The Beach

Well now that I don't have such a CRAZY week I can actually get caught up on some blogging. VBS pretty much kicked my butt last week but it was lots of fun!

Last Thursday we got to go to the beach with our friends Melissa, Zoe & Kate. I haven't been up to the dunes at lake Michigan since I was in high school. I forgot how fun it can be!! I also forgot a few other things...........

I forgot that right when you walk in the water it drops off. So, we get there and I start to lay out a blanket and get out the sunscreen. Emma was up first for lathering so I start to do that with her and I see Jackson putting his feet in the water and I figure that's OK because I'm not that far away and it's only up to his ankles. Well, I was wrong since I forgot that about a foot out the water drops off. Even at the drop off it isn't over his head but since he didn't expect it to, he slipped and went under the water and of course freaked out and didn't try to stand up. I had to run out and get him before he drowned. If you ask him how he liked the beach he'll tell you "It was fun but I a little bit drowned."

So the other thing I forgot was the sunscreen. After the whole drowning fiasco I was so worried about getting Jackson all calmed down and tried to make sure he was OK that I forgot to go back to what I was doing when that happen and we all got sunburned. Emma had sunscreen everywhere but her face so she wasn't so bad but Jackson and I got fried. Its a wonder he even wants to go back to the beach after bad mommy almost let him drown and then let him get fried in the sun.

All in all it was a fun trip to the beach and I'm sure we're going to be doing it again soon because the kids loved it and it was so nice for me because it was a day of not much fighting and refereeing. We'll just make sure we do it a little better next time :)

PS - the wonderful pictures were taken by my amazing friend Melissa.

Visiting Daddy's work

The local theater in Rensselaer has been playing free movies on Wednesday mornings so that has been a regular thing we have been doing to keep ourselves busy this summer. The kids always enjoy going to the movies but honestly I think it's mostly for the popcorn :) Anyway..... my friend Melissa and her sisters are usually there too so this week we decided to take our friends over to visit Daddy at work. Kids are usually pretty excited to see an airplane close up.

Jacqui & Jayse

Zoe & Kate

Jayse

I know Jack is always excited too when kids think his job is cool. He's just a big kid himself so he loves to see their faces of excitement and all of them fighting over who get to drive the plane next. Speaking of driving the plane next, as soon as Emma walked in she started asking for the guy who took Jackson on his airplane ride. She though maybe she could get a quick ride in while we were there. She's been pretty jealous that he got to go the other week.

VBS Pirates

We have been counting down the days until VBS and it is finally here! Last night was the first night and the kids had a ton of fun. Jackson even gets to go this year because he is three and potty trained. They really got into the theme and dressed up (thanks for Grandma Kathy). I'm sure we'll be posting more about this later this week........

Mosquito Mania!

The mosquitoes have been TERRIBLE ever since we had so much rain and flooding. The kids had been playing outside every night but now over the past week or so we have had to stay inside because of the terrible amount of mosquitoes we have. This is a picture I took of Emma yesterday and she hadn't even been outside. I guess she must have gotten these just going from the car to the house. Poor thing!

Jackson Caught a Big One!!

Well here with go with another "like father like son moment." Last Saturday morning Jackson got to go on his first fishing trip with Daddy and Papa Roger. Dad and Jack were planning to go early in the morning and then all of a sudden Jack's waking me up asking if Jackson could go. I guess he had got out there with my Dad and Dad said "we're not gonna be gone too long, do you think we could take Gunther?" (That's what my Dad calls Jackson because in the summer his hair glows in the sun like Gunther from Friends :)

As you can see Jackson was pretty excited about it and I, without even realizing, had packed their matching Bass Pro t-shirts. How perfect!!

Papa says he's gonna start Jackson early teaching him how to fish so he'll learn all of the tricks and then make us a bunch of money as a pro fisherman. I figure why not, he was born in Kalamazoo and that's where Kevin VanDam lives and he's the best, so maybe there was something in the water there that Jackson got :)

Some of the ones he caught were little.......

And one was BIG!!!!

All in all, I think Jack was pretty excited to get to a point where he was able to share something that he loves with Jackson. He's still a pretty big handful and of course he did fall in the live well once and got his shorts all wet but Jack said it was worth it!

A visit from school friends

We got together with some of Emma's friends from school at our house last Thursday and the kids had A LOT of fun. Check out these pictures!!

Like Father Like Son

Thursday afternoon we got to do something amazing with Jackson. We got to take him on his first twin engine airplane ride. He has been asking Jack for a while now and of course miraculously one of Jack's customers offered to take us for free!

As he got in the plane it was almost amazing to see the similarities between Jack and Jackson. Of course Jackson insisted on sitting in the co-pilot seat. That made me very nervous because he had all of those fun buttons right there in his reach but once I saw the look of awe in his eye I knew he was going to be a little angel. As Craig started up the plane Jackson did not stare out at the propeller as most would do. He concentrated on all of the gauges and levers and I could just see all of the wheels in his little head turning as he was taking it all in and trying to figure out how it worked. Just like his daddy.

Craig's plane has headsets with microphones so we all got to wear them so we could hear each other better. Well.... Jackson has been going through a gross boy stage where every bodily function is not only hilarious to do but also to talk about. So, of course, he decides it would be funny to burp into the microphone and then announces to everyone "Ha, I burped." We always try to keep a straight face and tell him that is it not funny but this time we just couldn't help but laugh.



As we flew Craig took us over some windmills and then through some clouds. As we did this Jackson thought of his papa Roger. My dad always plays with the kids on the swing set and Jackson always tells dad to push him higher. Dad, in response, will ask Jackson if he wants to go "high as the sky" then they continue with what things they should watch out for; birds, helicopters, clouds etc. When he saw the clouds Jackson said "we're REALLY as high as the sky!! Can I call papa??" My dad just about smiled his whole face off when I told him that.

I'm so thankful for this community and not only the opportunities like this one to have a friend in the community to take us on a free ride but also for the memories we are getting to make with our kids right along side our parents and grandparents. Priceless!

Dairy Farm

We took our first trip of the season to the dairy farm on Tuesday. I know, I know, we live in Indiana and it seems lame but it really is a fun place to go. Jack's mom got us all annual passes for Jackson's birthday so we can go out there whenever we want. We needed a day to relax together after a long emotional weekend and as you can see there are lots of things to do there.

We got to have lunch and ice cream there courtesy of Aunt Joyce! It's kind of nice knowing that the stuff you are eating and drinking is fresh and made in a place where you can see exactly what goes on.

I was thinking maybe she was a bit overdressed but then I remembered that everyday is a dress up day for Emma. Maybe we should all be that way :)

The great thing about her dress up clothes is that we still let her be a kid in them. That fancy dress wasn't going to hold her back from climbing the rock wall.

And Jackson got to have fun jumping on the huge pillow they have outside with Uncle Kevin and Aunt Heather.

He also really like the new tractors they have there that you can ride on.

It was a very fun day together!!

It's finally gone!!!

Sunday night Emma and Jackson stayed at my mom's overnight because I had to be at the church early Monday morning to practice my song for the funeral. Well, my phone rang around 7:00 that morning and it was Emma telling me that she had finally lost her tooth! She woke up in the morning and she felt something in her mouth. Her tooth had fallen out and was sitting in her mouth. Good thing she didn't swallow it!!

Goodbye to a Good man

Well, I know I haven't posted in awhile but we had good reason. Unexpectedly last Thursday Jack's Grandpa Bierma passed away. He had been having some health problems but things seemed to be on the upswing and then I got the phone call that he had died. Jack and I have been so fortunate throughout our lives so far to not have experienced much loss. Two years ago Jack's Grandpa Hamstra passed away and it was the first big loss for both of us. The situation with him was a bit different because he was in a nursing home and had failing health for a long time and we were actually called to be with him on his last days and we were there with him when he passed away. This was our first shocking phone call when we received the news of Grandpa Bierma. We started to think about this and Jack said he almost felt like it would be the same shock as if he had been in a car accident and how much easier it was when got to say goodbye to Grandpa Hamstra but not to Grandpa Bierma. But as we talked we both agreed that though harder for us, this was a better situation for Grandpa. He didn't have to suffer the way Grandpa Hamstra had. Grandpa Bierma was just sitting on his back deck enjoying the sun when he dosed off and never woke up again. What better way could we ask God for!
First picture with Emma.

First picture with Jackson

I'm so thankful for the past year that Jack and I had to spend with him. Since we moved we would call them at the last minute and invite them over for dinner if we had extra and they would come and we would eat and visit and play cards well into the night. He was so fun to play cards with, very feisty!! We had so many neat conversations with him about life, when he was in the war, politics, religion and, most importantly to us, parenting. Some may have looked at him in the past as old fashioned and judgemental but we got such a different view of him. He knew his bible and didn't compromised his views for anyone. Yes, there were some that didn't like that but he knew what he stood for and I believe he'll have some crowns in heaven for some of those things. He helped us have a view that no matter what, our kids come first after God and each other. He was willing to give what he had to make sure his kids had everything God wanted for their lives and we hope to follow his example no matter what God might ask of us. We will forever be thankful to God for placing this man in our lives.

We'll miss you greatly Grandpa! Thank you for everything!

PS - stay tuned the next few days, I have a lot to post!

Emma's new bike!

Since Emma has learned to ride her bike without training wheels she has been asking us for a new one. She really did need one because as the Hamstras go, they grow out of everything right about the time they can use it :)

Emma;s grandma GG and her Aunt Debbie gave her some money for her preschool graduation (spoilers!!!) so we told her she could use that and then we would make up the difference and get her the new bike. My friend Jenni taught me that its good to shop walmart.com and have it shipped site to store, which is free, and then you can make sure they have it and at the online price. We did this and it worked out great!! Thanks Jenni!!

Anyway, she really wanted this new Barbie bike that is out that has a little seat for the barbie to ride on your handlebars but the thing is $80!!! Not happening!! So we found this one that also came with a new helmet and knee pads that we needed for $50. We thought we'd snatch that deal up!! I can't believe how expensive they can be!

AMANDA!!!!!

One of my besties, Amanda, came to visit this past weekend. She's been so great about visiting for the weekends even when we still lived with Jack's parents. This was the first time she visited since we've had our own house. She was excited that she didn't have to sleep in the princess bed this time in Emma's room. Little did she know that the little princess would have to sleep with her! Emma had gotten used to rooming with Amanda when she visited and so Manda let her sleep with her. She's such a softy for Emma!!


She also tried to show Emma how to hold a frog. Em tried but it kept hopping away.


Manda also tried to see if this frog was her long awaited prince....... well at least it didn't pee on her :)



One of my and Manda's must do activities is making balls. Oreo cheesecake balls that is. It always proves to be a time of lots of laughs and then afterward we sit around, watch our Friends DVDs and get fat.