Father's Day weekend

The last week has flown by!!  I have every intention of posting after big events in our lives but it never happens!  I at least am getting better at taking pictures of our own lives!  :)

 Father's Day was wonderful!!  We actually spent all weekend celebrating Ryan and how wonderful of a Daddy he is!  Friday night we went and bought a bike for me, ok so it wasn't all about him!!  Then got ice cream!

 Abe LOVES ice cream!!!

 Saturday we were very busy!  I have an engagement/reception party that I took pictures at.  You can view their preview here!  Ry ended up getting called to work, luckily it was local so he took the boys with him and got the farmer up and running the best they could!  Then we met up at my nephew's open house (pictures coming soon!)! 

Sunday, I made a nice breakfast for all of us and then we headed to church.  We ate lunch at my G'parents house and visited with my Aunt, Uncle, parents and G'parents.  The picture above is Abe with my Dad!

 Me and my Dad!

 The best picture I could get with Abe and Ry!  :)

 Then we headed to Ry's parents house.  Ry's been working hard to get the rhino reading for the trails, so we took it around the field and the boys loved every minute!!! 

 

 These pictures are actually from Friday night!  I couldn't wait to give Ry his canvas'!!!  Isn't Abe a cutie?!?!?!

 Here they are!!!  Aren't they beautiful!!!  These are 11X14's, love them!!!

  We had a fabulous Father's Day weekend and we hope you did too!!!

 

 

Maddie's First Trip to the Zoo

We took Maddie to the Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek for the first time on Tuesday.  We have been down to the lake since last Wednesday, and we decided to come home for a few days to do laundry and go to the zoo.  You couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day for it--wasn't too hot or cold.  It has been years since Ive been there, and I have to say I was impressed with how much it has changed. I know being just over a year old she wouldn't have acknowledge much, but every time she seen an animal it was so cute.........she pointed at everything and says "tiddy tiddy".  It is so funny because she thinks everything is a kitty, lol.

We went super early to miss the rush and let's just say we were the first to feed the giraffes :-). It was so cute they let the gate open and they came running to us to eat. The lady that works there says there is a baby but the momma wont let it come out.

We took a bus ride to the African Safari.  Can you tell she was excited for it?

 Check out this huge turtle!!

And the ride home, one happy girl for sure with her new stuff baby

 
Make sure all you mommas take your kids to the zoo this summer - - so glad I did!  Now back to the lake we go..... Have a great weekend!

 

 

Sneek-Peek

Ok, so my one year old now daughter can't stand her crib.  I don't know if it's because we co-sleep {yes, I know bad momma} or what.  So, I decided to take her crib down and put a queen size mattress {from our spare bedroom} on the floor--she loves it!  She even goes in her room by herself for naps; how cute!  Now with that.......... it has given me an excuse to re-do her room into a "big" girl room now.  So looking into the next few months I will be posting on what next project I will be doing in there :-).  Most of our summer is spent outside, but I was able to do start with one of them.  Remember the tissue pom poms from her birthday party??  Yup, you can't really save them, so I kept a few and made it into a small chandelier in the corner above her bed.  I used the christmas light command strips to put them up.  She loves looking up and pointing at them; its cute.  Her room colors obviously are going to be purple and pink.  Stay tuned!

 

Water Babies

I know I talk about my girls Kylie and Alivia a lot, but they are my babies and mean the world to me.  I can't explain how much they mean to me and how much I love them.  Last weekend was soo much fun as we spent the weekend together as a family and pretty much spent the whole time in the water at the pool and Lake Michigan.  We got a membership to MVP- a fitness club that has an amazing pool with water park..I don't know why we didn't join last year it is that good.  My girls LOVE the water and are such a joy to watch having them chase after each other for hours!  Kylie wakes up and wants to put her swimsuit on as she wants to "blow bubbles".  I'm looking forward to next weekend as it is supposed to be VERY hot and I plan on spending the whole weekend swimming again.


Below is a picture of Kylie with her Papa at Lake Michigan.

 

 

~The difference one day makes!!~

Since Summer has officially started, I can say it is already going by too quickly!  Our 4 year old son recently learned how to ride his two wheeler and he is doing excellent!!  

We have already had our first of many camping trips and already have several booked for later this summer!

Our house is not had much interest for awhile but that's okay because we still don't know what we are going to do!  

My photography is VERY busy but I'm loving it and my clients are awesome!!!  I recently had the opportunity to capture an engagement party and just blogged it!

Click on over to check it out!

Sorry so short...but lots more editing to do!!!

Enjoy today!! 

 

Embrace Grace

God's grace is endless. 

Having God's grace, to me, means being forgiven. 

How can we expect God to forgive us, when we cannot forgive others. 

God doesn't bring up your past, so you shouldn't bring up others. 

Pointing fingers at other people and reminding them of their mistakes only upsets them.

While listening to Kim Bolton, along with her husband Tony Bolton sang and spoke along with the featured speaker Liz Curtis Higgs at a conference at Gull Lake Ministries, I was reminded that God forgives us, all of us!  He love us just the way we are, why wouldn't He...

He is our creator!!  

Amazing thought, huh?!

Liz asked us to stand in front of a mirror, raise our hands to the sky and say "Ta-da!"

Wowie, was she ever right...as I stood in front of the mirror and saw exactly what God created, I smiled and really noticed all of the flaws that only I see.  We are all unique and we are all loved.

We are all loved by the One and Only!!

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23

 

 

Great Grandma's Banana Bread

Despite the horrible weekend our family had, I can at least talk about how good my great grandma's banana bread is!  This recipe has been in my family for a very long day.  I make it a lot in the winter for the holidays and in the summer when we are camping.  Dusty's grandpa loves it so much so I make a lot for him :-).  I never throw away bananas at my house; I make and freeze loafs of bread.  I had a few in the freezer from last month, so we took it with us this past weekend.

Makes One Loaf:

1 cup sugar
1 stick butter
4 ripe bananas, smashed
1 tsp baking soda
3 tbsp orange juice
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease loaf pan.  Add baking soda and orange juice in a small bowl, letting it fizz together.  In large mixing bowl, add sugar and butter until smooth.  Add bananas.  Add orange juice and soda.  Add the beaten eggs.  Lastly add the flour.  Don't over mix.  Bake for approx 1 hour checking in between. 

When cooling , I add about a half stick of butter on the top letting it melt over top.  If you are going to freeze, I usually put a piece of folded paper towel inside a freezer bag putting the loaf in there hot so it stays moist.