Monday in Michigan

Monday morning started with a wonderfully cool run. I think I could actually enjoy running in Michigan-it's so nice and cool here! Edgar has been taking Eli on 4-wheeler rides every day. Eli loves it :)
Leah enjoying the GORGEOUS green grass.

It's so soft!

I think she likes it!

Isaiah seems to enjoy it too :)

These are actually a few rather rare pictures of Isaiah...I kinda tricked him into getting them :)

Brother and sister enjoying Grandma & Grandpa's back yard.

Daddy watching over the kids :)

We're having such a nice relaxing time!!

JUMP!

Sunday morning we got up and went to Chamber United. That's the church Rick and Kristi started in Deckerville. It was a great service. Johnny led worship and Rick preached a really good sermon.

After church we went to a graduation party for a family friend. Eli fell asleep on the way there and would not wake up. We took him from the car, sat with him for a bit (still asleep) then laid him down on the ground where he slept for over an hour.

When we got home mom kept the kids, and the rest of us headed to the lake to jump off the breakwall. The water was pretty rough, but we jumped anyway :)

I actually jumped too. I wasn't really sure I was going to actually jump, but I did. I only went off twice...but that was two more times than I thought I was going to go :)

Johnny is fairly entertaining to watch jump.

It was pretty fun. The water was not too cold, and though the water was a little rough, it was kinda fun to be in. Isaiah came along too, and I think he must have jumped in about 30 times. I think he had a lot of fun :)
I'm sure this is something we'll do most summers that we come up here-soon Eli & Leah will be there jumping with us :)

The reason we're here

I love vacation in Michigan. It is so relaxing and peaceful. My parents have so many things to do that aid in the relaxation process :) The weekend we arrived a lot of my mother's family was here to celebrate my grandfather's birthday. We spent time in the pool.
Isaiah loved having all the kids around to play!

Leah was trying to play the recorder...

But the biggest reason we came was to help celebrate Grandpa's 90th. We had the party at the Youth Center, so mom and Randee brought Grandpa over in his wheel chair.

Aunt Linda and Uncle Terry were there, as well as Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Ron.

He got to meet his newest great-grandson. This is my cousin, Brandon's son-Mason. Not even 7 weeks old :)

As soon as Uncle Ron said 'Amen' Isaiah was in line.

Randee and Parker-he's such a cutie!!

Grandpa clapping after we sang Happy Birthday.

Getting snuggles from daddy.

The kids playing

Leah and her Great Grandpa.

The party was so nice. Grandpa had such a good day. I think he really enjoyed seeing everyone. There were just over 30 people there to celebrate with him. It was a very special day, and I am so glad we were able to be there. I think you should be able to click HERE for some more pictures of the day. Hopefully that link will work :)

We got home and relaxed the rest of the day. Edgar was happy to show off his trampoline skills :)

Meeting Audrey

I have about a million things I should be doing right now, but I couldn't resist posting a few pictures of little (very little!) Audrey. We got to go meet her yesterday at the hospital. I don't think I've every held a baby that little! She was a tiny 5 lb 7 oz when she was born-she decided she didn't want to wait the extra month to come out :) She's doing beautifully. And she was so kind to open her eyes a LOT while we were there. It probably had something to do with the food, but I'm going to say it was because of me... ;)
Olivia is super cute with her little sister

I think Audrey likes looking at her big sister too!

Lots of kisses!

Congratulations John & Christine! We are so excited for you guys! And THRILLED that both of our kids are going to grow up with your two!!

Growing, Playing & Crawling!

The past couple of weeks I have been meaning to update. We've been busy, but it hasn't been anything too terribly exciting...noting extremely picture worthy :) Well...truth is, I've been too lazy to get the camera out. My kids are ALWAYS picture worthy!

After our big 4th of July 'bash' we had a busy week of swimming and playing (sounds like a good week to me!) Eli took swim lessons for 2 weeks. He still cannot swim, but he sure can KICK! I never did take my camera to the swim lessons, but I took this picture with my phone of his class. He did good...well...he had good days and bad days. The good days he got in the water without screaming. The bad days...well...he screamed and cried a lot. I'm not sure why some days he was scared to go with his teacher and other days he was fine...Oh well. It's a start. He's still pretty young, and I had no expectations for him to be able to swim, but I wanted him to start the process...and the lessons were cheap, so I didn't mind. He WAS in a class for kids 3 years and older, so he was probably too young for the class, so considering THAT he did great.

We have met up with some friends a couple of times to play, and that has been nice. It's so hot here, that it's kinda hard to find stuff to do other than swimming, so when play dates come up, we jump on them! (Especially when they are at a kid's gymnastic place. Then Eli REALLY jumps :) Sorry...no pictures of that event...)

We also went to a 'Pirate' play date.
Leah apparently doesn't like eye patches...
...but enjoys hooks. (not sure why the picture is sideways...) Eli had fun, but still has trouble sharing. Someday he'll share, right? Please tell me he will...It's not fun to be put in 'time out' at a play date...

Leah also had her 9 month check-up on Friday. She is currently 29 inches (87%), 20 lb, 3 oz (69%) and her head is 17 inches (22%...little head...) She's growing beautifully. She's definitely getting longer, though, and her little chubby legs are starting to disappear :( I guess it had to happen sometime...

The BIG news in her development is her newly acquired skill.

This was her crawling attempt a couple of days ago:

...and then yesterday at Aunt Krista's house:

She's completely smitten by her Uncle Eliott, so I'm pretty sure she was showing off for him, cuz she hasn't crawled today, but was crawling quite a bit at their house.

And that's pretty much what we've been up to! I've been trying some new cooking techniques, which are...interesting. They take a lot of time, but they are suppose to be good for you. Edgar is feeling only about 50%, so we are trying to change our diet a bit. If you would have told me 2 years ago that I'd be sprouting barley & almonds, and eating Eggplant sandwiches I would have laughed right out loud...but that's what I'm doing. I'm currently making basil crackers in our dehydrator that have no flour. Hopefully they taste good...they smell AMAZING!

And that's all for now!!

Independance Day

Did you celebrate the 4th of July?
We did :) We had some friends and family over to watch the parade.
The fun thing about the parade is that it went right in front of our house.
So we just took our chairs outside and watched the show...

...and waved our flags.

John, Christine & Olivia were there.

Eric, Leilani & Isaac came too (though Eric had to leave early to go to work...hence the outfit.)
Abuela & Abuelo were there as well. Leah got lots of snuggle time with Abuela :)

I don't think Eli really knew what to think of all these people coming down our street...he pretty much stood in one spot the whole time and didn't say a word. He DID smile when the horses came by...but that was it.

Here comes the parade!

The town's SWAT team car...it kept stalling. I think our town needs a new SWAT team car...

A bagpipe band

Olivia waving to the people in the parade.

Edgar wearing his newly acquired beads.

Eli still standing there...we just kept putting beads on him...

Our car was in the parade :) I wanted to go fix the banner...

Yup...still standing there.

A dog in a baseball uniform.

A band.

Very festive

This lady made me laugh...I wasn't trying to take her picture. She saw me with a camera and stopped to pose...so I HAD to take her picture :) The confederate flag? Kind of an odd addition to the parade...

We had so much fun watching the parade (after we had a pancake breakfast). This will definitely become an annual tradition!