CATCH UP BEFORE THE BABY!!!

Hello All- I've been a complete failure as a blogger lately. Sorry. I'll try to catch up a little bit here. We haven't really done much this summer, no vacations or anything, and the one thing that I have a lot of pics of, Bethany pretty much hogged on her blog! So after we have the baby, we should have some more interesting pics, but for now, this is what I have!

Evan and Annica took swimming lessons at the end of June. Evan did awesome, Annica did OK, so I enrolled her in a second week, which made all the difference in the world. Now they are both swimming around like fish.

We gave our house a wee bit of a facelift. Everything was forest green before, so we painted the shutters a cheery green, and the doors brown. Then we also built window boxes, and painted them brown as well. Here's the pics I have. The flowers are 10x that size now, and look gorgeous, but in June....

Here is the perrenial bed that I put in the side yard. I got to go back and dig up tons of my old flowers, so I just plugged them into the grass so they wouldn't die, and then I had to go an pull all the grass around them. Extremely time consuming. I do not recommend!! Sorry the lighting is so dark... maybe if you blow them up?? They looked OK on the camera before...

Here is a room in our house you hadn't seen before. The nursery which was too cluttered with junk to take a pic before!! So this is "before" we started working on it. Note the lovely 90's wallpaper and track lighting... Hmmmm....

Evan at Collen Park on July 4....

.... and Annica....

Okay, so for the rest of my perennials, that were still in buckets, I learned my lesson, and put Round-up on the grass before planting. Then I still had to pull it out by hand, but it was easier. Maybe b/c mom helped me for hours and hours to do it. Thank you mom!!!! :)

Anyhow, this is next to the barn, and is now full of flowers, which I will take a pic of later.

Grandma Miersma was here for a week. Not nearly long enough... I love her so dearly, and she makes us all smile and laugh continuously. Here she is with all the grandkids that were at coffee that Sunday.

And just with our family.... Don't look at the fat lady....

Mom, Grandma, me, and Dana

Here is a partial "after" picture of the nursery. We ripped out all the trim, and replaced it with nice wide stuff. Recognize it Dwight?? :) And Annica wanted to pull tape, so she pretty much did the whole room.

That's all for now. More later after the baby... I'm about 2 weeks overdue now. No big deal....!! The doctor doesn't really want to induce me b/c of baby's position, and the risk of an emergency C-section, so I'll just wait patiently!! Until then.....!

Lots of Fun to get the warm summer started out right! :)

Auntie Dana, always the reliable, and way more fun than mom baby-sitter, drew pictures, and the kids got to color them in with sidewalk chalk.

Fire-breathing dragon!

Weird robot.
A dinosaur (of course).

Grrrr...Fun lady herself!

Here is Annica holding Cassidy Joy at Brad and Lynn's house. She can't wait to have our own baby at home. (Just not so red- or so she told Grandma Kuiper at the hospital. he he )

Here is Seth, Luke, Dad, and Jason at the annual PR softball tourney.I'm sure Andrea would be thrilled that I put her pic up here, but really I just wanted to show you the burger. This is the Fifth Third burger at the Whitecaps game. We went with a group of our friends on Friday. Anyhow, it's $20.00, so we all pitched in and had a few bites. If a single person eats the whole thing, they get a T-shirt. It's a new promo they have this year. Kind of funny.

Hope Classic 5K run/1mi fun run.

Our kids wanted to be in it too, when they found out from the neighbors, so Jason and I ran with them for the fun mile. Evan had been in "training" for a few weeks, running every day when the neighbor boys came home from school. Back and forth on the grass patch b/w our driveways, around the barn....They are so funny, talking about working out their leg cramps and such....
This is Annica, Josh Bosveld (next door), Evan, don't know the kid in grey :), Justin Bosveld (next door), and Zachary Schwartz (down the road).

Fatty and Annica waiting for the l mi. So I brought the stroller b/c I just KNEW Annica would get tired. But she didn't. She ran her little hiney off. Seriously, she didn't practice at all, and ran to the half mile mark w/o walking, and left me in the dust feeling really dumb. I finished dead last with the big stroller. Very embarrasing to be cheered on by the whole crowd at the finish line. That will make you feel out of shape and foolish. Oh well. I wan't going to run. I have a big ball on my front.

Little Annica coming up through the last stretch toward the finish line. Way before me.

Here are all the boys/men waiting for the beginning of the male one mile. Jason is by the road sign, Evan you can't see.

Here is Evan, (red shorts, white shirt). He finished in 10 min, 23 sec.

Daddy with the kids.

Very Random Pictures!!

It's been a while again, so here is what we have been up to in the past few weeks.....

Here is the beautiful view that we enjoy out of our dining room window each evening. There was a gorgeous sunset the other night. The picture does not do it justice. I just stood there in awe of the beautiful colors with a smile on my face for the longest time. The Lord is certainly the only One capable of creating such spell-binding beauty!

Lynn Holstege and I have 3 weddings this month. The next 2 pics are not my favorite wedding, b/c it was to be outside, and had to be converted to inside at the last minute. The hanging baskets are nice, but not our normal thing....

Currently I am OBSESSED with the beautiful flowering trees that are in bloom all over West Mihchigan. These are my favorite kind. Crab apples. Yes, I do drive around and snap pictures of trees. How else am I supposed to explain what I want to the garden center folk? :)


This wedding is more our normal thing... Leshia, do you miss it?

Some reception flowers

Evan had kindergarten Round-up. He is sooo excited for school!

This is his cousin Ethan Copple who will be in his class.

Evan also lost his first tooth this past week! It was very loose, and when they were washing their faces in the tub, he was biting on the washcloth when Annica decided she wanted it, and yanked it out of his mouth, and the tooth came out too!!

The ducks... They love to swim in our pool. Right now we still have the cover on, and there is rain water on top of it, with lots of plant junk, so they love to swim on that and eat stuff.

Anyone recognize this from moving day? This white frame is the front of the armoire that we couldn't get out of the upstairs, so I tearfully took a crowbar to it, and tore it apart. I saved the front of it though, and made it into a magnetic chalkboard.

Evan and the ducks... They love him, and will sit on him forever.

Okay, that is all the pics for now... Hate to say it, but the ducks are like two feet tall, so these pics aren't too up to date. They grow like weeds. Also, I've been working in my yard like crazy, and just transplanted TONS of plants/bushes from my old house, so I'll have to take some pics of the outside our house.... Maybe when the pool is open and doesn't look disgusting. Anyhow, love you all, and talk to you later!!

Make Way for Ducklings! :) And cute kids.

Hi everyone. We' d like you to meet the latest additions to our family. These are our ducks, Graham Quacker and Quacker Jack. (we started out with Graham and Quacker, but a fight ensured, both children wanting theirs to be Quacker, so we had to think of another name.) Jason just came home from work one day, and said we have to get a duck, so we got the kids each one yesterday. His little brother Seth used to have a pet duck that we all loved, so we knew they make good pets.

Right now they have to be under a heat lamp for a few weeks. They are in the basement in a 6x4 playgate, and a cardboard box for warmth. In a few weeks we will move them to the garage, and then wean them to the outdoors.

1. We let them out of the playgate a few times a day, and let them run around in the basement, which the kids LOVE, and I think the ducks do too.
   
   
   
   
   

   
   

   The kids love to sit and watch them eat and sleep, and can be found often perched on these chairs in the basement.
   

   I know, a lot of pictures of ducks.... Just think how many I'll post when the BABY arrives!!
   

   Here are a few pics of the kids after church this Easter morning.