Halloween!

This year for Halloween, we went to a friend's (Joel and Ana Schraeder) neighborhood to trick or treat. The kids had a blast and we were lucky to have great friends to go with!

Lincoln as Spider-man, Oli as a mermaid, Isa as a cow, Emmersyn as a ladybug, and Riley as Rapunzel (Tangled).

By the end of the night the kids were wiped out...

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!

St. Louis, MO

Ty had business in St. Louis, MO in June and we were able to work it out for the rest of us to tag along. It was a very short trip, 2 days in fact. It may have been short but we were able to pack a lot into those two days. We went to the St. Louis Zoo, went swimming, out for ice cream, and shopping at the mall the first day.

The second day Ty had to work the entire day so that left the kids and I in a hotel for 10 hours without a car. I wasn't too concerned as they had a big pool and we were within walking distance from the mall. Our plan was to stay in the hotel room watching cartoons and playing until 12 when we had to check out. At noon, I was going to walk to the mall, eat lunch and shop, then come back and swim until Ty got back from his meeting at 5. Well, that plan went down the drain when we woke up to it raining ALL. DAY. LONG. We couldn't walk to the mall because it was storming and it turned out that their pool was part inside and part outside. Since it was storming and part of the pool was outdoors and it was the same body of water as the indoor pool, that was shut down all day. That left me and 3 CRABBY, tired kids in a hotel lobby for 5 and a half hours with NOTHING to do. Ty had taken all of our luggage (aka. toys) with him and we had nothing to do. Lets just say this was by far the most stressful and frustrating day probably of my entire life!! The kids were as good as can be expected but we were all bored and really tired...the first day was so much fun, but I'm not sure it was worth it. We'll see if we ever go on another business trip again!

Emmersyn enjoyed swimming so much that she fell asleep in the water!

At the St. Louis Zoo

Our weekend in MI

As I said before, we went to Michigan for Jori's and Lincoln's birthday parties. There were just too many cute pictures from that weekend not to make a seperate blog post about our time there. Kasey and Micah came up for the whole day Saturday and Kolby and Britton came up on Friday and stayed the weekend to see the kids. It was nice for us all to be together, as it doesn't happen very often. We had a "surprise" dinner at Chili's for Jori's party and other than that I made the Buzz Lightyear cake (which was more trouble than it was worth--NEVER doing that again!) and alien cupcakes. We then headed down to St. Joe early Sunday morning to hang out with my Dad, Jamie and the girls at Kasey's house before Lincoln's party. It's always too short but hopefully we'll make it back soon.

Everyone helped make the frosting and cake/cupcakes for Lincoln's party the next day!!!

Kolby entertained the kids while we got to make the cake, which was more help than he probably realizes!

They kept kissing each other!

My kids love "Uncle KoKo", including Emmersyn!

Kasey and I bought matching shirts for Micah and Lincoln and of course my girls almost always have on matching clothes!

Emmersyn and the newly turned 16 year old. If you live in Kzoo, I suggest you stay off the road...

These two got into everything and made a lot of messes! (But had fun together doing it!)

***Oh and a BIG announcement by Kasey and Corey at Jori's party is that she's pregnant again!! YEAH! I'm so excited to be an aunt again!!! ***

Cousins!

We were so lucky to have Kasey and Micah come visit us last week for a few days and we had a great time. By the time we scheduled stuff around 4 kids' naps we didn't have a ton of time to see the town, however, Kasey and I did get out in the evenings while Ty watched the kids. We went to the indoor park here (which the kids and I visit frequently!) and they came to our playgroup before heading home. Here are a few pictures from our time together. It was fun to see my kids interact with their only cousin. I hope my kids love being with their cousins as much as I do when I'm with mine--no matter how much or how little I see them!


Poor Kasey had two kids the 3 days they were here. Riley was attached to her hip and lets just say when they left it wasn't pretty! Riley literally cried for hours after they left, she cried herself to sleep, and cried for Kasey when she woke up the next morning. It broke my heart to see her so upset, but we will be seeing them next weekend again...Riley just doesn't understand. She even asked Kasey if Corey could pick Micah up and she could live with us. Ha

He is Risen! (pt. 2)

We are so thankful for Easter. Sure it's fun to have a nice meal with family/friends, the Easter egg hunt is always a hit and I have a great excuse to match my kids' outfits. However, that is not what Easter is all about. We are so thankful for the sacrific Jesus made on the cross and for rising again on the third day. What an awesome gift He gave to us and I am thankful my sins have been forgiven!

Yes, we (for now) do the Easter Bunny (although, we don't really "push" it on the kids), but most importantly we remind them what Easter is really about. This year we bought "Resurection Eggs" to help the kids, visually, learn the true meaning of Easter. What a great tool those eggs are--it got them involved and kept their attention!!

We went to church in the morning, ate lunch, rested in the afternoon and then (since we aren't close enough to family) had two couples/families/friends over for dinner. One couple lives directly behind us and the other family are moving directly across from us which I'm thrilled about! We had such a great time fellowshiping with them. The kids all play great together and we've enjoyed getting closer with some great couples!

Easter Baskets:

Ty and the kids reading about the Easter Story:

Family pictures:

We were in such a hurry to get to church on time, Ty put his Bible on top of the van and forgot about it until a few blocks down the road when it came sliding down the window :). Good thing I was looking at pictures on the camera and had it out already:

The kids playing so well in Riley's room: