it's official, we're homeowners

front view, we are on a corner lot.

back view, the screened in porch.

Grandma with the girls in the sunroom after a LONG day of cleaning...thanks mom!

Kitchen

Living room, we do have a lake view! (Don't you LOVE the picture over the fireplace?  So glad they left that for us! HA!)

#1 Bedroom- Maria chose this for the girls room, isn't that great two tone carpet??

Half bath in #2 bedroom

#2 bedroom for mom and dad

Main bath in hallway

Well, lots of you already know the whole story about us buying a house, but for those who don't...here goes.

We started looking over a year ago, in North Webster for a place to own.  Since we live in a parsonage and chances are we always will until retirement, we wanted to have something all our own now.  To be able to build equity and do with it as we see fit, without permission from the church trustees!  Also probably a good idea to not have money saved for a house sitting around when we need to send kids to college.  We may not like the FAFSA results telling us the girls don't get financial aid because of that.  Another big reason is to give the girls a home base as we inevitably move around with the ministry.

The 'neighborhood' where we purchased is called Epworth Forest and is on Lake Webster.  Also in this neighborhood is the high school Methodist church camp.  This area holds special significance for me as I attended church camp here all through high school, and accepted Christ during camp one summer.

All this to say, we now own a house.  We closed at the end of September and this weekend decided to head up to clean and move things in.  My mom met us Friday and we spent 6 hours cleaning.  We went back Saturday to move things in, since we didn't have anywhere to sleep overnight, and the carpets were wet from cleaning them.  Mom and Dad brought a truck and trailer full of  furniture to help make our empty house a bit more welcoming.  Now we have places to sit and beds for the girls!

We have plenty to praise God for; owning our own home.

chef time

Maria was so excited to get her very own apron and matching one for her doll, Honey.  Grandma sure is handy and creative.  Thanks, now she can do some real cooking for Mommy and Daddy.

Also, you can check out the flooring I got and installed in the basement playroom.  It was super easy and didn't cost too much either.  A friend had put it in her basement and inspired me to do so also.  Icarpetiles.com is where I got the Rainbow tiles as they call them(only $.49 a sq. foot), and it was just a matter of laying them out in the pattern I wanted and cutting to fit.  It only took me a couple days, and mainly because I only had a utility knife so cutting hurt my hand a bit.
We have plenty to praise God for; grandma's super sewing skills.

tummy time

She doesn't mind it too much, for at least the first few minutes she was even smiling.

Happy Birthday Little Brother

Not everyone is so lucky as to be blessed with a brother that they can also call a good friend.  I was 9 when you were born and often acted the part of mini mom.  I know at times you didn't appreciate my "mothering", but I loved being your big sister and watching out for you.  It is amazing to see you become a dad to your son.  I always knew you would be a great father and husband.  Have a great birthday and a wonderful year to come.  I love you.

Happy Birthday Big Sister

I have always looked up to you and admired you.  Thanks for always being a supportive, caring, involved sister. I love thinking ahead in anticipation of the relationship that is in store for the girls as their sister relationship develops.  I pray you have a special day and that your next year is full of blessings. I love you!

Friday, Saturday, Sunday vacation

Friday morning we were up, packed, house cleaned and out the door by 10:30.  We wanted to have a mid morning snack at the Grand Traverse Pie Company.  The three of us split a mini cherry pie with crumb topping.  They warmed it and even topped it with whip topping. Mmmm, what a good way to start the day.  We left Traverse City, and headed toward Midland, Michigan where Larry's Aunt Crystal and Uncle Art live.  We stayed with them till after church on Sunday.
Friday night we had dinner, and just stayed in.  Larry's cousin and her daughter came to visit.  Her daughter is just a will turn three this November, so she is just a bit older than Maria.  They had a good time playing once each got over their shyness.
Saturday we went over to the Dow Gardens.  Though the weather was a bit cool and overcast we enjoyed our time looking around the grounds there.  After dinner and the girls were in bed, we played cards that night.

It was a bit funny as Maria called them a mix of Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Crystal and Uncle Art, I think she was a bit confused having heard their granddaughter talking to them, but they thought it was fun anyway.
Sunday we headed to church and then back to their place to pack up.  After a quick bite to eat we were on the road.  The girls slept off and on, with Anna deciding she was done with vacation about 40 minutes from home, of course then she fell asleep the last 10 minutes of our drive.  Yes, it was a nice way to end the vacation.
Overall, the girls did great all vacation.  We had some rolling naps, skipped naps and a few grumpy moments.  Maria slept in a "big-girl" bed, at home she has a lower toddler bed.  She did great, rarely moving in her sleep at all.  Here at home you can find her in any number of strange positions.  Anna was up a bit earlier most mornings and up at night once or twice the last few nights, but not sure if she normally has some wake ups and we I just don't hear her( I don't use a monitor since she is just across the hall).  But now that we are back home, schedules seem to have resumed their normal pattern, so skipping naps and having some driving naps doesn't seem to have caused any harm.
We have plenty to praise God for; a safe, restful vacation that we all enjoyed.

Thursday vacation

Well, after Wednesday, I didn't take many pictures! We also didn't do as much, winding down our vacation. On Thursday we went back to downtown in search of a couple things. I thought a nice boat model would be fun to put together as a remembrance of our trip. Not $50 dollars worth though. We did find a nice glass cherry ornament to add to our Christmas tree this year. We also stopped in The Cherry Republic store they have downtown and sampled just about everything we could...mmm, chocolate covered cherries were my favorite.
We took a packed lunch with us and headed to the Children's Garden behind the Traverse City Public Library. Maria enjoyed walking through and exploring, and especially playing on the wooden train they had.
We also had to make a trek out to Moomer's Ice Cream. It was well worth the trip there. We tried the GMA's best scoop award winning Cherries Moobilee, Chocolate Peanut Butter Chunk and Maria had Peach. The store's signature flavor, Cherries Moobilee,is a rich mix of black cherry-flavored ice cream with chunks of black and red cherries(all from the local area), chocolate fudge swirl and chunks of homemade brownies. It was delicious!
That evening of course we hit the beach again.
Here is a video of Maria enjoying the beach! I think it is safe to say she had a great vacation.


And here is a video of the newest Anna thing from vacation. She sucks in her bottom lip and make funny sounds and has the hiccups! We love each new stage with her.

Even more Wednesday vacation

Yes, I told you Wednesday was a long day.

After we got back from our road trip all day we headed to the beach for a bit before bedtime.

Maria was so free tonight, just running and enjoying the sand, sun, water, and wind.  There were rarely many other people.  Often there were a few other kids at the playground and a small number of couples sitting around enjoying the sun setting.

It was a rather windy evening, so the amount of sailboats out was significantly higher than any other night we had been there.

It was thrilling to see them drop the sail as they turned the boat.

Love the seagull I caught midflight on this one...you have to click it larger to see him.

Wednesday vacation continued

After we left the dunes we drove further north to the town of Leland and the historic Fishtown.  We had an okay, but overpriced lunch at The Bluebird, famous for it's Whitefish.

We looked around the shops, checked out some boats, found Maria a souvenir, Wikki Stixs, which she had seen in a magazine and wanted a while back, although she must have thought they were something to eat, because once we purchased them she asked when she could eat them??  We also got a treat, a candy necklace for Maria, which she could eat, at a candy store and then made our way back toward Traverse City.

A lady, who works at the Marina I believe, offered to take our picture, without us even asking.  But as you can see Maria is not fond of having her picture posed lately.  She appears to be asleep, but is really just avoiding the camera, what a goofy girl.

Wednesday vacation

Wednesday was our longest day as we took a drive west to Sleeping Bear Dunes State Park.  The weather was a bit gloomy and we wondered if we would get some rain, but mainly it was just foggy and misty.

With the girls we decided not to try and tackle too much hiking, but were advised that the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive was quite nice.  And we agree!

 Walking the Dune Overlook trail, which is part of the Scenic Drive.  Woah, is that steep!

I just loved the windswept sand and the images that it created.

God's amazing creation never ceases to take my breath away.

Me and the girls, yep, Anna is there...look for her hand and her ever present burp cloth.

see told you!  Maria was trying to get Anna to look at the camera...yeah, how's that working for you?

What a good little traveler she was.

Maria had such a great time the whole week really, but especially on this day, just exploring, loving the sand.

We have plenty to praise God for; his magnificent creation for us to enjoy.
Wed. to be continued.

Tuesday vacation

On Tuesday we took off up the Old Mission Peninsula toward the Old Mission Lighthouse, built in 1870. You are on the 45th parallel, which means you are halfway between the North Pole and the Equator.

Maria kept talking about the "whitehouse" all week long, asking when she could see it again.

It was very shallow off shore near the lighthouse, emphasizing the need for its placement.

(I think it looks like we are in front of a backdrop here...the flash made strange lighting.)

The drive up and back was very scenic.  There was a stop at one point for a "Scenic Overlook"  Here is the view looking out toward the bay over one of the many, many vineyards we passed.  We also saw more orchards than I can remember ever seeing so close together...peaches, apples, plums, cherries.  Many of the farms appeared to be commercial operations, but many have roadside stands where you can purchase all you desire.

4 Months

Yep, I am a  bit behind as Anna turned 4 months last week on the 22nd.  Vacation trumps blogging!

Let's see, she has recently been laughing, but only when she feels in the mood.  Her sleeping and eating habits haven't changed much in the last month.  She still sleeps through the night, and often she is wanting to go to bed earlier than 8pm.  I still feed her when I go to bed, and then she usually wakes up sometime around 8 in the morning.  She still takes several naps during the day too, rarely fussing at all when I lay her down.

She took her first real vacation to Traverse City, and was a superb traveler.  She only cried a bit in the car and it was when we were almost home, go figure!

I will know her weight/length on Friday when we have her 4 mo. checkup.  But she is growing out of a few 6 month outfits already, geesh!

She is a happy, healthy girl who love, love, loves her sister.  Usually Maria can get a smile out of Anna just by talking to her.  Maria likes her sister quite a bit too.  Asking to "touch her" several times a day and loves to give her hugs and kisses and is surprisingly gentle with her almost all the time.

Monday vacation

We took off Monday on foot toward downtown Traverse City, which was about a 15 minute walk from where we stayed.  A random fun thing that happened.  We had to cross a pretty busy street and it didn't seem too pedestrian friendly, which did seem unusual as this is a pretty touristy town in the summer months.  We made it successfully regardless, but while we were walking downtown a lady, who had been driving and saw us make our mad dash across the street, stopped to give us a pointer.  She told us about the pedestrian bridge under the road, but the entrance isn't exactly marked to easily find it, but she told us how to find it on our way back.  She then asked us where we were visiting from and we told her Culver, to which she responded, "oh, my Dad went to school at the Academy...way back when."  What a small world!  Her parting words as we left were "Enjoy Maxinkuckee!" (that's the name of the lake here in town)

We spent until around lunchtime checking out the shops around the downtown area, headed back home for lunch, and naps for the girls.  That evening after dinner we had some delicious ice cream from Bardon's just down the block.

I should also explain how we came to stay where we did.  Some friends here in Culver had lived up near Traverse City in Glen Arbor and their church used to allow people in full time ministry to stay in the parsonage for the church because the pastor didn't live in it.  We called to inquire and found out they no longer do this, but told us of the church in Traverse City.  So we contacted them and indeed they do, but the times it was available were a bit limited because of the busy tourist summer season they have.  So we rearranged our vacation time to work better with the dates they had available.  We think it really was the perfect time, minimal tourist traffic, yet the weather was still tolerable to get out and enjoy the area.  So for a minimal donation we were able to use this house from Sunday night till Friday morning.  We feel so blessed.

Sunday vacation

We headed up to Traverse City last Sunday after church.  The girls made the drive well, about 5 hours with a few stops.  The house we stayed in was only a block from Bryant Park, a nice park/beach on Traverse Bay.  Can you tell what Maria enjoyed most at the beach?

This was the one night with a really gorgeous sunset.

Maria casting some sand out into the water, and getting her skirt "just a little bit" wet as she told us.

"Look at my sandy hands."

Gorgeous!

We have plenty to praise God for; a beautiful sunset to start our vacation.