Golden Birthday!

Yesterday was my GOLDEN birthday (you can figure out how old) and it was the BEST birthday weekend I could have asked for. Carter and I started out celebrating on Friday morning with breakfast with Kathy and Jackson. And a couple Zeeland Bakery cookies...yum! Then we headed to mom and dad Meeuwsen's pool for the afternoon with friends.

Carter and Jax hanging out. Two little blondies! Love it!

At night we went to mom and dad De Jonge's for presents and cake and ice cream. We celebrated with Brian's side on Wednesday night. Here's the guys (minus grandpa and Liam). Yep, Tim and Jen are part of our family. :)

Jen bought me a basket for the market...love it!


Carter went home with Mike and Kim and on Saturday morning we headed to Shipshewana. We had lunch at the Blue Gate, did some shopping and then went to our hotel, Splash Universe. It was SO FUN to be kids for the day. The big water slides were a ton of fun. Here is Brian standing under the bucket of water.

I am pretty sure we were the ONLY ones there without kids. :) At night we went to the Essenhaus for dinner. After dinner we went out on carriage ride.

We loved to watch all the horse and buggies along the rode...especially on Sunday we drove past a couple of churches (barns) and the field was filled with buggies and horses...so cool! On Sunday we headed to Michigan City to the outlet mall. We had a lot of success! We got home about 3:30 and picked up Carter and then after his nap it was off to Grand Haven!

The best pic of Carter and I. :) We met up with Jen and Liam for some ice cream, got a bottle of wine from Debi and headed home!

It was such a fun weekend.

While I celebrated my birthday, Carter celebrated turning 15 months! Crazy! He still isn't walking but I think getting closer...he does not want to be pushed though. I was 15 1/2 months so maybe he's just like his mommy! He jibber jabbers all the time and definitely knows what you are saying. He knows several animal sounds and his body parts. He also figured out how to get up on the couch last week. He hasn't been a huge fan of water or pools yet but that's okay....it will come. He LOVES to be outside and does not like when it's time to come in. He is definitely our big sleeper yet taking 2 naps for about 2 hours each and sleeping about 10-11 hours at night. Can't beat that! He is so much fun and still the LOVE of our lives! We love you buddy!

Busy, busy boy

"Why you looking at me?" The never ending battle of destroying the kitchen. :)

Friday afternoon Carter headed up north with Eric and Kate and the girls to their cottage. Brian and I left after my jewelry party on Friday night. We had a GREAT weekend up north. So much fun and beautiful weather. Here we are enjoying some lunch. The flies were pretty bad but I will take those over mosquitos!

We took a lot of paddle boat rides and a few kayak rides. The lake is so clean and nice and quant.

Uncle Eric helping build sandcastles.

Playing on the raft with my favorite cousins.

Monday Liam came over to play for the day. Kathy was kind enough to lend me her double stroller so we went to the park. Liam enjoyed his first ride on a big swing!

I can't get over how sticken cute he is and he was such a good baby.

While Liam was napping I took out Carter's new sand and water table. The neighbor girls came over to play too. Definitely worth the money...he played by it for an hour and loved it.

Then it was time to try out the sprinkler ball...definitely loved this too!

Another fun filled weekend

We started off the weekend with welcoming Parker Robert Maly into the world on Friday morning. Jen, Liam and I went to see him...so cute! Brian and Carter wanted to go so we went yesterday but the little guy was under the lights! Hopefully he gets to come home today!

Friday night we went to Victory Points car show to support Tim and Jen's youth group. Cole and Reese were there and are always so sticken cute and fun as always. Brian and Cole are such little buds even though we don't see him often enough.

Carter and Jacob were getting restless so they took Liam's wagon for a ride. He is a pretty lucky guy for his dad to make him such a sweet wagon!

Last night we went to the gravel pits with Brian's brother Eric and his family. Eric did some tubing and skiing, Brian went knee boarding and then we were trying to get the girls to go tubing but they weren't too sure of it so Carter had to show them how to do it.

Whew....check out that hair! The sun was a little bright for Carter but he loved it.

So then Karinda and Kylie decided it looked fun so they went with Eric. It was such a nice night out there and we had a lot of fun with them.

Catching Up

What have we been up to the past few weeks? Well here is a run down.

We enjoyed Memorial Day like most and went to the parade in Zeeland and then worked outside most of the day and enjoyed dinner with family and friends at night.

The usual Friday night cookouts have begun at Amber Rose so last week last minute I decided to make a cake for dessert. NOT perfect by any means but the neighbor girls thought it was pretty cool to have a cake with them on it.

Carter's favorite sleeping position. Who sleeps on their knees? What a nut.


Saturday night we enjoyed dinner at Crazy Horse with DeWitts and then playing and watching the Red Wings at their house. A fun night as always!


Sunday we got to take our first boat ride of the season with mom and dad Meeuwsen. A chilly but sunny day and a nice cruise to the big lake.


And Monday nights we have been eating Vitales and walking to the guys games with the DeWitts. It's so fun to watch Carter, Jacob and Deacon together. Can't wait to watch them grow up and be big buds. The boys even have their own Chips Groundcover shirts...so cute, eh?

Jason coaching Brian on first base. :)


And of course have to leave you with Carter's little smirk he gives everyone lately. It's so funny. He was quite the charmer to the Walgreens pharmacist today.

Now we are just patiently waiting to hear news from the Maly's of their new little guy to be born tonight or tomorrow! We are so excited to add another boy to our group of friends! Not sure it will be fun when they are all in high school and causing trouble just like their dads!