Family Reunion

This past weekend we headed to Indiana for a family reunion. This is not just any family reunion, we make an entire weekend out of it and about 30+ people sleep in one cottage. We meet at my grandparents cottage on the lake, something that I have been doing every third weekend in July for my entire life and it never gets old. Now my children and husband are developing some great memories there and look forward to going every year with me. It is a whirlwind of a weekend as you can imagine with 30+ people under one roof, but that is what makes it memorable. Now that we are growing up and having families of our own, the place still manages to hold all of us, even if some have to sleep on that couch. It was a great time and the kids had a blast on this enormous water slide that goes right into the lake. Ethan who is rather shy, did not hesitate at all and was on that slide most of the weekend. Great times - until next year.....

Privacy

The popularity of this blog (thank you to everyone who visits) has led us to realize that it is time to address the privacy of our family. There is a lot of personal information on here, our entire lives and the pictures and names of all our friends and family members including pretty much everything we have done for the last 4 years.

We decided that we probably shouldn't make this information available to everyone who googles our last name (given Jim's profession). So, in 30 days or so we will be password protecting this blog which means that we need to input the email addresses of those who wish to view it.

If you enjoy keeping up on our family via this blog, please email Laurie your email address so she can send you an invite to view the blog after it is password protected.

Laurie's email:
ljastifer@yahoo.com

Sorry for the inconvenience

Happy 4th of July!

We had a great fourth of July weekend. Now that Jim is a 3rd year resident, he does not have to work as many holidays and actually had it off! We thought it would be fun to visit some friends from college who have two children, Matt and Christopher, right around Ethan and Caleb's age. We headed down to my grandma's cottage on Friday and spent the night. We headed the rest of the way on Saturday and spent the remaining part of the weekend with John and Katie and Katie's parents, who are so much fun! We had a wonderful time and the kids enjoyed playing with each other and the adults were able to catch up and relax. It was in the 90's so we were either outside playing in the water or inside with the AC, both of which were nice. The weekend went by way too fast! Thanks for a great weekend Stein family Ethan riding the hammock with great-grandma at the cottage! The kids were pretty exhausted by the end of a fun-filled weekend!

The Farm and the Zoo

Last week I took the boys to the Kalamazoo Nature Center for playgroup. Ethan was excited to see all the animals in the barn and learn where milk comes from. They had a class for young kids called "From Moo to Milk" with a bunch of different activities, stories, face-painting, and even milking a pretend cow.
The next day the boys and I met up with my good friend Angie and her children at John Ball Zoo and spent the morning there checking out the animals. Both Ethan and Caleb did a great job and were thrilled to see all the different animals there. I was even impressed! Both kids were asleep within minutes of leaving the parking lot.

Bike Riding

Ethan has been doing a great job riding his bike. So well that now the only way to keep up with him is to ride your bike with him. We have a seat on the back of my bike for Caleb, so we have been on many family bike rides so far this summer and I am sure that there are many more to come! (Except on these 90 degree days!). Off they go...

E-T-H-A-N

Ethan really wanted to write his own name the other day. So I took him downstairs and wrote his name and then made dots underneath. I told him to "connect the dots" and I was impressed at how well he did with no help from mom - way to go Ethan!

Loving the outdoors

Look at that innocent, sand-filled face :)
The boys love their new playhouse!

Caleb enjoys splashing in his pool!

Reunion

I had a mini reunion this weekend with some of my best friends from high school! Most of us live around here and get together on a regular basis, but one of us lives all the way in Texas! It was nice to get out (thanks grandma and grandpa Jastifer for watching the boys) and catch up and laugh about old times and we had a lot to laugh about!

Loving Lowes

My 3 year old LOVES going to Lowes! They have this "Build and Grow" activity every Saturday for kids that is free. Kids get a cute apron, glasses, and some sort of kit (this week it was a car) that we get build together. Ethan enjoys hammering in the nails all by himself! We have to visit and sit on every tractor before we can leave of course, but what can I say, the kids loves Lowes - like father, like son!

Getting ready to build our car!

Finished product!Riding the tractors!

A night away...

Jim and I headed to Traverse City for a night last weekend while my mom stayed with the boys. We had a great time and it was nice to have that time together. We went wine tasting and went to a couple breweries and stayed in a hotel that was right downtown. The next morning we ate breakfast and headed home. It was short but sweet visit to a town that we never really had the chance to check out before. The boys had a great time with grandma! Thanks again mom! A few of one of the wineries that we visited....beautiful!

Happy Fathers Day!

Happy fathers day to our wonderful dad's and to Jim, the best dad imaginable for our boys! We love you!

Hooray Caleb! He is now an official walker!!

(You will have to excuse the crying in the background. We had another boy in timeout.)

Strawberry picking

Our playgroup went strawberry picking and the boys had a great time! They preferred to eat them as they picked them, or we would have had a lot more!

These boots were made for walking....

Ethan loves to wear our shoes....

Congratulations Ethan!!

Ethan is officially potty trained!! We are so proud of him and the hard work it took. He is dry during naps now and wakes up dry most mornings. Our boy is growing up....way to go Ethan, we are so proud of you!

Memorial Weekend

We had a great Memorial Day weekend! This was Jim's one holiday off this year and we took full advantage of it! We went to the zoo on Saturday with the Jackson Family and the kids had a blast! Ethan loved riding the train up to the Wild Africa exhibit and feeding the giraffes. They were both fast asleep by the time we got on the highway to go home. We just hung out the rest of the weekend - working outside with it being so nice out. We went to a parade in downtown Kalamazoo where Ethan snagged TONS of candy and the boys enjoyed checking out the animals and "big trucks with lights." Even though it rained all day on Monday, we had a nice three day weekend which we never take for granted around here!!

Happy Memorial Day!

Sporting Boeing!

My sister works for Boeing in California and bought each of us something for Christmas last year from the Boeing store. Well, we went out for dinner the other night and as Jim was walking into the restaurant he noticed that Caleb was wearing his Boeing outfit, then we realized that Jim was too, and then we looked over at Ethan and he was too! Not even planned, each of the boys were sporting their Boeing gear that Kelly bought them. Here is the picture to prove it. Thought you might get a kick out of this Kel!!:)

Splish splash I was taking a bath....