The "Minnie" Winnie trip to Holland....success!

Our (borrowed from Don's Uncle) "Minnie" Winnie!!

The Pier at Lake Michigan....

The "Barbie Mobile"

The Beach Day...

Well, we had our first annual Holland camping trip with The Barczak's, The Collin's, The Dawson's, and The Howard's.... it was a complete success!! I was a little hesitant with the idea of camping, the dirt, the bugs, the bathrooms, just the whole "idea" of camping scared me a little. But, I will be the first to say I was WRONG, the whole entire weekend was way too much fun and really flew by with a quickness! Don and I both said on the way home from the trip that we actually wished we would have stayed another night...made it a 3 night weekend instead of just a 2 day weekend, so to say the least the trip was a success! Great friends and great memories...what more could we ask for.?

Some of my favorite parts of the trip included:

• Watching Donnie and all the little kids running around wild, but yet still listening and on good behavior for the most part (now if we could only get P's swearing under control! Damnit! LOL!
  
  
• Eating breakfasts and dinners outdoors...it was nice to all sit down together and have one big "family" dinner altogether
  
• The relaxation of being outdoors and watching a crackling fire at night
  
• But, of course, roasting marshmallows and making smores.....
  
• Conversation over the campfire after all the little chicklins' went to bed.... our "boss" time & staying up waaaay to late! Including: "getting some strange" ... needing to "activate" myself ... labor and delivery stories...since 3 of the 5 girls are preggers, again ... "Purple Twinkies"... Lumen Christi bashing...."Go Titans"... DNR coming over to tell us to quiet down ... Zofran meds. and constipation problems ... the list goes on...
  
• Watching Grace and Nolan walking around with their fingers embedded up their nose.... one of their favorite past times.... pickin' their nose :)
  
• Donnie, Porter, and Lukas riding/running themselves ragged around the "circle" by our campsite.... then pushing each other, fighting over a bike, swearing or biting each other, and then once again having a grande ol' time together... boys, go figure
  
• Reyna spraying everything in sight with a water bottle from the dollar store, and calling Ryan B. "John" all weekend LOL!!
  
• Watching Don (aka: the baby whisperer) with all the kids .... "just lovin' em'"
  
• The Beach Day ..... what more do I need to say, Lake Michigan and fun in the sun
  
• The kids obsession with Grace's Barbie Mobile
  

Lot's of great memories... All my worries about the weekend and it turned out to be a blast! Can't wait for our next camping trip.... (wait, did I just say that?? I can't believe it!)

Where did the time go?? Seriously!

Feeling old and sentimental! Today I went to the open house of a little boy who my Mom used to do daycare for... we were their neighbors, as well as, turning into great family friends with them along the way. My Mom watched Matthew (Matt as his friends call him now) since he was 3 months old. 3 months! I remember coming home from school holding him on my lap and playing with him until his Mom came to pick him up, she was a school teacher, so I remember having to come home right away & get my play time in before he left. He also had an older sister Sara who my Mom also watched. These kids were practically like my siblings, my Mom used to take them to our sporting events, Dr.'s appt's when there parents were working, birthday parties, etc.... they were always around like part of our family.

So, today I went to his Graduation party from High School....and he is SO big! SO grown-up. He's off to Michigan State next year, he has a girlfriend, and he's SO mature, he's becoming a young man. I do have to brag and say these kids are turning into great young adults .... respectful, determined, kind, ambitious, all around good kids! I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea they are both going to be in College. Sara soon will be applying to Medical School's next winter, Matt's going to the College of Engineering at MSU, I couldn't be happier for these two, they both are fabulous kids and deserve all these great opportunities....hopefully, mine can turn out half as good as these two have. But, at any rate I was sitting at this open-house staring at Matthew thinking where in the world did time go?? Not long ago he was a little boy, Donnie's age running around just like Donnie was at his graduation party today.... it made me sad to think of "where did the time go" seriously!? It was like life happened and passed me by in blink of an eye! Of course, I'm very happy for him and the way his life is unfolding thus far, I just wish I could go back to those days sometimes...relive those great memories and cherish them more.

Maybe it's my hormones.... or the fact that I'm just turning into an old sentimental sap! Good Lord I don't wanna see what I'll be like when my own children go off to College. Who knows maybe by then I'll be pushing their little a$$es out the door?! LOL ;)

A whole lotta....stuff

Well, a whole lotta to update & keep tabs on (for memories sake of course)...

• Went to Dr. F's the other day.... my official Due Date is Jan. 25th! My birthday is Jan. 30th, Donnie's is Jan. 11, so this little one will join in on our January family Birthdays :)



• Have you ever checked this out.... a friend sent me the link the other day, just for curiosity and fun, of course. But, it is kinda strange that it was right with both my boys, I wonder if it'll be right this time?? Have you ever tried it, was it accurate for you or way off??



• Feeling half-way decent, with a few queasy moments just today, but completely tolerable at that, thus far this pregnancy. Knock on wood, and I'm sure I'm totally jinxing myself right now.... but, I am about 6-6 1/2 weeks along, this is when it ALL went down hill with my first two pregnancies. So, I'm hoping maybe I'll just get through this one with some queasy moments, but not the full fledged puking bouts...*fingers crossed*, ahhhhh that would be too good to be true, if you ask me.



• Going camping in a few weeks in Holland....we'll see how that goes. We've got a 38 ft. Winnebago named "Minnie" that we'll be cruisin' in! hehe! Yup, that's totally my idea of camping.... a bed and a pillow to rest my head, a non-communal toilet to do my business on, and the luxury of getting away from the mosquitoes and bugs in something other than mesh lining.... LOL!! I sound like a true camper don't I?? Anywho, I'm actually looking forward to the Minnie trip, I think the boys are going to have a complete blast! And the other families going are a lot of fun! Good times ahead, good times.

• The boys... ayi-yi-yi, are these two BOYS... Neither of them can get enough of the great outdoors (hence, why they'll love camping), they both through a fit when we have to come in doors for the night; Nolan loves to eat dirt and sand from the sand box; Donnie's always on the look out for toads and caterpillars... he even names them "Toad" and "Taterpillar" he's original, what can I say; Nolan is turning into a little crazy man... he's runnin' around the house throwing himself into or onto things, like he's some WWF wrestler, furniture or on the floor mostly soft spots of course, but he does have a few bumps on his head from crash landings onto the wood floor or hitting the arm of a wood chair.... and then he laughs, he's a mad man I tell ya, MAD! Donnie's a little monkey himself.... climbing, jumping, growling, lately he's either Spiderman or a Ninja or a Dinosaur, *funny story* we went out to dinner at the Outback one night last week with a friend of mine from work, her boys, and her sister (a preschool teacher) and the entire night Donnie wasn't Donnie he was a T-Rex, Karen (the preschool teacher) would ask him a question and he would say "Rrrrooaaar" or he would put his arms up to his chest, arch his back, and make this strange squeally noise "eeeeeek", I really wanted him to just act normal for the evening to see what a nice little 3 yr. old boy I had, but Donnie had other things in store....remember Donnie was a T-Rex at this point... the more the boys laughed the more Donnie would do his impersonation of a T-Rex, ohhhhh the joys of having boys!

• So ready for the next 3 days to be here and gone... Friday is our last day before summer break!! YAY! "School's out for summer"

• Ummmm yeah .... 3 yrs. old is just too early for an organized sport, Nolan won't be playing soccer at 3. Don't get me wrong Donnie's having fun, I think, but what's the point at this age?? I guess I'm just not that into it right now.

* Can't think of much else right now, I'm a little pooped tonight I need to lay down. Night.*