For those of you wondering...

We still haven't sold our house. We had a couple that absolutely loved it and then they found out they couldn't get approved for the loan... so, back to square one. For now we are going to focus on finishing off the downstairs bedroom (our friend Reid helped Nate install a new window... it's fabulous! So much better than the old one!), and Reid is going to give Nate pointers on finishing the walls and ceiling- we're just doing it bit by bit as we have extra $, so this may take awhile! :)

Our garden is doing great... I need to post some pictures! We did 8 tomato plants in an upside down patio feeder on our deck, and we have many baby tomatoes that we oooh and aaah over every day. The green beans are trying to reach over our fence (this is my first time with pole instead of bush beans), and seem to like the chain link method of climbing... I didn't even have to train them- just stuck the seeds in the ground and they knew what to do! The same goes for the sugar snap peas... yum! Our zucchini plants are huge, we have flowers on our pepper plants, onions and carrots are thriving, and what else... oh! We have watermelon and cantalope, too- for fun! :)

The kids are doing well- Stephen loves "helping" with just about anything these days. Nate was bringing the dog crate inside and Stephen immediately went to the door and grabbed the front of it- and proceeded to help him carry it to the girls room! What an amazing thing to see this "little man" (as we call him) take such joy in performing feats of strength... we get a kick out of it every day. Nobody can convince me now that boys and girls are the same. They're kidding themselves!!! Stephen also is still in love with trains, cars, trucks, airplanes, and tractors. Everytime he hears a motor, he's scanning the window or looking all around if we're outside, and then pointing very insistently and saying "uh uh uh!!!!

Erin is riding her bike on her own now! She took right off with it the day I took the training wheels off. I held on while she did 2 circles in the driveway, and then she was ready! What a brave and strong girl! Now she just needs to teach her sisters... :) She is really enjoying painting at this stage and wants to paint all of the time.

Hannah is reading all sorts of things now. She's not to the point of sitting and reading a whole book, but she'll breeze through one and pick out which pages she wants to read (usually the ones that involve horses) and then read them to herself or Stephen. She still adores all things horses- I don't think she's going to outgrow this love! She is becoming quite a beautiful young lady- she's right in the middle of a growth spurt, and she's not much shorter than Katy now!

Katy is reading everything she can get her hands on. And I'm talking 200- 300 page books in one or two days... just reading at night! I laugh at how much she reminds me of me at her age. It's amazing to see! She has also been coming up with things that she wants specifically for her birthday. It changes all the time, though- so I have to wait to plan things to make sure it's what she really wants! So far, the only thing I've got nailed down is that she would like to have her friend Laura sleep over (it would be her first official sleepover party). Can it be that she is really turning 8? I can't believe it!

Everything is going well with our new little one, too! Besides not enjoying the recent heat snap, I've had no complaints (does anyone else feel 10 degrees hotter while pregnant?). I am getting my weekly progesterone shots from poor Natie- who apologizes profusely the whole time he's giving them. I tell him not to worry, but he hates hurting me (not that I'm a big baby about it or anything!). I don't even mind them that much... they really work to prevent my preterm labor symptoms, so I am so thankful for them!

Okay, I've gotta go get everyone up... today's Nate's day off, and we have yard work planned. If we work together as a team, we should have time for fishing tonight (the girls each caught a fish last week on the first fishing jaunt of the year, so hopefully we'll have the same results!).

Camping fun at Silver Lake

Okay, another long post (because of pictures, not because I'm long winded this time!)...
We went camping up in Silver Lake, Michigan 2 weeks ago for 5 nights (we only spent $80 to camp there with electric and water on the site... you can't beat that!). We've been needing a vacation for a long time, and this was a cheap and close by alternative to our previous idea of going down to the Creation Museum for a night (which would have cost about $180 and we wouldn't have had a moment of relaxation to boot!). Silver Lake is special to me because my friend Jeni from high school (and church) used to bring me with when her family would go to their cottage there. It was always so much fun and such a break from my crazy family life that I adored it. I hadn't been up there since my freshman year of college, so seeing it on our way home from visiting family up in Traverse was really neat... That's what the picture under this is from. That was 2 years ago at the lighthouse on Lake Michigan and by Silver Lake (these enormous sand dunes are what separates the two lakes... which makes for tons of summer fun!). Anyway, Nate had the idea of going up there to camp, and so we did and ended up being one of the only families there... in fact, we were the only tent there the first night (there were some people in their RV's, though, so it wasn't spooky or anything!). We stayed at the Jellystone Park campground, and let me tell you, if you have kids- that's the way to go. After comparing our state park camp experience with Jellystone, we were sold on Jellystone (if it's available, of course!)! The first day was rainy and cooler (in fact, the next two days were, too!). When we arrived it had just stopped raining (briefly) and we went to set up the tent really quick because we were supposed to stop over at the Inman's cottage to say hello (they were heading back to Illinois later that day). Well, within 5 minutes of our arrival they pulled up to our site on their bikes and offered to help us set up the tents... which only took about 20 minutes total (for our main tent and our screen tent). How great was that? And then, we stood around and talked a little while longer and they had to go, so we thanked them... and then Mr. Inman showed up at our site 15 minutes later in his Jeep to take us out for dune rides! Nate had so much fun that he has caught "dune fever" and is dreaming of getting a cheap Jeep to fix up and take out on the dunes in the future! :) After that, the park ranger came around and told us to help ourselves to the firewood left at other sites from the holiday weekend, because they wouldn't be picking it up until the next day. And a man from a nearby RV site gave us his leftover wood, hot dogs & buns, and bacon (precooked-awesome). God is so good, we had campfires constantly and didn't buy any more wood!
It was really pouring for the first two days there, so we went up to Ludington the first day and ate at the House of Flavors there for the first time (it's Grandma Virginia's favorite restaurant)... the kids all loved their ice cream and lunch! We also saw Night at the Museum 2 (funny, of course!). The next day we drove up to Traverse to visit with GG and Grandma and Grandpa Harlan. I completely forgot about pictures, we were talking so much! The rest of the days were spent climbing and exploring the sand dunes, the beach and lighthouse, swimming at the pool (which thankfully was heated to 80 degrees... the temperature outside only got into 70 for one day!), and exploring Silver Lake, Pentwater, and the little towns around there. All in all, a great break from the phone and a way for us to have fun! I also did most of our meals (pre-made and frozen) by crockpot, so there really wasn't any cooking to do either- which I appreciated! :) We are totally missing the evening campfires right now...
Oh, and those pictures at the top of the post are what you see once you climb the big dune that you see Nate taking the girls up- they were exploring for over 3 hours and still didn't see all of it! (I chose to sit that dune out! I played at the foot of it with Stevie and his trucks instead)