Vacation

I love the East Coast. I wish Michigan had mountains and bordered an ocean. Then it would really be the perfect state:)

We saw seven states in 11 days. Three of those states (Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York), we just drove through. The rest we actually visited! We rented a house in Salisbury, Massachusetts for most of the time we were out East. The first weekend, we traveled up to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. Mike's cousin Alex got married.


This was a stop along the way up to the Wht Mts. The scenery was beautiful.


Don and Amy and their daughter Alex.

The kids stayed back in MA with my parents. Mike and I were able to have a night away!

Mike's brother Chris, and his lovely family!

The wedding was beautiful and the reception was fun! It was at the Atatash resort. This is a huge ski area. The resort was beautiful.

Sunday afternoon we headed back down to MA where we spent the week on the beach.

This is at Browns, a seafood restaurant on the border of NH and MA.

Our first morning on the beach. It started out cloudy but ended up being a beautiful day. The water was really nice.

The Westermans loaned us this awesome umbrella. The girls loved playing in the sand.

Mike took the girls down to these rocks where you can find all sorts of sea creatures when the tide is out.

Hampton has all sorts of arcades and shops and food places. The girls had lots of fun playing games like this. Allie won a stuffed animal playing Roller Bingo!

We took the kids go carting.

They had fun at this playground in Hampton, right on the ocean.

Allie loved boogie boarding!

So did Ava!

We stayed in MA till Friday. Then we packed up and drove north to the Green Mountains in Vermont. Mike's parents found this chalet in the mountains. We were able to stay here with my parents, Mike's parents, and Chris, Miranda, and their kids.

The views were amazing. The house was so beautiful. There were hiking trails around the house that were fun with the kids.

Mike's cousin Jack got married in VT. It was wonderful being able to be out East for both weddings! The girls got to come to this one.

Jack and Heather got married in a beautiful, old church with stained glass windows. The reception was in a beautiful old barn, that was decorated so nicely.

The day after the wedding, we drove to this old marble quarry. About a hundred years ago, it was a fully functioning marble producer. The workers hit a spring and it filled up with water. Now it's a great place for cliff diving.

Ava and Allie jumped from this height! I jumped from a cliff about 25 feet up. And Mike jumped from one about 35 ft up. It was a lot of fun!

Ava, Allie, and I getting ready to watch Mike jump!

It was a fabulous week. We were very fortunate to spend some quality time with our families. The weddings were beautiful. The weather was amazing. We had one rainy day that we spent in Maine, doing some shopping and eating lunch. We bought Ava's "first day of school" outfit here. Unfortunately, I wasn't planning on cold weather for her first day, so we'll have to save it for another day! We love the East coast!

Jessica and Jeremy's wedding

Our good friends Jeremy and Jessica got married this summer and Mike and I were honored to be a part of it! The girls were even invited to come to the wedding. They had a blast. They talked about it for months leading up to it, and even had their outfits picked out a couple months in advance. The day was beauitful and the wedding was super fun. Congrats Jeremy and Jess! We love you guys!


The girls did great during the ceremony. They didn't make a peep.


Ava and Allie loved my flowers!

The fun wedding party

Is this foreshadowing? Might Jess and Jeremy have four little ones of their own someday!?

Hannah was mad when Papa and Grandma started dancing. She insisted they take her with them.

Ava and Allie were probably on the dance floor the entire afternoon. They had so much fun dancing with our old CL2 girls! What a beautiful day and a beautiful couple!

Summer time

I haven't blogged all summer! We have been very busy. So now I'll just backtrack and tell you all about how our summer went!

The girls played outside constantly. I think I heard that we had more sunny days this summer then we've ever had.


The girls played on the swings, jumped on the trampoline, rode bikes, and played with friends from the neighborhood.


Ava and Allie found a weird looking bug and were inspecting it in this picture.


Hannah even enjoyed being outside most of the summer.

Daddy taught the girls how to fish and Papa bought them their own fishing poles. Ava's had princesses on it, Allie had Barbies on hers!

The girls helped out a ton in the garden too. Everyday, we would take a basket out and pick vegetables.

Their favorite thing to do this summer was swim. They swam constantly. Ava can swim without assistance. Allie is getting really good at swimming as well!

Hannah loves the water as well. She has no fear. She will just go charging out into the water!

It's been a great summer! Hopefully the weather will stay nice for the fall.

First day of school

The passing of time is amazing. I cannot believe how quickly life goes by. Ava seems so little to me at times, and yet, she seems so old! She started kindergarten today. It's weird how emotional it is for me. I understand why people home school. You really don't have that much time with your kids. She will be in school for 8 hours a day. I miss her already!

I'm so thankful that she did so great this morning. If she had been crying, I think I may have just said "to heck with kindergarten" and tried again next year! Mike and I drove Ava to school this morning and we were able to stay with her till about 10:30. We met her teacher, took a tour of the school, showing her where the music, art, and lunch rooms were, as well as the gym and media center. We had a snack and did a project with her and then we had to say our goodbyes. She did get a little clingy towards the end, but confidently walked over to the circle when we told her we had to leave. I'm so proud of her and can't wait to hear how her first day went!


Ava showing everyone the contents of her lunch!



Ready to take on the world:)


Daddy and Ava taking a tour of the school

Doing her first project in kindergarten

Circle time, and time for us to leave:(

18 months

Hannah turned 18 months yesterday. She seems so old to me! She walks around the house like she's in charge. She can be very sassy!




Hannah repeats pretty much anything you say to her. Her vocabulary is quite extensive. The word you hear her say most often is "no." I think she hears her sisters use it too much. She loves to swim, slide down slides, swing on swings, and ride on her little bike.

She also loves to show her independence by brushing her own teeth. It's only a matter of time till the "I do it" phase begins!


I can't get enough of these curls.

She adores her sisters. If Allie and Ava are playing together in their room, Hannah will be watching their every move. She loves to sit at their little table and color or play barbies with them too.

Good night kisses!

Hannah is outgrowing her changing table too. Not too long and we'll start potty training:)

Hannah's favorite foods are yogurt, fruit, burritos (surprisingly), apple cinnamon oatmeal, and anything that has sugar in it. Just like her sisters, she has a sweet tooth. Her favorite person is still Papa! She squeals when she sees him and cries when he leaves. I love it!

She LOVES her blanket. And she has a Bumble Bee pillow pet that her sisters named Biggby. She loves to dance. If any music comes on, she immediately starts moving. She sleeps about 12 hours through the night and gives me one 2 hour nap each day. We love her sassy little atitude, which is good for her with two older sisters. Ava and Allie are great with her too. Ava is such a helpful big sister. Allie can have her moments of pushing or hitting, but for the most part, she genuinly enjoys having Hannah around. Happy 1 1/2 birthday Hannah Margaret!

Hannah's boo boo

Poor little Hannah was hanging on the back of one of our dining room chairs and the whole thing came down on her face. She ended up with a bumped nose and a black eye. She really did handle it well. She cried but not too bad.

Sisters

It's really fun having a house full of girls. Dramatic and emotional for sure, but fun all the same. They are growing so fast. Ava is 5 1/2, Allie is 3 1/2, and Hannah is 18months. Hannah is the biggest diva of all! Her favorite word at the moment is "no."

Ava refers to these dresses as Hula dresses. And they love to match, at all times.


Silly faces


Big girls getting ready for bed, washing their faces and brushing their teeth!


Hannah and Allie

This was a really strange looking bug the girls found in the yard. I love that they're unafraid of bugs! Notice the matchy matchy again!

Pole Barn

With Mike being a carpenter, he has a lot of crap:) Just kidding. He has a lot of very useful tools. He's been wanting to build a shed/pole barn for a long time. I don't blame him. Our garage is so full, he can't even park his truck in it. So he took a coulple weekends and constructed this monster in our backyard.




We might christen it after the concrete is poured inside, with a nice big game of floor pong!

Garden

I have not posted in so long! We have been very busy this summer. I'd like to say that that's my only excuse, but it's not. You see, my computer is getting slow in it's old age. Even with this post, I started to upload some photos and my compter froze. So I had to restart it. It's really annoying. But I'm blessed to have a computer, and a digital camera. So I'll stop complaining now:)

We really have had a busy summer. I don't even know what we've been doing! Actually, I did start a job. I'm working two mornings a week at Biggby coffee. It's really quite fun and I enjoy the adult interaction! And I love making lattes.

Our garden is doing magnificently. We planted a wide variety of fruits and vegetables this year. A few didn't make it. Once again my watermelons didn't come up. I'll have to figure those out someday because we really love watermelon. I also planted spinach, onions and beets that never came up. Not sure why. But everything else is doing great.

Here are a couple pictures before we planted anything. Mike did a fantastic job on the fencing.

And this picture was taken at the end of June. It's even crazier now!

We have lots of lettuce, cucumber, zucchini, sugar snap peas, and squash. And I'm just now starting to get peppers and tomatoes. I also planted pumpkins which are coming along well. This was my first year for raspberries and strawberries so didn't get anything from those. Oh and I planted two blueberry bushes and the berries are just starting to turn blue. I really do love gardening. I have so much respect for farmers because it is hard work. But it pays off!