Busy summer days....

We have been enjoying the last part of our summer (where does the time go anyway?!!!!) but keeping very busy too! The girls have completed swim lessons recently....Allie is now ready for Level 4 next year...woohoo!.....Lauren completed her last year of preschool classes...yeah!...and Katie and Mama made it thru the Mom & Tot program with flying colors....oh yeah! : ) We all had a good time and were able to enjoy two weeks of nice weather and great mornings started off in the pool for our lessons! : ) Let's see....what else have we been up to??? Well, Jason decided we needed a bigger "baby pool" so we are now the proud owners of a 10 foot wide and three foot deep inflated pool in the backyard. It's just about perfect for now. We have bigger dreams for someday in the future....but for now, this one is wonderful! : )

What else is new.....the start of school is quickly approaching and with that comes the preparations for Lauren to start kindergarten...besides that meaning school shopping for fun stuff, that also unfortunately meant that she had to get her shots for school.....they were "not fun at all" (her words!) but she was great and is now very proud of her accomplishment! Allie has been to several of her friends' summer birthday parties and Lauren has also had a few opportunities for some play dates with friends. Another big event at our house recently has been the moving of Lauren and Katelyn into a room together, Katie getting out of her crib and on to sleeping in a big girl bed with her sister and Allison now being able to enjoy having her own room! Auntie Amy & Uncle Jim offered to watch the girlies (all three!) for us for a few days so we decided to surprise the girls and while they were gone, we switched their rooms out and repainted and redecorated them as a total surprise! They couldn't believe it when they got home and our hard work got alot of compliments and thank yous! Here are a few pics to enjoy....off to swim in the pool tonight with the family before calling it a night....hope you are enjoying your summer as much as we are! : )

4th of July celebration!!!

We ended up hanging around here for the 4th this year. Usually we head down to the lake but since we have been gone w/ church camp and vacation, we decided to spend some time together as a family at home and it was a really nice weekend. We got some yard work done on Saturday and then spent Sunday at church and then relaxing around the house until the evening when Aunt Amy, Uncle Jim and the girls came up for a cookout before heading to the fireworks display at Pioneer Park in Mooresville. We had a great time and enjoyed spending time with each other, eating some yummy food and celebrating our nation's Independence Day! Happy 4th of July everyone!!! God bless the U.S.A!!!

Family Vacation to Michigan!

After having an awesome week at church camp, we had 2 days to do laundry and pack up again to head out for our family vacation to Michigan! Whew...busy but so fun! G'ma and G'pa made the trip with us so we had an extra fun time! : ) We headed to Mackinaw City, MI the first day and then ventured over to Mackinac Island after that. If you have never been there, we highly recommend it...tons of fun and a special place to visit. The island is not very big but does not allow motor vehicles on it so the only means of transportation are walking, biking (rental places everywhere!) and horse/buggies....it's so neat! The girls loved it! We ended up renting bikes for all of us (except Gma and Gpa who have biked around the island when I was a kid so they decided to opt out this time around!).....Allie had her own bike, Lauren and Daddy rode tandem bikes together (cute pics to come soon!) and Mama pulled Katie in a bike buggy. We didn't make it all the way around the island but ended up doing 6 miles as a family, which we thought was pretty good w/ little ones! It was a great day! After spending a couple days around that area, we headed southwest to the area of Harbor Springs/Petoskey/Charlevoix and stayed at a friends' house on Crooked Lake....and when I say "lakehouse", I mean ON THE LAKE....gorgeous! They had jetskis, canoes, and everything at our disposal....wonderful time! Lauren wasn't too crazy about riding the jet ski as she thought it went "WAY TOO FAST!" but Allie and Katie enjoyed riding it w/ Daddy! : ) After a few days there, it was time to head home....all in all, another wonderful family vacation to keep in our memories...now back home for some more summer fun!