Our New Addition!

Welcome Our New Baby Girl!

This is Izy or Izabella.

She is actually our cat's niece. Our cat Dobby has a sister that is still hangin' around and she had kittens. My friend Dawn has a barn with goats and a few wild cats hang around there. That's where we got Dobby 3 years ago. Dobby's sister had 4 really cute kittens but Izy is the sweetest!

When I stopped by to see Dawn last week, I just asked (on a whim) if she had any kittens and didn't expect her to say yes. But she did and I/we found this little cutie. The kids were with me and we just couldn't resist her. It took a little while to catch her in the barn with all the other kittens running around but we finally got her. Then we packed her in a box and brought her home.

Dobby certainly wasn't fond of her at first. But after a few days he really seems to like her. He even cleans her and chases her around the house. They are so cute together.

Izy's 1st Bath

Shelf Sitters

Little Posers

I've Joined the Club

It's Official ~ I'm a Mini Van Mom!

And I'm loving it!! We actually got it the day before we went up north, which worked out wonderful. It has leather interior and captains chairs. So we are totally spoiled. Caleb kept asking if we could just go somewhere, he liked it so much. We took the bench seat out and just loaded it up with coolers, swim tubes, sleeping bags and all our junk. That was wonderful timing for our trip! I was starting to freak out thinking about how I was going to fit everything in my little Subaru and the kids too.

The kids were so excited the first day we got it, they just wanted to hang out in it. Since Nana & Papa gave them a portable DVD player, the neighbor kids came over and they watched a movie. I don't know how they could stand it ~ it was about 85 degrees out. Those silly kids only made it through about 1/2 of the movie.

Sand, Sun, Skeeters and Skunks!

Well, we are back after a week long trip up north. We went about 1 1/2 - 2 hr. North in the Hart/Pentwater area in the middle of asparagus farm country. No Joke ~ one cottage/house we went past on the lake said it was

The Home of the 2003 Mrs. Asparagus Queen.

This was the cottage of my best client...he let us use his cottage for a week. It's the cute little A-frame in the picture. If you look closely (don't hurt yourself) I'm on one dock to the right with Caleb putting worms on hooks and Mackenzie is on the other dock. If the kids weren't in the water...then we were fishing!

The first night we were visited by beautiful swans. They are so nice to look at but we've been told they are really nasty. As soon as they saw us outside they came to the dock. We were warned about them, so we didn't feed them even though the kids wanted to. As we walked up the steps to the cottage, they started to swim away. So we went back down to the water...well they came back. They were looking for food ~ I guess. We just had to go back up to the cottage and wait until they swam away. By then, the skeeters were out in full force and munchin' on us. We pretty much couldn't stay out when the sun went down. The kids and I are still itching and covering ourselves with itch cream!

Skunks...Well my client told me about a night that he spooked a skunk when he walked out the door at night and got sprayed. After hearing that story...I didn't dare to go out at night to get the towels off the line. I almost forgot about the story until the first night. I was sitting on the fold out couch bed with the kids watching a movie and a nice breeze was coming through the windows. Along with the breeze was...yep...Skunk...Mackenzie asks "Mom, do I smell a skunk?" Thankfully it wasn't that strong but it was there. Then I forgot to tell Matt both of those stories...and when he came up on Wednesday night...Well, we had some grapes that were getting fruit flies. So instead of putting them in the trash he decided to wait until late evening/dusk and walked across the dirt road and threw the grapes into the field. Within about 10 minutes we started smelling skunk. Which is when he told me that he just threw the grapes across the road and now it stinks like skunk. Do ya think it was because of me? Hummmm ~ Ya think?

The Sandyman

Caleb sits still for 5 minutes & I got a picture to prove it!

1st for Everything

Mackenzie's first time tubing ~ and loving it!

The Little Fisherman

Caleb's 10th fish ~ we stopped counting at about 50!

2 for 1

Paddle Boat Ride & Fishing ~ What could be better?

Can we stay forEVER Mom?

Thank You Nana & Papa for the portable DVD Player!

It rained most of the 2nd afternoon & night. Plus every night we watched movies because there were only about 3 TV stations.

What a cruel world! These kids are spoiled!

And A Beautiful End To The Week!

American Girls & A Boy

An American Girl

Tea Party

The girls went to an afternoon tea party at The Cappon House Museum on Friday. It was an American Girl Tea Party in the grand dinning room. This house is a 19th century Victorian home built in 1874 for the first mayor of Holland, Isaac Cappon. Mackenzie and her friend Erica looked so cute all dressed up for their day at the tea party! They made Victorian place cards and bubble wands with about 10 other girls and their dolls. After the girls were done, Caleb and I picked up Erica's mom and returned to take the girls out for lunch. We also returned for a guided tour of The Cappon House and the Settlers House right down the street. Now Erica is hooked on American Girl dolls and is asking for one for her upcoming birthday in August. Sorry Eva! I know they are expensive ~ Mackenzie got hers from Nana & Papa!

*Thursdays are Free Days at the Cappon and Settlers Houses