Our New Backyard

We absolutely LOVE our new backyard, as we jokingly call the trail behind our house. We use it almost daily for walks, runs, and/or bike rides. Our new backyard also includes, Dry Creek and Thomas Park. The creek is just a short walk from our house. The kids and their friends have waded in the water. Thomas Park is a 15 minute walk from our house or a 5 minute bike ride. The kids really enjoy playing on the playground there. They also have a great splash pad and sand area.

Our new backyard also includes wildlife. We frequently see deer, turkeys, geese, and ducks. We have an orchestra of frogs living in the drainage pond behind our house. The kids have had a blast playing in that area and catching tadpoles. We are so blessed by our new location. It feels like we have a very large play area in our new backyard.

Our New House

Our new home

Barn door leading to the office

Living Room

View of living room from kitchen

Kitchen/dining room

Mudroom

Upstairs bonus room

Master Bathroom

Master shower

Trace's bathroom

Kaylee's room

Kianna's room 

Screened Porch

We moved into our new house on Friday, April 22nd, which also ended up being the day my dad and Sue returned from Arizona. We were super blessed to live in their home for the winter and now we are beyond thrilled that our house is finished. We were able to use their return as a little leverage. The cement for our sidewalks were literally poured the morning we moved into our house. It was a mad dash to meet our closing date. It has been a stressful process with all the decisions we have had to make, but we are very happy with the finished product. We absolutely love the trail behind our house. We anticipate using it a ton. Now to make this house our home. Let the decorating begin...

Weekend in Galena

Our little cottage

Hiking at Eagle Ridge

Lunch at Vinny Vanucchi's

Grant's House

Trevor left me on the side of the road while he went and got the car. I felt a little silly sitting there...

Trevor and I decided to celebrate our 13th Anniversary by returning to Galena, IL. Grandma Becki volunteered to watch the kids for us and off we went. We rented a little cottage at Eagle Ridge Resort for the weekend. We had a great time relaxing, eating, hiking, eating, shopping and eating some more. It felt like we ate our way through Galena. We had fun exploring the shops downtown and came across a couple of vintage furniture pieces for our new house. We found a red mirror for Trace's bathroom and a lime green accent table for the living room. It was a great trip.

One unfortunate thing that happened while we were gone, was that Kianna came down with a full body rash, along with bright red cheeks, just hours after we left. We initially thought it must be an allergic reaction to some new essential oils she tried. However, Benadryl was not helping at all, besides making her sleepy. By Sunday, Bryker came down with the same rash, which is when we realized they had Fifth's Disease. Trace and Kaylee would get it too, as did I. Trevor had it when he was a kid, so he was spared. Unfortunately, it was one of those things that is worse if you get it as an adult versus as a kid. I only had the rash a little bit, but mostly was laid up with full body aches and full body arthritis. In some people the arthritis never resides, but thankfully mine went away after several weeks. The joys of life...

Easter

Easter ended up being a blur this year. We still did our usual activities: kids waved palm branches in church on Palm Sunday, attended the Good Friday and Easter services trying to prepare our hearts for the true meaning of Easter. We decorated Easter eggs with the kids, did Easter baskets, had an Easter egg hunt and had a nice meal with Grandma Becki; but the eggs is where it all became a blur...

On Good Friday, we invited my mom, Rylan and Aliyah over to decorate Easter Eggs and spend the morning with us. We began by decorating the eggs and within minutes the bowl containing purple dye had spilled and poured its contents onto my parent's white dining room carpet. I immediately sprung into action trying to get the dye out to no avail. After trying for quite awhile, I called in the professionals. They too tried for quite awhile to no avail. They left and told me they would return on Monday to try again. Thankfully they kept their word and after quite a bit more time on Monday, they prevailed. They had to resort to dying the carpet back to the correct color, but whatever they did worked because it looks amazing!

All weekend, I fretted about the mess I had allowed to happen on my parent's white carpet. I even researched rugs online trying to find the perfect one to cover the stain if needed. Thankfully the professionals were as determined as I was to get the stain removed. They were amazing and I am forever grateful. However, I am eternally grateful to my Savior Jesus Christ. Just like I couldn't remove the carpet stains on my own. I need a loving Savior to remove my sins. He died and rose again to give new life to those that believe in Him. I choose to believe. He gives my life purpose, as I strive to live each day to honor Him, even in the days when life is a blur...

Spring Break 2016

Playdate with the Cashens

Alyssa and Kaylee

Trace and Cameron

Kaylee and Aliyah

Kianna and Rylan

Daddy's birthday loot

Tory and Kianna

Kianna and Tory baking

Lauren and Kaylee baking

Keri and Rebekah

Brayden and Trace

Amelia and Kaylee

After starting a challenging new school, we were all ready for no homework and sleeping in. Well the latter is relative with my kids, as they don't really sleep in, but being lazy nonetheless! The first half of our Spring Break was spent enjoying cousins and the second half was spent on the road.

Here is a look at our week:

• On Saturday, the kids had a playdate and sleepover with Alyssa, Cameron and Abigail. The kids got along great and really enjoyed spending time together. Kaylee and Alyssa baked some peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, which were quite yummy. Trace and Cameron had the nerf guns out. Kianna and Abigail got the karaoke machine out which drew some crowds. 
• On Sunday, Aliyah and Rylan came over along with Grandma Jacque and Grandpa John. Trevor and I enjoyed some time away celebrating my Grandma Russell's 95th birthday with extended family, followed by a movie. While we were gone, Kaylee and Aliyah made buckeyes which were out of this world! 
• On Monday, Bryker came over and spent the night. The boys had fun as usual. 
• On Tuesday, we laid low, ate lunch with Grandma Becki, and let Daddy open his birthday presents. 
• On Wednesday, Daddy worked in the morning and then we headed for a hotel in Tinley Park, IL where we spent the evening celebrating Daddy's birthday. We let the kids swim in the pool, ate dinner at Texas Roadhouse, swam some more and then ended the evening with the movie "Miracles from Heaven". 
• On Thursday, we completed the drive back to Adrian, MI. It was our first time back since we moved and we were excited to reconnect with our friends. Just walking through the school and The Centre was fun bumping into people. Trevor and I both got to see our coworkers, which was great. We setup a playdate for the kids to swim with their friends after school, while we chatted with their parents. Following our swim, the girls went to Tory and Lauren Swiggum's house, where they had a Top Chef Bake-off. While the girls were having their fun Trace, Trevor and I spent the evening with the Marsh family. Jackson took Trace back into the woods and to see some horses. They had a great time while we visited.
• On Friday, I got to catch up with several friends, Amy Grupp and Rebekah Hildebrandt while Trevor touched base with lots of his friends. The kids spent the day in their old classrooms and thoroughly enjoyed it! Trace had a playdate with his friend, Brayden for a couple of hours and Kaylee spent the night with her friend, Amelia Grupp. The rest of us spent the evening with the Johnson family. We ate at The Doghouse and went to The Spotted Cow, two of our favorite places. 
• On Saturday, we headed back to Iowa. We stopped at Ikea on the way back and loaded up our van with some goodies.
• On Sunday, we went to church and relaxed.

It was a great week reconnecting both with cousins and friends. We are blessed!

Winter Sports

Coach Jason McHenry, Ellie, Sylvia, Laci, Bri, and Coach Keri
Nora, Malayna, Kaylee, Cara and Coach Tim

This winter Trace and Kaylee played Upward Basketball through our church league. Trevor coached Trace's team and I coached Kaylee's team. Trace loves having his hands on the ball. He loves dribbling and shooting, but passing not so much. He shouts "pass" when he doesn't have the ball. His game high was 10-12 points. He is a fun athlete to watch, as he gives his all no matter what he is doing.

Kaylee's team was not quite as fun to watch. We had 10 girls and 7/10 were extremely inexperienced, making for a challenging season. Kaylee was one of our "go to" players and really improved from game to game. She loves playing defense. She is extremely aggressive. She is working on developing her offensive game. She likes to shoot, but needs work on her accuracy. Her game high for points was 6 points, which was awesome! She is fun to coach, as she is extremely coachable and is a hard worker.

Kianna was excited to give gymnastics another try after taking a few years off. She began in the Beginner's Class and soon progressed to the Advanced Beginners Class. She was close to progressing to the Pre-Team class when we took a pause for soccer season. She hopes to pick it up again next Winter. She enjoys practicing her skills and teaching them to Rylan.

Bald Eagles

 

During our time living at my dad and Sue's house, we have really enjoyed walking down by the river along the path there. Recently a bunch of bald eagles moved in and have been nesting along the river. They can often be seen soaring through the sky or just perched up in a tree. We have enjoyed watching them during our walks.