Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Christmas Day!

Christmas 2013

our tree...
the boys (and their guardian angel!) 
and their other guardian angel...aka DAD! 
G-pa Neil & G-ma Bonnie and G-pa Bill & G-ma Linda all came over to watch the present opening and brunch!  First Trent read the Christmas Story from Luke 2 

Gpa & Gma had Troy's first buck mounted by Uncle Ron! 
Opening gifts 
Trent got a new Rifle Pellet Gun 
Then we had Brunch!
We had French Toast Casserole, Scrambled Egg Casserole and Karen's Fruit salad! 
The family Picture 
The Rents!
the boys in their matching sweatshirts! Aww... there like twins!
family bonding over Euchre! 
We had a fun Christmas Day.  Everyone had the day off work!  We were thankful for all our blessings!

Monday, December 16, 2013

Christmas sights...

The sights around our house...
The tree & Nativity
This has nothing to do with Christmas..but it's new..=)!! 
A good reminder for me!
These are new...I love it!
The JOY was a .99 Goodwill find (it was formerly gold) 

These little deer were from Mel Trotter

I sprayed painted them silver and added Glitter!
Score! 

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Tree 2013...

The day we went to get our tree..we had no snow..we have it now!!
This is the picture before "the picture"!
as the camera was falling out of the tree...
The real picture..the tree is to the left of me...not the scrawny one in front of us...lol!!
Tyler did the honors this year of "picking" out our tree.
Trent did the cutting
isn't he cute! 
Troy did the hauling..yes, he is under there! 
flipping it on the roof! 
Boyd's sign..it makes me chuckle!
Not sure if he ran short of space for the "mas" or he means they are blessed trees or only by Christ blessing he has a tree farm??? 


Saturday, November 9, 2013

Little T's Life

Little T or Trentster, as I like to call him!
Likes Sports so this fall he wanted to run Cross Country and Soccer..he was a busy guy!  
Some days he had XC practice and Soccer practice!  That's a lot of running!
I'm not sure that kid will EVER run low on the energy! He doesn't really do "down time"..he would sooner be playing in the yard than playing a computer game or watching TV!  That's just him!
Some pictures from his 6th grade year...
Long Lake Park
Northpointe Christian XC Meet


Soccer 
He played with the Sparta FC Ridge 
He was on a traveling team that played in the surrounding towns.  He LOVES Soccer! Next year he will be able to play with the school ..they have a 7th & 8th grade team.  
It will be sad for him, as he has played with some of these kids for 8 seasons!
This year his team was sponsored by the Sparta Fire Dept...and Steve sold them a fire truck recently!!  They brought the truck up to the field and we got this picture of Trent with it!
They had an awesome year...they only lost one game all season.
This is the first year he was in a tournament...which was fun!
There are 2 fields....playing at once...each team plays 2 games (total of 6 teams) ...a point system implemented and the winner of each field plays each other.  Trent's team was the winner of his field..so they moved on! The championship game was on!  
It ended in a tie 1-1...no ties in championship games!
They then move to a penalty kick with 5 players...each team gets to kick and at the end of 5 we were 3 -3..eeeks!  Then you move to 1 kick from each team..sudden death...we won on the second kick!..way to go Matt!  (BTW..Trent did kick in the first 5 and made his kick good!!!)
Here's the winning team!  What a wonderful season!!


Trent Halloween 2013!!
Uncle Si
Duck Dynasty
love his long wavy hair!

Friday, November 8, 2013

A Little R&R

We got to go on a night stay last week-end.  I won a nights stay at the Weathervane Inn some time back and we needed to use it before the end of 2013...and that's creeping up on us!  We went on Saturday...to get the most "stay" time as possible...'cause we're Dutch!  Fortunately, our kids are older and we can leave them with out moving Heaven & Earth to go!  (special thanks to our neighbors for letting Trent spend the night with them!!)  The Weathervane Inn is located in Montague on the shore of White Lake connected to Lake Michigan.

View from our balcony!
All the boats are put away for the winter!
We walked to dinner across the channel (to the town of Whitehall) and ate at the Harbor View Grille.  We shared a meal (so we could get dessert)..or is it because we are dutch??...we normal don't share a meal...but I spotted Caramel Pecan Bread Pudding on the menu..and had to save room for that!!  YUMMO!!!
They have a great walking/biking trail..which we walked back on and stopped in to see the Worlds Largest Weathervane!  Who Knew!!!  It doesn't look that tall here but I had to walk forward quite a bit to even get in the picture..it's actually 48 ft tall!!  And it really does move! 
 On our way home, Steve decided to meander down the shoreline..it was a bright sunny day!  We went past some of our old haunts..Muskegon State Park, RuthAnn Ice Cream Shop, Red Rooster Restaurant, Snug Harbor park....  
 We stopped to walk the channel at Muskegon State Park-channel....One seagull was "on duty" watching for boats...Steve was trying to look inside that green box (not sure what it was??) 
the light house across the channel 
We were trying to get a picture with the light house between our heads...well that didn't work....so just imagine that lighthouse, that's behind my head...between out heads...lol!!!
Steve wrote in the sand! 
As we stood and talked to a lady back at the parking lot, we noticed this barge getting closer...Steve said, I think that it's coming in the channel!!  Sure enough! 
It's relatively new...it was christened in 2012
It was HUGE!!! 
It's a whopping 740 ft! 
That's like 2 football fields plus some! 
We so enjoyed out getaway....it was only a day and a half but it seemed like 2..hahaha!  
No seriously, every married couple should take time to get away together..is does the marriage a world of good!  Nothing makes you remember why you feel in love, like a get away!  It was so fun to walk the boardwalk, hand in hand, talking and enjoying each others company!  We all need to be refreshed now and then in the business of life...life is rough...take time to build your marriage and fall in love again!  

A little plug for the Weathervane Inn...it was a nice place to stay...more of a romantic getaway than a Days Inn...all rooms have a fireplace, breakfast, Jacuzzi...a WONDERFUL KING bed and a balcony overlooking the harbor!  It only has 23 rooms...so very quaint!  Give it a try someday..and it's only about an hour drive from here!

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

~Apple Crisp~

When you live in Apple country....
this is what you make!

Apple Crisp

8-9 c apples
1 c sugar
2T flour
******
1c   melted butter
2 c   quick oats
1 1/2 c    flour
3/4 c  b. sugar
3/4 c    sugar

350*  9x13 pan
Toss first 3 ingred. together and put in 9x13
Mix remaining 5 ingred together. Put on top of apples
Bake 40-45 min.

**  I don't measure the apples~I just peel & put in a 9x13 till it is almost full.  Then toss the sugar & flour over the top and toss in the pan (no need to dirty measuring cups and bowls..=))

**I use a apple peeler/core/slicer (invaluable!!!!)..so if you hand cut them ..cook time may very b/c of thickness??

**I made it Gluten Free by changing the oats & flour

Monday, October 21, 2013

25 Years!

This has been 25 years in the waiting!
I have wanted new carpeting in our living room ever since we moved in 25 years ago!
The day finally came 1 1/2 weeks ago!
I know, everyone else is ripping out their carpet and putting in wood flooring but it always seems cold to me....I like carpeting!!
Really, to re-doing the wood floors it would have been beautiful but we would have had to practically move out and do the whole house..as the wood runs through the whole house!  Not very practical!
So here is the room already to get a new look!
I was forced to clean out the front closet and misc other areas where carpet was laid!  Force is good!

 ....making significant progress! 
done!!! 
I couldn't be more thrilled with the over all price, installation and carpet!
We had Chris from Kent City Flooring put it in...who knew there was a Kent City Flooring...lol!

~~And like all projects..one thing leads to another~~
and while we had everything tore up...I decided I wanted/needed a new piece of furniture for under the TV...the old one we had was a particle board thing..functional but not real pretty to look at!
I looked on Craigslist and everything was upwards of $200+!
Last Monday I stopped in to JT's (aka the Junk Store) and found this gem! Just what we needed.  
Steve did  put new hardware on it.  But it was only $50! YES!
I put this in the WIN column!
It was a pretty awesome day for me!!  Ranks right up there with my marriage and birth of my kids!