Apple Picking

Last weekend we were able to go apple picking with some of Eric's family for the afternoon. It was a gorgeous fall weekend in Michigan, almost too hot for being in the orchards! We started out the day at one farm that had some fun activities for the kiddos, as you can see below they got to ride on the "cow train"...thank you Aunt Kelly for taking Sophie, I didn't really want to bump around on that!! Then we moved on to another orchard where the apples were MUCH cheaper and picked a few bushels to make some applesauce:)

riding the cow train with Aunt Kelly


Grandpa, Brigitta, Uncle Ryan and Peter


showing me one of her good picks!


quite the little helpers we had


she really got into picking this year


just relaxing outside in the middle of October...


...with shorts and a tank top on! I love Michigan fall!!


opening her "shop" for business :)


and closing up...after she delivered me my "potatoes" (leaves...yum)


It's been a great fall so far, but I'm looking forward to a little cooler weather...and hopefully a BABY soon! :)

Black Eye

I'm a little surprised it has taken this long...but here is a picture of Sophie's first black eye. She was goofing around yesterday and ended up having a little run in with the coffee table! Her new "fun thing" to do is to put her stool behind the couch in our living room and jump over the couch onto the floor. She finds much delight in this and has decided NOT to listen to her mother who tells her that is not where her stool belongs...or that she shouldn't be jumping on the couch (what a boring mom I am right!) So anytime I leave her alone I always come back to find the stool back behind the couch...grr...anyways the eye looked much worse today but I couldn't get that picture to download for me, we'll see how tomorrow fares :)

We're off to the apple orchards tomorrow with some family, hopefully eat some doughnuts, maybe go on a hayride or something...and pick lots of apples so we can make applesauce soon :) YUM!! (unless little baby makes an appearance before I get a chance!)

yes she is also my little baker in training :)

Picture Post!!

Well I'll let the pictures in this post say it all...a little catch up with some end of summer activities and moving on into the fall!

hanging out at the Baer's cottage on Big Blue Lake

Sophie really started to like water more as the summer went on, she always wanted to "swim" with Eric...which meant him carrying her in the water with her paddling around :)

"playing" bean bags with Jadyn and Alena, these girls are going to be a lot of fun in the coming years playing together!

Well we got Sophie a big girl bike late in the summer, but she didn't have a lot of interest being shown how to use it...stubborn little girl :) Hopefully next summer will be better!

So instead she just like following Daddy around wearing her new helmet :)

We broke out the new sprinkler for Sophie to try out on hot days, she was a little hesitant at first...

but got a little more daring when the neighbor boys came over

We spent a week at Ludington State Park early August with our good friends, Sophie had a great time playing with the girls and enjoyed the water!

Waking up after a successful beach nap :)

Water fun with Daddy :)

Hanging out with the girlies...I'm sure trouble will brewing some day ;)

nice teamwork girls!

Sophie really loved spending time at the new splash pad in our park once it opened this summer

hanging out on the porch after playing in it

Enter Fall...Sophie got to spend the day at the zoo with cousins Peter and Brigitta

checking out all the cool animals

Two little cuties :) Someone asked me if they were twins!

Sophie being a "big helper" with Daddy, putting her big girl bed together!

Testing out her new bed! She's all moved in now and seems to like it most days...naps are still an issue but we're dealing with the adjustment! I have quite a bit more to put together in her room and hopefully I can post some more pictures of it :)

So now here we are at the end of September, I have just over two more weeks until my due date and I'm so eager for it to be here! This pregnancy has been so different in many ways than Sophie's was and I'm ready for him to be out :) We have a few more things to do to prepare for his arrival, but overall we're just ready. As I said above, Sophie has moved into her new room and it's been a little adjustment, mainly since she realize she "can" get out of her bed! haha so hopefully we'll have those kinks worked out when baby boy gets here, probably not though! Basically I'm just hoping she makes the transition of being a big sister well, she's lived in her own little world for the past 2 1/2 yrs so this will be a big deal for her. I'm off this weekend for a women's retreat at Spring Hill Camps so hopefully that will be relaxing for me and a fun weekend for Eric and Sophie back home. I'll try to update again soon!

And we're back again!!

Well I had pretty much given up on this blogging thing...but I think I might try to give it another go :) I'm not going to bother catching you up on the past 6 months of our lives, so we'll just start with what we've been up to this summer so far! We've stayed pretty busy visiting with relatives, friends and doing a little camping. Sophie is enjoying exploring our neighborhood and playing with her little friends most nights, it's crazy to me most days that I have a kid now...not a baby anymore...where does time go!! We're eagerly anticipating October when we get to welcome a new little guy into our lives, hopefully that transition will go well for Sophie :) (and the rest of us!) Anyway here's just a few pictures of the past couple months. I'm still sifting through our Young State Park camping pics, so hopefully I can post some of those soon.

playing at the Children's Museum with our friend Jayde

ginormous light bright!

she loved blowing huge bubbles!

these mirrors kind of creeped her out

loving the park by our house

exploring the playset

breaking out the kiddie pool on hot days

visiting some relatives at the Conference Grounds, first trip to the big lake this summer

with Aunt Jackie, Brigitta and Aunt Kelly...Lake Michigan was so warm!!

playing with cousin Sarah

hanging out in Grandpa and Grandma's pool with Brigitta

Catching up on December...

So I've definitely needed to catch up some pictures here...December seemed to come and go so quickly I didn't even notice :) We had a lot of great family parties, had some relatives in town, and pretty much carted Sophie around anywhere and everywhere we had to go! She was such a trooper though as we put her to sleep so many places and woke her up and took her home. We've been pretty blessed with a child that hasn't had too many problems doing that! So as you can see below, we've been keeping busy...still babysitting a little, going to parties, and just enjoying every new day I get to spend with my little mischievous almost 2 year old :) :)

playing with Jadyn

nice face...she thinks she's smiling haha

that's better :) what a cutie

stopping for a quick smile...she's always on the go!!

just wanting to see the picture...whenever I get my camera out she runs to see all the pics on it!! too funny....little annoying sometimes :)

she definitely has a new love for coloring...but we don't have a nice area for it so I often put her in her high chair, I feel a little bad lol

yes this is what I got when I asked her to "smile" ...what a character

I had to include this one because do you see how intent she is on getting her crayons to stick in those three holes! lol the pic above shows it too, how do they think of these things!

and I just had to throw this one in...am I the only mom who has to peek in on their kid EVERY night before bed!? :)

again playing with Jadyn, the apron outfit was a Christmas gift from Jadyn and Sophie didn't take it off for like 2 days! There's a hat too...adorable!!

ooh there's the hat :) haha I love it!

hanging out with some dear friends at the Sportels Christmas party

this is just one of the MANY we tried to take of the guys...is it really that hard to just take a nice picture?? apparently...

I love this picture! Hunter is such a sweet cousin :)

Eric insisted on taking a picture of all Sophie's gifts, I think she's pretty spoiled!! We're so thankful for our wonderful families that gave her this!

Opening a couple gifts from Mommy and Daddy...and probably one of the only pics I could get of her in her Christmas dress!

loved her new gift! it has a tent that attaches to the other end...much fun :)

yes she really is crying here...she loved her new shopping cart, but apparently I could NOT take a picture of her pushing it, she was pretty mad at me! lol

Reading a Christmas story with Grandma

...and Grandpa (and Aunt Kelly)

she LOVED playing with Peter

Grandpa and Grandma and all the grandkids!!

had to throw this in...so with my Christmas money I bought a bunch of new frames for a collage on the wall. Eric thought the "layout" looked good enough and we could just keep his work plans on the wall....ummm no thanks ;)

another fun day with friends...I was able to host a baby shower for my wonderful friend Kristin who is due very soon! :)

That's about all for now! I'm working on getting some pics of the fireplace room to post...I spent quite a bit of my Christmas money on decorations for that room! :) YAY!!