Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Today is my Mom's Birthday. (It is a month of birthdays in our family.)

"Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday, dear Grandma. Happy Birthday to you."

Mom, thank you for all you have done for us over the years. Your love and prayer support has been such an encouragement to us. We appreciate your helpful spirit. You are always so thoughtful of others and look for ways to encourage us. Thank you for your example of prayer and importance of spending time in God's Word. We are so grateful for the godly heritage that we have been passed down on both sides of our families. We love you very much!

Happy Mother's Day...

Bart's Mom blowing out her Birthday candles.
My Mom & Ethan deep in conversation.

I am truly thankful to be celebrating my 2nd Mother's Day this year too!

We are both very blessed to have terrific mothers. They have both been godly examples to us of being a godly wife and mother. We are thankful for the love and support they have both given to both of us. We are both blessed to have caring "Mother-in-laws" as well. We both feel like we have two families now instead of one. Thank you, MOMS, for your prayers for us over the many years. We love and appreciate you both! These are a couple of pictures from our trip down this weekend celebrating Mother's Day & Birthdays for both Moms. (More pictures from the weekend later to come.)

Happy Birthday, Nana!

Happy Birthday, Nana! Thank you for being willing to help us out in any way possible. The time (however sparce that may be) you give playing, reading books, etc. with Ethan is treasured. Thank you for your example to us of being a godly Mother & Grandmother. We love you so much!

Nana & Ethan 13 months ago.

Today is Aunt Kristy's birthday also! Happy Birthday to you too! We love you!

Today, Ethan is 13 months old. He loves playing outside.
Our "star shooter" is beginning early! (Uncle Lance would be proud.)
Climbing the front deck stairs.
Climbing the basement steps like a big boy.

Cooking Ahead Workshop...

This past weekend, we had a Cooking Ahead Workshop at our church for any ladies that wanted to cook some meals ahead and put in the freezer. (John, who is a bachelor, joined us also.) We made 4 different meals: Shepherd's Pie, Chicken Fingers, Stuffed Cheese Shells, and Twice Baked Potatoes to put in our freezers. We met the previous Saturday to plan how many of each course everyone wanted to make. Then Candi (who headed this up) purchased the ingredients and we all cooked together. It was so much fun and very cheap! I put everything in the computer and made spreadsheets for each meal figuring how much everyone owed per serving based on the cost per meal. The Shepherd's Pie came out to $2 for a 4 person serving! By cooking all together we were able to plan ahead, have fun, and save money in the process, by buying in bulk! We used the idea from 30 Day Gourmet. We're looking forward to doing this again. Cadillac News even came and took pictures and interviewed us on what we were doing. It's supposed to be in the paper this week. How fun!

Playing at Grandma's...

Last Wednesday, Ethan and I headed down to my Mom's house for her neighborhood Garage Sales. Ethan enjoyed being outside and playing. (Grandma has nice grass, not picky weeds like we have.) He's still getting used to the grass, but he LOVES being outside.

He played with Aunt Kristy's toys that she had for sale. We brought home several toys and clothes for Ethan that Aunt Kristy gave him. I found a toddler size basketball hoop for Ethan too. I just need to get it cleaned up for him to play with. He loves basketball hoops. The minute he sees one, he says, "Mmm, Mmmm, MMMM." We went to vote today (School Board Election) and from inside in his car seat, he saw one at the Township Hall, and he started talking to it! He's going to be our litte basketball player.

A Visitor...

Last week, Tuesday we had a visitor find his way to our home. This dog showed up in our yard around 3 PM (that I noticed). He hung out by the road at the end of our driveway. Early that evening Spencer, Bart, Ethan and I went outside, and we noticed that he was still out there. So we quickly went back inside, not knowing what kind of a dog he was. We yelled for Spencer to come back in, which of course scared Ethan. Then the dog realized that a family lived at this house, so he found his way to our porch. Needless to say, it drove Spencer crazy that he could not go outside and play with this dog. They would look at each other through the window, and sometimes even paw at the window. He seemed friendly and even kind-of puppy-ish. However, I don't know if he's had his shots, etc. or where he came from. So we assumed he'd leave that night and go back home. Not so. We woke up the next morning to him on our porch sleeping on the mat. (He also found some gardening gloves somewhere. See pict. below.) So I called Animal Control that morning and had them come pick him up. He was gone by the time Bart got home for lunch. Spencer almost thought he had a long term play mate. (Sorry about the dog and baby smudges on the windows, which make it kind of hard to see.)

Playtime Picts...

Ethan and Mommy hanging out on the floor.
" I'm not really picking my nose, it just looks like I am."
I love playing with Mommy's rugs. I like to roll this one over and bite on the rubber underneath. Mommy doesn't let me ...
...but I'm having lots of fun trying though!