Four Generations

This past weekend, we visited Chris's grandparents. We were surrouded by lakes, and we were able to take advantage of some great time on the water. The kids had their first wave-runner, paddle-boat, and pontoon boat rides.

More importantly, I loved seeing four generations of family together. Our kids are so blessed to have three sets of great grandparents still living. Here are a few shots of the kids with their great grandparents. These first two are from P's b-day.

My dad's parents My mom's mom

Chris's mom's parents

And a few other shots of the water fun. Chris's Uncle John took us out on his pontoon boat. His dog, Gunner came along too. P loved laying on, smacking, petting, and getting kisses from the puppy.

E wasn't sure at first but with a little convincing, she enjoyed the ride.

M loved it from the start and wanted to go faster the whole time.

Vacation 2010

Week before last we spent a week in Port Austin with my family. My parents generously rented a cabin for them, their kids, and their grand kids; 13 of us to be exact; 7 adults and 6 kids under six. We had a blast. My brother went back to work for a few days, but the rest of us were there for the week. We spent our days walking on the beach, playing in the water, eating ice cream, going for bike rides, laughing, playing board games and the Wii, and just enjoying each others company. This was our first year doing this and after this week, I am sure we will make this a tradition in the years ahead. I feel so honored and privileged that we could spend a week with my siblings and parents and enjoy every second of it. The kids loved being together. Eva and my niece Sydney (who are 6 months apart) did EVERYTHING together, from going potty to playing in the sand. It was adorable to watch.

The Whole Gang

Our Family

We ventured in to Pigeon for the farmer's festival one morning...We fed animals, went for a train ride, decorated cupcakes, took pony rides, and the girls got their nails painted all for free. It was a great time.

Beach fun....We had a private section of beach out in front of our cabin. Hours were spent on the beach and many treasures were found and built.

Cousins

Our beautiful Eva

Where it all began...Thanks mom and dad for an incredible time. You are truly a blessing.

My parents and all the kids....morning snuggles with Nana

A daddy and his kids

Our clothes line looked like this most of the time

Going out for a before bed walk on the beach in our jammies

and getting ready to ride. Three bike trailers to hold six kids. :)

I have hundreds more pictures...but you get the idea.
Hope your family is making many beautiful memories this summer too.

Big Milestones

We have seen big changes in Parker this last month. He turned a year and decided to show off some big boy skills. He has decided (on two occasions now) that feeding himself with a spoon is much better than waiting for me to feed him. So yesterday, I let him and shot this little video of it. We haven't done that much practicing, but about a week ago, he literally refused to let me feed him his dinner, and then did it again today. I am all for independence, but the independence vs. messy factor is a hard battle for me right now :)

4th of July weekend he took 5-8 steps several times. We haven't seen much walking since. until yesterday. After his afternoon nap, he decided walking is for him, and every time I turned around he was walking towards me instead of crawling. After capturing many spills on camera, I got this little venture down the hallway (a little dark), showing off for daddy last night. He walked almost as much as he crawled yesterday. He will be on the go, go, go now. I do a double take when I see him come walking toward me. It just looks foreign still. The girls clap, cheer and shout every time he just gets up and walks to them.

He has also decided to grow teeth. His first two teeth have come through the surface in the last two weeks. He now has his two eye teeth coming in. Yes you read it right, not his bottom or top middle teeth... his eye teeth.

He had his one year check and shots a few weeks back. One more set of shots, then he his good until he his four. He weighed in at 21.6 pounds and was 30 inches long. He fell into the 25% for height and weight. He matches his sister Melia, who is also in the 25% for height and weight. Eva is in the 50% for both.

Goats, Veggies, and Fruit

Last night we went for a bike ride and stopped at "Frontier town" a few miles from our house. In this town they have four goats. All of the kiddos LOVED feeding them. P was having a conversation with them, in babble of course, while M and E scoured the ground for every leaf, twig, and branch they could find to feed them.

(Sorry for the quality, it was on my cell phone)

E kept saying, "Come here little fella" She cracks me up.

We have been sticking close to home this past week and finding little things like this to do with the kids to get out of the house. We have been battling what appears to be the flu. It has gone through all of us, but M can's seem to get rid of it. It landed us in the ER for fluids last week, and we went back to the doc this afternoon. He referred us to a Ped. GI doc. We, amazingly, have an appt. for tomorrow afternoon. It usually takes months to get in as a new patient, but our doc convinced them it was a priority. It has been going on for almost three weeks now. Poor Girl. A few hours of the day she seems sick, and then the rest of the day she acts as if nothing is wrong. There are many more details, but I just don't have the energy right now to spell it all out. Any prayers would be greatly appreciated :)

On Sunday we picked our first two Zucchini and today we picked two more. We gave one to our sweet neighbor who is going to water our garden when we are on vacation next week. The garden is out of control. We have about 40 baby green tomatoes growing (and a ton more blooms), 5 little cucumbers with about 30 more blooms, and 3 more zucchini growing as I type, with about 35-40 more blooms. I better start looking up what to do with zucchini :) It is a highlight in my day, when the kids and I go out to see if anything new has grown. Before the week is out we will most likely have 3 or 4 more zucchini ready to be picked and our first two green peppers.

Last weekend we ventured out and picked 11 lbs of strawberries. Many were consumed, but the rest were turned into 10 jars of yummy jam. This was my first time canning, and it has me pumped for future canning endeavors. I plan to can tomato sauce with all our tomatoes. I would also like to can peaches and pears in the fall.

Garden Update

Our Garden has exploded in the last few weeks. It has been so great watching everything grow and change right before our eyes. I can't wait to start eating it. :)

Our TWO zucchini plants are overtaking everything.

Look at the size of that leaf.

There are about 6-8 blooms on each plant so it looks like we are going to have ALOT of zucchini.

We have three pepper plants with 4-5 baby peppers on each right now. Our tomato plants are growing out of their cages and our cucumber is crawling everywhere.

Our lettuce is almost ready to give us our first salad.

Chris built another box this week with the left over wood, and I transplanted our beans. The zucchini was taking all their sun.

The beans are blooming, so we should see beans forming soon.

The girls are as excited as we are about the garden. They go out and check it every morning after breakfast. We'll see how excited they are when they have to eat the fruits of our labor :). We also have cilantro and onions...Can't wait to make fresh salsa right from the garden.