I've been busy posting tonight!

For those of you who still check the blog, I really am sorry that I am so bad at posting new posts. I have tried to catch you up a bit with what we have been up to and have added lots of new pictures. I hope that you enjoy!

Winter Wonderland

This whole week Holland has been beautiful. Snow started falling Sunday night, and it has pretty much snowed everyday since then. I hope that it stays, but I know that it will not. Everyday Anna and Elijah have gone outside to romp in the snow or is it to eat the snow... Rachel does not like snow... she is scared of it falling on her face--it is pretty heavy, and of the boots that are necessary to go play in the snow. She starts crying and fighting the boots when she sees them come out. Needless to say, Rachel only joined the "fun" the first day--the rest of the days she has been inside with me, taking care of her baby. Notice all of the leaves on the snow. Because of the warm weather, our trees in the back did not drop their leaves until after the snow fell--nice.

Chicago

This past weekend, Ryan and I went to Chicago to visit my sister Heather and brother-in-law Dave. We had a wonderful time touring the city with the experts. They live and work/study downtown so we were able to tour the city in true Chicagoan :) style. Along with seeing a lot of the normal sights, they took us to a really fun Greek restaurant and then to Comedy Sports, an improv comedy club that was hilarious. Thanks Heather and Dave for a great weekend! (Thank you also for the awesome car you sold us!--God provided just in time. Ryan has been riding his bike to work and the day after we returned from getting the car, we had quite a bit of snow on the ground. God is awesome, isn't He?)

Iceman Cometh

My 2 heroes--Ryan and our brother-in-law, Ryan successfully raced in the Iceman Cometh, a 27 mile mountain bike race from Kalkaska, MI to Traverse City, MI. Although they both said it was awful, they are both eager to sign up again for next years race... I told you they were my heroes.

The morning after the race, we woke up to...

It was so amazingly beautiful! What a gift from God to be up north for my first MI snow in a while! Everyone had so much fun in the snow even without snow pants and winter boots. Thank goodness for hot cocoa!

I think these next pictures are really funny. Can you tell that Rachel LOVES baby Patrick? I felt so bad for him--he could not get away from her the whole weekend. The one picture where her hands are off of him took many tries to take.

Those of you who have babies that we will be seeing over the holidays--all I can say is, watch out for the baby magnet!

Ferocious Tigers Meet Sweet Dutch Dancers

This year we went trick or treating with our great friends, the Hazards. Elijah does not enjoy the holiday other than really being able to be a tiger. He was talking about his costume all day and couldn't wait to get the paint on until I was putting it on, and then couldn't wait for me to be done. Last year and this, he did not want to be part of the trick or treating--honestly, I don't blame him--going up to strangers' homes that have huge spiders on their doors and are dressed up like scary people does not sound too fun. He didn't even care that he didn't get the candy--poor guy! The other kids loved trick or treating and then they all had a blast playing together after we got back to the house. Fortunately (for me) we left the face paint at the Hazard's house so Elijah has had to be a tiger without the orange face.

Loving the Fall

We have enjoyed all of the traditional fall activities in Michigan... picking apples, a hay ride, raking and jumping in leaves, hiking in the woods, and carving pumpkins. It really has been a perfect fall.

Some New Pictures

Friends

Anna was able to have her good friend Abbi over to spend the night. They had such a fun time playing with paper dolls, dancing,... just doing girl stuff. Poor Elijah, who is a great sport, was pulled into some of it. He was the prince and did exactly as the girls told him--danced the right way and gave them each flowers after being instructed of what color and how many to give each. What a fun night!













Over Labor Day we were able to see our good friends, Ryan and Missy, and meet their adorable son, Joshua Ryan. It had been WAY too long since we had seen them last. It was so good to catch up, snuggle their little guy, play games, and just enjoy each other's company again. WE LOVE YOU RYAN, MISSY, AND JOSHUA RYAN!

Need some funny?

From Noel's sight...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBghD0XBN5M

4-Wheelin', Fishin', and Fun

We had a great visit with Papa and Gramma Bowman up at the cabin a couple weeks back. The highlight for the kids (and Ryan) was riding the quads. Everyone got to do some serious off-roading. I wish we had gotten some video of Aimee whipping through the woods at break neck speed but I was afraid of loosening my white knuckle grip on the bar ends. There was also a lot of fishing including "the one that got away".

Here are a few pictures.