Babies, Babies, and More Babies!

The Happy Little FamilyLila Jane Loeffler
Opening her eyes to see her crazy family
Kendall Marlene Plate
Colton holding his little sister

The final little peanut that was due in Greg's family came today! (4 were due this summer within 3 months of each other). Kelly and James welcomed their sweet little Lila Jane at a little after noon, via csection. She weighed 7.7 and was 20 inches long. Both Kelly and Lila are doing great and we are so happy for them. Kelly and James deserve a little sleep after the last 48 hrs but they were still full of smiles :) We went to see them after dinner and Lila was awake the whole time...Ben was excited to see Lila and when we got to the hospital he was calling her name the whole way to the room. Next summer is going to be a lot busier at the lake with all of the new little ones around :) Yay!

On Wednesday, Ben and I drove down to see Greg's cousin Shannon, her new baby Kendall and her 2yr old Colton. Kendall was born on August 12 and is such a cutie. She has really chubby cheeks and the little hair she has is super light. She really seems to be a good baby...she already sleeps great and barely made a sound the whole time we were there. Ben had a great time playing with Colton. Colton had a ton of cool trains and cars for Ben to play with...a nice change of pace from all the girl stuff he is always around at his other friends houses :) Sorry about the pictures...they are from my cell phone...Greg and I have been really bad with the camera lately and I forgot it at home...I promise we will stop doing that :(

More Sam Pics!

Sam sleeping so peacefully
He finally opened his eyes!
Time to eat :)Ben and Daddy meeting Sam for the first time
Proud Auntie holding Baby Sam

On Friday we made the trip to meet our little nephew! He is such a cutie...Jocelyn was still recovering from her C-section (the day before) and she was trying to take it easy. Both Kylah and Emma were at the hospital too but both of them were being stinkers for the camera so we didn't really get a good one of them with Sam, but we will make sure that we get one next time :) Sam slept pretty much the whole time we were there but he finally opened his eyes just before we were leaving so we were able to get some pretty good picutes of him! It is so fun to have a tiny baby around the family again...they grow up way too fast. P.S. Greg's cousin Shannon should be having her baby tomorrow (Tues.) she is being induced...Good Luck!

Samuel Douglas Abbott

Samuel Douglas Abbott was born this afternoon! We are so excited for Ben to have his first boy cousin...Sam weighed 7 lbs 4 oz and was 20 1/2 inches. His actual due date was not until Sept. 1 but as you can tell every thing seems to be okay. Both Jocelyn and Sam are doing great and we can not wait to get to meet him in person! I will post more pictures soon (this is just one that was sent from a camera phone) Congrats to Doug and Jocelyn :)

Muskegon Camping Trip

Ben and Maddy's Beach Kiss
Ben and Daddy in their sand castle
The 5 older kids posing for a picture

Muskegon Camping Trip

Two weekends ago we drove to the west side of the state to enjoy a little summertime camping (we look forward to this trip every year now with our neighbors). With 8 adults and 7 kids we didn't quite know what we were getting ourselves into but we ended up having a great time! The kids all really seemed to enjoying playing in the lake and helping Mike fish...they also got lots of good camping food (chips, hotdogs, smores, etc.) We slept through a thunderstorm Friday night and woke up to some rain, however by the time we came back from breakfast we were able to get dressed for the beach. It was pretty windy right on Lake Michigan, however as the day wore on it warmed up quite nicely. Sunday we decided we would stick around and enjoy all the sunshine we could and we somehow :) wound up at Duck Lake State Park...it was a little smaller and quieter and not facing the west, so the wind wasn't nearly as bad.

Ben is becoming quite the camper...he started in womb! He slept really well even during the storm! We finally upgraded to a larger tent to accommodate our family (last year we borrowed Doug and Joce's) and we really like it...Greg and I have even talked about trying to squeeze in another trip before the summer is over, we shall see :)

Happy 4th of July

Michael, Andrew, and Ben in their 4th shirts
Kylah, Emma, Ben, Cameron, and Michael on the fast boat
Kendal and Ben (doesn't Kendal look like a Charlie's Angel?)
Lindsey and Kailer (her 1st boat ride)
Ben playing trucks in the mud
Shannon (34 weeks), Kelly (30 weeks), & Jocelyn (32 weeks)

We had such a great time during the week of the fourth! We drove down to the lake the Wed. before the 4th and enjoyed a nice week at the lake. The Schmidts came for a visit on the 3rd and Kendal seemed to have a great time. She went on a wave runner ride with her Dad then went on a pontoon boat ride with the rest of us. Lindsey and Kailer came to visit the same day and Kailer got to go on her first boat ride...she wasn't to sure of it and decided she would rather be playing with some toys :)
On the actual day of the fourth Greg's cousin, Carmen, had a small outdoor wedding reception. The weather was beautiful and we all enjoyed just hanging out and having fun. All of Greg's cousins and their significant others, who were around that weekend even got to enjoy a night out at a restaurant together (kid free!) We had a great time and got a lot of great pics during the week!

Guilds Visit Howell

Ben and Andrew enjoying dinner together
Andrew showing Ben how to golf
Ben and Kendal happy after a trip to DQ
All 3 kids are ready to go home after ice cream

Jeff, Jess, and Andrew all came up to visit us during their week-long vacation to MI. Michael stayed at G'ma and Gpa's house with his cousin Cameron. It was a quick visit but it was nice to hang out before all of the commotion during the weekend. Ben and Andrew played really well together and Andrew even taught Ben a thing or two about golf (he uses a tee!) After dinner we took a bike ride up to DQ and let the kids run around...we brought Kendal with us too! We were glad they took the time to visit us and hang out since we only get to see them every six months or so. It was a short visit but we knew we would get to hang out a lot more once we headed down to the lake too.

Happy 2nd Birthday Maddy!

Maddy enjoying her Birthday treat!
Ben hanging out in the bouncy house
The 3 troublemakers at the top of the slide

A few weeks ago we celebrated Maddy's 2nd Birthday! The Kreiders had the party at their house and everyone had a great time...the weather was a little nerve racking however it never rained and it ended up being a perfect evening to hang out outside. The food was great, Jaclynn's brothers did a great job cooking the kabobs and all of the salads were wonderful. Since there are so many kids in Jaclynn and Jason's family they ordered a bouncy house again and this year Ben, Maddy, and Kendal even got to enjoy it. The kids had a great time and so did all of the adults. Maddy is such a fun little girl, we love spending time with her and watching her become a little person. She is so funny when you are explaining something to her because she nods her head and mumbles things back like she is reasoning with you :) She is such a joy to have around and we can't wait to celebrate many more birthdays together.

Happy Father's Day

Daddy with his little buddy on Father's Day
Daddy and Ben going on a wave runner ride
Ben playing at the beach
Our future football player
Emma, Kylah, and Ben on the swing

Greg enjoyed another great Father's Day at the lake :) We drove down Friday evening and stayed until Sunday night...it was an absolutely beautiful weekend to spend on the water. On Saturday we just hung around the house, it was pretty quiet because Doug, Joce, and the girls were camping and Danny was in G.Rapids with Nichole. We went for boat rides and Ben played in the sand. On Sunday we had some more company, Aunt Sue, Uncle Bob, Kelly and James, Paula, Carrie, Grandpa Fred(he was there all weekend too), Gpa and Gma D, and finally in the afternoon Doug and the girls made it out. It was a lot of fun watching Ben play with Kylah and Emma...they are quite the characters :) We had a nice BBQ...Greg's mom picked up steaks for everyone and the rest of us all brought a dish to pass. It is always hard to come home after such a nice time on the lake...thanks again mom and dad a.

Happy 2nd Birthday Kendal!

The Birthday Girl enjoying her cupcake :)
Ben's cool glasses
Maddy your missing something :)
Ben eating the fish off his Diego cupcake
Ben playing in Kendal's house

A couple weekends ago Kendal, our next door neighbor and one of Ben's friends, turned the BIG 2! She had a fun Diego Themed birthday and all of our neighborhood friends were there. Marnie had an excellent spread of food and did a great job on decorating all of the cupcakes for the kids :) Once the sugar high wore off the kids, we put them to bed and had a campfire...we were even lucky enough to watch a lightning show! I can not believe how fast these kids are growing up.

Big Helper

Ben helping Daddy plant some new bushes
Ben was too busy working to even pose for the pic
Ben helping Mommy make Kendal's Birthday Cookies

Ben has become quite the helper :) He loves being outside...anytime Greg is doing yard work Ben is right there to help out. This week we finally bought some bushes to start landscaping around our deck, Ben loved playing in the dirt and he imitates just about whatever Greg does...it is really cute. Ben also helped me make cookies for Kendal for her birthday...actually he just walked around with the mixer, licking it, saying "cookie"! So much for helping me :) However Ben does enjoy helping me "acum" or vacuum...if only we could get the toy vacuums to really work...

Memorial Weekend

Nick and Ben eating dinner together
Marc reading to Nick and Ben
The Allens Newest Addition-Aubree Lynne
Kylah, Ben, and Emma walking through the zoo
Ben's New Favorite Animal!

We had a wonderful Memorial weekend...Friday night we drove to Jackson to eat dinner with The Allens, they welcomed their beautiful, little girl to the world on May 8 and we were very excited to meet her. Ben and Nick seemed to really enjoy each others company and it was nice for all of the adults to visit. We don't see them nearly enough but when we do we always have a nice time :)

Saturday we spent the afternoon at The Toledo Zoo...we went with Doug, Joce, Kylah, and Emma. We ate a picnic lunch when we got there and the kids were wonderful. We were able to see a lot of the animals...I guess they were happy to be outside in the warm weather too! We stayed for a few hours and then all of the kids crashed on the way home :) Sat. night we enjoyed a BBQ with my parents and gma...we ate outside and had a fire in the fire pit, gma was happy to watch Ben and Daddy running around the backyard with Riley!

Sunday Greg got up and went out to the lake to help his parents put in their landscaping...they all work really hard and got a lot accomplished. The rest of us came out in the early afternoon and hung out. We had another picnic outside and just relaxed...I love long weekends!

More SC Pictures

These are just a few of my favorite pictures that were taken in SC with Greg's dads camera! I thought they turned out really cute...now the hard part is picking ones to put in frames :)