Luke's swim lessons

We put the kids in a swim school that has them swimming in one week. They cried a couple times, but they are doing it. Yes, Luke is crying in the pic of him laying back and grabbing the instructor's hair!

Happy Birthday Noah James!

Our friends, Jamie and Amber, welcomed their first born into the world today! It was a long awaited day...and we are SOOO EXCITED that it is them and not us! :) AnnaJoy, obviously, is used to girls being born as she couldn't stop calling him a "she" and Jake wanted to hold Noah ALL DAY LONG! He is still talking about holding the baby boy! Oh and the kicker? The kids announced that they wanted babies...Anna, of course, a baby sister. And Jake, well you already know, a baby brother! Good thing people are having babies, they can go get their baby-fixes elsewhere! :)

The "BIG" fireworks display.....

I neglected to say, that at the parade, both boys "suddenly" had to go potty really bad! So, Mike had to get them all the way back to our church...which is really not super close to the parade route when you HAVE to go...this being said, we decided against going to the Allendale fireworks (which was our original plan). Instead, Daddy and Uncle Steve (err, I mean the fireworks technicians) lit off a few that we bought. The kids were impressed and at times thought they were a bit LOUD, but us adults were pretty excited when we realized we could see most of Allendale's show from our back porch later that evening! Happy Birthday America!

Grandville 4th of July Parade

I worked the night of the 3rd, for today was a very long day for me. We went to the Grandville Parade, which has quickly become our tradition, 3 years and counting. The kids loved it, especially all the candy!

fighting over the baby!

Aunt Noelle brought Calli and Andi over today. Jake and Anna were fighting over who got to hold her first. Calli wouldn't sit for a picture, and Luke was pretty indifferent about holding the baby.

Whitecaps Game

We went to a Whitecaps game with the kids for our anniversary tonight. It was hot and the sun was right in their faces. They had fun, but kept asking when we could leave (probably cuz the sun was in their faces). The highlight for the kids was Crash and the pig character (don't know his name) giving them high fives!

Our 10 Year Anniversary Trip to NYC!!!

Mike and I spend 2.5 days in NYC this week for our 10 year anniversary. It was so much fun! I took over 430 pictures, these are just a couple that highlight what we did while we were there.










I think my favorite part hands down was Times Square, but there was so much to see I can't even tell you everything! We saw two Broadway shows, Shrek and Mary Poppins. They were fascinating! We walked past Matthew Brodrick getting in his limo after acting in The Philanthropist on Broadway. There are a couple Museum pics, those are from Night at the Museum, our kids were too excited to see them!! One pic is of the WTC rebuild site. Wow, what a mess it still is, 8 years later! It made me tear up 2 different times on our trip just thinking about that horrible day! The hotel we were staying in was flooded with NBA associates, some names that Mike recognized, as we were checking out on Thursday. Literally as we were getting in the taxi to head for LaGuardia we found out about Michael Jackson's death. What a crazy week for celebs! First, Ed McMann, then Farrah and Michael all in one day! Thank you to Grandma Rottier, Aunt Katie and Grandpa too for helping with the kids! They have all kinds of stories of their own they have been sharing with us!! P.S. in the 5th picture, look close....It's an advertisement for the state of Michigan!!!!!!

Camping at Yogi Bear

We went to Yogi for a week again this year. Luke decided during our trip (actually just before) to potty train. The entire trip he was dry (well one accident...but it freaked him out). It rained one night, so we went to the mall on Wednesday morning to let the kids play while it dried out. It was lots of fun the whole week! The bummer part is, now that we are home, Luke has accidents (not often, but since we were spoiled at camp this is frustrating for all of us!). I didn't get the camera out, but after we got home our sand box was a swimming pool...the kids played in it and well, you can tell what they looked like! Big, wet, muddy messes! Like I said, no camera as I was scrambling to keep them outdoors to shower them off with the hose!!! Mike and I leave on Tuesday for New York for a couple days, we are so excited to get away alone! Thank you to grandma Rottier and Aunt Katie for being willing to watch the little crazies! We'll make it up to you someday....I hope! :)

AnnaJoy through the years....

From her actual birth day to today......








Happy Birthday baby girl!