Shawn and Sierra have two Uncles who are professional yo yo men. They have inspired Shawn to become great at yo yoing as well. Here is Shawn showing his new found skills. Enjoy!! He is so cute.
Sorry this video is not rotated. I couldn't figure out have to change it. I'll do better next time:)
My husband provides for our family so well. Because of him we have on gas bill. He works every spring to cut and stack wood for the coming year. This year we has so much wood given to us. Our outdoor wood stove burns all kinds of wood. It doesn't matter if it burns hardwood or junk wood. The only difference us the amount of hours a piece of wood burns. Hardwood burns the longest and hottest and so it is ultimately the best. I think Lyle has enough wood stored up for the coming three years. Praise God!! I am also thankful for the fact he is willing to stoke our wood stove everyday. Thankfully he only has to load it once a day, twice a day in the deep winter. I also love the fact that it heats our water. Long, guilt free showers:) Thank you honey!! I love you!
This isn't even all the wood he has cut. He Has about 25 -30 cord to the right of the stove, not pictured here. Amazing!!
We have been having such a wonderful summer. So much fun to be had and sooooo little time to cram it all in. Summer in north Michigan is so short. The weather doesn't really get nice until the middle of June and begins cooling off by the end of August. Only 2 good beach months:( So far this summer we have had 12 graduation open houses, 2 weddings, 3 visits from friends and family, a week at family camp and various other outings. These pictures were taking at the Sleeping Bear dune climb overlooking Glen Lake. We have gotten to visit the dunes twice so far this summer. No complaints here:)
I'm sorry I have been horrible at keeping this up to date. I will try to do better. With one month left before school starts again I don't anticipate things slowing down. Hopefully we can spend a little more time at the beach this month though. It's always fun to go to the beach with friends. Give us a call and join us sometime. 
The Greg Hanna Family at the TOP of the dune climb in the photo above. (All but Jared, Kristy and Breanna) Below, the Mick Hanna family, all but Mick:) and their son Nathan.
Sierra and Shawn had more fun helping us put the pool up this year. The water was freezing but they kept insisting, "It's warm mom!!" as their teeth chattered. They were"A lot of help" :)
The next day, while the hose was still filling the pool, our kids and the Clarks "needed" to go swimming. I knew it wouldn't last long but let them get in. Not 5 minutes after getting into the pool Jerad Clark says, "Miss Leanne, could you take the hose out of the pool, It's whats making it cold." I busted out in laughter. Of course it's cold. The whole pool is cold. They are soooo funny. I am treasuring these days. They are growing up too quickly.
Notice the interesting eye makeup on the Patty and Sierra below. P.S. The air temp was around 60 degrees when this picture was taken.
Last night, Shawny was having trouble eating his supper. He couldn't bite into his hamburger so he asked his momma to pull one of his dangling teeth out. So I did. It came with 2 little tugs. No problem.
Tonight we had small group over at Jim and Amy Miller's house. When we ate he was having trouble because his other loose tooth was kinda sticking out. Later in the evening he bumped into Ashley while playing and his tooth twisted sideways. Needless to say, it just took one tug and it was out. He is so excited to show his class his two missing teeth in the morning. What a weekend and what a precious boy:) This blog is my attempt to bottle up these precious years. They will all to soon be gone.
I don't think Lyle actually intended to get a turkey this Spring. He decided to take the kids with him to do his calling. All fall about 15 turkey's roosted in the trees off the west side of our yard. Each morning, just after the kids got up to get ready for school, the turkeys would fly down into our yard and make a ruckus. Sierra and Shawn had so much fun calling to them. It was hard to get the kids moving to get ready for school. But wouldn't you know it, this spring, there's not a turkey to be found. The week ended uneventfully but I don't think the kids or daddy were too disappointed.
Had to stop and do a little calling you know:)
Here is a small portion of the wood that gave my husband his hernias. He had surgery last Friday and is recovering well. He should be back to 100% in another week or two.
After a delicious dinner at Boons our family came home to sing Happy Birthday, Share some Hershey Pie, Give birthday spankings and open presents. Lyle was sure his gift came from Kohls. He was disappointed because Kohls doesn't sell camo. Little did he know, I had bought him a power washer and had it well hidden with a little help from John Clark. We had a great evening and like a fine wine Lyle just gets better with age:) At least that's what they say. He's even getting more and more handsome:0)
oops. I forgot to rotate this picture before I uploaded it but it's midnight and I'm tired and I need to get to bed so I'm letting it go:) Love to you all!!
When most are enjoying blooming flowers and greening grass we must endure several extra weeks of snow. We live in a valley on the north side of a hill and that explains why we still have snow. It's like this every year. Lyle gets so anxious to rake he gets out there anyway. We had a fun evening. While Shawny and daddy worked in the yard, Sierra climbed a tree and I took pictures. Sounds fair:)
It was just the other day Sierra was clunking around in play shoes that were way to big on her. It won't be long and she will be finished playing dress up and make believe. Just the other day she was telling me she is a fairy and Shawny and his buddy Jon Michael were telling me about their imaginary friends and what they have been up to lately. Their imaginary friends have names and a whole life I knew nothing of. So sweet. I love watching the kids use their imaginations. They grow up too soon.
We were giving a huge gift by a couple from our church. They gifted us a weeks stay in their timeshare, Cypress Point Resort. We had three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen, laundry room, living room and a screened in porch. We felt spoiled. It was so nice for Grandma Deeren to have her own space. This is a picture of our living room/dining room.
On Wednesday we went to the Magic Kingdom. We started out the day in the pouring rain, had sunshine for a couple hours and it turned cold (about 55 to 60 degrees) about 4pm and stayed that way the whole evening. The forecast the night before was predicting rain in the morning but the sun would come out and the high was 74. They didn't say it would hit 74 and suddenly turn 60 or cooler. Shawny was quite sick with a fever but really, we did enjoy it:)
I think the highlight of our day at Disney was taking Grandma Deeren on a roller coaster. She had misunderstood me, thinking we were taking a train ride. She had no idea it was a roller coaster!!! She had never been on a roller coaster before and had no intentions of starting that day. She was a hoot!!!! I was surprised she was up for such a adventurous ride but was impressed she would try it at her age. I had no idea she didn't know what she was getting herself into. I don't think she will ever trust us again. I held her tight and she did fine.
On Friday we headed over to Clearwater for the day. The weather was in the upper 70's. We took a ride on the Dolphin Encounters day cruse. We watched 2 dolphins play in the wake of our boat for at least 20 minutes. They would jump over and over again. They looked like they were having more fun. What a cool experience. We also walked the gulf coast, picked up sea shells and watched the sun set. It was wonderful!!! I can't wait till summer. We get similar sunsets here, overlooking Lake Michigan.
Again, Shawny was miserable. Poor little guy. Sierra had a ton of fun picking up sea shells.
Ever since Claire died in December, someone in our family has been obsessedwith buying a new puppy. I won't name who it was, I'll just say he is tall dark and handsome. Anyway, the plan was, upon our return home from Florida we would buy a puppy. Well, because of the freezing rain yesterday we had to wait until today to make the trip down to Cadillac. Jack Jack is a Shitzapoo (actually spelled Shih Poo). His father is a mostly white Shih tzu and his mother is a black poodle. He is really sweet. I'm not crazy about his coloring but this is the one Lyle and Sierra liked best because he was full of it. He is really spunky yet cuddly.
Stacey and I have been friend since 2nd grade but we have only been sisters for about 5 years. Stacey and I were close through high school, sharing lockers and such, and have kept in touch to some degree ever since. In 2002 I was driving west on M-72 reading a letter I had just received from her. I know, I know, not a good idea to read while driving:) With tears streaming down my face I read how she, through a hard time in her life, had found Jesus. I'm so happy that God has since blessed her with a christian husband and a renewed outlook on life. She is coming up to TC this weekend and will be attending our church this Sunday. It is so cool share this part of life with her now. I can't wait to spend some time with her.
Sierra and Shawn sang and danced in a Christmas concert at Westwoods Elementary School. Shawn sang a duet with his buddy Owen. They sang a verse of "Up one the Housetop". Shawny did so well. He has such a sweet voice. We were super proud of him. Sierra also did a great job shaking the bells as all 150 kids sang "Santa Claus is coming to Town". She was the only one playing and kept everyone together and on beat. It was also fun to see the kids dance their dances. You can tell the kids are just loving it. My favorite part of the evening was when they all sang "Silent Night" and used the sign language. We all joined in on the last verse of the song. How precious!! I love these years.
