinner at Texas Roadhouse and a trip to Lowes but it was still nice having the time together!

Tuesday's fun!

Club houses for scientist only, play dough, water color, green eggs and ham, a little football, and lots of tricks on the trampoline..these are a few highlights from the day! It was a soggy morning so we spent most of it inside and these are some fun things the boys came up with! They went with my mom for a couple of hours after lunch so I got to go shopping by myself; only we'll have to go back because the boys don't like everything I got them! Another wonderful summer day!
Monday we went swimming-imagine that! Actually, it was not for too long because it was even too hot to swim. The water was quite warm and outside felt like a sauna- 105 at least with the heat index! Monday night I enjoyed our small group meeting! I wish we could do one all year long, it helps me make a point to get out my bible and learn more! I'm thankful for Heather and Sarah for making the time to plan and organize these studies!

Well, exactly one month until school starts! Where does the time go? There is still so much I want to get done before school starts; however, it's not fun stuff! For example, clean the blinds and curtains in all rooms (completely boring), clean and possibly paint the base boards (probably not happening)! Then we've decided to turn the 4th bedroom in the basement into Austin's room (he'll still sleep in Preston's room upstairs though on the top bunk)! So, we need to go through the storage area and make room for all of the stuff in the spare bedroom and we will have to get carpet and a ceiling still installed. Then we can start to paint all of the kid rooms and prepare the baby room. Austin wants red (I'm not sure about that, maybe one red wall), Preston wants a blue room and Monday we will know whether the baby room should be pink or blue-yeah! Obviously, all of this will not happen in one month but it sure would be nice if it could! On top of all that, I have to get my classroom back in order, they didn't put hardly anything back in the right place after they waxed the floors. So, Jeff and I will have to go up there and rearrange the furniture and then I will have to unpack everything! This month is going to fly by. So, we will probably will not get a lot of the boring stuff done and we will however cram in as much fun as possible! Yesterday evening we went to the Jackson pool so today we will go to my mom's. That's all the boys want to do is swim which is fine with me I love it, too! Tomorrow we will be going to lake and sometime we still need to go to Six Flags to use our free tickets. Austin earned one from reading for 600 minutes and teachers get one for keeping track of the reading sheets! Also, I hope we will get to camping again, it's just been so hot!
I took the boys to pottery ewe to paint yesterday. They really enjoy going there and then going back to pick up their artwork! Austin painted a cross jewelry box and Preston a fish dish! Earlier in the week, they created their own artwork on large canvas frames (I'll post pictures)! They turned out really good! Preston's became a rainbow and Austin drew a nature picture with a creek running through the trees and flowers and a pink house. I'm working on a book of summer memories from shutterfly so I'll get back to that before the kids wake up. Yes, they are definitely on their summer schedule. Preston doesn't nap and therefore sleep in until at least nine every day!

What we've been upto...

I'll have to finish journaling about vacation later, I'm getting so far behind as this summer slowly breezes by. I didn't journal one activity from last week and I've almost forgot what we did (that's why I do this). One cooler afternoon we met Jeff for lunch at the Capaha park and then we fed the ducks. This was probably the most fun they've had feeding the ducks because they were starving, the boys were surrounded by ducks and they loved it. We played at every equipment they have there and the train too, of course! We eventually got rained out and had to come home! We spend most of our time outside on bike rides, going to new parks; for example, we went to Brookside park the other day which they thought was cool. We go to my moms to swim a lot!
Jeff and the boys have been into playing frizbee every night lately.
Sunday night my mom and Tim came over and the boys played football, Jeff and Preston against Austin and paw-paw! It was so cute to watch the boys run in circles as they tried to learn what was going on.
Saturday we went to the lake early because we knew the rain was suppose to move in late that afternoon. Sure enough around 3:00 it started to cloud up. Yet, we still managed to get a couple fun hours on the lake. I even gave Preston and Jeff a ride on the tube and Austin even went out with Jeff. Then I tried to give Jeff a wild ride but I couldn't throw him off!
Friday we spent the evening with the Fishers which was nice we hadn't been over in quite sometime, the kids had great fun together- swimming, looking for sticks for the fire, and jumping on the trampoline!
Monday the boys played in the sprinklers and just enjoyed the nice day without the humidity. They have been asking to go the Jackson pool all summer so I finally gave in! It wasn't so bad and I saw a previous co-worker so we got to catch up and what's been going on while the kids played. Afterwards we stopped for a snow cone and then came home to rest for a bit.
Yesterday we were busy with errands most of the afternoon. So, the boys highlights of the day were probably getting to go the pet store just to look around, getting a cookie while at the mall, and going to the library! Then Kali and Jessica came over for dinner. The kids played hard and enjoyed the slip-n-slide!

Photos at the Mackinaw Bridge

The boys loved to run on the beach! Below: Posing for pictures; the boys were so tired of pictures by the end of the trip!

Mackinaw City Michigan

We went to Mackinaw for the next two days of our trip. We checked in the hotel and went right to the beach because it wasn't very warm and as the evening approached it would only get cooler. After that, we ate at the Dixie Salon which was delicious! Then we took the boys to play golf! I beat Jeff by the way! Golf was a lot of fun. It was so funny to watch...when he would get his ball close the hole he would use his golf club to push or pull his ball into the hole. Next, we were off to take pictures by the 5 mile bridge that connects the two parts of Michigan. The boys loved running down the beach find tiny sea shells. We went to the indoor water park which just their size, it was like a mini Farmington water park inside. We still had more fun ahead. We got some fudge because you have to get fudge if you are in Mackinaw City. We watched an outdoor laser show while we enjoyed our late night fudge snack ( it was about 10:30 by now). It doesn't get dark until 10 o'clock or later there. Therefore, we were up late every night! We called it a night after that and went back to the hotel. The next day we thought about taking the kids to the island but Jeff got talking to someone when he took the kids to the pool who had kids the same age as ours and she said her kids got bored and tired of walking so we decided to wait until they are bigger. We spent the day in town touring the shops and what else, eating! I'm sure I gained over my limit this month! Oh well, vacations only come around once a year! We went back to Onaway that evening and Jeff's mom made spaghetti for dinner. We ate with them and afterwards the guys went with Jeff's uncle to dig for night crawlers (worms) for their fishing adventure the next day.

Playing in the sand!

Day 1 of vacation...only six more days to document!

Visiting cousins at their campsite on Lake Huron. It was only about 65 degrees; however, the boys couldn't resist getting wet! I tried to tell them it was too cold but they wouldn't listen to me. Before I knew it they were taking their shirts off and getting wet! I worry too much, I was afraid they would get sick on our first day there. However, they didn't and shortly later they were cold and finished getting wet.

Our first full day of vacation!

We went to church with Jeff's parents barely. The boys slept in and Jeff and I talked over coffee for way too long. I love vacations, that's about the only time we actually get to do that it seems;however, we did make it on time. The boys literally crawled out of bed, got dressed, and we left. After church we took his parents out for lunch at the town restaurant (Onaway is very small)! On our way over to visit Jeff's sister where she was camping we stopped at these falls. The picture doesn't really do justice for just how pretty it is here. The boys loved it and wanted to swim but it as quite cold and we needed to get to visiting. So, we went back another day.

Checking in

We made it back from vacation today! We only spent a mere 13 hours on the road to get home from Michigan; however, it was definitely worth it! We had an absolute blast! The boys were so excited to get there that when we put them in the car at 2:00 am last Saturday when we left, they didn't fall back asleep until after we stopped for breakfast which was after 8 in morning! Half of the reason we left so early was so they would sleep, our plan backfired; yet, they were wonderful on the trip and actually they each only slept about an hour or two total the entire way up. Anyhow, I will have to post pictures and more details on the trip later! For now- I can't wait to sleep in my own bed!
Hope everyone had a great 4th!