LNO '07...

Here dad is entertaing the ladies with his Magglio hat...cute huh! See what some of you missed!! You won't miss the next LNO will you??
Here we are playing Bocce Ball. Theresa, Glenna, Linda, Jill, Norma, Caryn and Nancy. We had to let Jill win! (don't tell her I said that!)

Here we are enjoying an update from Denise Thomas. We did sneak in some group games, eating, pontoon boat rides, eating and campfire with our own Theresa Leseman at the guitar. Ask her about the Mr. Mom song she sang for us...so cute!

Sorry these are coming to you with such delay...I left my camera at Grandma B's birthday party...pics of that will be coming soon.

What's a girl to do without a picture to post with!
~joanne

Viola`...

Look how easily the Feedblitz was added...thanx Steve! :)
Thanx Sue Black for the correct spelling...my French isn't to good!

Comment challenged...

This is for some of you newbies to the "blog" world.


I was just going to offer some helps. If you would like to comment on a post you can "click" on the "comments" at the bottom of each post. Sometimes it will say "0" or "2" showing how many have already commented. If you click that, you can read others comments and also comment yourself. You would then type your comment in the box and then click "other" or the "anonymous" box, either one should work. It will ask you to "preview" or "publish" you can push either. If you "preview" you then have to push "publish" after you preview.

I know this all seems a bit much for the comment challenged but it walks you through most of the steps. I have faith you all can figure it out!! Like I have stated before, if certain others can do it, anyone can (don't worry Bonnie I wasn't thinking of you!) Now everyone try it tomorrow and see if you can do it. If you do leave a comment, come back and check it, I often comment back to you.

It is fun to see who is checking in, so don't be shy! I would love to know you are out there.

I hope to add a Feedblitz to my blog soon (when Steve helps me!) Hopefully when he reads this, he will add it for me! For the Feedblitz challenged..you would add your e-mail to a list that would get notified when I post to my blog. This is a way for you to know when there is a new post with out checking my blog daily. So basically it E-mails you when I post to my blog. So when you see it added...sign-up!

I know, I know, some of you are light years ahead of this post but some are still trying to figure out where the backspace key is! So bear with us slow ones. Especially the "aged-challenged" in our world. Personally, I'm totally impressed with those that feel they fall in to that category....but attempt the computer world anyway. Thanx Al Gore for the Internet.

Have a good night all...

Hurricane Evelyn--Category5...

We've been hit! Send help! A category5 hurricane hit. We could see it approaching but yesterday it came ashore. We've had our eye on it, but we never thought it would grow to this magnitude. It did minimal damage to structures although, toys were severely tossed around. We witnessed Beanie Babies, Legos and Army men all being tossed around by the heavy winds. We have never seen any thing like this before! It is going to take some major clean up on Troy and Trent's part. Believe it or not, they are hidden in there...see if you can find them!

I used to think a nice clean room was so beautiful and orderly. I still think that, but I have come to realize that those are un-played with toys! I wanted my kids to play in the room touching only the two toys that they appeared to be playing with. My thought was...keep them nice so we can give them to someone else or sell them in our garage sale. I know it sounds crazy...saving there toys for someone else to play with. I realizing in my maturity that it is a short while that those toys will be all over. There will be days in the very near future that I will clean their rooms and no one will enter them for months. Is that tears of joy or sadness I'm wiping from my eyes?

I do think there is a time to clean things up and to take care of the toys and "stuff" God has given us. I'm trying to keep a balance. This does seem a little out of balance.

We will have to get this in order before school resumes...recently that seems to be my time line. Good thing events come so we can get things accomplished! At least for me, that's how I get things done!

Everyday is a blog day! Watch out, you could be my next subject....

~joanne

the King rides again...

Aunt Julie, aren't you glad you got him this cape and crown? We often wonder what Trent will be when he grows up? Wouldn't it be great if we all could go out and ride bikes with a crown and cape on? I mean, to be so okay with yourself, as to not care if people point or laugh. He definitely has that trait...at least for now. There is something, shall we say, unique about that 3rd child!

Sometimes parenting is a lot of work and a little fun...at least it seems that way some days for me. This is one of those joyful moments when you can thank your Heavenly Father for kids. Our boys make us laugh, cry and crazy (a lot!). But we love having each one of them, with their special (I mean that in the best way possible! :) ) gifts and abilities in our family. God always knows just what we need. He uses our kids to teach us so much about ourselves...it's kinda scary. Moral....if you don't want to know about yourself, don't have kids.

That's as deep as it gets here...

~joanne

Your the man...

precious!
Two wheel Trent...

We are so proud of this milestone! You have a little determination in you boy! He wanted the training wheels taken off his bike Friday pm, which Steve did! He promptly hopped on and did amazingly good! Saturday he went out to practice again....and away he went...around the block !! I think having two older brothers played a role in him catching on so fast! He wants to keep up with them. The boys took him up toward the school where there is an incline toward our house and sent him down. They told him it was called the "man hill"!

The video isn't the best but it was so funny we had to put it on! We actually were using our regular camera which probably isn't the best for video! He thought the black fro wig added a nice touch! He looks like he's heading to the circus!

I had taken another video earlier, as I hit the off button he proceeded to hit the back of Steve's truck...that would have been some good footage!!

I hope most of you can enjoy the video. I'm not sure how long it will take to load. For those of you who can't, I posted a few still pictures!

Hope you all enjoy the pics! Everday is a blog day!

~joanne

school clothes?...

Here is Trent in his new school clothes! Straight from Menards & Family Fare (do you think they could use it for advertisement purposes?) This idea was born out of Troy having wet clothes at G-pa and G-ma's house the night before. It wasn't "pretty" in person either! It doesn't breath well! Do you think the fad will catch on? Let's hope not :0!

Here & Gone...

Grandma Elsie left today after a 3 week stay to head back home to Florida. She tries to come every summer for about 3 weeks. I was able to spend some time shopping and garage saleing with her, which is a love of hers. She runs 10 flea market booths in Florida year around at the age of 82! She is quite a "go-getter"! We all hope to get around as good as her at 82!
Here she is with Tyler, Troy and Trent.
Her favorite saying is "I'll start doing that when I get old"! We will see you next summer G-ma....

A Sunday Picnic...

Some of the tree monkeys The gang eating

All the kids... 13 in case you are counting!

Troy on the state of Michigan We were able to have a fun Sunday afternoon picnic with long time friends the Snyders and the Glidewells. The Glidewells were passing through for a short time before moving to Florida. They are missionaries in training. They were from the Kent City area before they felt called to the mission field. We are always excited, intrigued and blessed to see how God is using and moving them! They are a wonderful family to know....we are blessed to call them friends! Their blog is very interesting if you want to check it out! glidewells.blogspot.com

Angela thanx for bringing Mom along so we could meet her! She is a wonderful mom and grandma to your kids!

We visted at a park in Jenison that had a huge wooden play place and a map of the US in the grass. All the states were cut out, large rivers were present and mountain ranges were also included. I couldn't get a shot of the whole thing, so we settled for Michigan.

A fun time for all

~joanne

Bless his heart...

Steve spent Saturday tearing apart our wash machine because I thought our clothes had too much lint on them! It sounds silly...but it had to be done! The verdict is still out whether or not it helped! It sure made me happy to know how clean my wash machine was on the inside! Aren't we women crazy about our appliances! Stand up and be proud if you like your appliances in good working order! I can't be the only one out there. Thanx Honey for all your hard work keeping my appliances in good working order....I really appreciate you! Best of all...we had no left over parts!

~joanne

At the Lake

Here we are enjoying a rare sister moment! Janice ( far left...IN), Julie ( middle...CA) and of course me on the end! Thanx to next door neighbor Linda for her beautiful back drop!

Janice was here for a 3 day stay at the same time Julie and Tod came for an extended stay. They planned to leave on a Sat. but had to extended their stay as Tod's dad passed away while they were here. We took a quick photo op while the burgers were grilling!

Renee notice my necklace! Cute huh!

For Uncle Tod

"N....ICE!" guess who?

Before school starts...

There were so many things that I wanted to do with the boys before school resumed and now here it is mid August!
I've always wanted to take them to the fair...I'm not sure they really want to go see a bunch of 4-H projects and smelly animals! It was so much a part of my childhood I wanted to let them experience it too! I have fond memories of fair week! I actually showed cows one year. I also participated in cake decorating, sewing, wild flowers, bird watching, bowling, baking and maybe some others I've forgoten over the years! Sounds like some of those I should have forgotten to list!! Help me out Julie and Janice with my memory!
I think I also promised Trent I would take him to Binder Park Zoo! We did make it to John Ball last month during free days along with a bazillion other people with strollers! We went with our friends the Snyders...we really did have fun together and saw lots of animals out and about!!
We never made it camping this year and it's not looking good for the rest of the summer!

Isn't funny how we want to take our kids to place that we enjoyed as a kid?

~joanne

Starting out

I'm attempting to start a family blog and I hope to keep it updated!!! I'm trying to get Troy to help me along the way...we will see how that goes!!
My hope is to have family and friends drop in to see what's going on in our lives. There probably won't be a lot of deep thought provoking questions and answers discussed here!!! Maybe a pic or two...when I get Steve to help me figure that out!!! I'm hoping... if Bonnie can do it, so can I!!