Our New Family Member

Well, I haven't blogged in about a month, (not because I haven't wanted to, but because I stay up too late doing fun things and run out of time to blog), but today we added a new member to our family and I couldn't miss out of this huge moment on my blog!!

About a 3 weeks ago, the DeLange's St. Bernard, Diesel, had to be put down due to lymphoma. He was only 5 years old, but it came on really fast and there was nothing that could be done. After that, Brad and I started searching for a possible puppy for our family. We searched high and low, and I kept preferring the Golden Retriever- they are the cutest when they're a puppy and when they are older. We found a litter that was in Grand Rapids (about a 2 hour drive from our house) and we called about them. They only had 1 male and 1 female left (out of 8 puppies)and the ad had only been out 3 days. We chose to put a deposit down on the female without seeing her or anything. The owners sent us some pictures of her, so that's what we got to look at until today. We had to wait 2.5 weeks before we could go and pick her up because she wasn't old enough to leave her mama.

Well, today, Tula turned 6 weeks old and was allowed to come home with us. We drove all the way to the other side of the state and picked her up! The people who owned her had already named her Tula, and we liked the name so much, we kept it!

Here she is!!!!Halle's first time holding herParker just loved her!! I love her face! I think she likes me!!Tula just wanted to sit and snuggle with Parker in his car seat the whole way home. Parker would only last 3-4 minutes at a time before he wanted her off of him. She didn't want to budge!! Halle got her snuggled and she fell asleep!
Tula was wiped out!

Halle is beyond excited about having her very own puppy! She has been at her side all day long!!!

We are so excited about the joys Tula is going to bring to our family!! We love her alot already, except I think we're in for a long night as Tula won't quite crying in her cage!!!! HAHAHA!!

A Wedding to Celebrate

Today my mom, sister, and myself held a bridal shower for my cousin, Lauren, who is getting married this August. We held a brunch today because Lauren could only be here for this weekend, my Aunt was in from Arizona, and tomorrow is filled with activites for the 4th, so it was the only time we could all do it. It wasn't a huge shower because my cousin lives in Kentucky (that's where the wedding is going to be), and her parents are missionaries in the Dominican Republic, so there really aren't many people besides family that would come.

We made blueberry muffins, quiche, hot chicken salad, fruit skewers, mini weiners, and mini-cheesecakes, brownies, and creme puffs. Everything turned out great!!

The Table- We got everything at Hobby Lobby (my absolute favorite store) and The Dollar Tree. We were quite impressed with how everything turned out. (The colors of her wedding are lime green and dark blue)

The place setting- Halle was in charge of the napkins, and she went online all by herself, googled "How to fold napkins" and found and site that showed you how to do it. She put the bows on and everything!! I'm super impressed and now believe my 7 year old would be a great party planner! The BRIDE!!!! Mother of the Bride-Aunt Mel, Bride- Lauren, Sister of the Bride- Rachel We played 2 games. This one was putting on knee-high nylons with oven mitts on your hands. It was quite funny!! Lauren, Aunt Mel, Rachel, & Grandma Allyson and Me Hal and I My Mom and Lauren Lauren opening her gifts. This is the only one I could show because all the others were intimate apparel. Leave it to Aunt Michelle and Grandma to buy her something practical like silverware!! Here was the whole group that was there. Mother of the Bride-Aunt Mel, Bride-Lauren, Aunt Michelle, Grandma, Me, Allyson, Halle, Sister of the Bride-Rachel, and Mom.

Halle was asked to be Lauren's flower girl today! She is quite excited!!!

We wish Lauren and Daniel all the best as they embark on this new journey together. Congrats!!

Up-North

We spent the last 3 days up north, at my parent's friend's cabin. They had a nice little cabin on Wiggins Lake in Gladwin, MI, and allowed my parents to have us all up there for the week. We could only go for a couple days, but it was still a nice getaway. It was typical Michigan weather, and was cold (highs of 60) and rainy, but we still had a lot of fun. We boated, fished, ATE LOTS OF FOOD, played games, relaxed (I think we all took naps at random times throughout our stay), and sang songs around the camp fire.

Parker, Grandma, and Halle

We went on a boat ride in the pontoon boat! It was a really nice lake, but it did start raining on us. Thankfully, there was a canopy cover, so we didn't get too wet!

Parker steering the boat They had 2 swings, which the kids LOVED! Parker spent the majority of our two days there in that swing. It was in the shape of an airplane and it would go really high! He would just laugh!! It was SO sweet!! (You will notice the cabin is in the process of being re-sided) About 2 seconds after Halle cast her first worm into the water, she caught a small Large Mouth Bass!!! We were all shocked! She wouldn't have anything to do with touching it or taking it off the hook, but she was quite excited! Parker even went fishing with his own pole. He only had a bobber on the end of it, but he enjoyed reeling it in. Parker got in the lake for a while, even though it was quite cool out. He LOVED it!! The water was quite warm, and he could splash and flop in the water. There was also a slide that went right into the water, so he slid down that a bunch of times. We made bon-fires both nights we were there. I realized I am really good at roasting marshmallows!!! I toasted them perfectly brown without burning them. Everyone was quite impressed!!! They started the 4th of July Sparklers a week early. They had lots of fun running around with them, but Parker ended up touching the hot part of one of the sparklers and burnt his finger. We didn't even realize his finger was all blistered up until the next day. He never once complained about it hurting.

We had lots of fun hanging out with my parents. We wished we would have had warmer weather, so we could have went tubing and fishing more, but we enjoyed lots of laughs and scaring Halle with the "Sea Creature of the Black Lagoon" story. (She begged Papa to tell her a scary story around the bonfire). We ate SO much food, even enjoying a pie from the local bakery.

Halle didn't want our stay there to end and ended up going up further north with my parents to pick up the motor home that they inherited from my grandparents. She was going to get to ride in the motor home all the way back home tonight! I haven't heard from her yet, but I'm guessing she had a lot of fun!