4 years

It's been a while since we last blogged and I feel like there is some catching up to do.

On Thursday Dan and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary by driving 2 hours to go see and buy a tractor - fun, fun (at least Dan thought so :) To his credit we did have a date night earlier in the week while my sister Rachel was still here and watched Rebecca for us. Here's the new tractor, an IH 1086.

After about 6 weeks in the states Rachel has returned to Nicaragua. We will miss you and thank you for all the fun times! Here is Rebecca and Rachel on the South Haven pier.

A few weekends ago we went camping at Lake Rathbun with friends Eric, Val, Scott, and Chelsea. We had nice weather and Rebecca did pretty well for her first camping experience.

Finally, last weekend we enjoyed an Iowa Cubs game with Dan's coworkers at First State Bank. We had a great view from an outfield sky box and a personal visit from Cubbie.

MI Vacation

Last week we spent a fabulous week in South Haven with the Pontiers. It was so great to be back together as a family again. Some of us hadn't seen each other since last Thanksgiving. The house we stayed in was spacious enough for us all and everyone loved the pool and hot tub. Some activities that we enjoyed were swimming in the pool, cooking for 16, a ladder golf tournament (a shout out to Dad and Andrea on their big win), strolling downtown, taking in the sunset on the beach, visiting with local friends Cara and Jamie, watching the 4th of July parade, lot of wine tasting, and finding some treasures at a local antique shop.

I just downloaded all the pictures from our vacation and there were 104. I wish I could post most of them, but since that would be nearly impossible, here are my favorites.

It's like riding a bike

I love boating and skiing and Dan has grown to love it as well. I had to take last summer off from skiing because I was pregnant. I was a little apprehensive putting on the skies last weekend. But I guess skiing is like riding a bike, once you know how you never forget and once you get up you know just what to do.

Dan learned how to ski last summer and now you'ld never know that he hadn't been doing it for a lot longer.Rebecca is turning into quite the little boater as well. This new life jacket fits much better than the last one.For those of you who are familiar with Lake Red Rock and the mile long bridge, will know how amazing this picture is. In a normal summer the water is usually about 40 feet lower than this! If you look closely you can see the water mark a few feet higher where the water level was the week before when the lake crested.

Lynnville Days

This morning we enjoyed Lynnville Days. Dan works at First State Bank in Lynnville and they were hosting a pancake breakfast. Rebecca and I went to see Dan, eat some pancakes, and see the parade.

Dan's bank had a float in the parade. The theme was, "No worries with 1st State Bank." They threw out candy and frisbees. If you look closely you can see Dan on the back of the float.

Rebecca also enjoyed her first taste of candy. She only had a few licks but somehow managed to get her whole mouth blue.

The latest

Here are just a few pictures of what we have been up to lately. I am enjoying my summer at home with Rebecca. Although somehow I seem to get even less done than I did while I was teaching. My sister Rachel is at our house visiting for a while and Rebecca is loving the added attention.

Here we all are on Father's Day. We are sitting on our new sofa, although you can't see much of it. We are loving our new furniture.

Rebecca does not seem to be as independent as she used to be and always wants to be where you are. So I had to find a way for her to be entertained in the kitchen while I was making supper. Surprisingly she is very good at puting the tupperware back in the drawer as well!Rebecca is now trying to pull herself up onto everything. She can't quite pull herself to her feet yet and gets very frustrated. But when you help her to her feet she is all smiles. She is getting very good at puting one foot in front of the other and "walking" with you. She can also crawl on all fours put would rather be standing.Just hanging out with Aunt Rachel :)

Announcing my endorsement for...

...the Cricut!

While watching this video give out a high-pitched, "Ahhhhhh....!"

I have always been a little intimidated to show others my scrap booking because I don't feel that I am very creative. A page in Rebecca's scrapbook usually take me about a week to finish and I am usually not that happy with it. I never seem to have the right embellishment or color combo, and I don't really like me own hand writing and don't have the energy to type it all out on the computer. Enter...the Cricut. Yes, I first saw it on an info-mercial, but then I did my research online and asked the scrap booking gooroos at school about it. I shopped around and Dan finally got me one on eBay. My scrap booking confidence has doubled and with only a little hesitation, I present a few of my pages. These each took about an hour to make. They are pretty simple, but I'm a pretty simple person too.

Sorry for the glare, I was too lazy to take them out of their plastic sleeves. The Cricut is a little pricey, but I think it's worth it if you use it a lot. You can also share cartriges with others and share the cost a little.

Happy scrapping!

Boating

Rebecca went boating for the first time this past weekend. We went out to Lake Red Rock with our friends Scott and Chelsie. I think Rebecca had a good time, but trying to keep her out of the sun was a challenge. Her life jacket is also a little big so we took it off her when we were sitting still. We'll have to find a smaller one for this summer.

Rebecca and I just spent a few days with my sister Grace and her family in MN. She got to eat in her Grandpa Pontier's highchair and be fully entertained by her 5 cousins.