One fish, Two fish...dead fish...

We went to the cottage last Saturday while Shane and his dad ran some errands. Grace and Grandma Diane and I went down to the lake.

Guess who caught her first fish?! Ok, so it was actually dead before she caught it but she was very happy nonetheless.

She loved it. She found his eyes and promptly poked at them- good thing he was already dead!

She played with this thing for at least 15 minutes!

Finally Diane said that it was starting to disintegrate! So we put him back in the water and I shooed him away. :)

Mermaid Festival

Here are some pictures of the mermaid festival

Shane and Hannah taking everyone by storm in bumper cars

Little Miss, "I wanna go with Daddy" watching the bumper cars with her brother close behind. :)

Hannah was so brave and rode this crazy round and round ride by herself!

Shane and Aaron and Hannah rode this one. I blew up the pic so you could see their faces! (below)

She's an adventurer

The big slide with Daddy.

The excitement up close.

Grace's good friend Oliver. Rocking it out on the boats. They had a great time!

Favorites

These two are my favorite

a cute little tutu with a cloth dipe is a fave.

And this little guy is a favorite! We are done having him at out house every day and we do miss him!

Happy Father's Day!

July 2008

July 2009

June 2010

We have the greatest fathers in our lives. My dad and Shane's dad. Both have worked so hard for their families and have always been there for their kids. We are thankful for both of you!

And I am thankful for Shane. He is an amazing father and I love watching him with Grace. He's not afraid to jump in and play with her or help in any other tasks. Gracie couldn't have a better daddy!

Fun with Cousins

We got back from Mackinaw and brought Aaron and Hannah back with us. That same night our friends from Haiti, the Bakers came through town and we were able to visit with them for a bit. lots of kids, lots of fun!

Last night we went to the pool to swim. Grace loves loves to swim.

Aaron and Hannah use the diving boards.

It was a fun time. After that we headed over to the Mermaid festival for the rides. Stay tuned!

Birthday Recap

On Grace's birthday Grandma Diane came to spend the day with us. She helped me plant all the wonderful flowers I got at shipshewana- thank you Diane! Seriously.. it ended up being a super busy day (of course, why didn't I think it would be??) and she just got to business. She also got Grace this tutu that she LOVES.

Our friends the Beers gifted us with this playhouse for Grace. Their daughter had outgrown it and so they passed it to us- what a great gift! Grace was beside herself with excitement when she saw it. And her friends that came over to celebrate with her loved it too!

Ha! I love this pic! Here are the kids posing and where is the birthday girl? Being stubborn in the playhouse- ha!

I made her Elmo Cupcakes. I thought they turned out cute!

And here is another gift from Grandma Diane and Grandpa. A sleeping bag! She LOVES it. On Monday after we got home from Mackinaw we had a house full of 9 EXTRA people - whew~! Grace slept in her sleeping bag in our room. What a big girl!

Weekend

We started our weekend off by heading to MI and stopping at a hotel. Grace got to swim twice with us. She LOVED it! She couldn't get enough even when she was blue lipped and all pruny.

Here is her look when we had her get out of the pool... not so happy. From the hotel we headed to drop her off at my parents and then we drove up to Mackinaw for two nights.

Our "bridge" crossing. It wasn't crowded or busy up there at all so we really enjoyed driving around looking at the gorgeous views.

We took the ferry to the island and spent the day walking around. We loved the Grand Hotel. and pretending that we were living the high life!

Shane loved the boats!

One of the highlights was taking a 2 hour sailboat ride!

And here I am in my 29 weeks glory. WOW!!!! :)

The view from the Grand hotel. It was a wonderful weekend!

24 Months Lamb Picture

Here is Grace with her lamb at maybe 2 weeks? not sure... and she's bugging me to play so I don't have time to check!

12 months with her lamb

and here she is at 24 months! I told her we were going to take a picture with her lamb so she went to her toy box, grabbed it and climbed in the chair. :)

Doesn't she look so big?!

Happy Birthday!!!!

Today is my firstborn's 2nd birthday. She is 2. TWO. How did she get to be two? I was holding her last night and rocking her-she likes to pretend she's a baby. So I was telling her about how when she was born she was itty bitty and I held her like that and fed her and kissed her all over.

I am so very thankful for her in my life. She brings so us much joy. She is curious about everything, adventurous, and sweet (most of the time!)

She gets up on her own in the morning now and comes into our room. Most times Shane will take her out into the living room and give me some more sleep time. But around 6:45-7 ish.. she is ready. She "needs" to come and get me. So he brings her in and I hear- "wake up Mama, Here's your glasses" and then she is shoving my glasses in my face, grabbing my hand and telling me to "come with us". While I'd often rather climb back into bed, I do love how she is ready to start her day and wants me with her. That won't always be the case, so for now.. I go. I'm so thankful that God has blessed me with such a wonder. Happy Birthday Big Girl.