August

And here we are moving into August. Lydia is quite the helper with Joy. She can go upstairs, get her out of the crib and feed and burp her. What a big helper!

A friend from church has some land with blackberries growing throughout it. So he took us for a ride on his trailer and we stopped several times to pick blackberries.

Silas trying out the tractor, or "mighty machine" as he called it.

Coordinating cousins.

This is what most meals end up looking like. We don't even bother with bibs anymore, since she knows how to rip or pull them off. :-)

Silas wanted to try feeding Joy...

Care giving Joy a little Joy-ride!

Here are the kids at a local fair checking out the goats.

The kids love the corn box. We usually spend at least a half hour playing in it.

After the fair I had a rare quadruple-sleep in the van.

Just a cute picture of the boys taking a hike in the woods.

Precious girls.

Mama Lyddi time!

I was in the kitchen and I heard Lydia yell, "Hey Mom! You're gonna want to see this...4 kids on a chair! Bring your camera!" She was right.

And then it happened again a few days later!

Daddy picking up the flock. As you can see, Lydia is not too pumped about it.

The road on which our church is located is having some major construction. So every Sunday we go check out the progress before going inside.

A highlight of this month was going to Dutch Village! We had a wonderful day together.

Bunnies in a basket!

Daddy and Joy watching the Dutch dancers.

Family shot.

July

We started off the month making 4th of July treats! 

The big even of July was our family vacation to my folk's cottage for two weeks! It was awesome.

Below Joy is playing in the sand.

The girls picked flowers for us daily. Pay no attention to the two naked kids on the stairs. ;-)

Carrie and Lydia went tubing this year!

But the all-time favorite activity this year was jumping off the dock. We did this every day, many times a day.

And Zach and my favorite activity was going for pontoon rides with the kids.

Captain Carrie!

The fun was too much for Carrie...

Just a sweet picture of Joy...

This first morning the girls woke up early and put all of our groceries on the table, playing store.

Carrie is such a care giver to her baby sis.

Our dear friends from Jarvis came for the weekend. They have three boys and they all awoke nice and early to go fishing.

Here are the kids eating breakfast.

Lydia and Colin found a dinosaur bone! They spent a lot of time together being paleontologists.

Doing devotions together on the boat in the evening.

We greatly enjoyed relaxing and swimming in the deep water and jumping off the pontoon.

Storytime!

Tubing!

Chuck soaking in the sun!

Group shot before they left.

Mama and Si kayak ride!

All the fun in the lake and sun wore the kiddos out...

We wrapped up the week with a family trip to get ice-cream!

It was an awesome vacation. Another fun outing was going to Rockford's Farmer's Market.

Creepy picture of Si in a box with dolls.

Boulder Ridge Animal Park! This place is awesome.

Cherry picking!

Swinging at the park!

I got them all swinging at once. So fun!

Cousin Sarah and Si.

Zach and I got to take the older girls to their babysitter's wedding. It was at the Conference Grounds by Lake Michigan. Here are the girls seeing the big lake for the first time.

This month we discovered that Joy loves corn on the cobb.

Pretty girls all ready for church.

Grandpa and Si dressed alike. So sweet.