Just enjoying the last days of summer....

More Camping Pictures

In the picture with McKenzie and her backpack, she was sooo proud
because she put all of her shower things in her backpack and walked down
there all by herself (with me) to take a big girl shower at the campground!
We were both sooo proud!

Our Last Camping Trip of the Year!

McKenzie so excited to go to bed! :) She's jumping in :)

McKenzie cooking a hot dog over the fire :)

Mama and Kylie...early morning risers...all smiles :)

Marley going for a stroller ride.

Kylie being Kylie. We love her oh so much!

We went camping this past weekend, back to Holly Recreation Area. It's sooo pretty there and we love it. We had a WONDERFUL weekend. McKenzie loves Dora (as you know) and on the way home, just like Dora at the end of an episode, she said, "Mama, what was YOUR favorite part?" How wonderful....I am so blessed. My favorite part of the weekend was Saturday night's campfire. Both girls fell asleep in each of our arms and we just sat there as a family and we were reminded of how absolutely blessed we are.

We love camping because it brings us closer together as a family. No cell phone calls, no computers, no television. Just forced bonding --- in a good way. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE camping with my family. And, I am sure we will do it for years to come....My parents raised me and my sisters to enjoy camping. We went everywhere and it was just so much a part of our lives. I am so grateful to them for teaching us to enjoy the simpler things in life. So, enjoy the pictures! And by the way, go out camping with your family, too! You'll never regret it :)

Rob and Kylie....

How much does my pumpkin look like her daddy? :)

New Shoes, Dora, Cider Mill and Marley!!

New kicks and Dora backpack

McKenzie and Marley

At the Cider Mill

Another Senior portrait :)

I know...can I combine more things into one post? :)

Last week, McKenzie needed new tennis shoes, so we went to Kohl's...Where else to go for cheap prices? :) We found her new kicks and also saw a rockin Dora backpack. She said, "Mama, I can use this when I go to school!" I said, "yes, next year you can...." and gently reminded her she needed to be potty-trained to start pre-school :)

We got Marley as you know over the weekend. Lots of pics/videos to post, but here's the cutest of McKenzie's first meeting with Marley. Her right piggytail fell out on the car ride down to Ohio.

Today, after I went to OCC to make copies, we went to the Cider Mill in Rochester. Super fun, but EXPENSIVE. Why is a 1/2 gallon of cider over $4.00??? And the gallon was over $7.00!!! Someone help me.... :( But, we got her a doughnut and a half gallon (not for just herself...daddy loves it too!). Then, we walked along the river there and I got another shot of her. :) What a great day, but Kylie is crying, so I gotta go! :)

Dancing with McKenzie

Trading up on the car seats :-)

Kylie is really getting to be a lot to carry in the car seat and it is getting to be time for her to move up to the rear facing step 2 car seat. When she is a year old, she'll be able to turn around to be forward-facing. McKenzie has/had a step 2 seat that she is outgrowing, so today we all went to the store and picked out a new car seat for McKenzie Grace and Kylie moves up. Fun!

BIG Day with Alpacas :-)

Did you know that we love Alpacas?

If we ever get to have some cute Alpacas, we like the dark chocolate brown ones the best :-) We'd hope to get at least two for their companionship.

The Little Girls Playing

We woke up this morning to a beautiful day. Kelli was up at 6:30 and I slept in until about 7:30. The girls got up sometime around 8am and we were off to a great day. My Darling went to a Mom-2-Mom sale and I enjoyed company with the girls (and once again wondered "How does she do it?". I love that McKenzie is taking a bigger role in playing with Kylie. We are so proud of both of them.

We've Been Gone Too Long :)

Wowsers. I didn't realize how long it's been since I posted! :) What have we been up to that has kept me so busy? :)
Well...the weeks seem to have flown by. My online hours have really picked up again now that school started (I can work up to 12 hours/week!), I started my college class 3 weeks ago (it's going great), and I am still doing one night/week at Sylvan...all the while being McKenzie and Kylie's mommy, Rob's wife, and a friend to a few people :)
We had our "we're officially staying" bonfire party last Friday...6 people and 3 kids bore the rain to come out and join us --- thank you! And guess what? It didn't rain during the whole bonfire!!! God is great!
The girls and I have been to the zoo and traveling quite a bit every week running errands, going to the library, and two weeks ago, we went to Jackson for the day and visited my parents. It was so nice.
Things are going well here on the homefront, excpet our basement has (so far) 320 gallons of water in it from the rains this past weekend. There is still much, much more to Shop Vac out and we are having our own issues with the Oakland County Drain Commission, because if they had lowered the dam on time and during the rains as appropriate, we would not have flooded. It's just very disconcerting because we just finished off 1/2 of our basement just before Kylie was born, so now it's been quite a clean up.
Let's see...I really don't have any other super exciting news to share, except, we are getting Marley on Sunday!!!! : ) Woot! Woot! :) Oh, and McKenzie Grace got a big surprise last night after I got out of Sylvan. A really nice student there named Shatara used her earned tokens (they earn tokens for finishing assignments) to buy her a giant, and I mean giant "Marty" from Madagascar. You can see the picture attached. It was soooo sweet of this girl to "buy" Marty for my little princess. She loves it!!! :)
Let's see....Hmmm....no other news really. When I think of something exciting to tell you, I'll write some more...In the meantime, I guess I better get back to work here online. I am just waiting for a kid to answer my questions. I made him/her (we don't know the "mystery" student...could be a him or her) a practice vocab test with their words and they are taking a really, really long time to answer!! :) So it goes... :)
Adios for now...
Edited to add: Camera batteries dead. Will post more pics later. :)

Puppy Name Results!

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the name of our new puppy! We haven't got to bring him home yet, but his name will officially be "Marley"! McKenzie Grace was practicing his name last night, and did great! "Scout" was the close second place, and a really cool name, too. If Marley needs a middle name, he could be Marley Scout Clifton.

We are looking forward to providing the best life reasonably possible for Marley and welcoming into our family. He'll never replace Abby, and that's not the intent. I think that we learned a lot about being caretakers for our pets through our time with Abby that Marley will benefit from.

I came across a picture of Abby that shows her style. Such a good dog!


We went camping 2 summers ago when Abby was just 6 turning 7 that summer. Abby liked to bury her food, if only in pretend, with laundry, or with dirt if it was really available. Apparently it was an instinct-thing to make sure that no one else will eat the food. Well, see this picture and believe that it would work. Although, I don't think Abby would eat the food either after that. Our Abby-dog is still in our hearts (forever until we are reunited in Heaven). McKenzie asked me last night; "Where's Abby?" Then she said "Daddy, are you crying?" Abby was such a good dog. I don't know how to explain to a 2 year old, but I try that Abby is done living in her body and her spirit is living with God now.


Boomer is a great dog, too. When I got home from work today he met me with love-ears on and we ran up and down the back yard around the trampoline and trees with his toy ball and frazzeled string. He likes it when I grab half and he has half and we run together. Big sticks, are probably his favorite. Boomer's faster, but it's fun for him to slow down for me :-) Marley's company is going to be so appreciated by one Boomer-dog for sure. Marley's just a peanut though... about the size of a guinea pig now, so this will be interesting to see how Boomer plays with him. Boomer's already met Marley and sniffed him. I was glad to see that he recognized him as a dog and not something that he should chase.

Thanks everyone - Rob

New Pics of the Girls

These are their most recent pics. We normally do not (well...I guess we never have) go to a "portrait studio" to get them done...We just like to take them ourselves. I think when they get older, I might hire a professional photographer to shots a bit better than myself, but they're cute nonetheless. If you're wondering why Kylie is never pictured in a position other than her belly, that's because seriously, the girl is NEVER anywhere else! I can hardly get her into an exersaucer, or a bouncy...and I have mastered, believe it or not, dressing her AND changing a diaper on her all while she is on her belly. I have no choice. The girl is a monkey...and we love her! :)

We Live in a Democracy So.....Majority Rules :)

Ha ha. :) Yes, we are naming him Marley :) After some back and forth discussion (and a bit of convincing on my part ;) we decided to name the new puppy Marley. So excited to have this behind us....it was tougher to name this puppy than our own human kids! In a few weeks, Marley will be home with us...obviously, we'll post pics...and trials...and tribulations then :)
We planted some arborvitaes today in our yard along our fence line. It's something we've been talking about for a long time and we got them for $18/piece off of Craigslist! :) They are betwen 4 and 5 feet tall...great man, too. So...if you're in our area and you need some trees (they sell more than arborvitaes), we'll give you the number!
Well...I teach this morning and trying to clean up before Kelly (our babysitter) and Landon (her son) come over....got lots to do! I promise to write more/update pics later. Have a happy Thursday! :)