EARLY Snow!!!

I love all the snow that West Michigan gets.  14 snow days last year was a little much, but I love an occasional snow day with the kids...  Of course we got snow flurries on Halloween this year, but our first official significant snow was on November 13.  My kids are so adorable in the snow.  They will play outside forever.  Blake was nonstop bugging me about bringing out the snowmobiles!!!!  The ground wasn't quite ready yet.

The second snowfall hit us hard...  We had a snow day on November 18!!!!  The snowmobiles came out at 10am and didn't get a rest until about 7:30pm.  We had 4 other families over for the day and the kids had a great day.  We have also been snowmobiling every day since.  We are loving the barn this year.  The kids can get them in and out by themselves and they aren't having to dig them out of the snow every time.  

The kids and I are heading over to the Warners' house this weekend while Brett works.  We are hoping to hit the slopes with them:)  Snowboarding before Thanksgiving---  Crazy!!!

Izzy loves playing frisbee in the snow!

I love their smiles in this pic...

Girls love to bake on snow days

Madison

Blake

Caitlin still loves to sled

Ready, Set, GO!!!!

Games, games, games...

Back to School

I am so thankful that my kids love school so much.  They are always so excited to start a new year.  We all love Mattawan Schools!!!!  I love our annual fundraiser - the walk-a ton.  I really love getting to spend time with each of the kids and meeting their NEW friends and teachers.

Blake - Seventh Grade

Caitlin - 3rd grade -- Mr. Bear
Madison - 5th grade -- Mrs. Eicholtz

Sporty, Spice girls!!!

The girls only had half a day...  Y'opa was a great first day of school treat!!!

Already with her nose in a book

bus stop fun

AWWWW ...  Sun and silence :)

I also started back to running

Madison and Emily at Walk-a-thon

I love hanging with this cool 5th grader...

I was able to eat lunch with Caitlin before her WALK time

This girl makes me smile....

Blake was so happy to see me along the route holding a sign.  He even ran over and gave me a hug!!!!

Wakeboarding

This summer the kids learned to wakeboard.  We added a wakeboard tower on the boat over the winter and were all ready to try it.  I was such a proud mom.  I absolutely love watching my kids succeed at new things, ACTUALLY, even that they want to try new things!!!

Of course, Madison popped right up.  She actually rode a little last year and snowboarded all winter.  No surprise for her.  By the end of the summer, she was very confident and even rode in and out of the wake.  Sometimes a little cocky and wiped out hard...

Caitlin never would even give it a try last year.  She was a little timid at the start of the summer, but then jumped right in and tried it.  She did great.  The board was so big that she had a little hard time controlling her direction.  I loved watching her little skinny legs out there...  Way to go BUG!!!

Blake, Blake, Blake...  I just love this boy.  He wanted to do it so badly.  I have never seen such perseverance!!!!  Seriously.  He tried really hard and long on a few times out to the lake and just couldn't quite get up, but he wanted it so badly.  FINALLY, when the Warners came to visit, he stuck it out and got up...  It was priceless...  I actually cried.  The whole 30 minutes leading up to getting up, he was talking himself up.  With every fall, he would say to himself, "I've got it this time"!!!!!  He never got frustrated and just kept the biggest smile on his face and the best attitude about it.  I was so happy for him.  We all gave him the best screams/ cheers/ hugs and high fives when he got back in the boat.  Blake, you are my IDOL!!!!!  I will never forget your amazing determination.

We also were able to see lots of cousins and Uncle Chad put on amazing shows.  Uncle Chad did a back flip!!!

I'm so looking forward to next summer so that I can get out there as well.

Emily

"HIT IT"

Uncle Chad

Brett's Ice Bucket Challenge

Blake

Madison

Caitlin

ZOE - We love you FOREVER!!!

I have a TON of catching up to do.   I have been blogging for 5 years!  I was contemplating stopping this blog and then went through my first book from 5 years ago and loved that I had so many memories, stories, and events of my growing children.  I can't stop now...  I will do a fall catch up and highlight the big events.

The big thing of course was having to put our sweet family dog ZOE to sleep.  It was a heart wrenching decision, but she was really suffering.  She lived a wonderful life and was loved so much.  I already made a shutterfly book of her life.  Here are a few of my favorite pics of her...  We miss her terribly, but still think/talk a lot about her.  The kids love to bring up her stinky toots :)

These two were inseparable

Zoe played frisbee as often as possible

Zoe and Wesley were buds...

8 day old Zoe...  Definitely love at first sight for me!!!

I loved spoiling this sweet puppy

Zoe and Blake

Our first day home with Zoe...  Easter weekend

She put up with lots of cuddle time with the kids.  

Zoe was Izzy's MOMMY!!!!

Zoe was an amazing family dog...

Halloween FUN

Halloween is a BIG deal in our neighborhood.  It starts off with the "Booing"...  I do love how stealth my kids are and how much they love sneaking up on their friends' homes to ring their doorbell.  It is a great tradition.

Pumpkin carving this year was a little different.  Blake didn't even want to get a pumpkin.  At least I convinced him to join in at the corn maze and pumpkin patch.  He does still like donuts, cider and caramel apples :)

The kids were able to dress up for dance and tae kwon do.  I do love it that they can use their costumes a few times.  Talking about costumes - it was hard finding costumes that we could all agree on.  WOW, young girl costumes surely expose a lot of skin..  I love it that the girls were similar this year.

The girls also had Halloween parties at school and were able to dress up there as well.  Poor Blake, middle school is all business and no fun!

We were invited to a great neighborhood pre and post trick or treating party.  It is always a great time for children and adults.  I love our neighborhood and friends.

5th grade school party

3rd grade school party - Caitlin is a "NERD Leopard"  

Yummy cookie - thanks grandma!!!  Those big orange teeth might help her eat this humongous  cookie.

Trick or treating pre-party

Girl POWER

Of course it snowed on halloween day...  Snow leopard was happy!!!

This is how we roll...

Caitlin wanted to trade hats with me to stay warmer part way through trick or treating...  I always love dressing up :)