Happy 10th Birthday Brayden!

Today Brayden turns 10! Time sure does fly by! You always have a huge smile on your face and are so laid back. We look forward to watching you change and grow.

Wordless Wednesday: Frog on Fence!

Ok, this is an Almost Wordless Wednesday again!! I finally bought a new camera a couple weeks ago and have had a lot of fun learning how to use it (I still have a lot to learn!)! I got a Canon Rebel XS SLR. It takes amazing photos. I am having fun using the close up function. Here are a few photos I took of a frog on a fence next to our house! The frog let me get really close to him and I kept hoping that he was not going to jump on my head!! :)

Our Garden 2010

We have always planted a garden since we lived in the country, but honestly it never did too well, due to lack of sun. We have a ton of trees around our house. Kyle's Grandpa Gruesbeck always had the best garden around every summer and I always loved driving by and admiring it (they live next door to us). Sadly, Grandpa passed away a couple years ago and him and his beautiful and tasty garden are dearly missed.

We were asked if we would like to plant our garden in "Grandpa's Garden" this summer. Of course we said yes! I just hoped that we would be able to keep up with it and do it justice!! I wanted to make him proud!

We planted Sweet Corn, Tomato's, Potato's, Onions, Green Peppers, Jalapeno Peppers, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Green Beans, Zucchini, Cucumbers, Watermelon, Gourds, Pumpkins and Indian Corn! Everything is doing great. We have really made an effort to walk down every few nights to keep the weeds down. Now we are getting tons of fresh veggies! I can barely keep up with the green beans and zucchini! I love seeing the kids work together and enjoy spending time outside, while learning how to grow a garden. I have great memories myself of helping in our huge garden as a kid!

It is awesome to eat fresh veggies every day that we grew ourselves!

Here are some photos of our garden and the kids helping in it! These photos were taken a couple weeks ago. We now have red tomato's and the plants are a lot bigger than in these photos.

Wordless Wednesday: Fun in Lake Michigan at Sunset

This is an Almost Wordless Wednesday! I have a hard time posting photos without saying any words!! :)

We spent 5 days at Silver Lake, Michigan last week camping. Here are some photos from our first night at Lake Michigan out on the Dune Beach. The sunset was beautiful, the water was warm and everyone had a blast playing in the water and in the sand!

Happy 10th Birthday Hannah!!

10 years ago today, I would go into labor for my oldest daughter, Hannah! You have been such a blessing and are growing into such a great young lady! Your an awesome daughter and sister! We all love you Hannah. Happy 10th birthday Boo!

Here are a few photos of Hannah having fun since her last birthday!

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Boat Captains!

The Ferry "Emerald Isle" that we rode on both ways!

Brayden pretending to turn us around to head back to the Island!! :) Uncle Mike is sitting next to Brayden!

Brayden getting some "help" from his cousin Keegan!

Emily wanted her Daddy to help her steer the boat!

Keegan and Brayden all smiles after hanging out in the wheel house with Uncle Mike!

We spent our 4th of July weekend on Beaver Island, MI this year for a Family Reunion on my hubby's side! Kyle's Aunt Kitty and Uncle Mike live on the Island. Uncle Mike is one of the Ferry Captain's for the Beaver Island Boat Company and on our way back to the mainland on Monday(it is about a 2 hour ferry ride, or 30 miles to Beaver Island) he let the kids (and us) visit him in the wheel house! The kids all got a turn driving the boat(not sure if that is the proper terminology or not)! I thought it was pretty cool and the kids thought it was AWESOME! You can see it on their faces! I will be posting more photos about our trip to Beaver Island soon!

Wordless Wednesday: Toes in the water!

Emily putting her toes in Lake Michigan on Beaver Island over the 4th of July weekend!