A Tribute to the Fall

Well, the Christmas tree is up and we are celebrating Thanksgiving this week!  Where does the time go?

Before the Holidaze puts me even more behind on my blogging, I thought I'd post a few pics of our Super Girl.

 She was Supergirl for Halloween.  

Now she hugs and kisses Superman before she goes to sleep every night.

 I love these pictures because this is how she looks most of the time.

A little disheveled, but so sweet.

 Does it look like her mouth is full?

It is.  Getting cute pics of her in the leaves = feeding her a lot of animal crackers.

Farewell fall.  Snow is in the forecast this week and we can't wait for CHRISTmas!

Down By The River

The Thornapple River that is.  We had a fall DeClOomaWicz get together to celebrate Mark, Dave and Kaiya's birthdays.  We wanted to take advantage of the fall colors and Captain DeKorne was kind enough to take us on a color tour not only on his lovely ship, but also in an RV that one of his family members let him borrow for the weekend.  More about the RV here, but see below for some of the beauty of the Thornapple.

Embarrassing as it is, this is one of our only family photos.

Nope, Greg and Megan are not a couple, but they photograph together quite nicely.

However, Megan and Diet Coke are still going strong.

Just 3 cute little ladies

Check out the kids in this great family photo.

Photographer's assistants are hard to come by.

To celebrate the birthdays, we found some poor soul to babysit all four children while we took the RV to a fine dining establishment in Grand Rapids.  What can I say, we travel in style (and we didn't want to be bothered with moving multiple car seats.)

 Even Breid made it out for the celebration.

(Brittany + Reid = Breid)

We all had a sleepover Saturday night and woke up to Heidi's famous sticky buns on Sunday morning.  We had dolma and hummus for "supper" (a concept I will never fully grasp), and enjoyed watching football the rest of the afternoon.  It was topped off by Heidi's homemade brownie fudge sundaes.  I mean, what's better than a sundae on a Sunday?....  Being with your besties eating sundaes on a Sunday.

How Can We Be Cousins If We Can't Be Friends

I know I tend to brag about my relationship with my cousins and my friends (and my cousins who happen to also be some of my best friends), but its really the greatest blessing I think anyone could ever have.  Isla has great cousins and great friends (who are like cousins to her.)  A few weekends ago, her Grand Rapids cousins and friends came to visit her.  She had a blast.

Isla started cleaning in preparation

 Brooke and Ava became best friends in about 5 minutes

 Couldn't you just eat her up?

Baby Jenna will be 1 so soon.

 The farm across the street is pretty much the best thing you could ask for in a neighborhood with young kids.  Its clean, you can walk there, its free, and it provides endless entertainment.

They even had pumpkins!

 The kids spent the whole weekend playing.

They played at the playground

 They went for walks

 They enjoyed a good game of bags during halftime of the football game

 and of course bubbles.

On Saturday night, Isla and I headed to headed to her cousin Abigail's birthday party.

We went on a "hay wide" got some cute shots.

  Thanks for the good times.

Do You Like Apples?

The only person who loves the apple orchard more than I do is my dad.  He takes it seriously.  When we were kids we would always go to Blake's and spend the day picking apples, eating donuts, drinking cider and finding the perfect pumpkins.  Except for the inflated prices, not much has changed.  So we took our annual trip to Blake's with Poppy and Bebe.  

Isla has affectionately named her cousin Timothy III "Titi"

They are just as close as I was with my cousins when we were growing up.  

Its the greatest when you don't know whether your siblings or cousins, 

but people really do mistake these two for twins.

How do you like them apples?

 She LOVES them

And she says "a pole" in the cutest voice you've ever heard

See you next year Blake's!

30 Going on Forever 21

Well it happened about a month ago.  I turned 30.  My adoring husband threw me an awesome birthday party.  He cleaned the whole house, got a babysitter for Isla, attended to our guests and he even brought in Brown & White Productions to DJ the event (and yes...they are available to provide entertainment for your next special event.)  It was spectacular.  We played Minute to Win It games and watched the MSU game.  Best of all, I didn't clean anything up because on top of being my usual nausea, I also had the stomach flu.  Thank goodness for my sister Melanie and my great friends for cleaning the whole kitchen.  What a treat!

 A big thanks to Greg (a/k/a Brown) 

for his assistance with the Minute to Win it Games.

 The usual suspects

 Norm trying to get a card to stick in the watermelon

 Do I have attractive friends or what?

 It's not as easy as it looks

 Can you handle the intensity?

*For the sake of discretion, I omitted a few pictures of Kate and Carrie who are by far the most fierce competitors when it comes to "Junk in the Trunk."  Just take my word for it.  You will lose against either of them.  Whether they are pregnant or not.  

We talked....

and laughed....

And this is how I ended the night. 

In addition to having the greatest party ever surrounded by the nicest people ever, I also got some awesome gifts.  I got a total of $250 to Forever 21!  I could practically buy the whole store.  Thanks to all who helped and attended and to my sweet Dave for throwing me an awesome party.  I've never felt so loved.