Labor day in the ER (but NOT for labor)

I'll post more later, but just had to share our 2nd injury-related trip to the ER this evening with Jackson this time. He somehow cracked his forehead open on the fireplace (of course the staff asks if i saw what happened and i have to say, "no, but i saw him right after it happened.") Praise God he didn't hit his eye or knock out teeth or break anything. They decided to just put their glorified super glue to hold the gash together until it begins healing. He slept through them washing it out and all. I think he was mostly upset about the hospital bracelet he had to wear. Though, he bled quite a bit at home........can't say I've seen that much on my kid, since Lucas split his finger open 4 years ago (almost to the day!). I think we've been quite blessed to have avoided the ER as much as we have with three little boys :)

And on a positive side note..........we welcomed baby Levi Merrick Meyers into the world on Thursday! I will post some pictures of him once I meet him. We've been busy, so I owe this blog a post with pictures..........hopefully this will suffice for now :)

WARNING! Lots of pictures to follow..........

Some of our recent adventures include our annual college roommates get together. This year we headed to a cottage in Canada. We almost didn't make it across as we realized we have yet to acquire a birth certificate for our youngest.........oops! Despite this mishap we enjoyed family/friends time away from home. We also enjoyed this past Saturday at Michigan's Adventure compliments of JCI. We spent a good portion of the day waiting, but the kids enjoyed the rides they were able to ride. We even made it to the water park (despite dad's protesting - and tipping in the lazy river with Reece). Way to take a few for the team, Tim!!! And in most recent adventures............a new Wii game - Boom Blox - absolutely love it!!! Oh, and there was a bit of incentive behind the fun. We told Lucas we would help him buy it (he had some money saved) if he rode without his training wheels. I mentally prepped myself for the bruises/scrapes/blood that would follow..........fortunately none of that occurred. He jumped on and took off on the first try! We're still working on starting and stopping, but he seems to be such a natural at it!!! If only potty training were that easy with Reece........any suggestions?!!!


Lucas ready to take flight


Dad and Lucas out for a ride in the speed boats (they weren't too speedy)



Ain't she a beaute?!!




Reece is concentrating hard on driving that beast



So the Lazy River is not just a term.......Jackson was OUT!



Ladies reunite



Can you guess which one is NOT a mom? (Hint: she's laughing at the madness)



Check out that Wii form


Because it took so long to get through the border I had time to snap these.......

This was my latest home improvement.........yup, decorating the nursery, and yes, for our last baby (well, he's not so much a baby at 14months) - I LOVE Target!!! I found these decals on clearance to add to the circles (they easily reapply as necessary).

Guinea Pigs

I just love having friends with photogenic kids!!! I know I've bragged about this cute trio, but seriously, it doesn't get more fun than this (except when your own kids cooperate in a photo shoot)! I love the fact that mom just lets me experiment with these little guinea pigs in discovering new photo opps. Not all moms would let me take their kids and set them in a field of weeds just to capture some moments :) And little Miss "R" was quite a champ - unfortunately she HAS allergies to weeds - but she toughed it out so I could get a few good shots. Thanks for being such an adventurous bunch!

Neglected.......not forgotten

I know what you're thinking........it's August and you've just gotten around to doing your kids' birthday pictures?!! Well, I did take them in July, so they were really only about a month overdue :) I just sat down this past week to edit them. I think I need a little lesson in time management. I've been so fortunate to be able to take other children's pictures that I hadn't made the time to edit my own. You can view more at my smugmug site (link to it at the top of the blog). Enjoy!!!

Random

So I've mentioned before that I can easily become sucked into the web by checking out blogs. Well, this is yet another occurrence..........found this on Tina's blog (who stumbled upon it while she was surfing the web).......completely random useless information, but very fun play on words! If you click on the Wordle it will link you to it's "home" where it's a bit larger.

Could these two be models?

And their brother is quite a handsome little dude :)



Thanks to this family for letting me capture some memories..........I am diligently editing their proofs.........thanks for your patience Jennifer :)

Blogaholic!

WOW!!! This never happens...............two postings in one day - each equipped w/pics! I'm sure you all have heard me boasting about SavingsAngel lateley. In fact, I sent a few of you a link and referral code to sign up under my name if interested. Heather and I have decided to split the cost and share this membership (probably not really legal, but we're Dutch - me by marriage :) I did a little research this evening and printed a load of coupons, clipped a bunch from the Sunday ads, and headed to Meijer. All in all I spent a total of $117.63 and saved $99.64!!! I saved $18.65 in coupons alone! On top of that I got a free $10 giftcard to Meijer and one product is free by rebate (spent $2.50 less the $2 off coupon = $.50, but I get the purchase price back in rebate, so I really GOT PAID $1.50!!!!). Granted I don't normally buy that type of shampoo, but for getting paid for it, how can you go wrong?!!! I think my favorite find was the Meijer pasta sauce on sale for 10/$10 w/ the 11th free and I had a $.50 off coupon for each of the 10 sauces! You can print these off of the Meijer site w/out being a member of SavingsAngel at

http://www3.meijer.com/mealbox/mealbox.html simply by clicking on the SPECIALS tab toward the right of the screen in the middle. You can print as many as your heart desires! I should mention I got 3 PACKS of children's Hanes socks for a total of $.45 due to a HUGE promotion they had this week :) Tim says I'm a huge dork, but man it feels good to save this much!

The goods

The savings

Pickin'

Last week my mom joined me and the boys picking blueberries out in Coopersville. I was a little hesitant to bringing them all, but figured between the two adults we could handle them. Plus, if they had a meltdown we would be in the middle of a blueberry field........who would care?!! They did amazingly well considering it was 80+ degrees and prime naptime (we left around 12:30 and didn't arrive home until about 4:30!). Jackson was thrilled to find FOOD at his level........he just kept picking and putting in his mouth (I'm sure he got quite a few tart blueberries). Tim was fortunate to change the inaugural blueberry diaper (those of you that have kids know what I mean). Reece enjoyed filling his bucket up a bit and then dumping his labor onto the ground. Lucas finally announced to us that he couldn't handle it anymore (in those exact words). The only casualty we experienced was a pair of Jackson's shorts..............he sat in Reece's bucket and then continued mashing blueberries in the wagon.........huge mess!!! We managed to pick about 13lbs amongst the 5 of us (14 if you include the ones ingested and dropped).


Plentiful blueberries


Jackson first discovers FOOD!


Pick.............


.................and enjoy!!!


REPEAT (infinitely)


Clearly NOT adding to our prize :)


Reece giving brother some love :) Glad I captured that moment......they are few and far between!

Eating......AGAIN!!!

Grandma and the grandkids

Aha!!! It's easier to take from the bucket than off the branch :)

Look how many blueberries Lucas picked!!!

Allergies

We recently discovered Reece must have inherited my "allergy gene." We're treating him with an OTC antihistamine to see if his symptoms respond. In the meantime, Lucas proclaimed his allergy symptoms to us this evening. It went a bit like this, "Mom, I turned on all the lights upstairs so I wouldn't be scared of the dark............I think I'm allergic to the dark." Seriously dude, allergic to the dark? What will he come up with next?!! Straight out of the mouth of babes :)