2015 Photos

I finally got my act together to snap some photos of my little babes. I am in love with them (the photos and the kids:)

 We loveeeee coming to Cranbrook most Sundays.

 This may be one of my all time photos. Ever.

Summer Planning

I know we are in the middle of a snow storm but the girls keep asking how many days until Summer! So I have had Summer on my mind in this wintery weather. It reminded me I never blogged about our summer schedule. I am not a schedule person but I LOVED how productive we were and how much more fun we had because we had it planned out in a “schedule format”.

Camp Hilton was formed and we will forever call our Summers, Camp Hilton. I made a “command center” of sorts that kept the kids informed of their responsibilities and the fun that we would be having that afternoon IF they completed their responsibilities.

They each had to:

>>Read or be read too

>>Practice writing

>>Math Page (just a page out of a Costco book)

>>1 chore of their choice

The girls were super motivated to hop out of bed (and make their bedJ) and accomplish their tasks. I kept all their charts from each week and showed them at the end of the Summer how well they did! There is a sense of accomplishment when you can do something you don’t love 5 days a week for the whole summer.

SIDE NOTE: It actually came in super handy one day when Kylie was feeling down.  I pulled all these weeks worth of completed summer charts out and showed her what an amazing accomplishment that was.

Usually Monday was Water day, we got to scout out some amazing lakes and fun splash pads to play out each week. The kids LOVED this.

Tuesday we would organize a playdate, either at our home or at our lake. We still do this on Fridays.

Wednesday was Explore day! We would go to Henry Ford Museum or we even went to Sleeping Bear Dunes and once to Kalamazoo.

Thursday is Baking day, we still do this too. The girls (esp Reese) love to look through Pinterest or my cookbooks and pick things out to bake. They are becoming quite good and now after doing it so much I don’t have HUGE messes after baking with them.

Friday is another favorite. Craft and of course Family Movie Night.

Monday

You can't even tell Reese and I raked for an hour. But we are making a dent in these leaves:)

Nixon was a little counter productive in my efforts:)

Our friends came over and we rode the beast!

Then we roared mallows for family night. What a great day. Love this bunch.

Date night

We took up Pilates for one night. We loved it.

Conference weekend

The night before general conference Kylie could barely go to bed saying, I feel like its Christmas! They get so excited for general conference and our traditions while we listen to the words of a living prophet. After each session (there are 4) we do special things like make root beer floats, make suckers and the best one was going to Cranbrook with friends. We go walk Cranbrook most Sundays. It's a private school where Mitt and Ann Romney went to school. There are 316 acres of amazing sights. This is the Booth home, they were a big newspaper family in the 1920s.

In that tree the kids will play for hours on end, although I don't let them.... We like to pursue around the grounds.

All cozy getting ready to watch general conference. My favorite thing President Monson said was to just try and be a little better today than yesterday, be a bit more thoughtful and kinder. Sometimes simple things sure can be hard for me. So I love the reminders.

Snipplets

Kylie's school hosted a dinner for new families! We met 2 fun families that we hope to hang out with!

We are at the library each week checking out 30-40 books. The kids love it. Me too.

Nixon takes a class at the library: Tot Time

We made a tent on the deck and watched a movie

Playing at the beach with our friend from Germany! She is in Kylie's class. Because of the car companies there are a lot of foreigners that move here for 3+ years. Kylie is so blessed to have kids from all over the world in her class! Sometimes she comes home with a French accent. True story

We get some serious miles out of our zoo membership. 

Beach Day, Everyday.

We go to our neighborhood beach quite often. I just feel like the kids feel so free there, it is the root of childhood to me.

The neighborhood has an annual Family Day. Tug of war was the best part...