Joey's pictures

So I started feeling a little neglectful for not having Joey's picture professionally done. The poor little guy has only had his newborn pictures taken professional and thats it. So I finally got him up to Sears to have them taken. These are almost his nine month old pictures. I think he was getting tired because he was just wanting to stare and not much into smiling. Hopefully we will get them done again before he turns one. Here is a sample of the pictures they did.

apple, peach, and blackberry picking.

While we were camping at Pere Marquette over Labor Day weekend, we decided to spend Saturday apple, peach, and blackberry picking. Not very often do you get to take advantage of picking everything, but since it was all available why not?! The kids had a great time picking and sampling all the fresh fruit. Here the kids are on the wagon getting ready to head off to the orchards. Our first stop was apple picking. It was honey crisp apples which are a very crisp apple and great to eat. Here is a picture of Kaitlyn picking some.

Here is the picky Adriana picking some. She had to stop and exam every piece of fruit she picked to make sure it was perfect. You can bet I was eating the apples from her bag :)

Andrew on the other hand was not too picky about what he chose. If it came off the tree, it went into his bag. Or else his mouth. I think he ate more than he actually kept. It was a great way to get him to eat a healthy lunch at least.

Here is Jacob picking some of the apples as well.

Here is the kids waiting for the tractor to come get us so we can head to back. Aren't they the sweetest little hitch hikers you ever saw?!

Here they were trying to look like a spider with eight legs. Well it was close at least...hehehe

Here is Joey eating one of the peaches. Boy did he love all the peaches and tomatoes.....both he and mommy were a sticky mess by the end.

Loaded up on the wagon with all of our apples and peaches getting ready to head back to do some blackberry picking.

Adriana picking some blackberries.

Apparently blackberries are a favorite for Andrew since he definitely ate more than he picked. I guess momma should be trying more fruit for him.

Just a cute picture of Andrew and Joey. It was a great time picking and I think all the kids had a lot of fun! We will definitely be doing some more picking this fall!

Camping with Sunny!

This weekend we finally got up the courage to try to take Sunny camping with us. She has not been camping since last year when she was a little more controllable, but we thought we would give it a try. She actually did great and was probably the best one! She was in heaven too! She loved all the walks she got to take and of course all the attention she got from all the strangers wanting to come up and pet her. I think she has officially earned herself a spot on the campouts! Here is a few pictures of her.
This is her and Joey just lounging in the shade. Here Sunny is lending Joey a hand as he tries to climb on her.

Joey and Sunny.

Here is Andrew taking Sunny for a walk (although I'm not sure she is listening to well to him).
And finally here is Sunny just enjoying some time to herself in the shade.

Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!

Friday was my niece's 13th birthday. She came camping with us over the weekend where we got to celebrate the big day. Its hard to believe little BooBoo Bear is already 13! It seems like yesterday she was just Adriana's size. Time goes by so fast! I hope you had a great birthday Kaitlyn!!!!

Marley and Me

My mother in law read this book called "Marley and Me" that she loved and suggested that I read it. I finally bought the book and started reading it. The book is about a yellow labrador retriever and the family that raised him. I started reading and it and was laughing so hard. I swear they were writing the book about our dog, Sunny. For those of you that haven't met Sunny yet, she is an 85 lb bundle of energy. She is our crazy "horse" as we like to call her. I'm only half way through the book, but it was so nice reading that we are not the only ones who have a juvenile delinquent for a dog. For anyone who has a large puppy and a sense of humor, I highly suggest this book. I haven't read the whole thing yet, I hear the ending is very sad. But what I've read so far, which is over half, it is one of the best books I've read in a long time. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Partly because the book is so funny, and partly because I can't help but picturing Sunny everytime I read it. I even have Chris reading it and he is hooked as well. We spend our spare time fighting over who gets to read it next. Then we laugh out loud together as we compare it to our Sunny. It really makes me appreciate her a little more.

Joey

I felt bad that Joey seems to be missing from a lot of my post, mainly because he is so little and I'm carring him when we do things. So for this I decided to make Joey his own little post. Here is all the big and cute things Joey does.
Joey has been feeding himself finger foods for awhile now, but he has also began feeding himself with a spoon. Yes he is a very messy eater and creates so many more messes for mommy to clean up, but look how much fun it is! And boy does this little guy love to eat!
And here is a couple of sweet little pictures I really had no where else to put. Here he is being the sweetest little sleeper! Its pictures like this that make me sad that this will be our last baby :(

Playing in the rain

What better way to spend a warm rainy afternoon than to go out and play in it. The kids were getting so tired of being stuck inside so mommy finally decided to let them go out and play. And play they did, they had so much fun jumping in the puddles and playing in the water.

Here is a picture of Andrew pretending to be a fireman. Not that we really need the water on when we are already getting soaked from the rain, but he needed to put the fire out!

Here Andrew is trying to see if he can catch some of the rain on his tongue. Not quite sure how that worked out for him.

I could only find one of our umbrellas so they had to share it. I don't know, but I think Andrew is getting the bad end of the deal.
Look at all the fun puddles to jump in, and best of all mommy's not even yelling at us!

Camping at Carlyle

This weekend we went back to Carlyle Lake to go camping (this is one of favorite camping spots). We took my niece and nephew also with us. The kids all had a blast. We got down there Friday evening and the kids spent a lot of time running around and playing. On Sat. morning the kids all went down and saw a snake show put on by a man from Conservation. Adriana made him well aware that she didn't like snakes. He bet her he would have her touching a snake by the end of the show, but he was wrong. My little girly girl still wanted nothing to do with it. Jacob was holding it by the end and we even got Chris to touch one. We were going to do a nature hike they had scheduled, but it was really humid there so we spent the best part of the afternoon in the pool. We ended the night with making smores, a camping favorite. Then of course had to head home on Sunday which is my kids least favorite and they love to express that. Here is some pictures from the weekend. The first two are of the kids playing baseball by the camper. We parked next to the playground which also had a huge open area where the kids could run around and play. Here is a picture of Adriana and Jacob patiently waiting for the snake show to begin.
Here is the guy from the conservation department showing one of the snakes he has.
Here he is bringing the snake over to Adriana. As you can see he is loosing the bet, she is definitely not going to touch it. You can see the crowd of people watching her to see if she will touch it.

Jacob was the brave one and touched both snakes he had.

Chris, who is terrified of snakes, even sucked it up and touched the snake. Andrew wasn't too sure about it and preferred just to watch daddy do it. Jacob got even braver and decided he would actually hold the snake. This is a black rat snake (I think). Its the snake that will typically live in an old barn or garage. It lives off of eating mice.
Even Joey was brave enough to touch the snake. I take that back, the snake was brave enough to let Joey touch it :) I think if Joey would have had his way he would have been trying to eat it!
Here is all the kids piled on a chair playing a game that Kaitlyn had. Isn't so sweet how they all get along so well!!!!

Here is all the kids piled onto the bunk beds. No, this wasn't exactly how the all slept!
And here is Joey enjoying some of the toys outside. He did get to have a little fun over the weekend.