Five on Friday!

1. For some odd reason, I have always sat on my kitchen counters! I don't know why, it's just something I've done in every house we have lived in. I usually sit on the counter when I'm in the kitchen talking to someone or if I'm on the phone or whatever!  Anyway, my two youngest were on the kitchen counter this week and I just had to laugh!

2. I made my first apple pie in a long time today!  It feels good to be doing more "fall" type stuff again!  In AZ it was always so hot in September/October that I didn't do my typical MI fall type stuff. 

I told Chris I don't think I've made an apple pie since we lived in MI which was about 3 years ago!

3. The fall colors here are just beautiful right now!  I love looking out my windows and seeing all the pretty fall colors!  It's nice to live in trees/woods again!

4. We got a trampoline!  It was mine when I was little and we figured out it is about 20 years old!  But it is still going strong and the kids are loving it!

5. I had my first Psychology exam this week!  So glad I got that under my belt! Now to wait to see how I actually did on it.

Scenes from our house!

The fall weather has been beautiful lately and we have enjoyed being outdoors!  Here are just some random pictures from the past week or so around our house!

The kids LOVE being pulled around the property by Dad!  

And I think Dad likes pulling them around!  Right now we are living on three acres of beautiful wooded property so it's been a lot of fun outdoors!

Broedy riding his bike! The kids have been doing a lot of bike riding!

The crew!

We've been having campfires in the backyard as well! 

Our backyard! The color is BEAUTIFUL and we have a ton of maple trees in the yard!  This one if my favorite right now and what I get to look out my back windows at every day!

The kids have discovered the fun of jumping in leaf piles! 

This has been a daily thing around here! 

They rake up a leaf pile and them spend hours jumping and playing in it!

Raelyn in the leaf pile!

Myles!

My wild, crazy, cute, fall loving kids!

Ludington State Park

 Today we took a ride up to one of my favorite state parks in the area!  Ludington State Park!  The fall colors are beautiful right now and so we took the drive, did some hiking and had lunch up there!

Standing on the dam looking over the river!

Standing on the dam looking over the lake!

My Dad, Myles, Adalyn & Chris watching the fisherman.

The salmon are just starting to head up stream and so there were a ton of fisherman fishing. 

It was fun to watch them all!

Throwing rocks in the river!

Looking into the river to see if they could find fish.

Looking for more fish!

Myles, Raelyn, Adalyn and Grandpa

Raelyn, Grandpa, Adalyn and Grandma

My kids in a tree!

At one point Broedy kicked a ball way up into a tree and after many attempts at getting the kids to climb the tree to get it out, I finally had to show them how it was done!  Yes! I climbed the tree and got the ball down!  The kids were impressed that Mom knew how to climb trees!

My princess!  Miss Raelyn!

Eating Lunch and listening to the MI vs. MSU Game on the car radio!

Grandma and Adalyn

Grandpa and Adalyn

Ten on Thursday!

Usually I do Five on Friday, but it's been a busy week and I have more than five things to write so I'll do a T on T today!

1. We moved into a house a week ago!  It's been nice to get out of the camper but this living out of boxes is getting old!  Hopefully we will be settled very soon!

2. We don't have a washer or dryer right now in this house and it's driving me insane!  Our dryer is electric and it's a gas hook-up. Hopefully we (or Chris) can get this figured out soon so I can do laundry again!

3. I've been doing the Couch to 5K program for the past 5 weeks!  I ran 20 minutes straight last night and actually enjoyed it!  I'm still amazed that I'm enjoying running! Can't wait to get out there again tonight and run!

4. Chris had an interview this week for an adult education teaching position. Praying hard that he gets good news soon about the job or that something else comes along for him.

5. I'm still LOVING my job!  I'm so blessed to be working with great people in a great environment!

6. I have GREAT friends!  I've always known that but this week I was proven once again how blessed I have to be surrounded by people that love me!  

7. Got sixlets in the mail this week from my friend in TN!  I love these and she knows it!  Made my day to open up a package with a snowsuit for one of my kids and sixlets!

8. I also had flowers delivered to me this week at work by my cousin!  So happy to have her back in my day to day life!  I have these sitting on my kitchen table and I smile every time I walk by them!

9.  We lost our dog Ozzie last week. Thank Goodness that we got her back safe and sound. I was fearing the worst and I'm so glad it turned out just fine!

10. Raelyn is going to a birthday party this weekend!  Makes me happy that she has made friends so quickly and has adjusted so well with us moving back to Michigan!

High School Weekend!

This past weekend one of my friends from High School got married!  Some of my best friends from High School and I decided to go away for the weekend to attend the wedding!  It was a blast!  Let me just say that I had the best friends in High School and I still do!  We picked up like no time had gone by and it was a fabulous weekend catching up, laughing, having deep conversations and just having fun together!  It's amazing to me how God puts these people in my life just when I need them!

Emily and April at the Reception!

Angela, Emily and April at the Reception!

Me and Kristy at the Reception!

Waiting for dinner to start!

Cleaning up our mess from the peanut shells!  We were hungry and basically inhaled the peanuts while we were waiting for dinner to start!

Fun Stuff!  We were sweeping the shells under the tablecloth!

Miriam, the beautiful Bride!

The single ladies waiting for Miriam to throw the bouquet!  Don't they look thrilled!?!?

Kristy, April, Me, Miriam, Emily and Angela

Great Friends!  Great Times!

Angela and Emily being goofy!

Kristy and I

Emily, Angela and April!

Miriam and her new husband, Brian

Being goofy!  Angela and April

Starting back up an old tradition!

Today we went to Klackle Orchard!  Chris and I started going to Klackle 11 years ago before we even had kids! It was a yearly tradition until we moved to Arizona and I have missed Klackle! Every year in the fall I would say to Chris, I just want a carmel apple from Klackle, I wonder if they would mail me one.  

I was very excited to once again be able to start this tradition back up!  Today we loaded up and headed to the Orchard!

We had donuts when we got there!  The Carmel Apple donuts rock and the pumpkin cream cheese ones aren't too bad either!

Then we headed out to do all the fun stuff!

Myles and I on the obstacle course!

The kids and I on the barrel train ride!

Broedy

Myles

Then we headed over to the bike course!  Broedy loves these!

The girls watching the guys!

Chris and Myles

We then headed out to get apples! We ended up running into Chris's younger brother, Chad and his girlfriend and all the kids which was fun! We picked apples with them!

The whole crew on the apple wagon!

Myles

Looking for apples!

Adalyn got an apple and wouldn't put it down!

Raelyn filling up  her apple bag!

Chris was shoving apples in his front pocket!

Raelyn getting the apples up high!

Our  niece, Sydney!

Adalyn and her apple!

"Look Mom!"

Myles showing me his apples!

Broedy taking a break to eat an apple!

My four kids!

Aren't they cute!?!?

Can you find me and Myles?

Uncle Chad

Chris

Me picking apples!

Me and the kids!

Picking more apples!

Kristie and Adalyn

Uncle Chad again!

Chris

Me and Adalyn

Adalyn going through the corn maze!

Myles, Raelyn, Syndey and Adalyn in the corn maze!

Myles loved the flag! We took them through the corn maze so we could see the kids as they were running ahead of us!

The kids in the corn maze again!

Adalyn, Me and Myles

My princess!

Broedy and Madison in the pumpkin!

Sydney and Adalyn

After the corn maze, we went and checked out the apple launching place! It had all these bulls eyes you could launch apples at!  We decided it looked like fun!

  Broedy had an apple come back at him when he was launching it and he got mud all over him. Me being the caring, compassionate Mom that I am....I took his picture and laughed instead of helping him get the dirt out of his eyes!

Broedy launching an apple!

Myles gives it a try!

Uncle Chad's turn!

I even gave it a try!

Madison's turn!

Chris helping Adalyn!

After apple launching was over, we went and took a ride on the enchanted pumpkins!

Broedy, Me, Adalyn and Raelyn

This is what the pumpkin we rode in looked like!

Then we headed over to ride on the firetruck!

 

Myles, Raelyn and Me

Broedy rode on the very back of the firetruck!

We then headed into the store to stock up on carmel apples for me and donuts and cider!  

I won't tell you how many carmel apples we came home with!  

Me and my carmel apple after I got the kids in bed!  They are just as good as I remember them to be!

Being Goofy!

Yum! 

It was a GREAT day and I'm so glad we can start this tradition of heading to the Orchard every fall!