Bronson Park on Christmas Eve

Every year we go to Bronson Park, the kids love to run around and look at the displays. I love it because it reminds me of my childhood when my parents took me and my sisters every year. This year we decided to go on Christmas Eve (just as I did as a kid), and I wanted to take the kids on the horse drawn carriage ride too, but lets just make it clear the carriage company is crazy, they wanted $110 for a 30 minute ride. We of course decided not to take a ride, and I was disappointed because it has never been more than $20 in the past. Another disappointment is some of the displays that have been there ever since I can remember were not up this year, apparently they had to be retired, just more of a confirmation that I am getting older, great!

Candy Cane Lane, the kids ran so fast I couldn't get an up close shot, but if you look carefully you can see them

Pretending to be the missing statues

The lights on this little bush were much more beautiful than the picture shows


The same nativity scene that has been there every year, still looks good so hopefully it will be there for years to come
Actually got them to sit for just one quick picture, there were so annoyed with me every time I tried to take a pic someone would walk in front of me, it was really busy for Christmas Eve.

Funny Story !!!

So the other day the kids were watching the movie Grandma Got Ran Over By a Reindeer. After the movie Hannah was very insistant about calling Grandma to talk with her, we tried to convince her to wait since Grandma was at work, but she wasn't having it. So we gave in and called Grandma. Once Hannah started talking with her she kept asking are you okay, over and over. We had no idea why she was asking, and Grandma kept assuring her that she was okay. Finally Hannah accepted that Grandma was okay, and then Hannah says I thought you got ran over by a reindeer, and were hurt. We all started laughing so hard, because we finally understood why she was asking Grandma if she was okay. Grandma still didn't really understand until I explained it to her and then she got a big kick out of it too, it really was funny! Got to love 3yr. olds and their thought process :)

Happy Birthday Hannah!!!!

Hannah turned 3 on the 7Th. (I'm a bit behind in blogging) I love this age as far as birthdays go, she not old enough to want a birthday party with friends (yeah for me!). So we had a family birthday. She asked for spaghetti for dinner and a pink cake (aka strawberry).

This was the best picture I could get her to take by herself, she was being uncooperative, one of her many talents!

Opening presents, this year she understood what was actually going on, and had a blast. She was even nice to Ash and Carter and let them help unwrap a little.

This is Aunt Tricia and her Boyfriend, Jeremy, they make a cute couple, they looked so thrilled to be watching presents being open, in their defense I caught them off guard and they weren't prepared for a picture.

More presents being opened!

here is one of her many presents, she is obsessed with Christmas. Every store that we go to we have to look at all the Christmas trees and decorations. She saw the pink Christmas tree at target this year, and loved it. So she asked Grammy and Papa fro this Christmas tree for her birthday, and of course they got her for her. She had so much fun decorating it, it even has mini twinkling lights. It's been a great nightlight! There were little mini presents for decoration, but those have since been thrown away as she and one of her friends decided to open them one day. They were disappointed though, because it was just Styrofoam inside. So I asked her why did you unwrap them, and she replied to me, because mom your supposed to unwrap presents, and then she rolled her eyes at me as if I was dumb for asking such a crazy question!

Her is one of her other many presents. This is GO GO, this dog is the closest thing you can get to being real, she sleeps with her every night, and then she has her every where she goes all day long. The dog in my opinion is a little weird, it barks, walks, etc. One day it even barked back at the dogs on TV (weird), but she loved it!


And finally, here is the cake I made. Her request was pink cake and Dora (one of her other obsessions). I think it turned out pretty good, but I swear I had carpaltunal afterwards, it took me 2 1/2 hrs. to decorate the thing. I think tears came to my eyes when it got cut up and mutilated in only 5 minutes !

Sledding Fun

Check out this video of the kids sledding yesterday. It was fantastic for me they played outside for hours, and were so exhausted they just passed out at bedtime! Sorry no sound I was using my camera. Hannah is the one in the blue jacket and pink snowpants, watch in the 2nd video how she gets stuck, it's hilarious!

Were On A Mission

We have started limiting TV and Video games lately. This is new to us we have never limited these things before, but I have gotten to a point that I don't like to hear the TV and video games on, and not to mention that there really isn't very many appropriate programs for the kids to watch. Anyways the other day I found the kids playing and they had made a fort, so I asked them what they were doing. They responded we are on a mission Mom, we have to capture all the evil aliens. It amazes me how creative they are when they are forced to be, and how well they all get along, John and I are loving it. So here are some pictures of the fort they made and them hiding out in it.

Love the fort, but it meant I couldn't work at the computer very easily, oh well they were having fun.
Caught cha by surprise ! Typical reactions from all, Carter looks completely surprised, Ashleigh as always has the smile going on, and Hannah is just looking annoyed that I am taking yet more pictures

Love the smiles on their faces here, they are truly enjoying their time with eachother.

Have You Tried One?

This morning my friend dropped by to leave a little present for me. She was trying to just leave it on my car, but I caught her. Anyway she brought me a chocolate orange, and can I just say they are to DIE for. It made my day it was so yummy and I couldn't stop eating it. It was so delicious, so if you have never tried a chocolate orange, I suggest you do, you won't be disappointed. So dear friend of mine, THANKS, loved it !!!

Happy Halloween!

We've had a fantastic Halloween this year. To me it seems like there was a lot more going on this year than in the past. The kids all enjoyed their parties, trunk or treating at church and trick or treating in our usual place. Hannah was the most fun for us all this was the first year she truly understood what trick or treating was all about. The poor girl wore herself out from running house to house by the time we got to the second street.

This is pretty much how Hannah carved her pumpkin this year, she did a lot of "supervising"f Daddy. I found a great website with free pumpkin carving patterns. Hannah was so excited to have Mickey Mouse on her pumpkin.
Carter poking his pattern onto the pumpkin, he had a lot of fun stabbing the pokers into the pumpkin (it's got to be a boy thing to find that exciting)

Ashleigh was very precise with every poke she made. It was very important to her that we knew where exactly to carve her pumpkin. Let's just say it took her FOREVER!!!!!

The finished product, I thought they turned out well. Hannah made Mickey, Carter did the skull, and Ash did the ghost and goblins.

And Finally, their costumes. Ashleigh was Amelia Earhart, Carter a Red Wings hockey player, and Hannah was Dorothy. Usually I have to sew every part of their costumes, this year I got lucky. Not one bit of sewing went into Carter's, I only had to make Ashleigh's aviator jacket, and Hannah's dress. Although I did have to make that plane which was a real pain, but Ashleigh loved it! Don't you just love how Hannah isn't looking at the camera, I never did get a picture of her face she looked everywhere except at the camera!

Bad News :(

So John won't be starting at the Sheriff Department for 6 months. To make a long story short There were scheduling issues with the physical and HR policy is that the physical has to be done with in 48 hrs after the official job offer, which didn't happen. HR is being real you know what's, the Under Sheriff did every thing he could but HR won't budge, so they are keeping everything current on John's file and the Under Sheriff said there will be positions still available in 6 months. I'm glad we have the Under Sheriff's support, to bad he can't tell Hr to shove it you know where :) So at least we know he will be hired we just have to wait, in the mean time if he gets hired somewhere else, it will be county's loss. I swear we have the worst luck ever :(

WHOOO HOOO!!!!!!

Finally it has happened John received a conditional offer of employment today with Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Department. His start day is Nov. 13th. Now all he has to do is pass the psych exam and physical. We know the physical is no problem, but a little iffy about the psych :0). I'm sure he will do just fine! If not we have a whole new set of problems!

Higgins Lake

The first weekend in October John, myself, the kids, one of my sisters, and my parents all went to Higgins Lake for the weekend. It was a nice relaxing, stress free weekend and we had a great time. The cabin was also great too, we had our own bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, etc. not what a normal cabin is (mine kind of vacationing, a home away from home) Loved It!!!!

This is the lake it was beautiful especially with the morning sun refelecting off of it. Apparently it is the 6th most beautiful lake in the world, and the locals don't let you forget, everywhere I looked there was an advertisement about it being the 6th most beautiful lake in the world.

This is the view from the back door of our cabin, notice in the background how far away the boat is docked. All the boats were like that because it was so shallow at the shore. At the end of the dock the water still wouldn't have come up to the kids knees. (this happens to be the only picture I took all weekend that contained Carter :( in my defense the kid refused to be in pictures!)

The local town was having a "Harvest Festival" so we decided to check it out. It actually wasn't much of a festival at all, they had the pony rides and antique tractors, no hay rides or anything that would say to you Harvest Festival. Oh well the girls had fun riding the horses. The horse that Ash is on was the lead horse he always did the opposite of what the trainer wanted him to do. If the trainer commanded him to go he would stop and vice versa, it was really funny!

Hannah absolutely loved riding the pony, she had a smile on her face the entire time, and now all we hear about is the ponies. We had to get her one of those horse heads on a stick, and she loves it never puts the thing down, money well spent on our part :0)


I just had to giggle when I found Ashleigh in the hammock, she bought a harmonica at one of the local gift shops and just hung around all afternoon in the hammock playing her harmonica. All I have to say is thank goodness the hammock was outside because she's a little rusty with the harmonica.

Can I just say one thing, notice how every one had on coats and a sweatshirt, and sometimes even gloves IT WAS SO COLD UP THERE!

What a relaxing bike ride

Our family often enjoys taking bike rides together, but lately it has just been Hannah and Daddy. The kids are at school, and I have to study, uggh! John took Hannah this past week and she loves to ride in the bike trailer and as John says never shuts up, she talks and talks and talks. Well just as John was getting back home the other day he said it all of a sudden was silent and he turned to look back and found this.....................

Apparently she talked her self to sleep! Love how her helmet is completely covering her eyes :0)

This Says It All........

Need I say more, how perfect is this shirt for little Miss Hannah. I just couldn't resist I just had to get it, and the funny thing is she absolutely loves it!

Back to School !!!!!!

All I have to say is yeah it's back to school. Hannah made all of us laugh. Just like Ash and Carter she had to get her backpack and new clothes on to go to school, it wasn't such a great time for me when she realized she couldn't actually stay at school with her brother and sister. But Grammie and Papa came to the rescue and she went with them all day and had a great time!

Why we LOVE Uncle Chancey

Every time Uncle Chancey comes to get his hair cut the kids get so excited, because like them he is a big and loves a good wrestling match! They love to leap on him and then get thrown over his shoulders and bounced on the couch or sometimes the floor (which doesn't always make for a happy landing). As you will see they all take their turns and wear the poor guy out!

Catching Up...........

I know I have been slacking on the blogging, but we have been busy, so I thought I would share some pics of what's been happening around here. (It's late right now and I am too lazy to rearrange the pictures so they are in opposite order of what I originally wanted) Being that we have a pool here in our complex we have taken advantage just about every day. Hannah loves the pool so much she cries non stop if we don't go (really annoying)

When the kids are pooped out in the afternoon we can always find them on the couch watching TV, to me Ash's position doesn't look very comfortable, but she swore it was!

This is one of my favorites, I love that Carter is so sweet to Hannah that he will let her lay on top of him to watch the TV, what a great brother, he never says no to her, we shall see how long that will last!

Hannah is very found of dressing up lately, and is obsessed with wearing this wig

Here are the girls with Sophie watching the boys as you will see in the next pictures. (Don't you just love the expression on Sophie's face!!!)

Houston is showing us one of his skateboarding tricks, he's pretty darn good!

Carter has found a new passion of skateboarding, but not quite sure what to do, so luckily we have awesome friends, which happen to have two of the best skateboarders around, Josh and Houston. Josh is wonderful that he is willing to teach Carter.

I have no idea what they are doing here, but I'm sure it's important, Carter bugs me everyday about when can we have Josh over so he can teach him more skateboarding stuff, so Josh if you read this please, please,please when you have bored time come on over, we'll even take you over to the pool afterwords!!!!!

And Finally, John got a grill for Father's day, and has used it just about everyday, which I'm not complaining about because I don't have to make dinner. Like how John is posing for the picture, what a goof!!

We'll there you have it, not much but enough to keep us busy!

Beach Fun

When the weather has been nice it has been extremely hot, so what better way to spend our time than at the beach in South Haven!

Carter was obsessed with finding as many shells as he could, by the time he got home his bucket was almost half full

He recruited Ashleigh's help with sea shells

The girls thought it would be fun to be buried in the sand, I'm surprised Hannah actually stayed still long enough to be buried

This is as deep into the water as Hannah would go apparently the waves and her do not get along

Catching some rays!

I love that Ash and Carter are always so willing to help Hannah, they are fantastic big brother and big sister After the beach of course they needed some ice cream, can I just say the ice cream shop is a little confused as to what a child size serving is!


Notice that Ash and carter wasted no time eating their huge ice cream cones and believe it or not absolutely no stomach aches afterwards.

She Doesn't Know Her Own Strength

I got home tonight and Ash was a bit upset so I asked what was wrong and then she showed me my favorite spatula and it was broken. She thought I was going to be mad, but come on it's a spatula, no worries.



So I asked her how it happened, I was especially curious because this particular spatula happens to be metal even all the way through the silicon part. Anyway she proceeded to tell me that Daddy was picking on her and she got mad and grabbed the spatula and smacked him across the butt when he wasn't looking!



After I got done laughing I told her not be worried because in the end we can blame it on Daddy, he shouldn't have been picking on her! We'll have to talk about her temper later, tonight was not the time!



My poor spatula, I sure am going to miss it, I'll just have to make a trip to IKEA soon!