Darby says, "VIKE IT, strawberries!" (translation: "I like strawberries!")

Shopping with mom....last but not least!

First grade...big stuff. We're going shopping!

This sweet girl is so tolerable of me always handing over her sisters hand-me-downs. This time, we're getting whatever pair she wants! Like'em??

Snack? No, she didn't want Starbucks, or a pretzel, or a slurpee...she wanted to do THIS the entire time:Gotta love those revolving doors.

She saw this shirt and said "Mom, I have to get this, because then I will look like Crisilee." So dang sweet, I had to get it...and Crisilee didn't care one bit that her little sister wanted to match!

Oh yeah, we're stylin. We've got the Hannah Montana backpack, and the HSM lunchbox...yeah..we're ready for 1st grade.

Summer Happenings....the end.

Our final trip with Chris this summer was to some cities in Northern Michigan. We stopped in Gaylord, Cadillac, and Mackinac City. We went to waterparks, fed birds, took the ferry to Mackinac Island and stayed in lots of fun hotels. It was a great way to end summer.

Shopping with mom....part two.

Crisilee's turn! We had such a fun morning together. I can't believe this is her last year in elementary school. It seems like just yesterday, when I walked her into kindergarten seeing all those big 5th graders walking by. I thought "I have soooo much time until Crisilee is to that point" and now...she's there!

The shoes....

The coffee break.....

THE outfit.....

But wait! There's more! Crisilee was lucky enough to be taken out school shopping by her wonderful Grandma and Grandpa Andrix, as an early birthday present. They took her to the cadillac of all stores: "LIMITED TOO". OH MY WORD!!!!!

The fashion show.....

Is she gorgeous or what?

More Summer Happenings

Yeah! Another trip with dad! We love his job. It's fun to tag along. This time it was to Ludington, a city known for all it's beaches...very beautiful area.

Chris tries to make us coming along with him as special as possible, because sometimes we are without him the entire day, and even hotel living can get alittle boring. You can only swim so much. This time he surprised us by taking us to a hotel that had a huge waterslide AND our room was actually a mini-apartment, complete with a kitchen, living room and two bedrooms! Thanks daddio!

TV is a huge treat on trips like this. I limit it at home, but when we're on vacations, all bets are off. These girls are GLUED. So after settling in to our room, Chris asked where the channel guide was, so we knew where to find what shows. In a flash, the girls came out of their bedroom (they had their own tv!) saying, "we have it!! we have the channel guide!"



And I thought I was getting the real deal. It was hysterically funny.


See that pier way out there? We walked all the way to it and back. Beautiful place.







On our way home, we stopped by the dunes at Silver Lake, and I couldn't stop thinking about how beautiful Gods creations are. It looked like we were in a desert.

We jammed on "V GROUND"

This past weekend, we surprised our three older daughters by taking them to see Vanessa Hudgens...a.k.a "Gabriella from High School Musical" in concert. We were just 13 rows back, center. She was such a fun performer! It helped that for a few months beforehand, I played her new album over and over again. The girls had no clue why I was doing that so much! It was neat to see them mouthing the words to her songs all night long.

Lately I've had a hard time with my girls getting older. I have been hanging on to Darby's "baby-ness" for dear life! (and she's almost 3...hardly a baby anymore) But after this night, I realized that it's going to be ok...these ladies growing up. Because we are right there with them, growing with them. And now we get to do fun stuff like this! Concerts! I can't believe we're moving on to another stage of life...and it's not as bad as I thought it would be!

Here we are right before she came on. We had been waiting a loooooong time and were starting to get alittle restless and wild. I will have ask you to excuse the extreme closeup of our Sophie who, when looking at her in this picture, I know what she's going to look like when she's 95. She just looks like an old woman to me!!

LET'S DANCE!!

My sister....the rock star

Last night we went to the Lansing Jazz Fest.

Yep, that's my sister. She's in a BAND!

Her biggest fans were in the very front row, complete with special V.I.P passes!

She is so awesome. I am so proud of her. Scroll down, turn off my music and take a listen to hers:

And we thought she could ONLY sing and play the piano! Love you Heather!