Wordless Wednesday: A girl and her dog!!

Trigger and Emily snoozing in our camper one morning while we made breakfast!

Summer Camping and Big Girl Bike!

Riding bikes with her big Sister Hannah!

A few weeks ago we hauled our camper up north to Camp Cadillac in Cadillac! We are officially Seasonal Campers now! Looking forward to spending as much time as we can up north this summer camping, fishing, exploring, sitting around the campfire, eating good camp food and smores, swimming, making great memories and much more!

We ended up making a quick trip over Mother's Day weekend with the kids and hauled the bikes up to leave for the summer. Emily got a new bike for her 3rd birthday in November and has been practicing riding all winter long in our house and the garage! I am proud to say she is an expert bike rider now and rode her bike all over the campground. She does a pretty good job keeping up with the big kids. I am wondering when she will be asking us to take off her training wheels! :)

James is playing soccer this Spring!

James is playing Spring Soccer right now. His team is doing really well this year. His Dad is coaching and doing a great job, you can see improvement in how James is playing compared to last fall! I actually really enjoy watching soccer. Here are a few photos from one of his earlier season games. Last weekend's game was super wet and I did not get my camera out.

Look what Emily has made lately!

Here are a few of the cute crafts Emily has been making the last month! She loves preschool time and making and showing off her creations! I have some bug crafts from last week that I will get up soon.

Handprint Sunflowers

Rainy Day Umbrellas made with cupcake holders

Rainy Day Craft made by painting raindrops with her fingertips!


Bunny craft made out of heart shapes


Pretty painted Easter Eggs


Kite Craft

Look what I caught!!!!

I did not grow up fishing, but my awesome hubby has gotten me "hooked" on it! He has always been great on introducing me to new adventures like fishing and hunting, snowmobiling, camping and kayaking! I love that we both enjoy doing these things together and with the kids! We are definitely an outdoor family. I love that man!!

Anyways, last week we grabbed the boat and headed to a local lake one evening. We were not having too much luck, but then I caught an 8 inch bass and then a few minutes later I snagged this big fellow! It is a 28 inch Northern Pike and it weighed almost 6 pounds! This is the biggest fish I have ever caught. I was so excited! It was a lot of work getting him to the side of the boat so Kyle could scoop him up with the net.





This is a really bad photo of me, but I had to have a picture with my fish, who was extremely slippery and slimy! I grabbed a towel to hold onto him because I am not a huge fan of slimy things! lol

Playing in the Rain

Last week it was raining one evening and Emily wanted to play in it, so she put on all her cute raingear and headed out for some fun! She was really into posing for the camera, which does not happen that often. She was like a mini model! It was too cute.

More Beautiful You!!

This is one of my favorite songs. It is called "More Beautiful You" by Jonny Diaz!

I love the message that it not only sends to our young girls and daughters but to us Mom's too! I know I need to hear this from time to time. Now days the world is teaching us that if we are not a size 0 and have certain features (that Hollywood has come up with) then we are not beautiful. You don't need a ton of makeup or need to show too much skin to be beautiful! We are all beautiful inside and out! We are all created by God and he loves us the way we are!

Listen to this song! It is so uplifting! :)

Remember, there could never be a more beautiful YOU!

Gotta love those spring flowers

I am really enjoying my flowers that are starting to bloom in my flower beds! They make the gloomy days we have had lately seem a little bit brighter!

Go Kart Fun!

The weather was finally nice enough to get the Go Karts out this past weekend. Kyle got them all ready and the kids had a blast! It was a little muddy, but the kids did not seem to mind. I think the boys took 3 showers on Saturday! lol And yes, we now officially have a track in our side yard!

On Sunday after the Easter egg hunt the kids were riding and my brother joined in with his 4 wheeler!

Hannah riding Brayden's Go Kart

James and his cousin Dorian riding on Sunday.


This is what happens when it is muddy! :)

I love my boots!

One of my favorite photos right now! This is my youngest Emily and she loves her rainboots. She wears them everywhere, even with her Easter dress!

A few photos of Country Kids Daycare

I took a few photos of the daycare room. We spend a lot of time playing, doing crafts, playing music,etc. in this room. It is nice to have a separate space that is kid proofed and I can shut the door at the end of the night and not feel the effects of the daycare scattered throughout my house. Emily loves it of course, she thinks it is her personal playroom! Actually all the kids hang out in here. I have tons of craft stuff and it comes in handy for school projects and holiday gatherings.

This is my craft and toy closet! I love having so much space for my craft items!

Look at our colorful eggs!

The kids had fun dyeing Easter eggs last weekend. We almost forgot to do them on Saturday because we were busy playing outside!

Brayden

Emily


Hannah

James


The 3 older kids poured all the dye into 1 bowl and put an egg in it! Not so pretty! lol


Their pretty eggs!

Thankful Thursday! Spring

SPRING IS HERE!!!


Yes I am yelling that! I am so ready for warmer weather and being outside without having to bundle up!

I have some daffodils blooming in my flower beds. Some days they look so cold, but I know it is a sign of Spring and warmer weather to come.

Meet the newest addition to our family!!

No, we did not have another baby! We got a puppy! His name is Trigger and he is Weimaraner/German Shorthair Pointer and is super cute! He was born on Christmas Day 2010.

I was very reluctant on getting another dog. We have not had the best of luck with dogs the past few years. I also was not sure I wanted to have another indoor dog now that we have been remodeling our house! Made me nervous thinking about my beautiful cherry kitchen floor and a dog! Yikes.

We had been talking about the possibility of getting a dog the past couple months. Emily, actually all the kids, has really wanted a dog. Her cousin Marhea got a dog for her birthday and Emily has not stopped talking about getting a dog since. Actually she wanted 10 dogs, but we talked her down to 1! lol We knew we needed to finally get a dog when Emily started taking her invisible dog everywhere we went. Have you ever had to pull over to let your imaginary dog go potty when your shopping in Lansing? We almost had to one day because she was so determined that he needed to go potty!! Not only did we have an invisible dog, Emily started acting like a dog! She started trying to eat her snacks off the kitchen floor and even wanted me to pet her and feed her snacks to her like a dog! Silly girl.

We started looking for puppies online, looking for a breed that would fit our family. We had always had labs, but this time we wanted something different. We had pretty much decided on a German Shorthair Pointer or Weimaraner , when we happened to see a flyer at our local grocery store late one night. I grabbed a phone number and called the next day. Crazy thing is that the people that had the puppies was Kyle's Mom's cousin! We headed over that afternoon to see the 2 puppies that they still had and fell in love immediately! It was over. I was not leaving without a puppy. Emily was so happy. The older kids did not get to meet him till later that week because they were at their other Parent's house's. Everyone loves the newest addition to our family.

We are going to be installing an invisible fence around our 2 acres. This will be nice for him to be able to run and play outside without the worry of him running away, which is what happened to a previous dog we had.

He has adjusted well and is so laidback. I have never had a puppy so calm. He doesn't run to the door and jump all over people, which is a big no no for me.

We are very happy with our decision to add a dog to our family. Emily loves her new chore of feeding Trigger. I am loving that he is finally getting the fact that he needs to go outside to potty! Thank goodness we have not replaced our living room carpet yet!! A bpnus is that his breed have very short hair and don't shed as bad as other large dogs! YIPPEE!

Country Kids Daycare!!!

Our Silly Bird craft made out of a paper plate and pipe cleaners! Silly

Our Bunny craft made out of heart shapes we did this week.

Here are the kites we made last week!

So far behind on posting. I need to add this blog to my weekly routine. I am spending less time on the computer and blogging because I started up an in-home daycare late last year. This allows me to stay home with Emily,but contribute to our family income! I actually love working with kids. I do lots of preschool activities with the older kids on a daily basis. Emily is learning and soaking up so much every day! It's amazing....

Sometimes it gets a little crazy around here but I think I have adjusted to being home all week. It is nice because I have an extra bedroom that we turned into the daycare room. We painted it bright sunshine yellow and Kyle built some shelves in the big closet for all the toys and my craft supplies. I will have to take some photos of the room to show you. It is nice to be able to shut the door at the end of my workday and not have the daycare spilling out into our family life in the evenings.

I recently started a facebook page for my daycare parents, friends and family. My daycare is called Country Kids Daycare. You can GO HERE to visit and see what we have been up to lately! I post photos of craft time and just cute shots of the kids. I would love for you to "like" the page if you are on facebook and want to follow along on this fun adventure in our life!

So that is one of the big things happening in our life. It's a good thing. Emily loves having friends come to play everyday and I love being home with her before she heads off to school! :)

Semi Wordless Wednesday: Fun in the SNOW!!

It has been way to long since I blogged here. I am back and ready to get into the grove of posting regularly!

Here are a few photos of my 4 kids having fun in the snow in January when we went up north for a weekend!





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