Life's adventures with Matt, Amanda and the girls... Makenzie and Madison!

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Oh Deer!


Our last house we were out in the country.... we would see deer, turkeys, ducks, geese, coyotes, racoons, opossums, skunks, squirrels on a very regular basis.  

This house... we will see ducks and geese flying over top of us.  But that's it... until a few nights ago when we saw this Deer walking by our garden!

The great husband that Matt is was in the kitchen happily scooping up an ice cream and brownie sundae for us when he started yelling at me telling me there was a Beaver in our backyard!  Hmm.... I was interested... I think beavers are pretty cool but we don't have any rivers or much water near us to have a beaver come traipsing thru our yard.  So I stayed put on the couch with my book and my feet up.  He comes hopping into the family room and eyes bulging out of his face he tells me there is a DEER in our backyard!  Oh!!  A Deer!!  Wow!  Yeah right.  After watching him for a few seconds I thought I could see he was almost starting to sweat with excitement.  Okay... Help me up I said!  

And by golly... there was a deer!  We sit on a city lot and then have some land behind that where our garden and shed is and that deer was on our "lot", so close to our houses!  Matt ran and got Makenzie out of bed (yup we are those kind of parents!) so she could see the deer too.  By that time the deer had spied our garden and was heading out to take a closer look.  Uh oh.

Once Makenzie saw the deer was in "her" garden near the plants that "she" grew-ek!  She wanted to go back to bed right away.  She didn't want the deer in her garden and she didn't want to be watching the deer.  

Matt goes and puts her back down while I continue to watch the deer reach it's neck into our garden and munch on some of our beans.  Then he heads outside to turn the sprinkler on in the garden so the deer runs off.  (Definitely wasn't as fun as the next night the deer came when Matt snuck outside, popped out from behind a tree the deer was standing near and started running 100 mph after the deer.  I laughed so hard!  I've never seen him run so fast!!!  (Matt, not the deer!)  He really got close to the deer!)

We headed back to the family room where my sundae was waiting for me and as I picked it up I could hear Makenzie screaming.  She was NOT happy.  Cripes.... Ice cream sundae.... screaming daughter.... ice cream sundae.... daughter.  I can eat fast!  So Ice Cream Sundae it was!  :-)  

Once my sundae was done I headed into Makenzie's room and the first thing she says is she's scared.  (Now that makes me feel like a million bucks as she was here crying "scared" while I polished off a sundae!)  I sat in there for 45 mins with her while we went over everything I knew about Deer.  She didn't comprehend why the deer was at her house, where it came from, what was it going to eat, is it nice, etc.  I couldn't believe all the questions that she was asking me!!  I was SOOOO impressed.  Once she learned everything that I know about deer she was then okay with the deer around and was able to go back to sleep.  W.O.W!  Their little brains!  

Now every morning when she wakes up she'll ask me if the Deer was at "my home" and then she'll ask if the deer was at Poppa's home (my gpa that lives close to us that has a deer problem).  Yesterday morning (after not going to bed until 10 pm!!!) she got up bright and early.  After asking about a deer at our house she went and got the phone so we could call Poppa and figure out if the deer was at his house!  

Funny how we were surrounded by animals out in the country that never touched our garden and here we are in the city with a problem!

Sunday, June 23, 2013

May Monkey Business

Here's a random stash of pictures that I didn't blog about that I thought I'd share!

"Mama told me to get in the car so I chose this seat!" (Notice her pants that have fallen down?)
FYI... she did not stay in that seat!

Much more fun going potty outside! 
(Later this day after seeing Ruger (our dog) go potty outside she decided that SHE was going to go potty outside too!  Not only did she do it once (and it was a #2) she did it twice!)  Ek!  Glad all the neighbors were at work!!  AND thankful that Matt said he was on Ruger Poop clean up after work.  We were done outside after that :0)

Playing Hide and Seek!

Painting Rocks for our garden.

Things got a little crazy when we were baking!!

Picnic in the backyard!

Just hanging around!  She thought it was SOO fun to be hanging like an "OU OU" (monkey)!

Reading and Rocking while Mama made dinner!
Alright folks!  That caught me up on May!

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Big Girl Bed!!

(Here's another post that should have been done during the "I couldn't blog" days!)

Makenzie is now in a big girl bed!!  She has been in it for about a month now.  We had talked it up and had gotten the mattress before we had her bedding and OHHHHH  was she EXCITED to sleep in her new bed!  After waiting for Mom for a few days to get her bedding we took down the crib (tear) and set up her big girl bed.  What a bittersweet moment.  I kept thinking how are we here already?  How are we putting my "baby" into a big girl bed?  Not right.  I think such sad thoughts... I will never see her in a crib again.  I will never pick her back up out of her crib or peak at her thru the spindles.  (Dumb I know... but that's what I do.)

The first night... great!  She was so happy to be in it that I don't think she wanted to leave it and eventually fell asleep.  As usual, Matt and I went in to check on her before we went to bed and I just bawled.  Holy cow.  It hit me like a TON of bricks, seeing her long body stretched out in a bed she "should" look huge in, but doesn't.  I don't have a baby anymore... at all... I have a toddler... in a BIG GIRL BED!  She was cuddled with her blanket laying on her new pillow.  Jeez... I'm about to bawl right now! 

Once I got over my emotions I tried to go to sleep but all I kept hearing is... Bang!  Bang!  BANG!  Her body hitting the wall to our room.  Sleepless....

The next night, she got a bit more curious.  We put her to bed and I came out of the bath and this is what I saw....

cracked me up!  She wasn't brave enough to open the door up and take a peak out (that came a week later) but she was out of her bed wandering her room.

It's so weird to have her get herself up in the morning!  She comes to find Matt or I and excitedly yells "I'M DONE!!"  If she doesn't want to go to bed she'll play in her room with whatever toys are in there or wander around until she finds Matt & I (which isn't good because we are usually chowing on dessert of some sort that we didn't share with her!).

Moments like those make me SO happy that we aren't done with our crib.  Baby #2 will be here soon and very shortly we will be setting the crib back up and have another child to play Peak-a-Boo with!

Friday, June 21, 2013

Memorial Day Pics

Yup, I know we are almost to 4th of July, but I still haven't posted Memorial Day pics!!  That was right after it wouldn't let me post pics on my blog and I was in update mode.  So here they are... one of the best weekends of my life!!  We headed up to the cottage and Makenzie was SUCH a blast!  And when she's having fun... Mom and Dad are having fun too!  (It also helped that we had other family there to help entertain and take care of her!)

Here we go!

Wondering if she dare take the wheel!

2 Cousins excited to go on a boat ride!




Daddy teaching Makenzie how to play Baseball!

Swing!!

Claire and Ruger cuddles!

Daddy, Auntie Lisa and Pop all showing Makenzie how to blow bubbles!!  LOL!

Going Fishing!  Makenzie has the worms, Claire has the pole, Matt has the tackle!

Claire's first catch of the day!!

Makenzie and daddy taking one of the hook.

Makenzie's FIRST FISH!!  WAHOOO!!!  Talk about exciting!

Joshua's turn!

Patiently waiting....

We got another!!

Just lazin' around watching the fishing.

Ruger keeping a close eye on those fish in the bucket!


Fun with friends!

Nothing better than watching kids play!  Especially when your hubby is in the group!

Oopps!!  Those pants would NOT stay up for him! 



And lastly... here's a couple videos.... Grandma these are for you!  Go Tigers!!


Thursday, June 20, 2013

Growing Garden!

Our garden is finally done being planted!  We planted our second batch of green beans a week or so ago finishing it off!  We started a good chunk of our plants inside... they turned out great and we had quite a few to give away (which was really fun to do!).


Here's what we are growing this year:
Red Potatoes, Gold Potatoes, Green Onions, Onions, Tomatoes, Grape Tomatoes, Green Peppers, Banana Peppers, Jalapenos, Green Beans, Muskmelon, Cucumber, Zucchini, Red Cabbage, Carrots, Eggplant, Rhubarb and Strawberries!!

Think we're in a little over our heads!?!?
Oh yeah!
Especially with a new baby on the way!


Matt and Makenzie put netting over our strawberries so we get then rather than the birds!


10 Tomato Plants! Yikes!!

Our 2013 Garden!!


Monday, June 17, 2013

The Weekend Before Last

I'm to that point in my pregnancy where sitting up right (like at the computer desk) just doesn't work.  Baby has gotten too big and I either have to be standing up or sitting in a recliner.  So I'll make this brief!  There's been so much I've wanted to write about but it's so uncomfortable sitting here and time has been scarce!

Anywho...the weekend before last was a great one!  We started Sat AM off with Matt outside working in the lawn while Makenzie and I made birthday cards and birthday cake ("happy cake") for Matt! 

Things got a little crazy making Daddy's Birthday Card!
 Once we were done Makenzie headed outside for a tractor ride while I got a picnic together to take to the beach.  We had given Makenzie a choice that AM of going to a petting farm or the beach.... she picked picnic at the beach! 



Off we headed to the beach and picniced right on the channel where boats were going in and out.  We all LOVED watching all the different boats cruising thru.  As we were sitting there enjoying lunch I thought "This is why we live by the Michigan Lakeshore... nothing better than this!"  We are so lucky to be close to something SO neat!  There were even tugboats out in the channel busy working on dredging the sand out of the channel! 


After lunch and after we played in the sand a bit we headed out for an icecream cone!  First ones of the year!

Makenzie went on a bike ride with some neighbor kids.


We had a barbecue at my aunt and uncle's house, where we got to visit with them and my cousins!  Silly cousins had all sorts of balls laying around the yard.  All night we were on our toes because Makenzie was busy hucking them here and there!!  Head's up!!

Uncle Kevin explaining to her that her pants are falling down and need to be pulled up!

So that was ALL Saturday!


Sunday I had a bridal shower to go to and then that evening we celebrated a few birthday's and Father's Day with Matt's family!