MIA

I apologize to the few of you who read our blog :) I have been delinquent in posting lately and now Rob and I are on vacation up north ("camping" and boating) for the week. Note: our first time on vacation alone (since kids) for longer than a long weekend! I promise to give updates when we return! Hope you're all well!

Thank you to Mom (and Dad) Grandia, Mom (and Dad) Dykema, Rachelle and Kate for helping with the kids this week!

(for now, here's our crazy daughter eating a tomato, and loving every minute of it)

How we celebrated the 4th

We had a nice weekend at the cottage filled with family, friends, water, boat rides, food, and late-night campfires.

Our little princess (who insists on getting bigger, although we ask her not to) decided that she wanted to swim to the raft this weekend and was SO proud of herself!
Jumping to Daddy



Swimming with her cottage buddy Meghan

The three eldest grandchildren taking a bath - Landon (1), Joshua (2), Madisyn (3)


Landon loving on Levi (2 months old) - Whenever Levi was around, Landon wanted to "hug" (smother) and kiss him :)





Our little peanut with his pale white tummy!

Daddy's day (belated)

I love my Dad because: he plays with me

My Dad is really good at: hunting (I was surprised that Madisyn remembered that Rob hunts, especially since the theme around our house lately has been fishing!)

My Dad helps me with: playing (see a theme?) :)

My favorite memory of Dad is: he helps me to eat

Thanks for being the most wonderful father for Madisyn and Landon. You compliment me perfectly, as both a father and a spouse! I could not asked to be more blessed! We love you, honey!

For those of you who didn't know, on Father's Day Rob headed to Alaska for work. Although we always miss each other, I think it was a little easier on him this time as he had a couple of days of fishing to keep him occupied :) In the bottom one, you can see how close the bears were to his customer's son, Nick.

Storm...

I wish I had taken pictures of the storm last night, it was intense, to say the least... the next door neighbor had a visit from the fire department and numerous other authorities due to the flood in her finished basement where they had an exposed wire letting off sparks. Needless to say, everyone was okay and here are a few pictures of the storm before it hit today.

For now... they adore each other!

And this morning I found them both in Landon's crib (Madisyn only in underwear) with books and stuffed animals from Madisyn's room. They were just sitting, talking, laughing, and reading books! Melts my heart!

Just to make you smile...

I have no idea whose child this is, but I love it!

Oh happy day!

A couple of weeks ago we finally got our double jogger! It's a BOB Ironman Doullie (even the name sounds fancy). We love it, the kids take drinks and snacks and we get our workout :)

I can not tell you how excited I have been to get this! I can finally go running when Rob's out of town! AND Rob and I have been able to go running together again! I may look silly, but I think I'm even going to start using it for errands.

And it's done!

Thank you Rob, Dad Dykema & Dad!!! They put in numerous hours, my Dad-in-law and Rob even took the day off on Tuesday to finish it up. As you can imagine, Madisyn loves it, but to my surprise, Landon loves it too! I'm sure they'll get hours and hours of enjoyment for years to come.

Very overdue birthday thanks!

I have to thank my wonderful husband for my best birthday ever! First of all, the day before my birthday he gave me a card with money in it... I looked at him very confused like, "Thank you... but what am I supposed to do with this?" He then explained to me that my gift had not yet arrived, but that the money was for us to go shopping the day after my birthday because he had gotten the day off for both of us! The day off together was enough for me (seeing as my love language is quality time).

The next day (my birthday) Madisyn surprised me with a dozen roses from "Madisyn and Landon" :) And that evening Dan and Allison came over so that Rob and I could have a second birthday dinner (we had also "celebrated" the Saturday before and were going to celebrate the Satuday after!). Again... quality time (so cherished with two kids!). Thanks guys!

The following day Rob and I first went to drop my car off at Grand to get detailed (another surprise!), and we were off to shop our day away (you need to understand that shopping is not one of Rob's favorite things to do, infact it would be on his list of 5 least favorite things to do... true sacrifice!). We purchased (although much of it was for the kids, I just enjoy shopping for them), ate an enjoyable relaxing lunch together, shopped a little more, and picked up the kids early.

Then, as if all that wasn't enough... a few days later my "gift" came in. It was an personalized engraved Tiffany & Co. necklace.

Honey, you are truly amazing! Thank you for everything!

WELCOME LEVI WILLIAM!

We were blessed by the arrival of our nephew and cousin Levi William Klamer last Saturday, May 3. Thankfully he didn't wait any longer (especially for Kate's sake), since he weighted a whooping 9 lbs. 13 oz.! All credit to Kate, who went through it all without an epidural! (And she looks great right after delivery!)


Dave, Joshua & Levi