6 YEARS!

6 years ago, this month, I married my best friend!! Thanks to my great friend, Hillary, we actually got to go out for dinner and ice cream and celebrate our awesome relationship! It's hard to believe, but it was only the second time we've been on a date in almost 5 years--before Riley was born!! Hopefully, we can make it more of a regular occurrence. I miss just hanging out with my husband. We went to a place downtown called Farren's where they had great burgers and homemade fries and hit up Baskin Robbins afterwards. I couldn't imagine my life without Ty and I am so thankful for the husband and father that he is. I am truly blessed and I honestly believe he was made for me!

Best day of my life!

6 years later, not much has changed :)!!

Climber!

Emmersyn's new love is climbing on EVERYTHING! I'm telling you, this girl is fearless. She loves to climb and be adventurous! She's been walking for a long time, so even though she just turned 13 months I feel like she's had a head start! Yesterday morning I couldn't find her for a minute, then I walked upstairs to find her jumping on Riley's trampoline! She doesn't usually climb the stairs and definitely not without me right behind her, so I was surprised to find her up there. Time to keep the baby gate up.

Then later that same day I had the step stool out to get something out of a high cupboard, I turned around to make lunch and the next thing I knew Lincoln said "Mom, get Emery!!!". I turned around and found her here:

Talk about scaring me to death. I about had a heart attack, good thing I was right there. I won't be leaving the step stool out any more!

Curtis Orchard

My friend, Lindsay, and I took our kids to Curtis Orchard for a playdate a couple of weeks ago. We have never been and I think it will be a lot of fun to visit this fall. They have apple picking, pumpkin picking, pony rides, bounce houses, etc. The kids enjoyed feeding the goats, swinging on the "ropes", and at the very end we got fresh donuts and apple cider!

Laney, Alex, Emmersyn, Riley and Lincoln

Our best attempt at a group shot!

Family, swimming and blueberry picking

The second half of our trip to Michigan was spent with my Dad and family. We had such a good time and a busy couple of days. We went blueberry picking where we didn't actually pick a whole lot. Most of the blueberries were dumped from their buckets, were eaten, or were green. It didn't matter though because we had a great time. My kids were extremely sleep deprived and I'm not sure crabby would be a "good" enough word describe their mood during our blueberry picking. Emmersyn had a great time and Micah enjoyed feeding her dirt when Kasey and I weren't watching. Who knows how much of it she ate, but I'm pretty sure it was at least 2 entire toddler-handfuls.

After blueberry picking we went to a friend's pool and spent the whole afternoon swimming and going down the slide. Riley has never gone down a water slide before but, of course, even before she got in the water she ran right to the slide and went down it. I'm telling you, that girl of mine is fearless. Lincoln on the other hand opted out of going down the slide. He was much more content float in the shallow end!

The night before we left we also had a family picnic at the Bridgman Township Park. It was a beautiful night and it was so nice to have everyone together. The kids enjoyed playing together and the adults got to chat for a while. We had such a good time but couldn't wait to get back home to see Ty, we missed him and wished he could have come...next time!

Special Friends

I feel like we've been back to Michigan about every month since we moved here. It hasn't quite been that much, but it's been at least every other and it is nice that we've been able to since we're a lot closer now! We made a trip back the last week in July, but this was a special trip. One of my best friends and her family were coming back to the States (they were transferred to Mexico just months after we moved to WV) and we hadn't seen each other in a year and a half. They were making a trip to Kalamzoo to see us, so I packed the kids up and stayed at Gull Lake for three days, then went to my dad's for another three days. It was SO good to see Mandy and her kids. She's one of those friends who you don't have to see or talk to everyday to pick up right where you left off! That kind of friendship is hard to come by and I'm thankful for her and her family! I can't wait until they move back to the states!

The kids and I drove up on Sunday afternoon and spent the day with my mom, Jeff and Lily. Mandy and kids weren't getting there until Monday. This whole trip we did a lot of swimming which is great because my kids love to swim! Once Mandy got there we hung out at my mom's, swam, went on boat/jet ski rides (it was Riley and Lincoln's first time on the jet ski), had dinner and played hard. Tuesday we took the kids to the park, lunch at the mall, and Jungle Joe's (jump house in Kzoo). We parted ways for a couple hours and then left the kids with my mom (Mandy got a babysitter). I met Mandy and James at the mall to shop and then had a great dinner. It was so great to catch up and I look forward to seeing them again soon!!

R and L swimming with Lily!

Jeff took Riley and Ethan to the Jet Ski!

Lincoln and Nolan on the Jet Ski!

Riley, Lydia, Ethan, Lincoln and Nolan on the boat before dinner!

My mom made Emmersyn a birthday cake and got her, her first (probably of many) pair of Uggs for this winter :)!!

Mandy and I at dinner!

Emmersyn turns ONE!!

This year has flown by and it's hard to believe that my baby is no longer a baby, she's definitely more a toddler than a baby. I love the new things she's doing but I miss that baby stage already! At one year old she is walking (she started walking at 10 months), "talking", kissing, waving, clapping and trying to keep up with her older brother and sister! She has 8 teeth (top 2, bottom 2 and ALL four morals!). At her one year doctor appointment she weighed 21 lbs. 15 ounces and was 29.5 inches long. She's by far by chubbiest baby I've had, starting out just shy of 10 lbs., but she's also tall so I feel like she's starting to thin out a little bit.

Sleeping is an issue we're working on. Just after she turned one I started nursing once a day, and once a night if she woke up, but I have stopped feeding her at night and she seems to be sleeping through the night more often once she knew nursing wasn't an option.

If I were given one word to describe my little one year old it would be happy. It's just that simple. She is the most smiley, happy little thing you'll ever meet. She very rarely cries and if she does it's because she's hurt or tired. I cannot even begin to describe the joy and happiness she has brought into our lives. It's hard to remember life before her. I LOVE the fact that she's such a mommy's girl. I call her my little koala because she just wraps her arms and legs around me and clings. She is getting pretty bad stranger anxiety and doesn't let many people hold her until she's comfortable, I hope she's always a mommy's girl!

We can already see the relationship she is forming with her older siblings. It's really neat to watch. With Riley, she loves to sit on her lap and Riley will read books to her. She follows Riley around the house and is always playing with her dolls and Barbies. With Lincoln she LOVES to wrestle. Lincoln will be laying on the ground and Emmersyn will literally jump on top of him and crawl on him and Lincoln just laughs and wrestles back. The relationships they have are already so different and so special. I love watching our kids play together, it makes me so thankful we had them so close together!

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!!

Indianapolis, IN

July 3rd was my cousin, Whitney's, wedding in Indianapolis, IN. Instead of driving there that Sunday we decided to make it a mini-vacation and leave Thursday (to go to MI and drop Ty's sister, LaCross, off because she had been staying with us for that whole week) and stay until Monday. We had so much fun and her wedding/reception was beautiful! We snuck in a trip to the zoo with my Dad, step-mom, sisters, brother, and sister-in-law before the wedding. It was a hot day, but we had a great time. We also did lots of swimming and spending time with family!! My kids love staying in hotels and actually do pretty well sleeping in them which makes vacations a bit more enjoyable!

LaCross came to visit! (she had just had surgery on her foot the week before!)

Washing an elephant!

Emmersyn eating a pear--whole. It was in a bag under her feet. Somehow she kicked it up to her hands and started chowing down. I didn't notice until it was half eaten.
L with Aunt Britton and Uncle Kolby

The whole gang!

Swimming Lessons

The kids did swimming lessons at a local pool earlier this summer. These were Lincoln's first lessons and I knew he'd love them because he loves the water. As much as they enjoyed the lessons, they'd much rather just "swim". Riley kept asking me, after each lesson, "Mommy, why won't my teacher let me swim? I just want to play". We will probably continue lessons later in the summer, but will do private ones, so they get a little more "water time".

Urbana Aquatic Center

Dino Slide

Riley swimming

Lincoln swimming!