Weekend recap & other stuff

So much to highlight since I last wrote! We’ve had a fun couple of weekends! One big thing happening in our lives is that I am currently unemployed. I am not sure how I feel about this yet. I am super sad about losing a job that I LOVED, and sad that the economy has taken it’s toll on the company I worked for. I had worked there for quite a few years – on and off since before I had Braelyn. Anyway – summer is obviously a fairly good time to be home with the kids! I am looking for a part time job though, so I will keep you posted on how that goes!

Two weekends ago we had a wedding to attend for a cousin of mine, and it was fun to get out and see family and go out with no kids! Here is Kyle and I before the wedding

And during the week last week I decided to try to potty train my 3rd (final) child! I figured since I wasn’t working any longer I could save money by potty training Gracyn! I loosely followed the 3 Day Method – letting Gracyn run around all day basically sans clothes/diaper. She thought it was fun and special to do that! I just told her that if she wants to go potty that she can tell me and we can go on the toilet. Low and behold she totally did just that! Not just once, but all day the first day. She had no accidents all day. She did wear a pull-up at nap and bedtime of course. So Wed. and Thurs. she did great. and then Thurs. we headed out for camping and I just figured that she would wear pull-ups/diapers all weekend while camping. And she did, but she actually told us before going potty almost the whole weekend!!! Only once or twice did she go in her pull-up! I am so proud of her! She loves it too. Oh yeah, we have used the treat bribe as well, which helps a bit too! ;) I picked right back up on Sunday and today and I think it’s safe to say she is potty trained! Wore big girl undies all day, and told us each time she needed to go – # 1 and #2!!! To say I am excited is an understatement! We have been buying diapers for a little over 6 years straight – no breaks in there! And a few of those years we were buying diapers for two! I am so glad to be done changing diapers, and to be done buying diapers! I think we are going to celebrate by taking Gracyn to Chuck-E-Cheese for her big girl party!

And now for our camping pictures! We borrow my mom’s inherited motor home to go camping usually once or twice a year. This year we decided to try out Grand Haven State Park because we thought it would be great to be right by downtown Grand Haven and right on the beach. We were a little bit upset right upon arrival because of the extra $42 we had to spend on State park passes for both the motor home and for our vehicle. I guess we were expecting at least the motor home to be covered under the cost of camping there – just like a travel trailer is, but no. So after we got over that we got all set up. Some major storms were happening south of Grand Haven, so we hunkered down and got the kids to bed and went to be ourselves – no fire.

stormy skies:

the sweet Travel Craft

(I so need a class on taking night pictures by the way – they NEVER turn out and I play around a TON with my settings!)
The next morning Kyle went to work and I hung out with the girls. It was very humid and still pretty wet, so we laid pretty low. We did go for a walk to check out the beach/boardwalk, and I got some fun pics!

Yeah – she’s crazy for crazy bands (Thanks Sadie!) ;)

By the way – did you notice in the last few pics of Selah that she has bangs?! Yeah – I didn’t do that! And I have always been adamant on no bangs on my girls. Grrr. :)

We enjoyed lunch together too – for some reason lunch together while camping is more fun?!

And then I put the girls to work. We had SOOOOO many green and yellow beans and we didn’t know what to do with them, so I decided to take them camping and I set up a table for the girls to sell the beans! Told them that the money they made they could use for ice cream that night! I think they sold like $8 worth, so not a ton, but I think it covered their ice cream! They got pretty bored with it, but it was a fun lesson in entrepreneurship. And we figured some people might just love fresh garden beans to cook with their camp dinners!

Kyle finally came back from working and Braelyn and he played catch for a while (I had played with her too while the other girls napped – she loves catch on the beach)

After naps and dinner we decided to head out to the real beach to do a little jumping of waves.

Selah was crazy in the water – almost too comfortable! She would dip her head right into the water – this is the best pic I could get of it because she was being so crazy!

After that we got cleaned up and went for a walk on the boardwalk to get ice cream. When we were leaving we saw and heard a bunch of police and an ambulance coming into the state park. We had heard chatter that there was a person struggling in the water. We decided to go on and get our ice cream, but we kept hearing new sirens and saw the dive team trailer fly past. Kyle is very intrigued with this kind of stuff, so he wanted to get back (instead of head down to watch the Musical Fountain). We decided to do so, and upon arriving back on the beach we had seen the Human Chain doing their search and numerous Sherrif’s boats and Coast Gaurd boats searching the waters. It was a very disheartening experience. Everyone on the beach was very quiet, the sky was eerie looking as a storm was looming, and sun was setting. We stayed and watched for quite some time, and then decided we better get the kids to bed. After getting them to bed we each took turns going down to the beach watching the rescue efforts. The Coast Guard helicopter came in and was flying right over the beach/water – again amazing to watch and yet very very frightening. The story written by the paper is here. Such a sad night, and I continue to pray for that family.

Saturday morning at the campground was pretty quiet. The girls slept in pretty good, and we made a little breakfast, played in the sand by our camper, and kind of got bored. We decided at 4:00 to head home and take good showers and give the girls a good bath because we wanted to go out for dinner that night. Kyle’s parents called us and wanted to come out and visit, so we told them they should join us for dinner. We met back at the campgrounds by about 6:30 and walked up to Snug Harbor for dinner. And of course ice cream on the way back up the boardwalk! After putting the kids to bed they joined us around a fire for a bit. It was a great evening.

Sunday morning we woke up, had breakfast, and packed up. Lunch at my mom’s and a pretty relaxing rest of the day, except for the 4 loads of laundry!

And that’s that! Pretty long winded huh?! I only have a few LO’s to share. The first two are quickpages that Jacque put together and they are on sale at TLP for only .99 now thru tomorrow (Tadpole Tue.) I did both of these LO’s in about 20 min. start to finish! I love that! That’s only .25 cents per LO!!! WOW – there is no way you could do a paper scrapped LO for $1.25 (factored in the .99 cents to print it in 8 x 8)!

And a gorgeous kit by CD Muckosky: Together

Oooo…this yummy collab by Shabby Miss Jenn Designs and Kate Hadfield is a must have too!!! This kit is HUGE and would encompass so many different summer activities and so many other things as well!

Alright, alright…I am done! Whew, it’s getting late and I have a few things to wrap up! Hope you enjoyed reliving our camping trip with us! ;)

MandaKay

Summer activities

Summer is in full swing and I LOVE it! I am loving all the heat, I am loving all of the fresh fruits and veggies we have been having, I am loving the ice cream shop nights, just everything about summer in Michigan is great! Here are just a few pictures of some of the fun stuff we have been doing!

A little John Deere fun on a country summer night – with ice cream!

I am not so sure this is a good idea, but leave it to Dad to do dangerous things!

Summer treats/baking!

Fires with S’mores!

fishing as a family

friends and summer camp!

picking blueberries

making fresh blueberry pie (oooo…might need to go pick more blueberries, b/c I could eat this every night!)

Raspberry picking!

tv dinners!

Lots of fun going on, and I am still doing my photo a day too – so lots of pictures being taken, and although I have still not mastered my camera I have definitely been enjoying capturing memories!

And a few LO’s to post too!

I’ve had a lot of fun with the July BYOC at the Lilypad (I think about 3-4 of these LO’s were done with various pieces of that!)

I hope your summers are going well and not flying by too quickly for you!

MandaKay

Run, Forrest, Run…

(for those who don’t know me that well – I am in the pink and green – bib #216 on the left.)

(Kyle there in the green/blue!)

Whew…just got done with a great race tonight! Our little town of Zeeland hosted the 1st Annual Zeeland Zoom race. Kyle and I entered the race since we’ve been on a running kick lately. I finished the race in 28:08 and Kyle finished it in 20:50. Both our personal records! It was a great flat, fast, and fun course! There is something fun about races. I have never been a runner and still don’t really consider myself a runner, but these races give me something to aspire to, a goal to work towards! I knew I wanted to beat my Riverbank Run time and I did, so I was happy! I think I did push myself a little too much because I don’t feel very good at all right now. Hopefully a good nights sleep will help! It was so fun to see so many people we knew too! It’s amazing to me that I hated running 4 months ago when my girlfriend Beth talked me into training, and now I almost like it (I said almost!). If you think you could never do it – think again! If I can, you can! I don’t consider myself athletic at all – only played sports up until middle school – never in high school. So next year for the Zeeland Zoom I hope to see even more of you!

My garden is really coming along!!! I came home yesterday after work and went to check the garden and my sugar snap peas had come! I was literally grinning from ear to ear and almost jumping up and down! Funny what planting a garden and tending to it can do for a soul! Kind of a God moment when I think about the fact that I planted a seed and they grew and produce food – pretty amazing that He gave us these things!

We got to get out on the boat this past weekend – went up to Saugatuck for the night. It was a beautiful night and we had a great time! Makes me really question whether we should sell it! :) I guess it can’t hurt to just keep it listed and see if anything comes of it. At least we can still enjoy it until it does sell!

Oh, and I am a nerd and took a picture of the FREE stuff I got on my shopping trip last week! I get real excited about free stuff – still loving my couponing/deal searching!

10 free Sobe Lifewaters

2 free milks

4 free Bestlife Butters

Free Suave Conditioner (for hubby or kids)

2 free Nivea Lip balms

and then the misc. free travel size things!

OK – I am off to catch some Zzzzz’s! Hoping I feel better in the morning! Night!

MandaKay

SUMMER!

I can’t believe I have gone this long without updating my blog! I guess I don’t feel like I have anything real great to write about. Often I will think in my head…”Oh, I should blog about this”…and then I forget or just haven’t had time. I am enjoying my summer though! It is nice to not have the deadlines of school and preschool. Driving to and from preschool two times a week during the school year for the last 3 year years is starting to get old and I have 3 more years of preschool running yet! I still have been driving the kids around a bunch here and there, but at least it’s not quite as structured as preschool stuff. This week we have swimming lessons during the day, VBS at night, and still working and juggling all of that! I think I’ve just come to terms with the fact that i will never just be able to sit home all day for even one day. Just when I think I will be able to stay home for a whole day without having to run somewhere, something comes up! And I am a homebody so it’s kind of tough on me! I married a non-homebody though, so even if I make it a whole day my husband then gets us to go somewhere at night! Gotta love him though!

So what is new with our family…hmmmm. I’ll just do a quick update for family or anyone else interested.

Kyle

Kyle is staying pretty steady at work – not super super busy, but fairly consistent at least and we are so thankful for that! He is such a hard worker and he is so on top of things around the house. So often I tell him that I am not sure what I would do without him! He loves to have our yard looking good, provides a nice home for me and maintains it well – I really can’t take credit for any of that! He has gotten up north twice now with a friend this spring/summer to do some fishing and he loves that!

Amanda

It’s always kind of hard to write a paragraph about yourself. I am down to 15 hrs. a week at work – hoping I can keep it at at least that! I am doing 3 5 hr. days, so I have a little extra time in the morning and get home a bit earlier in the afternoon and that is nice and makes it easier to make dinner and get a good start on our evenings! I have been enjoying baking more and more – love my new kitchen-aid mixer! Because I have been baking more I have been running more! ;) I am starting to somewhat enjoy running, which I thought would NEVER happen! When I first started running in March I HATED it! My legs hurt, I couldn’t run for more than a minute at a time, etc…, but I am just getting to the point that I can somewhat enjoy it! I will say though that running in the heat is not all that fun! Kyle and I are running in a local race next week, so we are training for that right now! I still love to do Jillian’s 30 Day Shred video too – I just haven’t been doing it every day. I of course still enjoy digital scrapbooking, although it seems I have a little less time for that in the summer! Garden is growing great – I don’t have anything to reap yet, but it should be soon! I can’t wait for fresh beans and tomatoes! (as I end this paragraph I think it’s funny because at first I thought it’s the hardest to write about my updates, and yet it’s the longest paragraph. Guess I know the most about myself)

Braelyn

Braelyn is officially a 1st grader! I can’t believe that I will have a child in school full time! Her t-ball season has pretty much wrapped up. I think she liked it overall. She had a bit of an issue with getting tagged out – it crushed her and made her not want to play anymore, but this past game we told her how to hit the ball more towards third base instead of 1st and then to run faster and she made it on base (actually got to home base) all three innings! She was happy about that! She is going to try gymnastics this summer and then soccer in the fall, so we just want to introduce her to sports and see what she might like!

Selah

Selah has graduated three-school and is now going into preschool! She asked today when she goes back to school! She has been doing gymnastics and tonight she had a team meet where they got to show all of the things they learned to family and friends! She did great and was a little crowd pleaser! Selah can be my little back talker, which we are trying to curb that behavior. She also just cut her own hair last week. She cut herself some bangs (which I am adamantly against for my girls for some reason!), and I didn’t notice it until we were at a church gathering, so I couldn’t really discipline right there. We did have a talk with her about it later though.

Gracyn

Our little Gracyn is 2 1/2 now and she is not signed up for anything. Poor girl! Someday it will be her turn for all the fun activities, but right now she just has to watch and wait! She’s really pretty good about it all though! We still do not have Gracyn potty trained. She really has no interest yet, and I am not really pushing it. I know it’s odd, but for some reason I don’t think I’m quite ready for it yet. Weird huh? Maybe because she is my last, and that will just mean we won’t have a “baby” anymore. It will be great though for the first time in 6+ years to not have to buy diapers! We have had a child (sometimes 2) in diapers for over 6 years now – which is crazy! I can’t imagine how the Dugger mom feels – she probably has bought diapers for 25+ years straight! Anyway – I got off on a tangent there! So Gracyn is growing and doing great – lots of fun with her!

There you have it – a quick (or not so quick) update on our little family!

And now for some recent LO’s:

Phew…can tell I haven’t posted in a while! OK – I’m off to bed – hopefully I can blog a little sooner next time! Hope everyone is having a great summer so far!

Fun in the Sun!

Well, we are narrowing down on our Florida vacation, and we have had a lot of fun in the sun this past week! Lots of good family time without the stresses of work, schedules, school, etc… It was quite an experience taking the girls on their first plane rides! We got lots of looks from people as we hauled our 3 young girls, 3 carseats, and 5 carry-ons thru the G.R., Atlanta, and Tampa airports! The girls did great though and behaved perfectly on the planes! We are hoping they do the same on the way home tomorrow! I have snuck a few moments here and there to work on a few layouts, so I will share those now – some of them were done the weeks before we left, but just now remembering to post them.

So, what do you have planned this Memorial Day weekend?! I am sure we will have a few family get togethers, maybe just maybe get the boat out for the first time, and of course do some unpacking and settling back in at home! And Braelyn and Selah are both in the Memorial Day parade. And last but not least we will remember and honor those who have fought for our freedom here in the USA.

God Bless America.

MandaKay

Heavy Picture post!

It’s about time for a picture heavy post! Seems like forever since I have just done an “everyday life” post. We are a little over a week into May, and May for our family means BUSY! It’s the last month of school, it’s garden planting time, it’s spring cleaning, garage sales, its just plain busy! Lots of fun stuff going on! We started May off with something totally new to Kyle and I! We both ran in the 5th/3rd Riverbank 5k Race. On March 13 I could barely do my training of 1 min. run/1 min. walk for 20 minutes. I now this past weekend finished a 3.1 mile race in 30 min. 19 sec. no walking! The whole experience has been so awesome. I hate running, and would have told you 2 months ago that I think runners are NUTS! I still think many of them are (especially the 25k + runners!). I will say I get it a little more now! The 5th /3rd Riverbank Race (25k at least) is the largest in the US – so many people come from all over the world to run the race. 22,000 participants this year between the multiple races they held! On race morning we got downtown Grand Rapids around 6:45am. We already had picked up our race gear the night before, so we just had to wait until we could line up behind the start line. We were supposed to be able to hop into your pace group. Beth and I were going to hop into the 10/mile pace group, and the guys were going to hop into like the 8 or 9/mile pace group I believe. Problem was, by the time we came out of the DeVos building (where we were trying to stay WARM), we could not get up past the 11/mile pace group. By the time the start horn blew we just walked up to the start line (where the chip starts clocking your time), and then had to slow to a walk once right after that too. :( There were 5,000+ people starting all at the same time, so it was MAJOR congestion! My chip time and clock time were 2 minutes off and that was all because of how far back we were in the start and how slow the start was because of all of the people. Basically throughout the whole race we were dodging and cutting around people – it was not a race that I could just get in a good steady pace and stay there, but it was so fun to see all of the people running downtown GR! Just a sea of people! Nothing beats sprinting to the finish line with people cheering and clapping! I really wanted to have beat 30 minutes, but I didn’t quite do it. I think with a little bit better weather, a little flatter course (I never trained on hills and there were two pretty significant ones on the course), and a few less people to have to run around, I would have been under my 30 min. goal. Next time! Kyle however did it in 24:52 – without much training. Crazy guy! Anyway – definitely an experience I will never forget and I am already looking into a few more 5k’s this summer!

This coming weekend is another packed weekend. Sat. morning we have a big Community Impact Day with our church where we send a bunch of groups into the community to work and help different families and organizations! We missed out on it last year, but we are excited to be a part of it this year! After that we are heading to a Detroit Tigers game!!!

And then the end of this month we are heading to Florida with our little family! This trip is thru Kyle’s work and we are so blessed to have this vacation! The girls are excited because we will be flying – a new experience for them! I’m a little nervous of course of all the logistics of flying with 3 little kiddos!

So, that’s the recap of our life lately! The girls are great and they have been loving the spring/warmer weather and playing outside – it’s so nice to be able to send them out to burn some energy! Kyle’s work has been steady, another thing we are thankful for in this economy, and my work has been stressful, but okay. I am truly looking forward to summer and not having to bring kids here or there on my days off! I am finding it very difficult to juggle the house work, work 3 days a week, getting in quality kiddo time, and all the various things that need to be done, but I press on!

And without further ado…here are photos of our recent festivities!

Braelyn’s first t-ball game! She likes it so far!

Tulip Time 2010 – our 3 little dutch girls – thru and thru!

Race bibs/chip/etc…

The race group! Me, Kyle, Jeff, and Beth! Post race

Mother’s day 2010. Selah (4), Me, Gracyn (2), & Braelyn (5 – almost 6) – I had so many cute outakes from this little photo shoot – can’t wait to do a LO with all of them!

My parents came tonight to help us plant the seed part of our garden – they are great garden mentors! I cannot wait to reap what we sowed!!! Green Beans, yellow beans, peas, and carrots! We have yet to plant the plants (tomatos, peppers, cucumbers, etc…) because of the chance of frost yet. The girls had even helped drop the seeds – can never start that involvement too early!

They even got to ride with Dad in this fun loader!

And I just can’t bare to leave out Gauge – he is also loving the fact that he can be outside more and dig up grubs and what not! ;)

Have a GREAT week everyone!

MandaKay