Check out this view...

So the other night some friends from work invited us and a few other families over to their apartment for some swimming, and it was right on the lake at sun-down!! How beautiful is that!? It was a lot of fun, we are really having a great time getting to know people here!! The boys had a good time showing off their skills from swimming lessons, and Araleigh LOVES the water, we have to take her out when she starts turning blue, which makes her really mad!! But it was a beautiful evening, luckily the rain held off until we were done!

Happy Birthday Traeden!!!

The party just never stops for us, I feel like I just did this! But Traeden had a really great birthday!! He had so many presents it looked like Christmas morning for the whole family!! As usual, the boys were up bright and early (we could tell by the "WHOAAA!!!!") He was able to open his presents first thing while Dave could be there, lucky man. The boys played with the new Lego's, spidermans, and transformers all morning, then we met up with Dave at a park for lunch. I must say, it is SO NICE to have him only 8 minutes away! The boys played baseball with dad for a while, then he had to get back so they went to the playground and tackled the monstrous twisty slide (the thing is HUGE!!). We got home and played some more, then off to Panera (the yummiest soup, salad and sandwich restaurant in the midwest) for dinner, where Trae got his favorite Broccoli cheddar soup in a bread bowl! He had a great day, thank you everyone who called him, his face lit up each time! And thanks from Traeden for all the awesome presents!!

Just so you know...

So right now we are in Michigan because Dave is doing an internship with Whirlpool for the summer. Well this means major, and I'm talking Major, discounts on Whirlpool brand appliances!! Right now we can get discounts for family AND FRIENDS, so if anybody is interested, let me know!!! Everything will be shipped to you, and they have some pretty awesome deals!!

Back to Chicago

Well only one week after our big move, we decided to venture the 2 1/2 hours back over to visit our friends in the Chicago area! It ended up being a perfect trip!! I was able to attend my friend Lisa's baby shower (yay! Another baby girl!). Later we invited ourselves to a BBQ at our other friends, the Lloyd's home, where we were able to visit more friends and neighbors, while we made s'mores and hot dogs. The kids had a big water fight with their friends, which helped us all cool off!! The boys had such a blast seeing all their friends whom they have missed so much!! They had a great time! It was so great to see everyone, we have really missed that group!

Michigan!!!

Well we have entered our 4th state of residence (just living up to our title), adding Michigan to our list! We are in St. Joseph, which is a really small town directly across the Lake from Chicago. It is a really nice area, we are so- far enjoying it! We got in Saturday afternoon and joined our friends the Loves (whom we met while living in Chicago and now they live here) at Culvers for some much - needed frozen custard after unloading the car. Sunday was an adventure, getting REALLY LOST on the way to church and ending up in Benton Harbor, which is GHET-TO!!! But eventually we found our way back. Everyone we have met so far has been very nice, the people are really great! There is a group of moms/kids from church that get together on tuesdays at the beach and fridays at the park! That has been one of the hugest things I have missed from living in Illinois, so I am so glad to be back in a ward where people actually get together and do fun things! Monday the boys started swimming lessons, yay, and we went grocery shopping. Not a whole heck of a lot to report about Monday... but Tuesday was pretty fun! We went exploring downtown St. Joseph, which is such a cute little place! It is full of cool shops and cafes, unique stores and fun kid things! It is right on the beach, which is beautiful! We went to a cute little pottery store and the boys got to paint their own ceramics, then we walked around and looked at all the cool old buildings and homes. There is also an "art show" going on, which entails of little decorated cars all around the city, so of course we had to find them all and decide which is our favorite! We even found a Michigan one (imagine that) so I talked the boys into sitting in it, but that didn't mean they had to enjoy it!! So we had a blast, who knows what today will bring!? We plan on just having fun all summer long and exploring everything, seeing all there is to see! Tomorrow will be the "Curious Kids" museum, and then, who knows, maybe some strawberry picking, mini golf, bike rides on the boardwalk... the possibilities are endless......until we run out of stuff to do! Then we can just hop over to the other side of the lake for a quick trip to Chicago!

JAX IS 5!!!

Happy birthday to Jaxon!!! What a fun day! It started quite early, but can you really blame the kid? He was excited! We can't expect him to sleep past 6am on his BIRTHDAY!!! He had presents to open!!! But only about 87 or so...anyway, Jax had a great day! We let him open presents first since Dave would be gone all day and making him wait would probably land me in a rubber room. He recieved Spiderman gear, a cool Superman costume, and maybe a Thomas train or two....
We met up with our friend "little Jackson" at the park for one last picnic before we both take off for the summer, and then we had his birthday dinner at his favorite choice, "Joe's Crab Shack" (hey the kid LOVES crab legs!) They sang happy birthday and let him paint his own crab rice-krispies-treat with chocolate and strawberry syrup. Mmmm, not at all over-priced.... But of course their favorite part was playing on the playset after dinner, doesn't Jax look thrilled to be on the slide!!! Five years old and still a ham.... he's so fun! Trae got to "monkey around" (ha ha ha I know - I'm hilarious) for a little whileand we tried to put Araleigh on the slide which she will hopefully forgive us for... she did like sitting at the bottom and watching her crazy brothers, though, so not all was lost!So we had a great time, thanks to all the grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles for all the fun presents and birthday cards!! Jax was really excited for all the happy birthday phone calls, too! He was full of energy and excitement all day, what a blast! He had to keep reminding everybody that he can't go back to being four, he was already five, all you silly people who think he's getting too big!!! Thanks again!

Two happy birthdays!!

Since the boys both have their birthdays this month and it is going to be crazy with the move to Michigan coming up, we decided to do an early birthday party for both of them at our pool. It was a great time! We totally took over and had the whole place to ourselves!! The kids each got a swim ring as a party favor that they were able to float around in, and it worked out perfectly! I even made these fancy-schmancy cupcakes with a "sun-bathers at the beach" theme, which amazingly worked out! The weather was so great up until it was time to sing happy birthday and have the cake and ice cream, so we had to pull that part inside the clubhouse, but it still turned out fine! I just can't believe my babies are turning 5 and 7!!! Am I really this old!!!!??????? Here's a cute picture of Araleigh in her itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, pink and white polka dot bikini!!! I love it!!

They even found creative ways to re-use their little umbrellas!!