We've been keeping ourselves busy these past couple of weeks. Here are a few pictures to share...

Dylan, Hannah, & I went to the Fredrick Meijer Gardens last week Monday with Jake, Quinn, Grant, & Jayme Morren. The Bright Beginnings program through KISD had a free night with lots of programs going on. Here is Dylan playing the cowbell with the percussionist from the Grand Rapids Symphony/Orchestra (?).
Dylan and Jake are peeking out from the gate to the Children's Garden. It was a fun night! Dylan kept telling us we were at the "Meijer Fresh Gardens." What a silly kid!

Dylan loves to have me lift him up into the tree in our front yard. I'm sure this will be a great climbing tree one day!
We love to walk around the neighborhood to check out the "big machines" working. I think they are replacing some underground wiring. Don't Dylan, Hannah, & Austin look cute in the wagon? Dylan was so precious with Hannah. He kept his arm around her, gave her little kisses, and kept asking if she was OK. :)
And finally, here's a picture of our (almost finished) kitchen and shiny "new"
table. We just need to finish putting the toe kicks and shoe moldings up since I THINK our many flooring issues have been solved, then buy an over-the-range microwave. I went to Elder's Appliance last week to look for one... and ended up buying a new fridge and oven instead! :) I'm thankful for Jon's "money smarts" (and probably to his Dad, too) and our budget! And we still have money leftover in our appliance fund in case our washer and dryer give out!

Those are a few things we've been up to. Amy and Reed were up this past weekend and we had tons of fun but I only have 1 picture! Oh well! Time to go! :)

And Now for a Commercial Break...

I'm not getting any cash for this endorsement, but, hey, I loved it, so I thought I'd share...

Jon and I have become addicted to CraigsList. About 2 months ago, we found a great deal on a large oak table with 2 leaves and 6 chairs. The top was a little beat up, but what can we expect for a good used table from a family of 6?!? We bought it, thinking we'd just sand it down and refinish it. The next week, my mom was watching the Today show and saw a segment about sprucing up your old furniture. She saw a product called "Howard's Restor-A-Finish" and told me about it. Last week, I tried it out. AMAZING! I dusted off the table and chairs, poured a little of the product on steel wool, wiped the wood along the grain, buffed the extra product off, and TADA... I have a new table! All the scratches, marks, and even a red line on the tabletop are gone leaving a clean, gleaming finish! It was SO easy and so rewarding. I love my new table now!

Here's a before picture of a chair....

And the after picture...(the difference isn't as noticeable in the picture, sorry)So, if you have something to refinish, try this first! It was only $7.98 at Ivanrest Hardware or Home Depot and worth a whole lot more than that to me! I'll even let you use my leftovers to try it out!

Don't you wonder...

Each Sunday, Mrs. Deb asks for prayer requests in Dylan's church school class. The kids usually say things like "pigs", "dogs", or "bikes". Last Sunday, Dylan asked to pray for "combine harvesters that get wheat." Hmmm...

We didn't hear this until Monday so Jon asked Dylan what he prayed for in class. He still remembered! Don't you just wonder what goes on in that head?!?

Pictures...

Here are some long awaited pictures of our growing cutie pies...

Hannah loves to chew on anything... especially her toes! I'm afraid to try that. I'm sure I'd pull a few muscles. :)

Our little girl is full of smiles!

A table is for sitting ON, right? Hannah is growing up too fast! She can sit up! She's not all that steady yet, but she's working on it. She'd much rather sit that lay down. But her top half is way too heavy, so she just folds in half too quickly.
Dylan put this hat on Hannah and told me she was the loader driver.
He was the concrete truck driver... my little construction workers! Nice faces, huh? Hannah doesn't look too pleased to be driving the loader. I think she'd rather drive the excavator! :)
Dylan started packing for us... a few empty boxes (made into a tower), his jack hammer, & the tent. That's all we need, right?
We turned our heads for no less than 3 seconds and Dylan had this white patch painted on the wall. Good thing we were painting that wall anyway! :) He talks about painting with Uncle Marky all the time, I guess he really wanted to do it too!

One of those warm days in April, we headed to the John Ball Zoo. Not many animals were out, but we got a great view of the chimps! Here is my little monkey...
After the zoo, we picked up Wendy's and had a little picnic in the front yard. Dylan LOVED it! So did I! It is so good to have warm weather so that we can enjoy the outside.
Here's Hannah enjoying the picnic too...
HAPPY 5 MONTHS, HANNAH!Jon is coaching Calvin Christian's varsity baseball team again, so we've gone to just a few games. This last game, we walked over to Calvin Crest Park for a little while. Dylan loved the "sit down digger" and the "stand up digger". Good thing we can't go to any other games. We couldn't watch them anyway because all Dylan will want to do is come over to the park! Hannah enjoyed the park, and walk, too!

Dylan got a work bench and a bunch of tools from some friends at church. We usually find him in the basement "building a bird house" if he's not upstairs. Today I found these sunglasses and told him they were his safety goggles. Every time he used his saw or drill today, he needed to put them on!

Did I mention that Hannah loves to chew on everything? :)

There's a picture update of the kiddos... They are the highlights of our days, even when they're crabby! Hope we made your day a little brighter too!

We Are Alive!!!

Sorry about our blogging hiatus... especially to Amy and Michelle, who tell me they check this at least twice a day! :) We are still alive! Is moving, having 2 kiddos, and having lots of boxes all over a good excuse? Not to mention that we FINALLY got our internet? (Don't get me started on that... but I did find out that AT&T has great customer service guys that come out to your house!) Hope so!

Here's the quick update... we moved May 2 & 3 and are now in our fabulous home! We love it! I can't wait to make it home and get rid of all the boxes, but that will come. We had the Meengs Family over Sunday night for Mother's Day and we could all sit at our new table in the dining room. I loved it! That is what I wanted to be able to do...

Dylan & Hannah have adjusted well to the house. Dylan loves his new bunk bed. He wants to sleep on the top, but we told him he can't do that until he is potty trained. Maybe some incentive will help... but probably not! Hannah loves her new room too. She slept in her crib for the first time on May 3! And she slept through the night too! I'm grateful for her sleeping habits at this point, especially since Dylan has been waking up at 6:28am (on the nose) and it's been 6:10 the past 2 days! AHHH!

And since I just wrote that, then looked at the clock... it's time to go to bed! Tomorrow will come too soon. I'll update with more fun (and pictures) later this week. Glad to be back...