Moments like these…

So after 7 years of marriage (tomorrow) all I wanted for our anniversary was a full day to myself to hard-core clean our house from top to bottom. About an hour after I'd started, (with 2 interruptions from Alexa wanting breakfast and Logan wanting to help, Micah comes to the bathroom where I’m cleaning and tells me he's leaving to help a friend. I asked where the kids were and he replied that they were on the bench in the kitchen waiting to wave goodbye to him. *(Can you tell they’re used to Daddy running all over instead of being around the house?)

I was in the middle of scrubbing the shower and floor so I kept going. When I finished (about 10 minutes later) I went upstairs to see what "mess" my kids had gotten into -- the house was creepily quiet. As I got upstairs I was feeling VERY afraid -- when my children are quiet…well lets just say I haven’t had the best experiences when I find them! I rounded the corner of the kitchen and still didn’t see them. I cautiously approached the living room where I could here cartoons playing on the TV. Here’s what I found:

YES!!! I have never been SO happy & so relieved at the same time! It was adorable - they were sitting side by side, holding smarties and chap stick that they’d “stolen” from the diaper bag, but none the less they were quiet, happy, and not doing anything but watching TV! All I can say is after the last few weeks - it was a MUCH NEEDED moment! :)

Now to put Logan down for his nap so I can get back to cleaning! :)

Summer Celebration 2012

Here’s some pictures of the fun we had at this year’s Sioux Center Summer Celebration festivities :)

Both Alexa & Logan had fun on the inflatable fun zones :)

Alexa did a great job going down the giant slide :)

Riding on the train in the mall :)

Sitting on Grandpa Schouten’s lap at the parade with Cousin Sophia

What we’ve been up to lately…

We’ve been keeping busy lately babysitting and just hanging out enjoying the beautiful weather :)
Here’s a few pictures to show what we’ve been doing lately

Picnic in the park

We’d spent most of Memorial Day weekend in bed (or on the couch to be more exact) feeling awful & being sick so on Monday (Memorial Day) when our fevers had finally broken we decided to take the kids on a little picnic in the park. Alexa invited Grandma Fennema along and we even got Uncle Joel to stop by with his girlfriend. :)

Alexa & Grandma getting ready to eat :)                 Trying to get a picture with Daddy, Mommy & Logan

Daddy thought he should move the water bottle - just as Logan looked at the camera & the picture was snapped!


Apparently not looking at the camera is an inherited trait! :)
 
Both Alexa & Logan had a lot of fun playing & weren’t in any hurry to go home!
(Despite Mom & Dad’s need for another nap!)

Nasty storms lately & yucky weather forecasted again…

We’ve had a few nasty storms roll through our area this spring already & more rain/potential storms are again forecasted this week. I find it a good reminder of how blessed we’ve been by the Lord and how amazing He is! He has truly protected us and kept us safe throughout everything.

So far we’ve been blessed to only loose a few big branches from a couple of our trees, including our cherry tree.
 

On the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend we had a particularly nasty down pour of rain and wind that broke another large branch off  one of our trees but toppled the swing set at my sister’s house. We happened to be home sick that day/night and so my mom had come and picked Alexa up and taken her to church with her. The down pour of rain hit our area just as they were on their way home - thankfully they made it to our house safely but had to sit in the van in our driveway for quite a while before it let up enough to get them in the house!

Pictures of the storm rolling in - the one above was taken less than a minute before the one below - yet you can see how far past the water tower it had already moved! So amazing to see the majesty of our Creator!

(at one point it was like a wall of water was driving at the windows - pictured above)

There swing set toppled over - with the slide quite a ways a way from it! The monkey bars were sticking through the fort part of the structure!

May 2012

Here’s a few pictures of what’s been going on in May:

Alexa was on a kick of having her hair French braided all the time - and then having it all “crimpy” for church the next morning! :)


Here’s how Logan & Alexa typically look/act in the morning:


We had a few days of rain and the kids LOVED playing outside in it -- especially with the water that made what Alexa called a “river” on the driveway!
 

We went to Culvers one night and Alexa convinced Grandpa and Grandma Schouten, Aunt Jena, & Aunt Jill to come along. Here’s some pictures of Logan “dancing” and grooving to the music! :)