Ballerina Claire, Napping Claire and Bear....

Claire has FINALLY started a dance class and for those of you who know Claire well, this has been a long anticipated event. Neither girl took dance last year and this year both are taking a class and loving it. Claire is taking ballet/tap and Anna is taking jazz/ballet. Here is Claire in her outfit before her class.

Here are two sweet pictures of Claire napping on the couch. We've been out having lots of fun since it's just the two of us during the day and sometimes we stay gone too long and she ends up "resting"on the couch. Amazingly enough, she sacks out every time.

Joel went bear hunting this past weekend and my cousin shot this huge bear. Thankfully it went home w/my cousin and not my husband. :)

Back to School...

And we are off to another fun-filled school year. These pics are about a week or so late getting posted but these were taken on the morning of the 1st day of school. Here is Ethan - all excited about starting 3rd grade. I can't believe my baby boy is already in 3rd grade.Which leads me to my 2nd (toothless) baby.....off to 1st grade! I think it might be harder for me to adjust to her being gone all day every day but so far so good. She likes it but says it's kind of long to be gone. :) Just so you know, there is yet another loose tooth in that mouth.

And the true baby of the family....little Claire who is stuck home w/mom. She's really been missing them but we're having alot of fun together. Her favorite things so far are to go shopping and out for lunch....I am in serious trouble. :)

And the whole gang....

Pools, Fairs and Beaches....

Here is where we spent many summer days....at the pool! Here are a few of the kids enjoying the hot tub.

Please notice the lack of teeth in Miss Anna's mouth. :)

Our tiniest glamour swimmer. By the last day the pool was open she was SO close to swimming all by herself. She really did great this year and loves to check out E. and A. underwater w/her goggles.

They have a huge waterslide and Anna was finally tall enough to go down this year. It took 20 minutes of convincing the first time around and then for the rest of the summer she want down about 20 times each time we were there.

Of course, our summer is never complete without a trip or two to the Lowell 4-H Fair. Ethan found a few super cute cows that were so gentle and loved to be pet.

Claire wouldn't dare get near this one! :) Too much bigger than her I guess.

Sadly, they love the rides more than the animals so we had to visit the midway. This is E. and A. on the Paratrooper. Joel was worried that Anna would fall out of the bar...I was very sad that he brought that up b/c that ride was going super fast.

Claire rode the more tolerable rides. She was queen of the motorcycles. :)

This really doesn't need any explaining.... they all loved sticking their heads through this sign. It was too big to get the whole sign in the picture though.

Here is a better picture of Anna without her two front teeth. Since this picture, she has lost another one on the bottom for a total of 5. Ethan just lost his third but still has his top two.

We also took a trip out to Holland this summer but the wind was not our friend that day. It was super windy and almost chilly. We still had fun watching all the boats and playing in the sand.Now that Ethan and Anna are back in school, expect a few more regular updates as I know have somewhat of a life again. :)

A very fun Sunday....

Today we decided to have some fun. After church we packed up the kids and headed to Michigan's Adventure. We hadn't been there since Claire was 1 and at that time, we had to worry about her nap etc. so things were much more enjoyable this time around. The kids were so excited to go and we had a blast. Here are a few pictures from our day.....

This is the brave dad on the Sea Dragon w/Ethan and Anna. Anna felt that the bar was not going to hold her so she only partially liked the ride.
Here is a mom who is very scared of heights trying to be brave on the huge ferris wheel. No one could notice that my eyes were closed behind my sunglasses. :)

E. and A. on the Frog Hopper. This thing goes up and just randomly bounces the kids down. They all giggled throughout the whole ride...it was super cute.

Anna on the Airplanes....

A fun boat ride....this is about the only really good picture I got of Claire although she had a great time. She was able to ride all the little kid rides. Her favorite was the motorcycles that did "wheelies" and the 50's cars that you drive around on a track. She loved that she would stop steering and the car would hit that track that runs down the middle. I was riding with her so that was great fun for me. :)

Sadly, I could not get any pictures of the most fun part of the day. Ethan is now a total roller coaster lover just like his mom. He was a little apprehensive on the first small wooden one but had SO much fun. Awhile later we went on a regular sized (big and fast) wooden one that was AWESOME! I could tell he was hooked. By the end of our time there I got the kid on the Corkscrew (the one that goes upside down) in exchange for a ride on the Nascar Go Karts. He was loving life and was very brave to do that crazy roller coaster w/his mom. He wants to go again tomorrow.....

Catch up....

I've been having some annoying troubles uploading pictures to the blog this summer. I've finally been able to get some on so you can see what we have been up to this summer.

First of all, we had some trouble with our trampoline, as you can see. This happened at the end of June during an awful windstorm. I was not here but this is what Joel saw when he drove into our driveway from work. The wind had picked up the tramp and literally wrapped it around this telephone pole which was about 10 ft away from it. Needless to say, we no longer have a trampoline.
Another view, you can also see our dog cousins Rio and Kingsley at the bottom of the picture. Rio belongs to my step-sister, Sarah and Kingsley belongs to Brett.

At the end of June, we went back up north with lots of family and spent a few days at the cottage. Here is Claire with her great-grandma Gigi.

Claire, Violet and Ethan snuggling in a very old chair that we all sat in when we were kids.

Anna and her favorite Uncle Brett at the sunset (that you can't really get the full effects of).

Fast forward a few weeks....these pictures were taken in late July. We had the opportunity to buy a few large maple trees for our backyard. Joel and his dad are trying to get them to our backyard. :)

Joel and Ethan standing in the tree hole they had just dug. We're hoping our new trees will give us some much needed shade on our deck.

Our first fair visit of the year was to the Barry County Fair. Here is Claire getting to know a cute little goat.

Ethan bonded with this little guy....

And here are all three enjoying a little bit of a horse show that was going on....Aunt Jesi, we wish you were still showing so we could watch someone we knew. :)

More to come, now that I think I have this picture problem fixed. :)

Happy 6th Birthday, sweet Miss Anna!

Well, it has been quite a long time since you have seen any updates here. This is due to lots of summer fun, a tired mom at the end of the day and an uncooperative computer. Thankfully, things are looking up and I was actually able to get some pictures to appear here. We have lots of catching up to do so stay tuned over the next day or two and we'll get up to date.

We'll start not in chronological order but instead in order of importance....Miss Anna's 6th Birthday. Our sweet little girl turned 6 July 19 and this is a picture of her with her cake. We had a fun day that day celebrating as a family. I took her out for the afternoon to paint pottery and one of those pottery painting stores and then to Krispy Kremes and also a stop at a bookstore. :) we had alot of fun. She wanted pizza for her birthday dinner so we did that and watched a movie. She had a great day.

A few days later, she had her birthday party with some special guests from Colorado. Grandpa Pete and Grandma Donna were here and we got to celebrate Anna's 6th and Grandma's 60th. It was a special celebration w/lots of gifts, cake, food, family and of course, in true VE style, beers. :)
Anna was SO sweet opening her gifts. She sat and took her time carefully opening each one and her expressions were priceless.

Ethan ran inside during the gift opening and grabbed a gift bag and filled it with items from his room that apparently he didn't mind giving away. Here is his sister's crazy expression while examining this scissors she has seen a million times.

The birthday bunch....Nelson turned 60 the day before Anna turned 6 and Grandma turned 60 a few days after Anna's birthday. In case you are wondering, the cake says "60 & 6!" but it is incredibly hard to make an "&" sign with frosting.

Of course, Ethan needs to help blow out the candles.

June Vacation Fun....

June was a very busy month for us but mostly because we had so many fun things packed into a mere 3 or 4 weeks. After our trip to California, we headed up north for our first cottage trip of the year. We spent time with my grandparents and had lots of fun on Glen Lake. Here is Claire snuggling with Gigi. Please note, she has now given up her pacifier and we have been "badee"-free for over a week now!

I tried to capture a good picture of our big 8 year old boy. :)

And here is Anna's 5 year - almost 6 year picture.

Ethan, Anna and Daddy by the lake enjoying another beautiful Glen Lake sunset.

Here are Ethan and Anna on top of Sleeping Bear dunes. Claire was not cooperating for pictures but made the climb up too. They loved running down and we spent lots of time doing it over and over again until everyone was totally full of sand...that's the whole point, of course.

Joel coached Ethan's baseball team this year and here is Ethan playing first base.

We also managed to squeeze in a trip to John Ball Zoo in GR. Here are E. and A. on top of the statue of John Ball.

This was taken at a beautiful rose garden just outside the zoo. You may see this photo in a card later this year....if they don't ever sit next to eachother again and smile. :)

More posts coming of 4th of July and our trip up north again with lots of aunts, an uncle, 2 dogs and a grandma and grandpa. :)