Bring on the Holidays!

Well we've been busy again with my sister having her baby to Zac playing basketball to getting ready for Christmas.
Toni & Cut had their baby boy Cutivetti Fennon Dye II on 11/17/08. Both are doing very well at home. Toni is still a little sore from having an unexpected C-section but is getting out more and more each day (and already is wearing some of her own clothes - so not fair!).Zac is playing basketball for middle school this year. They are not having the best season as far as wins go but Zac seems to be getting better as the season progresses. He really loves playing and it has encouraged him a little more in school too. He was nominated for Student of the Month in December. We go to a ceremony on 12/16 to hear why he was nominated, etc. I'm so proud of him!

Zac at North Rockford (let's just say this wasn't a very good game for them)

Alexis is crazy excited for Christmas this year. It is the first year that she is understanding Santa Claus and the anticipation of the whole thing. Jordyn just copies whatever her sister is doing so when Alexis starts jumping up and down and yelling "SANTA!" she just follows along - so cute! These 2 are definitely sisters and I get a glimpse of our years to come with them. One minute they are are pushing and fighting and the next minute they are holding hands and hugging. Oh how wonderful the teen years will be :)

Well I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and if we don't see you before a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We are leaving for Florida the day after Christmas and will be gone through the new year. Something different for us to be gone around Christmas but I hope it will be fun to be around our family down there for part of the holiday season. Love to you all!So hard to get a good picture of all 3Trying to decorate the house for Christmas was definitely a challenge this year but fun!

Busy Fall....

Ok so it's been a while since I posted. We had 2 birthdays, lots of fall activities and Halloween to keep us busy :)
Alexis turned 3 and had a ball at her party. We went to Play World with our friends Stacy, Elsa & Molly (grandma came along too). She got to run and play, have pizza for dinner and then home for the cake, ice cream & presents.

Alexis' birthday cake

Trying on her new princess gear

Scanning every present she got with her new cash register

At Play World w/ Elsa

We also visited 3 orchards/pumpkin patches again this year - Robinette's, Post & Uncle John's. We had a lot of fun at all of them except next year I hope it's not 85 degrees when we go to Uncle John's. Kids get a little cranky when they are sweating to death in the hot sun in a pumpkin patch - in case you didn't already know that :) We also drove to Milwaukee for a weekend to meet up w/ the Beach's. We had a very nice, relaxing weekend and I look forward to planning another one soon!

1st Pumpkins of the year - ones they could hold

Picking a pumpkin @ Post Family FarmHayride @ Post Family FarmTrying to get a group shot @ Uncle John's - I think Brenna is the only one that is totally missing from the picture

And last was Halloween. We had a great time trick-or-treating. Jordyn made it about half way around the neighborhood. Alexis was not giving up until we hit every house, even though she had given up on walking and I was pulling her in the wagon for the second half. Zac went to his dad's house this year. I think to get away with trick or treating another year or at least that's what I think ;)

I hope everyone else was enjoying the great Fall weather we've had. One more plug before I go - my mom & I have a booth again at the Byron Center Craft Fair this Saturday (9am - 3pm). Come and see us if you have time! We are selling the Cuddle Bug Blankets, Burp Cloths and Hooded Towels again so if you need any baby gifts for the holidays or new one on the way, come and visit.

Busy Weekend

Well I'm happy to say that this weekend was a great success! Our annual cookout on Friday was a ton of fun. Again I was disappointed that I didn't get to talk with everyone but I think it happens every year. I should just be used to it by now. I also forgot to get the camera out. Another cookout undocumented but I will try to do better next time.
My sister's baby shower was also a lot of fun and went off without any problems. We had a nice big group and Toni & Cut got a ton of gifts. It's not hard to imagine how spoiled that baby is going to be!
I hope everyone that attended the gatherings this weekend had a good time too. I (we) really had fun putting them on and look forward to many more gatherings with family & friends in the future!

The cake - red velvet....yummy!

Toni & her girlfriendsOpening presents - Cut came to help outNef, Toni & me

Family Pics

Jordyn being stubborn - now you see the way the evening went.

Probably one of the best shots

Maybe the happiest Jordyn was the whole time - w/ a cell phone in her hand!

Not a bad one

Is the resemblence scary to anyone else besides me!

We finally received our proofs. It really didn't take that long but it seemed like because I was so excited to see the outcome. Jordyn was not really in the picture mood as you will see from some of the pictures but they still turned out pretty great. I just love having a more relaxed atmosphere for taking our pictures. I just would have been horrified to have been in a studio while Jordyn was not wanting to sit still. I think that we would have probably bailed if that were the case. So thank you so much to Jesamin @ Emery & Co for being so patient with us :)

She always gets a few great pics that are so natural - love them!

Wow - where does the time go?

Really we're standing on top of a huge sand dune!

Alexis looking so sweet

Safety 1st is Jordyn's motto @ the beach!

Alexis and her summertime bf - Jack

The crew - Noordyke's, Bergsma's, Schneider's & Zimmer's

Well it seems like it was just the week before Labor Day and now we are already to the middle of September. Zac started the 7th grade this year. So far things are going well hopefully we can keep up the great focus on school that he has right now. I think it has helped a little that he didn't play football this year and we aren't running off to practices or a game every day.
Labor Day week/weekend - the kids and I went up to Sleeping Bear Dunes with my parents, Toni, my Aunt Jan & cousin Oksana. FridayI left for the trailer with the girls and Zac stayed up with the rest of the family. I was a little sad to see our camping season come to an end. We had a lot of fun this year up there and will be counting down the days until we can start it all over.
We just celebrated Ken's 32nd birthday and had a good-bye dinner for some good friends of ours. The Schneider's are moving to North Carolina at the end of the month and will be greatly missed around here. It will be nice to have an excuse to travel to NC but they will be terribly missed on a regular basis. We also had our family pictures finally taken so stay tuned for some updated photos of the whole bunch!

End of Summer :(

It's hard to believe that it's that time already. The summer goes by way too fast! We had a busy week last week. Ken went on his "annual" bike trip for 4 1/2 days. The kids and I went to the trailer and Alexis & I went tubing together for the first time this year. When Ken got home we spent a day at the zoo and also got our family photos taken that night. I can't wait to see how they turned out! We also had Middle School orientation for me and Zac. Then we headed up to the trailer for a long weekend. It was nice to have a few extra days there when the summer is coming to a close. We getting things ready to head back up there for our last big weekend of the year. It's a little sad but I guess I should be ready to start spending a little more time at home and maybe getting some cleaning and stuff done around here :)

Alexis & Jordyn during our bike ride to Millennium Park
(giving her sissy a shoulder to lean on...ahhhh)


Ken, Alexis & Jordyn under the waterfall @ John Ball

Go Tigers!

Alexis & I getting ready for tubing

Catchin' Up

Zac @ Kobe

Well I haven't written in a while so a few things have gone on over the past couple weeks.
Zac turned 12 believe it or not. I can believe because I have to live with him every day. It's amazing how they all of sudden know everything when they get close to those teen years. We went to Kobe for his birthday dinner and he had a friend stay at the lake with us for the weekend. I think he had an overall good birthday along with learning some lessons about how much things cost.
We also spent last week at the lake and had almost all of the immediate Zimmer family there. We do something which is really kind of helpful for me since I tend to forget things like birthdays a lot. We get together for a weekend at the beginning of August and call it Birthday Bash. The Aunts then give presents to all of the nieces & nephews at that time for their birthdays. It is a big bunch of shopping but then it's done and no one gets forgotten (hopefully). Well here's a pic of the kids that were there and a pretty decent current picture of the our 3 little ones.

Ok so here's a couple photos

The best we could do was a self portrait with the bridge in the background.Here are the girls with their gifts. It's so great when they still love just a sweatshirt gift from mom & dad.

5th Anniversary!

It really is hard to believe that it has been 5 years already since Ken & I got married. There has been so much going on that the time has just flown. We took the motorcycle up to Mackinaw City for the weekend and had a great time. It was so nice to just relax and not be rushed for anything for a couple days. We actually had a couple relaxing meals and were able to have a few cocktails and talk without yelling over a kid or two or three. Unfortunately we got rained on a bit on the way home Sunday and we didn't really get any pictures of our trip but we still had a great time.

Today is Zac's 12 birthday! That seems so unreal too. He is starting Jr. High this next year which is really scary. I just can't believe that he is getting to be such a little man but he still acts like a little kid sometimes too which is just perfect. I don't want him growing up any faster than he needs to. Well gotta run to finish Zac's cake!

Family Cottage Time

We just returned from our week at a cottage with the Perkins family. It is a fun yet sometimes exhausting time. It's fun in that we get to see most of the family for an extended time and the kids get to do some things that they don't usually get to do (stay up until they crash, etc.). Just keeping track of my own brood is exhausting so when you add in 6 or 7 more people it just gets interesting. We ended up being away from home for about 10 days with the long 4th of July weekend in there so Alexis really was beginning to think that we had moved to Newaygo and was not all that pleased to hear that we were going home. Me on the other hand was ready to sleep in my own bed and shower at home for a few days.
Here are a few pics from our week. Don't have too many since I would constantly forget to get my camera out. I need to work on that more. Hope everyone else had a great 4th of July holiday too!

Fun Weekend!

Last weekend we had a lot going on but we had a lot of fun with lots of different friends & family. Saturday we had some friend over for a cookout in afternoon. Uncle Mike was a hit pulling all 4 big kids in the wagon around the yard. I think he might have regretted that one later :)
We then went to a Whitecaps game that was sponsored by Ken's work. We got a little wet in the beginning but then it turned out to be a wonderful evening. The kids had a great time but I think next year we need to make some sort of kid play area and block them in. We spent a lot of time running down kids and hardly watching any of the game. Sunday Ken and I went on a motorcycle tour of Montcalm County - sounds exciting doesn't it. It really was quite nice seeing some lakes and things I'm sure I never would have. We met up with everyone for breakfast at Turk Lake Inn and from there adventured to many places I don't remember the names of right now. While we were doing that, Aunt Toni took the girls back to another Whitecaps game and I believe that they both were in bed by 8:30 that night. Which if you know our girls is quite early.
And last is just a funny picture of Jordyn since she has now become very independent and likes to feed herself everything. I think if she keeps this up, she may starve!

Zoo & Father's Day

Zac, Alexis, Brenna & Jordyn w/ the famous statue

We went to John Ball Zoo last week with our friends Gretchen & Brenna. Alexis just loves all of the animals and spending time with her friends. It's so much fun to watch her enjoy that stuff and figuring out how to be a friend. Here's a couple of pictures from our day. We can't wait to go back again in a couple weeks!

Zac & Alexis riding Sassy

Zac & Alexis under the waterfall

Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera up North so I don't have any pictures from Father's Day but if you can imagine Ken sleeping under an umbrella at the beach - that was pretty much it. I think he had a pretty good day for the most part ;)

Jordyn 1yr pictures

Here is a little preview of Jordyn's 1yr photos. They turned out so cute even though she wasn't really in the mood for the whole thing. I can't believe it's been a year already. It goes by so fast!