Vacation...kind of :)

I'm writing from our little vacation spot! We moved into the Beach House tonight. It's fun to have a little vacation away from home. We're still in Holland, about 15 minutes or so from home, but it's still a get-away. I had to pack a ton for the four of us, so it definitely feels like a trip! :) The place is really nice. The main level has a family room, full bath and bedroom with a patio off the back. The second floor has a family room, balcony off the front, 1/2 bath and full kitchen. The third floor is the master suite...with a HUGE bathroom with HUGE shower and HUGE tub. Lovin' it! Here are a couple pics...

Colin walked down to OBI and picked up dinner for us tonight. We ate outside by the pool. It's so nice because the kids can run around a bit and play and we can enjoy dinner. Then after dinner we had a little pool and hot tub time for the kids. They didn't get to bed until after 9:30, but that's okay - they were lovin' life!

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Tomorrow we are headed to the park with a bunch of friends from Little Hands. It's going to be 90+ degrees, so we'll see how long we last there! :) After that we are going to go visit my friend Lisa and her little baby, Jacob. The rest of the day will be for chilling out at the Beach House. Love the relaxing life!

Take Care!

Pictures

Well we were able to have the kids' pictures taken last night. The rain held off and the sky was perfect. The park we went to was gorgeous with a fountain, bridge, bench, gazebo and tons of flowers. Abigail was actually pretty naughty and wouldn't stay still at all. Selena took tons of pics, so I'm sure she got some good ones. She put a couple up on her blog HERE if you want to check them out!

BIrthdays...

Abigail is going to have 2 parties this year for her birthday. She's going to have a Princess party with a couple of friends and then a family party. This is big stuff for my almost 4 year-old to be having her first friends party. This is the invitation I made for the friends party. I ordered them from here yesterday and can't wait for them to come!

Full credits HERE.

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Last night was really a fun night for Colin and me. We went to the mall and did just a bit of shopping. Colin got a new shirt at his favorite store, I got a new shirt for my walk in a couple weeks and then we went to Gymboree where I had Gymbucks to spend (buy $50 in clothes, get $50 free). I never, ever buy things at Gymboree at full price except when I have Gymbucks - it's a treat! We bought this for Henry (they didn't have much for him) and then got these for Abigail. I think the girl stuff there is SO much cute than the boy stuff!

After the mall we went to Outback for dinner. It was crazy to sit down to dinner after 8:00. We really enjoyed taking our time, not dealing with kids or worrying about getting home for a sitter. It was great! Overall, it was a great birthday! Thanks for all the birthday wishes!

Tonight we are/were planning on having the kids' pictures taken by Selena, but as I type it's pouring outside. I don't know what her plans are - I'll have to give her a call. Ugh - I was really looking foward to this!

Nothing much else to blog...tomorrow we may head to the fair for a bit before I work at night. We'll see though. We really like to go to the Hudsonville Fair, so we may just skip this one depending on weather, the kids and our moods.

Have a good day!

Happy Birthday to...

ME!! I'm 28 today! Not much going in during the day today. I'm going to attempt grocery shopping with the kids, which is something that could ruin my birthday, but I'm up for it! :) Tonight Colin and I get to go out to dinner. The kids are going to sleep at YoYo and Papa's cottage with them. We are so spoiled! The last time we were away from both of them was when we went on our cruise over a year ago...can't wait!

Naps

Okay, a quick post for those of you wondering (from my last post) if/how my kids nap. :) Henry naps every day in the afternoon. On a normal day he will go down for a nap around 1:00 and sleep around 2 1/2 hours, give or take. Abigail does not nap anymore (hasn't really for almost a year), but does have a quiet time each day for an hour or more where she reads books and/or watches a movie on her mini dvd player. On Thursday I knew Henry's nap would be screwed up, but he fell asleep in the van. He slept pretty much the whole way to the airport and then some. Sometimes when he wakes up he will fall back asleep, but not that day, so I decided to go to Target.

So...there's that for you! I have never been a rigid, super scheduled mom. I like my kids to have a routine, but we don't sacrifice other things at the cost of naps or other things. If they are having fun and are being good we just keep going! :)

Best Friends

Today we had a well-needed low key day. The kids and I just hung out around the house until about 1:30 when my parents came over. Colin was working so the kids and I took them to the airport. They left for Europe today. Abigail cried and cried when they left. I think part of it was that she was just really tired, but also because she doesn't quite understand. Poor thing!

After we left the airport we stopped at Target. I felt the need to go to another Target and use my $20+ in coupons since the Holland Target is probably sick of seeing me! :) We stocked up on apple juice, diapers and Lunchables and headed home. Colin played with the kids for awhile outside and gave me a break...he's the best that way!

Then we went downtown for the Street Performers. We had a quick dinner and ran into Haans, Anita and the girls. Abigail and Bebe are just best of friends and so funny together! They were just sitting on the curb chatting when I snapped this picture. I think that they will grow up to always be friends!

We left downtown in a frenzy...both kids were out of control crabby! Sometimes bedtime is the best time of all...tonight was one of those nights!

Check this out!

This is SO funny!

2 years ago...

 

Full credits HERE.  It's been awhile since I've scrapped...we have been so busy!  :)

Pictures from Henry's Second Birthday Bash

Henry had a great birthday.  He woke up from his nap and saw the balloon bouquet and was lovin' life! He ran around the house with the balloons for over an hour! About 5 minutes before the party started Gracie jumped up on the table and licked part of the cake. I screamed at her.  Kind of shocked Henry...he told EVERY guest about it when they came in the house! :)  Luckily it was just a corner...I was tempted to give that part to my "dog-lovin'" sis in law, Anita. :) He was a bit overwhelmed by all the gifts, but had a great time.  He got lots of cars and trucks, a new bed spread for his bed (when we get there - really a gift for Mom!), a duffle bag with play weights and sports gear, a Diego truck (which Abigail promptly took to her room), Thomas bath toys and a couple other fun things.  He didn't want to eat his cake until ALL of his cars (except his big Tonka truck) were on his high-chair tray...my little obsessive child. :) Overall it was a fun day/night...and a great birthday!

Silver Lake Sunday

 We had a great time at Silver lake on Sunday.  We went up there with my mom, Brad and Rebecca.  We started the day by stopping for cherry turnovers and strudel.  It's SO good and something we have had forever (at least 20 years)! The turnovers were gone before we got back in the car. We then went on a dune ride.  Henry loved riding in the dune scooter, but wasn't quite as sure about all the sand (he HATES sand!). When the driver drove just a bit into Lake Michigan we all got wet...the splash hit Henry right in the face!:)  After the dune rides we went to the State Park and did a little swimming.  Abigail was in the water forever!  Henry preferred to sit on his towel chilling out.  We then went on bumper boats, fed the ducks and had ice cream.  The kids were SO tired by the end of the day, especially Henry since he didn't get a nap.  Notice the glazed look in the ice cream pic?

 

Blueberry Picking Pictures

Here are the pictures of blueberry picking that I promised...

Happy Birthday, Henry!

It's Henry's birthday! He's 2 today- yeah! Here are two pictures of him two years ago...

Wasn't he the cutest baby? Gotta love the perfect heads of those C-section babies! :)

It's also a little hard to believe that Abigail was only 23 months there...loving her brother up there...yeah right!

Tonight will be a family party - pizza, cake and a Thomas the Tank Engine theme. Can't wait!

I'll try to post more soon...I have lots of pictures to catch up on...blueberry picking, Silver Lake and soon enough birthday pics.

15.55!!

As I type, my feet are in an ice bath. :) At 10:00 this morning my mom, Kristina (a friend also doing the 3 Day) and I took off from dowtown Holland and started walking. We walked to the State Park and stopped for lunch. Then we were off again...walking back to downtown. It was a total of 15.55 miles and it felt GREAT! Yeah, I'm sore. Yeah, my feet hurt, it's going to be hard to get up after I have been sitting, yeah I'm going to sleep like a rock tonight...but it felt great! It was a great accomplishment to successfully complete this part of my training. This is the longest walk I will do before the 3 Day and it felt great to be able to do it!

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The rest of the weekend will hopefully be a little more calm. :) I took tonight off so Colin and I are going to take the kids downtown to the concert in the park. Maybe I'll talk Colin into picking up dinner and bringing it there. Tomorrow is work for Colin during the day and work for me at night. Sunday will be another fun day...we're planning on going to Silver Lake. We are going to take the kids on the dune rides since they have never been on one before. We love Silver Lake (Colin and I got engaged up there) and it holds lots memories that we will love passing on to our kids.

Okay...time for some advil...have a great weekend!

Blueberry Picking!

Today was the perfect day for blueberry picking! The weather was sunny and about 73 degrees...so much better than the 90+ degrees yesterday! We picked up Ali and headed out to the Gold Barn for some picking. I'll post more pictures later, but just wanted to post a quick one of Henry. Check out this post HERE from last year...there's a pic of him at just a couple weeks (maybe less than 2 weeks actualy) old and one from last year...he is SO much bigger now! Also makes me realize...he needs a haircut!

Changed my blog look tonight...not positive I like the background color, so you may see another change soon. :)

It's birthday time at our house! Yeah!! Next Tuesday, July 17, Henry will be 2 years old!! I will officially have no babies in the house - just a toddler and a preschooler...scary. Henry's having a Thomas party. Here's what his invite looks like...it's magnetic! It's going to be pretty low-key...just pizza, cake and presents. Hopefully Henry has fun!

Then the following Tuesday, July 24th is my 28th birthday...feeling old as I creep toward 30! Colin and I are planning to go out that night which will be fun.

Abigail's birthday is on August 18. This is the first year that she will get 2 parties. A "Princess Tea Party" with about 7 friends the day before her birthday and then her family party on her actual birthday. She cannot wait! She keeps saying "And I want that for my birthday" about everything...even juice at Target the other day since I wasn't buying the kind she wanted.

Nothing else much to report. We plan to pick blueberries this week - should be fun! I'm sure I'll have pictures soon!

Have a great week!

The Sickies...

Looks like Henry has been hit with one of the viruses going around.  My mom and I walked this morning and then met Colin and the kids at the market.  Colin had to leave for work so I didn't really get to ask how the kids were this morning, but he did say that Henry was a bit crabby.  He was quite lethargic at the market, but I thought it was because he wasn't in a stroller for once. :)  We've been home about an hour and I just took him off my lap and took his temperature...103.3 before I had to quit because he wasn't real into having his temp taken (can you blame him?). I am sitting outside with them while they play for a bit in the pool...I figure that might make him feel better and then he can take a nice nap!  Hopefully he feels better soon! :)

I missed blogging on the 4th...I hope everyone had a great holiday! Our's was a struggle to say the least! Abigail slept over at YoYo and Grandpa Papa's cottage on Tuesday night. Sounds like fun, right? Sure...except she stayed up past 11:00 and was a complete CRAB yesterday. This is what she looked like for the majority of the morning...













She was a mess...crying, yelling, not sharing with her cousin...ugh! We have a tradition every year on the 4th. As long as Colin can remember they have had a "parade" around the association where his parents have a cottage. Colin and I were the "Grand Marshalls" the year we got married (7 years ago!) and then the kids have been in the parade each year. This year Abigail had a FIT because her cousin, Bebe, was riding her bike and not in the wagon with her. Her's another pic for you...







This cracks me up...notice the parade in the background? Notice Colin's face...he's about to say "There is no way I am doing this." So he didn't! Abigail ended up riding with Bebe for a bit....













I bought some straws from Target and Abigail had a blast handing them out to everyone. This is one of my favorite pictures...I just wish I had a better face shot of her. So cute!















We did manage to get a couple of cute pics of the kids before heading home for naps...yes, naps for ALL of us! :)






After a nap, Abigail was doing much better (thank goodness!) so we let her go to the fireworks with my parents. She had a ton of fun!
Today Colin worked during the day and I worked at night. Colin took his parents to the airport because they were leaving for Italy. We got a call from them tonight...they are in Kentucky...the got delayed in GR and missed their connection to Rome. They don't get to leave until tomorrow night now. We feel so sorry for them! Sucks so bad to be stuck in an airport that long! Yuck!
Working this weekend...Friday and Saturday nights for me, Saturday lunch for Colin. We might try to hit the pool tomorrow or Sunday...it's going to be HOT!
Have a great weekend everyone!

Still feeling pretty crappy around here. Probably need to drink more water. Hate the cycle...drink water, the stone moves and the pain is terrible...don't drink the water, the stone doesn't move, the pain is tolerable, but won't go away. Yuck.

So...to make myself feel better...a little shopping therapy! :) I love buying the kids clothes a year in advance because the sales are too good to pass up. My kids are fairly easy to buy ahead for also since they are pretty much average. I know Henry will most likely be in size 3 next summer and Abigail will wear a 4 or 5 (she is a little on the smaller size...she still wears some 2T stuff right now!). We took a family trip out to the mall and I did some damage. Good thing Colin's been making some good cash at the restaurant the past couple of shifts! I got some stuff at Gap, Gymboree, Children's Place and Disney Store. Here are just some of the things we got...hee hee...

Ugh...can't get these pics to work in blogger...drives me crazy. Anyway...you get the idea! The Ariel doll is like 6 inches tall and was $1.19! I bought a bunch for favors for Abigail's Princess Tea Party birthday in August.

That's it for now! Have a great week!