Spring Cleaning....A Few Months Late?

What's a girl to do on a day she is home and the hubby is out of town? Blog stalk of course! Oh but besides that... CLEAN! I don't know anyone that can clean their house with the hubby home. Mine drives me crazy and usually tells me how to clean....No Way! Well, he left early yesterday morning and he's gone till Sunday... I thought, perfect time to give Grandma a call and clean the house. I have a Gma that LOVES to clean, and loves it even more when it is with her granddaughter :) Hey, whatever floats your boat. I cleaned from 10 in the morning till 3:30 in the afternoon. Gma joined me around 12:30. My house is now spotless and I love it! I cleaned every room from top to bottom and even had time to re-organize the office! It feels so good. And I LOVE the smell when you walk in from outside... Freshness over and over!

So.... Whats a girl to do on day 2 when she is home and the hubby is out of town? Take a picture of her cleaning supplies and blog about it! Then... GO SHOPPING.... so thats what I am off to do!

Wake Wars

Last night we went downtown with Matt and Lori to watch the 1st annual Wake Wars hosted by The B.O.B. Jon's buddy Derek Grasman, a professional wakeboarder, was in the competition. It was fun, but really cold. Derek made it into the finals but didn't win :(

Me and Lori

People watching from the parking ramp. Check out the idiots on top dangling their feet over the edge...some people have no brain cells in their head.

Don't know who this kid was but he did a cool trick :)

Derek

View from the parking ramp. They had this set up with a beachy feel to it. They had beach volleyball, a pool with a swim up bar, two hot tubs. It was a very cool scene. We felt very over dressed though in our jeans and tank tops. Hokey smokes...some people don't care what they look like, I would have never been caught dead in half of it. Jon took some pictures of that too but those will remain off my blog :) I can't resist though...one example, itty bitty white bikini with knee high white furry boots. Who would have known?!?!

We LOVE our nieces and nephews

Last week Tuesday Jaedyn, Reese and Kyle spent the night at our house. Then, Wednesday morning Luke, Jack and Jaeger came over as well. We had a ton of fun. We made crafts, played games, read stories, went to the park. I'll let the pictures explain the rest :)

Painting the picture frames

The finished products

Reese and Kyle cuddling up with Uncle Jonny while they watch America's Got Talent :)

Reading a story before bed

The next morning we made can coolers
Jaedyn, Luke, Jack, Jaeger, Reese, and Kyle

Pretending to drink their pop :) This was totally Jaedyn's idea :) Feeding the ducks at Wedgewood Park

YIKES!!! They totally chased after us when we ran out of bread. This pictures not the best because I was running too :) The picture cracks me up b/c Jaedyn kept checking how close they were getting, Reese thought it was the funniest thing ever and Kyle was scared to death. I have to say I thought it was funny too but definitely a little scary.

Love this picture of Reese and her slurpee. She is so sticken cute!

Jaedyn on the merry-go-round

Reese on the merry-go-round

And finally Kyle on the merry-go-round. This was their favorite toy at the park.

P.S. Don't worry Court... Jessi, Gracie, and Grant's turn is next :) I think 9 kids may have been pushing it.

Happy Feet!

I have spent the last two summers looking for this certain pair of sandals...ones that I really, really wanted to own! I have not had to best of luck. I have found them online but am not big on buying things online...especially when you have to pay big bucks for shipping. I have been very patient, checking each store I go in for these fabulous flip flops. Well, my patience finally paid off. I was at the mall a couple weeks ago and decided to venture into Gap. Not even thinking about the flip flops, as I enter the store....Holy Guacamole....there they are! Calling my name...a giant rack of Havaiana Flip Flops! Who would have thought out of all places I would have found them there. (I totatlly thought they would only be sold at surf shop type stores.) So to end my story... I left with a ginormous smile on my face. I put my new flip flops on the minute I left the store and walked away with the squishy goodness!

My "Happy Feet"

Rylee Madelyn

8 pounds 2 ounces - 22 inches long

Claire FINALLY had her baby! Poor girl has been in labor since 10pm Saturday! That's right, and now it's Monday! I give her so much credit! They finally took the baby c-section at 12:50am this morning. Everyone is doing great. I can't wait to get up to the hospital to see her. Hopefully tonight! The best part of the whole thing...Stephen made it home to see Claire pregnant and be there when the baby was born. GOD IS GOOD! We were all worried that she would have the baby before he made it home from Iraq. He is over serving for our country. He is home on a two week leave and then has to go back for 5 months. Pray for them! Congrats Claire and Stephen!

Uncle Steve and Aunt Cindy's House

I guess I am in the mood for blogging... not much else to do today. I may as well get caught up with everything... On my blog that is...the house cleaning can wait :) Sunday night when we got back from the zoo Aunt Cindy invited us over for a little cookout and fishing. It was a lot of fun watching the nieces and nephews run around. They had a great time. And we brought Deisel...he LOVED the lake. Deisel running in from the lake with his tennis ball

Gracie and Kyle watching Deisel

LOVE this picture

Jack and his fish

Boat Ride

Parachute fun

Deisel passed out as soon as we got home.

Binder Park Zoo

Sunday we went to Binder Park Zoo with Joel and Erin. It was so chilly outside but actually pretty nice weather to be at a zoo. I hate when its really hot and you can smell all the nasty animal smells. We had a great time hanging out with them but I have to say that none of us were that impressed by the zoo. I had pictured something bigger and better. We all agreed that next time we will just go back to good ole' John Ball and save us the 1 1/2 drive. (I think there is more animals there anyway...seriously). Even though it was not what we expected we still had a great time. Jonny and I by the tree we thought was pretty cool :)

Check out facebook for all the animal pictures but I had to post this one. I could have watched the prarie dogs all day... this one especially. He was working so hard... FILLING IN his hole. Don't they usually dig them? Joel cracked me up and I laughed for 5 minutes... he said he must have gotten a divorce and had to move... hahaha Only Joel would think of something like that :)

Feeding the Girafees. The highlight of our trip.

Tram ride...Love this pic of the 4 of us!

My most FAVORITE treat...

...by far :)

One thing I love about the beautiful Traverse City is Popkies! It's a popcorn store that sells the best popcorn in ALL America...at least in my opinion. When Kari comes to visit she always brings me a bag...makes my day!!! Well, she was here last weekend...and sure enough...she brought me the delicious colored treat! I was going to take a picture of it but it was over half gone when I remembered. I can't resist showing you the bag of goodness so I found a picture from when I was up in TC with my treat :) If you ever head up that way... you have to buy some!!! You won't be sorry :) It makes me happy everytime!

Dinner Conversation Jars

A couple months ago my sister-in-law Shelly made a dinner conversation jar. I fell in love with it. The last couple days I have been in the mood for a project. I walked into Hobby Lobby the other day and YES! ribbon was 50% off. Let me tell ya, I stocked up! It was so fun buying a basket full of brightly colored ribbons. Kari was in town so I thought... perfect project for a Friday night! We had our minds set on each completing three...well 2am rolled around and we had just finished jar number 2... these things were a little more time consuming than I thought. We were happy with our finished products though. I still have many more to make... silly me...I updated my facebook status that I was working on a project...now everyone and their brother wants a jar. Looks like I have my work cut out for me. Since Kari will be back in TC, Shel, I need you to come over and make them with me. I can't stay up until 2am by myself :)

After all the questions were typed and printed, we had to cut them into strips.

Kari working on the next step...stapling the ribbon

My tub of colorful ribbon... oh it makes me so happy to own so much (Jon thinks I am a freak to get so excited over spools of ribbon.)

Kari excited to have a few done... they are looking adorable

Me with my first completed jar

The finished product. LOVE IT!

Kari and I with our jars. (Thanks for the AWESOME idea Shel)

Max and Ermas

I love Max and Ermas. For some reason Jon and I never seem to go there much. He loves Olive Garden so we always seem to end up there. Well, when Kari is in town I know she'll go with me. I always get the same exact thing. Tortilla Soup with a side of breadsticks. And boy did that sound good on the chilly July day. She off we went. The pictures will tell the rest of the story of our time there.

The ever so yummy Tortilla Soup

We had to take a picture of the breadsticks. I can't eat that soup without breadsticks and Kari makes fun of me every time for ordering them because they are not even on the menu :)

Our empty glasses.... you see...Tortilla soup may be the most delish thing ever however it is SUPER spicey. Our waitress was horrible and we waited forever and a half for a refill.

By this point we were getting crazy with the camera. We were a little bored while waiting for our pop. Here sits our soup, getting cold, while we wait for something to quench our thirst (and regain our taste buds.) This won't stop me from going back though!

Weekend at Sandy Pines...with the Lindhouts

We got home late on Friday from the cottage and picked up the Lindhout boys early Saturday morning to spend the night at Sandy Pines. This is something the have been begging me to do, I think since the snow melted this spring. We had a very fun weekend. Again, here are a few pics but check out my facebook for a ton more. I have some hilarious ones of the kids playing!

The Water Park is obviously a huge hit. The boys loved it!

I absolutely LOVE this picture!!!!

Swimming in the lake!

Me and the boys spent the night in the tent. Again, they loved it!

Mini Golf