vacation fun

So it has been a while since I have updated things here on our blog. We were on vacation the first part of June and then I must admit I was being a little lazy about doing anything on here. And then a few weeks I started trying to put some pictures on here and our internet started acting funny so it just wouldn't work. So after figuring everything out with our internet we are back! So I guess I will start with vacation, although it has already been almost a month ago!

All packed and ready to go. This year was a sad year for us. We had to borrow a friends' car top carrier. Sad because I feel this has bumped us into a category in life, the old and uncool category.

 The kids of course needed to get into the water right away. It wasn't all that warm but they didn't really care.

 This beautiful girl just watched the first day. I kind of love this picture. She is just too sweet.

 Of course there was lots of fishing. Jennifer loves helping papa drive the boat, as you can tell by her face.

 Mikayla got a new fishing pole for her birthday, so she was ready for some fishing this year too.

 Mikayla wanted to help mama dry dishes one afternoon. Very sweet.

 We caught a lot of fish, I mean a lot. And what made it fun catching so many fish was that the kids were catching most of them. Which they thought was great!

 Last year Kelly was not even as big as this fish! And this year she was loving to touch the fish. It was kind of gross but don't worry she got a good hand washing right after this picture.

 All my girls swinging together. 

As always I took a ton of pictures on vacation. This is just the beginning!!

5 years-old

It was this sweet girls birthday today. And she is 5!! Hard to believe she is five, it sounds so old.

I of course wanted to take her picture in her pretty dress today and I was able to get one picture before the funny faces came out. Right now it seems Mikayla can't take a regular picture, they all need to be a funny face!

 We had kind of a busy weekend around here so the poor girl kind of had a thrown together birthday. Thankfully she didn't know or seem to care. We celebrated her and that was all that mattered. She decided to help daddy do a little work in the garage before opening presents.

 A new Pete the Cat book!! Mikayla loves these books right now and I love to listen to her "read" along.

 Penguin wrapping paper you ask? Like I said it was a busy weekend. Mikayla didn't seem to notice at all, it was presents after all. Who cares what their wrapped in!

 New skates!!

And a new helmet to go with her skates. Look how cute this little girl looks!

 Getting a little help from dad, athough she didn't really need help, she was doing great. And I love the other picture. She sat down like she had been skating for hours. Who knew skating was such hard work?

 Taking a minute to read her new Frozen book between laps around the kitchen.

 Of course Jennifer needed to get her skates on as soon as Mikayla opened hers. Love these two skating sisters!

 And a birthday would not be complete without a trip to get some ice cream.

 Like I said, she can't go without a funny face!

I always reflect on Mikayla's birthday a little differently than the other girls. Five years ago when this sweet, blond haired, blue eyed baby entered into the world, we had no idea. We had no idea the joy that would be coming our way in just a few weeks. One of Mikayla's favorite things to say right now is "watch this!" She then usually proceeds to do a little dance, stomping her feet and clapping her hands. I am so thankful that I get to "watch this" with this sweet girl everyday. Happy Birthday Mikayla Jo!!

summer days

We decided a few days ago that we had finished all that needed to be finished for school and so we declared ourselves on summer vacation. Jennifer is pretty excited to be done with school for a while. After a busy few days we decided to enjoy the warm weather outside. So we broke out the sprinkler and water table. What a great way to start summer vacation!

Mikayla does not usually like to be near the sprinkler but she was running after Jennifer so she ended up fairly close.

 These two girls love, love the summer because they get to play in the water. Such fun!!

 And this sweet baby loves playing in the water too. I could not leave her out. She loved being outside playing in a tub of water. She was so happy!

 Yes, you are seeing this correct. Mikayla dumped some water on Kelly's head. For this brief moment Kelly was not so happy, her only unhappy moment while we were outside. 

 And then Mikayla sat down to play with Kelly. 

 Jennifer got a little crazy with the sprinkler for a brief moment. And me being the silly mom that I am, I sat my camera down on the swing and it got wet. Our track record with cameras is not so good. So for a brief moment I thought we were down another camera. However, I am happy to say that it came back! So while trying to figure out if was broke or not I took a few pictures of this sweet baby girl!

Happy summer everyone, hope you are enjoying the lazy days as much as we are!

out with the old

So after almost 25 years of being sat on, rocked in, slept on, wrestled on and climbed on it was time to say good-bye to our furniture. If you grew up with us you recognize this furniture from Bill's house, if you went to college with us you recognize this furniture from our apartments and if you have ever been to our house in the past 11 years you recognize this furniture. It has been through a lot! But after months (and I do literally mean months!) of looking, it was time to say good-bye to the old and get ready for the new.

 I have been sitting on this furniture with Bill for over 18 years. This furniture is in pictures of us dressed up for prom, studying in college and rocking all three of our babies. Oh the things this furniture has seen and been through!

Oh the memories that these pieces hold, it was a little weird taking it out of the house. It is funny the timing of us getting new furniture. Us getting something new is a big change, especially after over twenty years! Bill shared in church on Sunday how God has used us getting new furniture to help him realize some things about change in his heart. Who knew God would use new furniture to work in our hearts?!! As change is happening all around us, it is good, hard but good! And we look forward to the new memories that will be made on our new furniture, after all we hated furniture shopping so much that we will probably have our new stuff for 20 plus years too!

party time

Today was party day for all three of the girls' birthdays. Jennifer has been counting down the days until everyone came to celebrate birthdays. It was also Jennifer's last soccer game on Saturday so everyone was able to watch Jennifer in action on the soccer field.

 This cute girl could have cared less about birthdays but I think she was loving all the attention.

 It was a nice afternoon to play outside while we waited to open presents.

 Kelly didn't care about what was in the presents, she just loved the paper.

 Jennifer, as you may know, was all over her presents. She could not wait to open them.

 Mikayla was a little tired by the time we opened presents and was excited because her big sister was excited. 

 Bring on the tissue paper!

 Of course there was singing with cake and ice cream.

What a fun day celebrating these three sweet girls! They loved all the attention and having grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins here to spend the day.