Before I got to bed...

just wanted to let you know that "Book Fair" starts at midnight (or sooner since it's already midnight) and goes through Sunday midnight at We Are Storytellers

I used the kit to create this...

Seriuosly???

The dog had a tumor on his leg that he had to have removed so it didn't stain our carpet in the new house... you know, the carpet that will probably never come! We're fools really! 7 years ago when we got new carpet in the house we are in we got it from Lowes. They had a special and it looked good. So they came to install it and got it all installed and thier was a defect in the carpet (which they for some reason didn't notice, or more likely didn't think we would notice), so they had to reinstall it. Well, when they re-installed they got the colors mixed up and had ordered the wrong colors for the rooms. So we had to wait again. Finally the day before Bailey was born they got it installed right and we were able to move back into our rooms. Needless to say we threw a fit and got reimbursed for a portion of it. Not enough though.

Well idiots that we are got sucked back in with thier $99 whole house installation deal. STUPID STUPID STUPID! Really! I called today to make sure the carpet came in yesterday and it didn't, it's not scheduled to come in until next Tuesday. We are supposed to move into the upstairs this weekend. Matt has talked to someone there and he is trying to find some stuff out, but it doesn't look like we will have carpet before next week. I am livid right now. If we dont' have carpet by Friday they will compensate us. We have furniture being delivered on Saturday!

So, in conclusion, I highly recommend going anywhere BUT Lowes. Highly!

He had surgury yesterday...

Doesn't he look pathetic?

my heart...

belongs to him (among others of course)! He was being so silly yesterday when I was taking pictures (probably b/c it's silly to take pictures of someone on a potty), he was giving me these faces that just cracked me up! What a boy!

Matt just informed me that he was a little creeped out by this whole blog thing. He saw someone somewhere (not sure of the where, but I know the one, not that it matters) that he was really suprised to realize knew so much about our lives/home etc. I really do think it made him a little uncomfortable, but I reassured him that I don't really post about him and I try to be a little general at least about the rest... just kind of funny!

He would hate me if he knew...

If he knew this was posted online he would hate me (if he was a little older I guess) We had 2 succesful trips to the potty today. Once right after waking up (dry I might add) and then again 2 hours later! Yay for E! Don't worry, again I'm not disallusioned, I know we are no where near potty training time, but I'm still excited to get him familiar with the whole process (and b/c he's so darn cute...)!

Exciting Stuff

This is where a lot of my time this past week has been spent... at the new house, working on this! Isn't it awsome? I just LOVE it! I cut all the glass, but had a lot of help putting it up on the wall and grouting it! This is just a small portion of what is now almost done! Yay!!! Only one more wall to grout and we will be done with the backsplash in the kitchen!

Really the whole house is getting closer! I'm hoping to go tomorow night to help finish the grouting, then on Saturday I think we have a few people coming to help with lots of other things. There is a lot to get finished before next Saturday when we move in, but it's definately getting closer and I"m getting very very excited to move in!

We also have someone coming to look at the house tomorow and again on Saturday! Yay for that!

Football practice starts on Monday, so Matt won't have near as much time to work as before, luckily we are on the home stretch! I can't wait to be done!

OK, I'm tired, off to bed!

The injured...

The three inured boys... what a suprise that they are all boys, Landon seems to get hurt so much more than Bailey.

Games over...

It was a long day and I'm exausted (no rest for the weary though). We had to be at the baseball fields at 8:00, for a 9:00 game, keep in mind that we rarely get up before 9:00 anymore, so this was difficult. The team won thier first game (like 0-some insane number), so they had to play again at 11, basically one game got done and the next one started! That game was against the other Zeeland team, unfortunatly we lost. So that was two losses... double elimination, one would think we were done, but nope. That just meant that we played a "fun" game (meaning it had no meaning for rankings etc) at 3:00. I was able to come home between the last two games and Matt's mom kept the younger two for the last game thankfully! But, when I came home I left Landon there. He got hurt playing whiffle ball. Sprianed his hand/wrist pretty good. So, he didn't even play the last game. What a bummer. We had an injured Cobe over tonight too, then Elliot got a cut on his head (or a scab came off or something, anyway he was bleeding) so he had a band aid on... can't wait to show off that picture! We had a quiet evening! Now the neighbors are over so thier parents can go to a later movie! I'm exausted and really just want to go to bed, but I don't mind helping out either (does that make sense???)?

Tomorow we have a cook-out with Matt's grandma who is in town from Arkansas for the week. I have only met her one other time (at our wedding 9 years ago) and she is a joy to be around, always full of good advice! Making sure to tell Matt the other day at the house that he needed to make sure he kept his wife happy, and make time to be together! She is so sweet!

A few pictures...
Elliot slept in his "big" bed the other night, it was the CUTEST thing... I walked into his room to check on him before going to bed myself and found him on the floor, he must have heard me a little come in and he stirred awake and climbed half way back into his bed w/o ever opening his eyes. Such a QT!
My baby girl!
Landon on the rip-stik... anyone tried one of these? Not nearly as easy as they look, that's for sure! But he's a pro and I'm a mean mom that makes him wear a helmet... oh well!
Anyone wanna guess whos feet these are???? (Sorry... )

God is good...

Landons baseball games have all looked like they were going to be miserable the last two days, the heat was just unbearable, but right around game time or a little before it cooled right off, there was a little relief! God was doing that for me, b/c I would have been pretty crabby sitting in the heat for 2 hours and trying to watch Elliot!

He lost tonight unfortunatly. To a team that they won against in the All-Stars tournament. Big bummer! So now we play again tomorow morning at 9, and if they continue to win we could play again at 11, 1, 3 and 5. I'm hoping for wins for thier team, it will be the last games they play together, so when they lose, we are done. I've gotten sick of it all, but I don't want to see them lose by any means! Landon is having a lot of fun these last two games, his play time has drastically increased (sits out one inning, instead of plays one inning). It's fun to watch again! Now if only my other two had a little relief, the games get awfully long for them, but they do incredibly well considering!

Tomorow night Landon get's to have a friend over night and Sunday we have to clean our house, someone wants to go through it! That's good and bad. Our house is trashed, laundry needs to be put away, dishes need to be done, the counter that collects all of our junk needs to be cleared, boxes need to be moved... oh boy... what a job that will be! BUT... SOMEONE WANTS TO LOOK AT OUR HOUSE, so it's ok!

4 whole days...

Could I really have gone 4 whole days w/o posting? We've been busy, but that's nothing new! Today we went to St Joe to pick up our appliances! From what I've seen of them I LOVE them, (is it wierd to love appliances?). We also got our sink today for our "master" bath! Love it too! Matt's mom and Rose have painted the "accent" wall(s) in the kids' rooms! The counter tops are partially on... it's coming together!

Landon has a baseball tournament this weekend too, he is actually playing in the games so it's actually more fun to watch! We played against the other Zeeland team tonight and they won 14-10, so the bracket says we play tomorow night at 7 and I "think" if we win we have to play again on Saturday at 9... I may be a bit tired on Saturday!

Isn't she a doll???? Love ya Seeeee-D


I also wanted to share a few layouts, it's been a while...

This first one is using a kit available at We Are Storytellers for only $2.00 when you spend $3.99 or more (through Sunday 8/3)! It's called Make Lemonade!

Know anyone who needs a house????

When something seems to good to be true it probably is! When we initially foudn the renters we were thrilled, it was all perfect, they didn't need to be out of thier house until September, which gave us plenty of time to get out of our house and give them time to move in... This morning I got an uneasy wierd feeling (unexplainable really) and had a random and passing thought that they would not be moving into our house. About 5 hours later Matt called and said "We no longer have renters..." Ugh! So now we are on the hunt again, if you know anyone that wants a 3 bedroom, 1 bath home feel free to contact me! In the meantime we get to look forward to making dual house payments... b/c we are made of money you know! ;)

More pics...

Just a FEW of my favorite pictures of the weekend... mostly of the day! We had a great small family party this evening and then we headed out to Riley beach with HIGH hopes of getting some great pictures of the kids... I should never have high hopes b/c that's when I get NOTHING! I have a "certain" picture that I want to hang on my big orange wall in my house, but I just can not get my kids to cooperate for it... it's nothing difficult, just impossible for me I guess. I just need to broaden my view of the perfect picture I guess!
Just a GOOFY picture of my dear husband...

Jumping off the dune...


I bought trick candles, she was wondering why they would NOT blow out... and just waiting for it to light again!


Cake and then suckers for everyone! What else can we give them to sugar them up before bed? (I did buy Sprite Zero, so that may have helped balance it all out...)

the big S-E-V-E-N

We had a great day celebrating Bailey's 7th birthday!

We started at DeBoer for breakfast (they have a great breakfast buffet on Saturday mornings) with my parents and sister Sarah.

After breakfast we stopped at the house quick to see Matt and then Landon, Bailey, Elliot and I headed to Crazy Bounce for an hour! The kids had a blast but did not walk away unharmed. I think it's nearly impossible not to get burns on your arms when you are there in the summer with short sleeves. Poor Bailey was in pain tonight b/c of hers. They look so little and minor, but I know from past experience that they hurt... A LOT!

After Crazy Bounce we had a quiet afternoon while E napped. Bailey and I watched part of "Babysitters Club" and "Parent Trap" on ABC Family. When Elliot woke up Bailey and I went to Don's to get a new Webkinz for her (she picked the Toucan), then we went and picked up Landon from Dimitri's house and then headed to Grandville to shop. Bailey didn't want presents for her birthday, but wanted to go shopping instead. Good enough for me! :) We took her for dinner, she chose Chili's because it was in the mall and we wouldn't have to drive anywhere else (her words). Unfortunately we didn't know that Chili's closed last Sunday, so we went to Fridays instead. Her and I split Jack Daniels Chicken and fries (ahhhhh, a girl with similar tastes to me). After that we SHOPPED! We tried Limited Too, but it's so expensive that we just got a necklace and earings there and then we were off to Gap, only slightly cheaper, but we did find some stuff. She walked out with lot's of blue and green and a pair of shoes that she found for $4 (her Grandma Bell would be SOOO proud!). She had also seen a pair of shoes at Target that she wanted so we went there next. We had seen the shoes in Holland, but decided to wait til her birthday. I didn't know if the Jenison store would have them, but we thought we would try it. We did find them there (and I found a cheap cute yellow converse pair for myself too). The shoes in Holland were $11 and in Jenison (a day later) were only $4. Sweet... another deal! The toy selection in Jenison was pitiful to say the least, so she is going to spend her gift certificate from Aunt Sarah in Holland instead. Hopefully we can make it there tomorow!

OK, I've rambled. But to sum it all up we had a great birthday today, I love my little girl, as big as she get's she will always be my LITTLE girl!

Happy Birthday to my baby girl...

Today (Saturday, July 26) my little girl turns 7! I can't believe it... she has grown up so much, to much really! She is just not my baby girl anymore, she has the hormones of a teenager, the attitude of one too. Yet, she still loves her mama, still quite the cuddler, still my little sweetheart! We are taking her shopping for her birthday (I think we'll get her a webkinz too), but today she got to spend the day with Grandma Maly going to Libby Lu (her fav) and shopping and out for lunch with grandpa to Olive Garden, where they sang to her! She had such a great time and looks mighty cute with her little hairdo. She got a bit spoiled, but that's what birthdays are for, right? On Sunday we will have a little party for her and then hopefully when we get into our new house she can have a slumber birthday party (Late... aka no need to make it a "birthday" party..., just a fun party)Tonight the kids went to a car parade with grandma and grandpa so Matt could work on the house and I could go out for a girls night! We ate dinner downtown GR at Republic and then dessert at One Trick Pony! Lot's of chatting, catching up and reminiscing, which always brings laughs! Look how far we've come girls!!!!

I'm sad...

One of my dearest friends is leaving Zeeland next week. Leaving Michigan actually... even leaving the midwest. Her and I have been friends since I came to Zeeland my sophmore year. We've been through a lot together, the birth of two chilren (one for each of us) that weren't necesarily planned, but still such a blessing to us, two weddings, two more children (one for each of us, only 13 days apart), a rough divorce (her), another child (me), a relationship and 2nd marriage (her) and all the ups and downs that came within it all. We've remained good friends even when we weren't so close, we've remained good friends even though we rarely agree on ANYTHING. We are about as opposite as they come, I consider myself pretty darn conservative, she is as far from conservative as they come (I love her despite that). There are different big things on the horizen for both of us and I'm sad that we won't be together to experience those things. But on the positive side (something I'm trying to see more of) I will have an excuse to travel east, somewhere I've never been, although convincing Matt that a trip to visit her is necesary will be hard after my trip to Africa!

Speaking of Africa, I found out a few weeks ago (and forgot to even write it down) that the dates have finally been finalized... we will be gone from January 12-19. I think that is one day more than was originally planned when we were supposed to go in May, but that's ok, what's one more day, right?????