Pure Joy

Here are a few of my favorite pictures....
Nolan with Uncle Jeremy (Jim's youngst brother)

The boys in their Christmas pj's

Devin's last soccer game

My sweet and adorable grandparents at my grandparents 70th wedding anniversary party last summer. My grandma is 90 and my grandpa will be 92 in September.

Time Out!

I had to share these funny pictures with you of Mr. Nolan being in Time out...the really funny part is Jim told him to get out and he did not move..he just kept standing there..LOL! I had to take some pictures of my 1 1/2 year old in time out!!

Living in a ME world

I was sitting at dinner with the fam tonight and Mr. Nolan, our youngest who is almost 2, was demanding that I get him another drink of water. I said you can wait until I am done..I had a few more bites left..this got me thinking about how many of us can be so demanding at times as we live in a all about me society. We need things quick...and easy..if it will take work forget it, most are not willing to go above and beyond..just want to make it by. I just had to share this insight I gained from my 2 year old tonight.

Hot Lazy Summer Day in the MUD

At least once a summer I let the boys enjoy making mud and playing it! I just happen to let the boys do this on a day when they had a friend over, Michael. He had a blast..I am not sure if many parents allow mud but I think it is SO Much FUN!! Plus great pictures!!!!
Here is Michael with Devin

This is Ian's first year really enjoying the mud too!!

Landon
My favorite picture is this one: Devin getting mud thrown by Landon in his eye!!

Yummy, Watermelon!!

Here are a few pictures of the boys enjoying their watermelon...I love Nolan and Devin's expressions. They do not look like brothers do they?

The mommy's weekend

Good morning! On Saturday night I was driving home by myself and was rear ended while I was trying to turn. The driver was very young, I would say late teen early twenties. Jim's car was fine and so was her's. The only thing wrong that I did not realize at the moment I talked with her was my neck. Here is what I did wrong that hopefully anyone reading this will learn too: never leave the scene of the accident without calling police. The young girl gave me her phone number and her name. I called the police when I got home realizing I might need a report to have my insurance cover me for medical on my neck. I called the police and they took down my info and told me to drive to the police station on Sunday to make the report. Ok..so I did that on Sunday. When I spoke to the officer she told me if I did file a report I would get a ticket as well as the young girl because it was illegal to leave the scene? I was like what? I had no clue!
The really strange part is right after the accident I called my best friends (who I had just left from being with) and told them what had happened and they told me to report. My friend's husband works as a fire fighter/paramedic so I figured he would know what I should do...the really odd thing that happened was on Sunday morning while my friend was working he recieved a call from the the girl's mom who hit me....asking a bunch of questions..WERID uh? Out of all the people she talked to my friend who knew about the accident!
So I called my insurance guy and he said I could still make a claim without a report. Thank God for AAA!!! They are the best.

Hawk Island

On Monday my mom and neice, Hannah came to visit for the day. It was a great day! We took the kids to the local county park that is free during the weekdays. The kids had so much fun at the splash pad. I decided to take Devin, Landon and Hannah for a paddle boat ride. Mom kept the 2 little ones while we went for a half hour. Those do cost a little to rent but it was worth it! They were all so good.



This is what Nolan actually preferred doing more than playing in the water

Ian was very mad at mommy that day so of course I had to take his picture throwing a fit..LOL

Ian is the only one who did not go in the water so here he is playing on the fence.

Hannah making a funny face.....

4th of July

Here are some pictures of the boys at our friend's house in Battle Creek. The boys have "worms" in their mouths from the yummy Dirt Cake. We hung out with 2 other couples both have girls...you can see them below too

Michigan Adventure

We took the boys to Michigan Adventure on Tuesday. It was the perfect day! We left the younger two with my mom. I can not believe they lasted from Noon when we arrived until 9pm when the park closed! We headed right to the water park until 3ish then rode a couple of rides before taking a break while waiting for dinner to open at 5pm-6:30 (we paid for a package deal of a BBQ buffet, we are so glad we did that!) Dinner gave Landon a 2nd wind..(or the caffeine and sugar we allowed them to drink...that they never get a home!) so he could last until 9pm.
We drove to our hotel in Muskegon and stayed at the Fairfield Inn. They were so nice there and allowed us a late departure of 2pm! We ate a large breakfast at the hotel and went swimming. I was actually able to read a lot that morning! It was very relaxing. We then picked up Ian and Nolan from my parents house...only to find out that the big storm we had been driving in caused them to lose their power..my dad came home early (rain caused him to stop farming..praise the Lord!) and we actually went and ate at the Middleton Dinner. It was a great ending to our fun mini vacation!