Another chilly weekend...

Oh my goodness! What a yucky yucky day here in Michigan. I can not believe that it is the end of March and we had snow today. I was too hopeful that it was long gone. Yes I know that this is Michigan and it is normal for here, but it still sucks!! I saw snow in the forcast, but I was hoping that it was just flurries, but no! It had to cover the ground. However, I am glad that it went away almost as quick as it came. The rain and the wind made it all nasty, but I am glad that I see muddy water in my driveway and not that white stuff!! So with that being said, we did not get the chance to go on our family adventure today, but we did take Ellie for her first walk at Hemlock Crossing yesterday after Maddi had her first play date with her little pre-school friend Luke. She(Ellie) did pretty well. She did all that she could to get that collar off of her neck, but she soon realized that it was gonna stay put. She gets tired a little quicker than we want her to, but she is so little and those little legs went as fast and far as they could go. The girls enjoyed her so much and of course there was plenty of fussing over who was gonna walk her. I assure you that everyone got a turn and the dog did not know the difference. Anyway, we hope that everyone had a good weekend and we wish everyone a wonderful week ahead. It is hard to believe that Monday is already upon us! Goodness where does the time go??? Enjoy these photos from yesterday.

Maddi & Ellie(as you can see Ellie is taking a potty break oops!)

Who is walking who?????


Maddi being a big girl and holding Ellie all by herself

Ellie all tuckered out on the ride home

Here are a few photos of Ellie that Mark took yesterday. She is growing like a weed and has already adapted to living with us just fine. We couldn't have asked for a better dog. I may be wrong, but I think we picked us out a good one!! And as you can probably guess, she is already spoiled rotten. We can not seem to have a dog that is not spoiled. Many say that our dogs are treated better than most people:-) Well I would not have it any other way. All they ask for is love!

Another accomplishment!!

Just a real quick post to say congrats to Courtney once again! She has tried out for the middle school softball team for the past couple of days and today the announcements were made. SHE MADE THE TEAM!!!!! We are so proud of her and I know that she is excited because she has said several times that she can not believe that she made the team. We were hoping that things would go well, but she did injure her foot two years ago while playing in NC. We do not know if pitching the ball and dragging her foot caused this or not, but she has dealt with it for 2 years and it finally seems to be healed enough for her to play. She loves to play softball and has a bit of a knack for it, so we hope and pray that all goes well for her. She has admitted to us that she may do some pitching again this year, but we are stressing that she takes care of her foot and that she lets us know as soon as she gets the least little twinge. Hopefully that won't happen, but you never know. The coach did tell her that she did a great job and she was a good player and she made the team, but she needed to gain some weight because if the ball hits her, then she would be nothing but a bruise! Ha!Ha! Guess he does not know her well enough yet to know that first of all she stays bruised up and second of all, she is a little spitfire and does not take much off of anybody! It is those little ones that you have to watch out for sometimes!! Wish her luck and pray for that foot to hold up for her!!

The newest little rosebud...

Welcome Ellie!!
Well as most of you know, our chocolate lab Brandi is not doing so good and is more or less living one day at a time, so we have gone out and got another member to add to our family. Meet Rosebuds Ellie Mae of West Michigan. She will be called Ellie and she is 6 weeks old. She is a loving little girl who has come out of her shell a bit more today. I can already tell that she is going to be a handful, but we will get through it. It has been quite a long time since we have had to do the puppy stage thing, but we are ready for it and at least we already have quite a bit of experience. She did well in her crate for the first night and then I had to leave her in it this morning for about 3 and a half hours and when I came back, to my surprise, there had been no accidents!! Good girl Ellie!! I am sure that we will drive you nuts with photos of her on the blog from here on out, but the girls are so excited to welcome her into our family and they want to share her with all of you. Here are a few of her first photos. Ain't she a cutie??

Random photos of our Sunday hike

Thought that we would share a few of our photos from our "family" time today. When the weather is nice on Sunday's after we go to church and have Sunday dinner, we try to go and do something as a family. We generally like to go on one of the nature trails and just spend some good quality time together outside. Today we thought that is was nice enough to venture out and we went to Mt. Pisgah in Holland. We climbed 258 stairs to get to the top so that we could then follow the trail around. The views were beautiful of the lake. We had a good walk/hike and just enjoyed being outdoors. Enjoy the photos.

Happy Spring!!!

Even though it is the first day of Spring, it still has the feeling of winter here in Michigan. The sun is shining, but the air is chilly. I am ready for some green grass and colorful flowers. I am sure that by now, all of us are ready for the warmer weather to come and stick around. I know that it won't be much longer and we will probably be wishing for some cooler air, but I know that you won't hear me complaining when the warmer weather sticks around. It could be 75 degrees all year long and I would be happy! Oh well. Anyway, we have birthday parties to attend this weekend, but other than that, not much on the agenda. We hope that all of you have a wonderful weekend with whatever you have planned. I am sure that it will fly by like the rest of the week, so take the time to enjoy each other! Have a good one!! Until next time...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Wishing all of our blogging buddies a very Happy St. Patrick's Day! May the luck of the Irish be with you whether you have Irish blood or not. Enjoy this beautiful day that we are supposed to have in Michigan today! I know that we are going to be messing around outside as much as possible! Have a good one!