Shelly!

I was so excited that my cousin Shelly and her family came to visit us for an afternoon. You see, Shelly grew up in two places...next door to me and in the Phillippines, where they were missionaries. I always looked forward to the year (every 4 years) that they would come home and I could see them again. Now Shelly and her family are missionaries in Indonesia (my aunt and uncle are still completing the work in the Phillippines!). I am lucky enough to be in Michigan, where BOTH my aunt Jeanie AND Shelly and her family are staying, and BOTH dropped by for an afternoon visit. Our kids had so much fun playing together, and it reminded me of playing with shelly and her sisters and brother when we were little. It was so much fun having them, even if it was short!

We were so busy visiting that this is the only photo I got. My aunt snapped a few more, so I'm hoping to see those :)

Some Things are Worth the Mess...

Like S'Mores fresh from the grill!

I've been bitten...

By the crafting bug! There is a website that I just joined called pinterest- there are TONS of great ideas for EVERYTHING on there! Lots of fun activities to do with the kids, easy home improvement ideas, sewing, crafts, etc. Thanks to that website, I've been very busy during the kids nap times! Here are a few things that I have made:

This greeting card is not from Pinterest, but my friend Kim taught our mom's group how to do some card making- this is hand stamped and colored :) So much fun! I'm pretty proud of this wreath that I made using only some burlap, a wreath form, and some fabric covered buttons (ignore the baby-poop green front door- that's why it always needs a wreath!):

This is some artwork that I did for Liam's walls of his new room using only scrapbook paper and some cheap ($1.99) frames from IKEA. I LOVED the way they looked using matted frames, but they were $19.99 each, and kind of blew the whole cheap concept :)

I made this headboard for our bed (in the pic it looks crooked- because it was- that has since been fixed!) Sorry about the poor lighting, at the time, our bedrooms didn't have overhead lighting...now they do thanks to some very affordable swag lamps from IKEA! (do you see a theme here?). This project was so inexpensive! All I used were 4 sheets of Foamboard, quilt batting and some fabric- and Josh's staple gun!

Here is the before picture from our bedroom:

I also made the bookshelves for Liam's room using IKEA spiceracks (see previous post). I have some things I am working on for London's room and also am starting on the kids Halloween costumes- I love making things!

New Room for a Bigger Boy!

Liam is getting bigger very fast. We have been talking about upgrading him to a twin bed for a while now, but when Josh's mom called and said that his uncle had a frame that she didn't need anymore, we knew we had to jump on it. We upgraded his bed and let him pick out his new bedding (he went with a transportation theme, which actually matched the vinyl decorations that we already had!), and did some more fun things to his room. My favorite part was when Josh and I were putting his new bed together, he said in a very excited tone of voice "This is going to be so scary!", but he had no trouble going to sleep in his new big bed. Here are the before and after pics:

Before- he was outgrowing his toddler bed quickly!
After- My favorite part of his room are the "bookshelves" next to his bed. They are really spice racks from IKEA that I painted to match his room- just $3.99 each! That way he has some of his favorites right next to his bed for easy access (since our "reading station" with most of our books is in the toy room in the basement)

Laura the Elephant

Ever heard of the charity Little Dresses for Africa? Rachel, the woman who founded it, attends our church, and organized this fun little fundraiser in order to build a school in Malawi. There was a little carnival with a bouncy house, games, crafts, food, and live music. The main attraction was an elephant ride.

Meet Laura. She is a rescue elephant who lives in Michigan. She may look familiar to you (ha ha!), because she is the elephant that was in the movie Ace Ventura. We took Liam to ride her, and he LOVED it! He had to be accompanied by an adult, so Josh rode while I took pictures and showed London. She called it a puppy :)

Summer Nights

Last month, Josh was home early every night (by 5:30), so we got to spend a lot of nice time together playing outside, relaxing inside, or making ice cream in our new cuisinart machine- everyone needs one of those machines! Now it's back to work as usual for Josh, leaving early and coming home near he kids bedtimes...at least he has most weekends off now though, making those something to look forward to again!
London enjoying some of the ice cream we made- cookies and cream...who needs a spoon?!

Watching a Veggie Tales video before bed.

Love.

I love this picture. I don't really know why, but I think it's because it encompasses the stage that they are in so well. They are starting to play together better and love each other more. Not that that makes things easy- the play often becomes too rough, or Liam gets upset because London doesn't want to play with him, but it's nice to know that they love each other and really like to be with each other most of the time.

Let's go Outside!

I've been trying to plan some outdoor activities while the weather is still good...I took the kids the a splash pad last week and Liam had a BLAST. London, as it turns out, hates sprinklers, but she was happy just to sit on the blanket with me and watch Liam have a good time. We've also been using our kiddie pool as much as we can before it's time to put it away for the season. Here are some pics of the kids having some outdoor time!

Liam LOVED the splash pad. It wasn't very warm outside- only about 75, but he still had a great time.

London sitting by the pool (in the shade!) relaxing. I know her swimsuit doesn't fit. Honestly, she usually just wears a swim diaper because I'm too lazy to put a suit on her. :)

London sitting on the blanket at the splash pad. In her coverup- she DOES have a suit that fits, and she wears it in public!

Playing in the pool!

Ode to the Backyard

We've been spending a lot of time outside these days- the weather is perfect right now, and I feel like in Michigan you have to jump on that when you get the chance, because it will starts snowing here in about two months. Here are some photos of our backyard- these were taken about a month ago when it was hotter out, and the grass was dying.

There are a lot of plants out here, and I don't know the first thing about gardening. Luckily, my mom and aunt came up a couple of weeks ago and helped me get caught up on the weeding- it was a mess!

This is our first house that we've had a fenced in backyard, and we love it! We don't have to worry that the kids are wandering off if I need to run inside to grab something or if I'm busy in the garden. The deck is great too with the sandbox, grill and kiddie pool. I'm going to miss the summer!

Balloon Fest!

We finally got to go to the Balloon Festival in Howell this year. We almost missed it again, but I happend to see something for it the day that we went (Sunday), which was the last day of the festival. It was fun to get to see the balloons taking off, and Liam had a blast on this roller coaster (but he only got to ride it once, because it was $5 each time- yikes!

A boy and his Dog

Josh and I have been discussing when the right time to get a dog would be. Mostly because Liam asks for one all the time, and when we take him to do something fun (like play at the park) he is only interested in the dogs if they are around. He LOVES dogs. We knew that we would eventually get him one, but the plan was to wait until after Josh's fellowship. Josh, for some reason, changed his mind, and thought maybe we should get one now. We talked and talked about it, and decided to go for it. Mostly because the timing is good (the weather was mildly warm), we have a great fenced back yard for her, and I am home with the kids during the day, so she would rarely be left along for full days. We researched breeds and were deciding between a boxer and and English Bulldog, but we didn't want to pay English Bulldog prices. Then we found out about a hybird breed...a "mini bulldog" that is 1/4 pug and 3/4 English bulldog. The don't cost nearly as much and are supposed to have a lot fewer health problems and be much lower maintenance. We found one in Ohio, about 4 hours away, and went to pick her up right away. We didn't tell Liam, just in case we decided not to go through with it at the last minute, or if she didn't look healthy and ready to go home. When Liam first saw her he was SO exited. Now he loves her most of the time, but says that we really need to teach her not to bite. When she does bite him, he says he wants her to "Go to Seattle". Does that surprise any of you who have been around Liam lately? I think once we get her trained a little better, they will be the best of buddies, as they were intended to be :) Here are some photos of Paisley