Summer update

We've been busy with a little of this and a little of that for the past few weeks. Kelsey went camping with Jason's mom, sister and boys up in Grand Haven at the State Park last Monday through Wednesday. We planned to switch the girls on Wednesday and let Macey stay Wed-Sat. I kept Macey home the first part of the week because I suspected she had swimmer's ear. I brought her in finally on Tuesday and after removing a lot of wax, the Dr. determined there was no infection so she was good to go camping! We all spent the day in GH on Wednesday and even got to visit with Brenda and Lisa who were at the beach as well. We walked into town since it was Coast Guard festival and got a little junk food, ate dinner, and came home with Kelsey and Taylie late that night and left Macey behind. Friday morning I got a call that Macey only slept 2 hours because her ear hurt so bad :( I drove up with the other two girls since Jason was doing some concrete work and met them in Holland to bring Mace to an urgent care. Sure enough it was swimmer's ear and she was in pain. Her camping trip was made short by a day and I took her on home with me. Finally a few days later, she is back to herself again. Phew...that wasn't fun to see her go through. Here are some other random pictures of what we've been up to.

Here I am running my first 5K! laugh :)

Colon has an annual 5K during Magic Week. The course starts at the high school and and goes past Elizabeth's and my house so it was fun to run by people cheering us on. The water stand was set up in front of my house so Kelsey was able to hand me my cup :)


Here are a few pictures from Yogi Bear Campground in Fremont, IN.

Making bracelets at craftime.

Picture time with Yogi and friends! (this was Macey's favorite thing during the trip)

Taylie loved this fountain and would run through it over and over laughing.


I've been so bad about taking pictures lately so I will try to be better!

Taylie's 1st Birthday!

Taylie's first birthday fell on a Friday. Jason had a golf tournament all day and the girls and I had an appointment and some errands to run so we didn't get a chance to do anything too special. Since Taylie loves dogs, her sisters picked out a stuffed dog for her. They had fun wrapping it and giving it to her when Jason got home. She loves it :)

I know every birthday I will think back to the day they were born, but when it's only been one year, it's still so fresh. I looked at the clock many times throughout the day thinking back to her tramatic birth day. I am so thankful that one year later, I can hug, kiss, and love my little girl as much as I want to and she is as healthy as can be!

The next day, we headed up north for my cousin Rachel's baby shower. We had a great time and it was fun seeing how cute Rachel is with her little belly. She hasn't found out what they're having, but my guess is a girl!

Right from the shower we went to Dave's workplace, MVP Sports, to use their outdoor pool/waterpark. Thanks to Dave, he got us in for free and we enjoyed a few hours of fun before heading to a quick stop at Captain Sundae, then off to prepare for Taylie's party at my dad's house.


Taylie still isn't a fan of unfamiliar places and people so she was clung to me most of the time and didn't want me out of sight. Somehow Aunt Rachel worked her magic and was able to hold her for awhile before she started crying.




Loves her pillow pet!


She was quite excited about getting some money :)

Jason really likes water balloons so we brought along his slingshot for some fun.

That night we drove home late, packed on Sunday and headed out to Fremont, IN to Yogi Bear to camp for a few days so we got in her other party this past Saturday at our house.

Taylie was much more laid back and comfortable with it being at our house.

The kids played outside, ate, opened gifts, did a craft (pillowcases), ran through the sprinkler, and ate some cake.

Me and my girls :)

There was NO cake smashing going on at her parties this year, maybe we'll try again next year :)

Checking it out a little...

Sharing with Grammy...

Happy 1st Birthday Taylie Mae!

Summertime fun

We have been looking quite awhile for a used swingset for the girls and we finally found one on Craigslist for a really good price! After a power wash and some stain it should look new again :) So far the girls love it...Kels could swing all day if I let her. (thank goodness she can pump herself!)

Our neighbors from across the street invited us
on their pontoon boat after a day of swimming in the lake at their house.

We went camping for four days with Jason's family
to Hidden Ridge campground in Shelbyville.

Kels enjoying some pizza hot off the grill.

Enjoying a snack in the trailer while cooling off.

How Taylie cooled off by the trailer. It was a hot few days!

Besides Friday.....it rained all day long! Taylie enjoyed some Barney on our phone while munching a cookie :)

Brenda even came out to visit on Saturday!

We spent a lot of time in the pool. The girls are slowly getting braver with trusting their life jackets and swimmies and actually trying to swim in the deep end. They even jumped in without us catching them once.

This goofball was quite the handful camping. She is now walking everywhere and is already Miss Independent. Like the cheesy smile we get anytime the camera appears?

Since it was the 4th of July weekend, they had a lot of stuff going on. We had a DJ by the pool with games, tie dying shirts, inflatables, giant waterslide, hair feathers (Brenda got a purple one), and a craft for the kids.

We got home around 10pm on Sunday night so we could enjoy the 4th in Colon. We made it to the parade, played games in town, and got huge cotton candy cones. At night Jason took the big girls to see the fireworks.

That's it for now. We're back off to the campground tomorrow morning to get in more swimming and fun. We have Yogi Bear camping trip coming up along with a little girl's 1st birthday!