Family, Friends and Holiday Fun!

We have enjoyed an amazing holiday season, filled with family gatherings, sledding adventures, snowmobile rides, weekend visits from family and friends, and a trip over "the big bridge". Here are some highlights.

Our road.....winter beauty.

Just last weekend we went to Grand Rapids to celebrate Christmas with the Jones clan.
Here is our brother-in-law Jason, and our niece Alyssa.

Makalynn, Emma and Cole....Yeah for new slippers!!!

Phyllis and Great-Grandpa Weemhoff with Emma, in her new princess dress they gave her.

Emma and Brad.

The whole clan, seated for dinner, and a beautiful smile from Hallie.

Over New Years, our friends the Blyths came up to celebrate with us. Here are Emma, Eli, Ashlyn and Caleb waiting for breakfast. They all played together so well.

Caleb showed Ashlyn how to break out of her "corral".

Emma and Eli watching Reading Rainbow.

Over the holidays, Brad convinced Emma to go for her first snowmobile ride. It looks like she's not afraid of the loud snowmobile anymore.

Brad and Em, ready to head out for their ride.

Christmas weekend we spent time up at my parent's house with my sister Lindsey and brother-in-law Kyle. Here is Kyle, with our newest nephew, Luke, and the piece of pizza Emma delivered to Uncle Kyle's chest.

Lindsey and a tired puppy Luke.

Emma, wearing her new sweater over her jammies, and riding her new scooter. She was excited about all of her presents.

Our smiley little Ashlyn.....she liked the presents too.

She is so animated!!!! I just love all of her expressions.

Hmmmmm......what is that penguin looking at?

Ashlyn is all over everything.....I think she liked crawling on the presents as much as opening them.

Emma and her new princess vanity keyboard!!! She was SOOOOO excited to see what Santa had left her.

Christmas Eve......our girls ready for bed, and excited for Santa to arrive.

My dad's side of the family gets together on Christmas Eve......the last few years we have started a new tradition of theme Christmas parties. This year was a "Wild Game Feed" - we all wore camo or blaze orange, and the menu included venison, pheasant, bear, salmon, and wild turkey. It was a blast, and was over too fast, as always.

Ashlyn, smiling in her camo.

The weekend before Christmas, Brad's brother Mark and his family came up for a visit. We had so much fun, just relaxing at the house together. Here are Emma and Hallie, all tucked in for the night.

Emma and Addison.

Hot chocolate after playing outside with their dads. The girls played together so well. Our wonderful husbands even took charge of the girls long enough for Amber and I to head into town for some shopping and wine tasting!! Thanks guys!

Three pink peas-in-a-pod!

We were again showered with many gifts, shared many adventures and had a whole lot of fun. The holidays always make us step back and appreciate all of the things we take for granted most of the year. We are so thankful for each member of our family and all of our wonderful friends, near and far. God is good! and we thank him for blessing us with each of you. Love to you all!

Quick Update

Okay...so things have been a bit busy lately, and the blog has suffered. :) Here's a quick update of the past few months.

Halloween!!! Our two ladybugs!!!

Who needs candy when they are handing out money?

Helping Daddy rake.....YEAH!

"" We didn't do it."

"Look guys! I can pull myself up!"

Emma decorating the tree with her new ornament. Boy, does this girl love pink princess stuff.

Frosting the sugar cookies. What a pair!

Ashlyn and Emma, all ready for the church Christmas program.

Emma, with "Gabriel" and the rest of the multitude of heavenly hosts.....we didn't get many great shots of her in her costume that night. We were too busy watching our little angel to take pictures. :) I do have to give my mom a thank you again.....Emma's costume is a Judy E. original, first worn by ME! Thanks for saving it mom, I know two Jones girls who will get plenty of use out of it.

The Jones Family. Wow, I am so blessed!!

I'm hoping to get more photos up around Christmas, but just in case, I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Brad's First U.P. Buck!

Brad got his first UP buck this morning! He said it was a beautiful morning - very still - and this six point came right in front of him. Brad has spent a lot of time scouting, looking for areas the deer naturally travel through, and it payed off today. The girls and I went with to drag the deer out.....Emma tromping through the woods in her Hello Kitty boots, and Ashlyn on my back in the backpack. It was fun to be a part of Brad's excitement.

Exploring, Dora Style....

It was a beautiful autumn day, so Em and I decided we needed to go on an adventure, and do some exploring - just like Dora. :) We bundled Ashlyn up, put her in the backpack, and headed out into the great forest to find our adventure.....

Emma and Ashlyn, dressed and ready for anything. (Thanks for the hats Linds!! Can I order more? )

Don't giggle!!

Ashlyn says, "I got your back, Mom."

Em....taking off on our adventure trail.

We explored our way to the food plot that Brad and our neighbor planted.....you can see our house through the trees. Here we discovered some deer tracks, flowers, and Em found her walking stick.

Emma and her walking stick. Ready for the next trail.


It was the PERFECT fall day....bright blue sky against the amazing oranges, reds and yellows.

"Don't worry mom....nothing's going to get past me. "

Ashlyn slept most of the hike. :)

Emma, investigating. She was so curious and really got into the "exploring" along our way.....
"Momma, let's explore for some deer tracks.", " Momma, let's explore for flowers." It was a lot of fun, and she found many treasures; deer tracks, mushrooms, a feather, hunting blinds, daddy's tree stand, a caterpillar, and we even flushed a deer. A great adventure all around.

A two track behind our house.

Can you feel the crisp air?

Our road.



That's our mailbox on the right

Backyard.

I was surprised at how green it still was out in the woods....hopefully that means we're not quite at peak color, and we'll get a few more weeks of the amazing beauty of autumn. I just love this time of year, but wish it lasted longer. I also love watching my girls grow and discover things.....on our hike, Em looks at me with this look of realization and says, "Momma, we're in a FOREST!" I loved it! I am so thankful we have a little chunk of forest to call our own for my girls to explore, and for little minds that like adventure. Once again, God is good!

The Hayes Corn Maze

Last Sunday we met some friends at the Hayes Corn Maze in the BIG town of Rock. Okay, so the town is really small but we had some big fun. :) We took Emma there last year - she remembered so many details!

This is soon after we got there....she was SO excited.

Ashlyn, just waking up in her carseat.....She was a good girl. She even drank her bottle while on the hay ride!

All the kiddos playing in the boat of bubbles.

Look Mom!!

All aboard!

Sammy and Emma, climbing the hay "mountain".

She made it!!!!!!

YEAH!!!! They were so cute!

Emma.....laughing at her daddy.

Emma and Andrew, playing in the barn.

It was such a great day! We didn't actually go through the maze - it's a seriously large maze and not a whole lot of fun for the kids, but someday they'll love it. We were glad to get to catch up with the Cain family, get to know Sarah and her boys, and enjoy a beautiful fall day together. If anyone is interested, they can check out the website, www.hayescornmaze.com. The maze is in the shape of The Big Boy this year. Crazy how they can do that!

Time Flies....

Yep, I've been slacking on the blog. :) We've had such a busy and fun end to our summer.....many friends, and family visiting, more swimming and camping with friends, Emma went tubing behind a jet ski for the first time......so here are a few pictures from the last few weeks.

My cousin Tricia got married September 12th, and my sis was the Matron of Honor. Isn't she a beautiful bride?

Ashlyn at the reception.....yep, EVERYTHING goes in her mouth. :)

Tricia and Emma - our Dancing Queen, with Emma Grace dancing along.

Emma Kay and Emma Grace, dancing the night away.

Tricia and Dan Olson

Aunt Lindsey and Ashlyn

Emma loves the book, "Pinkalicious". So, a few weeks ago we made some Pinkalicious style cupcakes.

Em, at the lake.

Emma and Ashlyn, the day we went to Fayette State Park with "Grandma and Grandpa Over the Bridge"

Hope you all enjoyed the end of the summer like we did. Brad finished the garage with the help of more friends and family. A big thanks to Mike, for spending an entire day of his camping "vacation" up here wiring the garage with Brad. Mary and I had to suffer by going shopping. :) We are loving the change of seasons in our little neck of the woods, and are enjoying the warm weather. Now that Brad has shot his bear, he's gearing up for bow season. We'll keep you posted. :)

Bear Hunt