Trophies!

Another T-ball season is in the books. Malachi did pretty well this year with hitting the ball, running the bases and paying more attention while in the field. Today he was very excited to get another trophy to add to his collection!

I couldn't resist posting a picture of Malachi's biggest fan!

We Made It!

After an 11 hour trip to Drummond Island on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, a fun three days at a beautiful lake house and a 12 hour trip home, we can officially say that we're extremely brave and adventurous...not at all crazy like many thought when they heard our plans! (Well, maybe a little crazy here and there, but that's another story!)

Here's the whole gang: Christina holding Cooper, Heather, Corinne, Malachi, Erin holding Elliott and Shannon holding Cade.

Can you tell we were excited to get to there in time to catch the ferry? Cade and Cooper are thinking, "what are these crazy women doing to us?"

Corinne and Malachi on the dock.

Make your own pizza night.

Story time with Shannon.

The babies hanging out on the deck.

Ice cream!

Elliott and Cooper, which one looks the guiltiest?

Our five cute kiddos: Corinne (almost 3), Cooper (10 months), Cade (10 months), Elliott (7 months), Malachi (4 years).It may not have been the relaxing vacation of years past, but we really did have an incredibly fun time together. I had many "I-can't-remember-the-last-time-I-laughed-this-hard" moments and I am so thankful for such wonderful friends and great memories. I love you girls!

Happy Birthday, Lady Adeline!

Little Miss Adeline is ONE today!

Happy birthday, special girl. We love you!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the best daddy two boys could ask for. We love you!

Now, on to vacation #2! I'm heading out on a 10 hour roadtrip with three of my favorite girls to Drummond Island, MI, for a relaxing three days on the lake. Oh yeah, we're taking 5 kids ages 4 and under with us!

Jekyll Island, Part 2

Happy birthday, Grandma Alice!

The reason almost the whole family (we missed you Isaac, Maggie and Meck!) gathered on Jekyll Island for vacation this week was to celebrate a very special day. Grandma Alice celebrates her 80th birthday today! On Wednesday we had a yummy seafood lunch at a restaurant overlooking the ocean and then went back to the rental house for some entertainment, presents and cake.

The Jarrett family - Becky, Jennifer, Alice, Gene, Cindy and Laura.

Grandma Alice with two of her grandchildren, Jessica and Erik.

Grandma Alice with her great-grandchildren, Austin, Elliott, Malachi and Whitney.

The girls singing to their mom.

Grandma Alice - Thank you for inviting all of us to your beautiful home to celebrate with you. We wish you a very special day and a year full of blessings!

Jekyll Island, Part 1

Just a few of the highlights from vacation #1:

Austin's birthday celebration - Happy 12th birthday!
Spending time with family - Malachi loved watching Austin "the best player" play his DS.
Elliott and Grandpa Gene
Loading up on some paella
The beach - both boys loved it!
Elliott checking out the waves with Aunt Jennifer.Malachi and Austin playing in the water.

Elliott's had enough!

Austin fishing - he caught a shark!

King Malachi and Queen Whitney in their sand castle

Putt-putt

Aunt Jessica and Elliott at the water park

Malachi loved the water slides!

Elliott laughed so hard when Malachi splashed him!

Part 2 coming soon...

Inspired...

...by Heidi and Nathan, whom you can read about here. They have a sweet little girl, Emmalyn, whose laugh would make anyone smile. But really, a baby's laugh is the best sound in the world. That's why I'm sharing this video with you all!

Nathan also built Heidi some great raised gardens at their house, which made me think maybe I could have one too! So, here's my mom building mine with me!

My garden is doing well, so far. I have a cherry tomato plant, four different varieties of tomatoes, endive, spinach, leaf lettuce, an orange pepper plant, a red pepper plant, two varieties of cucumbers, basil, oregano, cilantro, rosemary, chives and parsley.

Finishing the Basement

As some of you know, about a month ago we decided to start finishing our basement. We're really excited and will have another bedroom, a toy area, a computer/desk area, a family room, a utility room, another bathroom and 4 more storage closets.

Phase one was completed in just a couple of days - a couple of the local Mennonite men came out and framed all the walls. Phase two was electric and plumbing. Another local guy has been working on those, along with help from Erik, for the past few weeks and should be finished tonight...hopefully! Phase three was insulation. Erik did all of the insulation by himself in a matter of a couple of days. Phase four is drywall. This is slow going, but Erik is dedicated and has been working every night after work until about midnight to get it hung. A few friends came out to help (thanks Ed and Michael!) with the ceiling, which is about a third of the way finished.

The stairs coming down.

Looking toward what will be the family room.

The back part of the family room. Most likely my eliptical machine will be here. There's also a large storage closet back there.

Erik, hard at work, hanging drywall in the closet that will house all my cake supplies!
Malachi in what will be the toy area.
The bedroom.

The bedroom closet.

Next up - finishing the drywall. I'll let you know when that happens and how it goes!

7 Months

I'm a few days late, but our little man is 7 months old now! Wow, time has flown by and that's sure to continue with all the plans we have for the next few weeks. Elliott is the happiest baby ever and it's so fun to watch him make new discoveries every day. He loves playing with Malachi, especially if there is a ball involved. He's eating all kinds of baby food, starting to self-feed with puffs and small finger foods and trying to figure out how sippy cups work. It's funny to watch him with the sippy cup. Since he's never had a bottle he acts pretty shocked everytime he gets a drink and he can't quite figure out how to hold it very well yet. As you'll see in the video he really likes his jumperoo now too. I think his cousin, Adeline, taught him all her tricks!