Same ol' same ol'...

Not much new happening here. We are just plugging along waiting for school to get out next week. The girls are getting excited and I am looking forward to having them home with me. That is until they start aggervating one another and fighting all of the time. That, I do not look forward to. Guess I will just have to keep them as busy as I can. Anyway, I hope that all is well with our blogging buddies. We hope that you all have a wonderful weekend. We have a pretty low key weekend until Sunday when we have church, lunch bunch, and then we are off to a Whitecaps game with Leslea's school. Hopefully the weather will be half way nice for us. Until next time........

Maddi's preschool graduation...

Here are some photos of Maddi's preschool graduation. It was as cute as it could be and all of the kids did a great job with their songs and their skit. It is amazing just how much they learn and how much they mature in just 8 months!!! Sorry for the photo overload, but there were many more that I did not post:)

Maddi with Mrs Veldheer. She is a wonderful lady! We'll miss her


Maddi playing her part in their skit

Maddi explaining what she had learned in school this year

Most of the class performing



Maddi with Mrs Sharon, her Mighigan grandma

Leslea's trip to Macinac Island

Les had a great field trip to Mackinac Island. It was cold and raining yesterday before we caught the ferry back, but I think that even though she and everyone else was miserable, they had a good time. Here are several photos of her and her friends. Took too many to post and this post will be way longer than it already is if I explain them all, but enjoy these few. You can see how happy she is in each one of them. That girl just lives life to the fullest and loves every minute of it. She is a huge shopper too, but unfortunately for her, I grew up on an island and know what all the gift shops are about, so she had to settle for a hoodie, necklace, fudge, and some rock candy. Aren't I mean?? No! She does not need anymore junk!

Mark's Spring Turkey...

Well here you have it! Mark finally killed his spring turkey this morning. It has not been as easy for him this time around, but patience and persistence has finally paid off. He did not kill the one that he has been after for about 2 weeks now, but I think that he is just finally relieved that he finally got one. I know that I am glad, it has been a lot of early mornings and disappointment for him. Anyway, here are a couple of photos. I don't know all the measurements, but I did hear him say that it had a 9 inch beard.

Just asking for a quick favor...

Hey blogging buddies! Just taking a minute to ask all of you to send up some prayers for Mark's Dad and the family. We just found out that he has to have open heart surgery because I think that Mark said 3 if not all 4 main arteries are 80-90% blocked. They are waiting to find out if it is gonna happen this weekend or on Monday. Sometimes it is hard to be so far away from your family in times like this. We just have to hope and pray that all goes well. So if you have a minute, storm Heaven with some prayers for him. We will be doing a lot of it ourselves! Thanks guys! LOL!!

All in Ellie's perspective....

Ok this is Ellie and I am giving you the low down on the rosebuds. It is the same ol' stuff going on here. Mom and Dad are busy doing the work and running the kids thing and I am usually just chillin' in the back yard with my new buds. Today however, Mom snatched me out of my backyard element and put that stinkin' collar around my neck and off in the car we went. I knew that wherever we were going was not gonna be good because she was in a hurry and had a handful of snacks. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my snacks now, but she usually don't give em' to me in the car, so that was the first sign that something was up. After driving for a couple of minutes, we got to where we were going and as soon as she put that leash on me and we got out of the car and headed in the door, I knew where we were and as soon as she tried to get me to go in that DOOR I said "I don't think soooooooooo..." and put the brakes on. Of course that did not work because I am still small enough for her to pick up, so in the door we went. Oh brother!! I knew where I was and what I was there for, SHOTS!!! I got weighed, the doc looked me over and then that ol' needle went right in the neck. Good things I still have a lot of extra skin so it did not hurt too bad. After all that yucky stuff, the ol' doc gave Maddi a treat to feed me, so it was all good. Finally we could leave that building of ouchies, but first, Mom had to stop and make my next appointment and pay that lady at the desk. I have yet to figure out why Mom would want to pay someone for giving me an ouchie, but who said that us dogs understand humans? She always says that it is for my own good, but I don't see her getting any for her "own good"! Anyway things checked out all fine and dandy. Guess from what I over heard, I gained 10lbs since the last time that I was there, but that was good and the ol' doc said not to be shocked if I gained about the same amount by the next visit. What a way to give a girl a complex. I know that I am growing, but even in dogs, weight and girls just do not get along!!!! So I am up to 22.3lbs at 13 weeks old. Gee that sounds kinda big to me, but I also heard that I am all legs, so I will take that one as a compliment. When we finally got in the car and headed home, yep, you guessed it, I got those treats. We were home before I knew it and I was back in my backyard with my buds. It felt like a lifetime since I had seen them, but it was good to be back. I cuddled up beside Ember and told her about my trip and fell fast asleep. Oh what a day!!!

Happy Mother's Day weekend!!

Just taking a second to wish all of you a very Happy Mother's Day weekend. We hope that no matter what you do, you enjoy and are spoiled rotten by those that are dear to you. I know for a fact that all of you are wonderful mother's and you deserve to be appreciated for ever and not just on one day. Don't forget to thank God for the blessing of children that he has given each of us. When we hold those little ones for the first time, we realize that they are nothing but a miracle from God and our lives change forever. I know that my kids have made me who I am today and I am so blessed to have them in my life. Once again, Happy Mother's Day! Love you all!!!

First of Three...

Well one of the three parades that Courtney has to march in for Tulip Time is now over. The video on the bottom of the post is of her marching. She is the third one in the line and yes we know that it is blurry, but to get more than 3 or 4 seconds of video, we have to use a lower quality and it comes out a bit fuzzy. If you want a glimpse of how and what she plays, then check it out. The photos are just a few of what we took, but we thought that the little boys scrubbing the streets were cute. That one little fellow lost his shoe in the process and just stood there and pointed at it until his Mom realized that he we staying behind. He was so cute. Two more parades to march in and we can not promise any more pictures because we have enough to keep up with just with Maddi, but if we take anymore, then we will be sure to post them. Hope the rest of your week is good! Ours is busy as usual, but we will get through it as we normally do.

What a wonderful weekend...

we had!!! I can not tell you how much we enjoyed our weekend. We knew that Maddi would make it or break it for us because she loves to be home, but she did so good and we can not thank her enough for not making us so miserable that we had to come back home. She actually woke up on Sat morning and said, "Mom, this is a lot like home!" And how funny that when we got home this afternoon she says, "Yay! I am so excited to be home!" How cute. We enjoyed the weekend with 4 other couples and all of their kids and a few of their friends. I think in all, there were 25 of us and then a few came by on Sat evening/night for Austin's birthday party. Not to mention all of us had our dogs, but Mike and Amy. All of the kids got along great and played games, rode bikes and played on the playgrounds until someone had to make them come back. All in all, we stayed busy, but enjoyed ourselves very much. I think that we will be doing some more camping and definitely would like to do the family thing so that we could at least see the kids a little more. I did tell Mark that we need to try to camp a little farther from the house so that we could really see what it is like to be "away" from home. We hope that all of you enjoyed your weekend as much as we did. Sorry that this is a little long, but at least I did not bore you with all of the details. I did however post a bunch of photos, more or less for Nana, but you can see that we did actually go. I think that I can safely say that we are looking forward to the next camping trip!!


Maddi

Court

Les




And of course Ellie

HiHo HiHo it's off camping we go...

The girls are so excited about this weekend. We are just going to Holland State Park with some of our friends to go camping, but it is a new experience for them. It may not be that far down the road, approx.20 minutes, but it is by the lake and the first time in our camper. They packed all of their belongings last night and are bouncing off the walls this morning. It will not be until late afternoon that we all get to the site and get settled because of school and softball practices, but that is ok because it gives me more time to fry all of the chicken that I have to cook for tonight. There are 4 families with lots of kids, so I will be busy and the time will go by fast. We will try to take some pictures and let all of you know how of first weekend camping goes. I am sure it will be rather interesting. At least we have plenty of people there to help us get everything set up for the first time:-) They are experienced campers, so any question can be answered!! Hope everyone else has a wonderful weekend with whatever they have planned. We are looking forward to ours!!!! Until Sunday....