My 6 year old babydoll

Where do I begin to describe this strong-willed, highly passionate, loving little girl. The past year has been such a learning and healing process for both of us. I finally am beginning to understand her personality and heart. She is always the first person to tell you, you are beautiful, she notices everything and is filled with compliments. She snuggles me all of the time and I love the relationship that we have. She tells me even when she is as big as I am she will still snuggle me. This past year I have discovered that she loves to play games. We play a lot of uno, skip-bo, ten up,tons of puzzles and her favorite is the matching game. Sometimes we play Sequence, Chutes and Ladders and Candyland. It is super special to me as I love to play games also but it gives me a lot of special one on one time with her. We have been reading a science magnazine she loves called In Your Backyard. (every night) As summer comes to end and fall begins I am excited to continue schooling and the fact that this year Cahill will be starting gymnastics and piano lessons. Piano lessons have been a dream of mine for a long time.

Last Night of Vacation

I was so sad for our summer vacation to end. I felt so relaxed and enjoyed spending time surrounded by family and water. The girls had a amazing time bonding with their cousins and family. I thought I would share some of my favorite moments in some crazy quotes and interesting things I learned along the way.

Cahill said "mom I tried to sleep in, it just did not go so well"

Brett explaining to all of us what a black swan moment was.

Ashlynn trying to convince Tyler that she was Uncle Tyler and he was Ashy-boo.

Me explaining to Tristan that if he needs help from Ashlynn to just cry "UNCLE" and someone will help him,(we actually did need to save him)

The Lodge

Here are some pictures of the Lodge that we stayed in. The top picture is a garage that had bikes, ping pong, foosh ball and other games. The fourth picture is the actual house we all stayed in. It was built in the early 1900's and was originally a hotel but renovated. The third picture is what our front yard looked like. The last few pictures are from Michigan Adventure. I can not believe how fearless my girl are with rides. We spent most of our day in the waterpark but we did spend some time on rides. Kurt and I had a blast going down a ton of different water slides together. My husband will ride anything especially roller coasters so I always have to draw the line somewhere.

Annual Stimpson Vacation (Muskegon on Twin Lakes)

Every year at the end of August all of the Stimpsons pile into one house and play, eat and swim. This year we are in Muskegon and ten miles away from Michigan Adventure. We spent the first few days relaxing, swimming and reading. The weather has been crazy hot with spits of rain but all in all pretty good. We are in a large lodge right on twin lakes. We have our own canoes, kayaks, bonfire pit and a garage with ping pong, two seated bikes and pinball. Yesterday we spent the day at Michigan Adventure and we had a blast and slept well last night.

Millcreek Part 2

 Just a few more pictures of our Mackinaw camping (cabin) trip. As you can see the only thing that makes bike riding more fun is riding in a life jacket with goggles.

Lite Brite Fun

I found a lite brite cube at a garage sale and boy did the girls have a blast playing with the patterns. I was concerned wth Ashy's age but apparently she had even more fun with it then Cahill. Either way it has been a blast!

Birthday Party - My Little Pony 6

Cahill's party was a blast, surrounded by friends, great weather and good food. I was sad that my ruffle cake looked a little crazy but all in all I survived in lack of perfection..(errrr) Oh how I love my baby who is now a amazing big girl. We have had a such a fun year learning to read and riding a bike without training wheels. She has had so much adjusting to do with the gluten and speciality diets but she has been amazing. I love to see her beautiful heart developing and the incredible compassion she has for the people around her. She attended two different vacation bible schools this summer and was so excited to go each day and after she would tell me all the amazing things she had learned. We made sure we bought the cd's for both of the schools as Cahill's heart was made for worship. She will go downstairs with her cd player and just worship with her songs. Music is such a big conduit for her and I am so excited to see the work it has been doing in her life. Last night as we were going on a bike ride together we saw a rainbow. She had to stop her bike and gaze at it. She said mom do you know that, that rainbow is a promise from God? I said I did and asked her if she knew what the promise was and she explained it all to me. But the look on her face of incredible faith, love and complete awe was beautiful. So much I have to learn from her..