4 down, 1 to go...

I didn't want to say anything for a couple weeks in case he regressed, but I think we can officially declare Jonah potty trained! He is a bit later than the other boys, but at least he made it before his 3rd birthday.

Here he is with his friend Grace. They have been "paired up" since they were born, but it's so cute to finally see them actually play together and talk to each other.

And We're Back

We had so much fun this weekend. I feel like I could of handled another day or two of camping, but I guess it's better to leave feeling that way than staying too long and feeling like I never want to go again. The reunion was wonderful as always. Here is a super condensed version of the fun.

Here is Sadie with some cousins. It's too bad she won't go to anybody because these girls would of been happy to take care of her the whole weekend if she would of let them.


Every year they do a balloon release ceremony in remembrance of those family members we have lost. It's a really neat tradition.


Of course there was a nonstop campfire.


And you can't call it camping without s'mores.


On the way home we went to Mackinac Island. It's a really cool island that doesn't allow cars so all transportation is horses, bikes or feet. We haven't been there since we moved down here. Of course the ferry ride to and from the island was the highlight.


Now it's time to go wash the campfire smoke from our laundry!

Camping

Tomorrow we head off for our annual camping trip/family reunion. We look forward to it all year and it's always a great time. The boys have been counting down for weeks now and they are chomping on the bit.

I have a lot to do yet before we go. Oh yeah, I will try not to forget our food this year!

Bumper Sticker Cont....

A couple of you have asked for my thoughts on the bumper sticker. Not that I wasn't going to share them anyway ;)

Jeremiah actually bought this bumper sticker and put it on our car. Obviously, he likes it. It is supposed to be a snarky/sarcastic message against McCain. I don't like it for the following reasons:

1. I think somebody could easily think the bumper sticker says we feel that McCain will fix those problems in our country.
2. Whoever "gets it" might think that we support Obama. We don't.
3. Maybe it would be funnier if the three issues were specific to McCain. Granted, he is more hawkish on war, but debt and amnesty? Compared to Obama, those would probably be his strong points.

Opinions Please...

Jeremiah and I disagree about this bumper sticker, not the candidate, the bumper sticker. If you saw this on somebody's car, would you think they were for or against McCain?

Oops....

• I let a week go by between updates. Lately, there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day.
• Is anybody else awaiting the release of Breaking Dawn? Also, has anybody ever pre-ordered a book? Does it ship on the release date, or arrive on the release date?
  
• Is anybody watching Project Runway? Where was the creativity last night?
  
• It's the middle of July already. Time to sit down and decide what we need in the way of school supplies since the sales are starting already.
• Baking soda works great to get marks off your wall. Just pour some on a damp cloth and scrub. It's about as abrasive as a magic eraser, but much cheaper.
  
• Last week I overheard somebody on CNN say "This congress has a what...9% approval rating? 9%! The flu has a better approval rating than that". I'm not sure who said it, but I would like to thank him for the laugh.
• My ongoing project right now is to organize my sewing area. It's a complicated area.

Look Who's Walking

Sadie had the slowest transition to walking! The boys all started walking as soon as they could take steps. Sadie took her first steps months ago and just kept adding another step every couple days but still preferred crawling. Now she is walking everywhere. I had been waiting to see her walk in her little Southern Belle dress.



Of course you can see she was walking to the treadmill so she could get her exercise in. At least that's one good example I'm setting for her.

Bowling and Beach Babies

For the third year now we took advantage of special Cherry Festival bowling rates. It was worth it just to see Jonah bowling, he cracked us up.









Sadie went swimming for the first time today. I didn't expect her to actually go in the water, I just wanted to get some pictures of her in her little swimming suit (she has two more she has to model yet). However, she went right in and LOVED it.

Independence Day

My Yankee Doodle Dandies:

Bookcase

It all started a few weeks ago when I was browsing my archives. I came across this post from two years ago and couldn't believe how nice and neat my bakers rack was. I wanted it to look like that again! That bakers rack had become our school book shelf and held all the books that we are currently using (which happens to be a lot).

I decided that if I wanted to reclaim the bakers rack, we needed a new bookcase. I found this one at Sam's Club a while ago, but Monday was the first day Jeremiah was able to take the seats out of the van to get it. I spent all afternoon putting it together (and still have a few things left to do). We also anchored it to the wall so it can't tip over. I really like it, and I love that it takes up a whole wall so I don't have to worry about decorating that wall!