Peace Party

Yeah I know I am way overdue for a blog update...My nieces birthday party gave me the motivation to post. The theme this year was PEACE (I loved it!)


So much fun to make!

Keith found a free desk on the side of the road last fall and has been spending a lot of time fixing iit up for the girls. He wanted to have it done in time for Christmas but couldn't finish it in time. I tihnk it worked out better this was. It was a fun project for him and I think they will get a lot of use out of it :P)

My dad took each girl out on her own "date". He even came to the door with a rose, wow! Mace went to Red Robin, Barnes and Noble, and TJ Maxx. Kels went for breakfast the next day to Russ', Target, and Petco :)

We had cake and ice cream at our house yesterday afternoon. Kels wrapped up the party by putting on an amazing song and dance performance.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Nykerk Family Christmas 2011

Happy 60th Birthday Dad!!!

He's looking pretty good for being 60, isn't he? Says he feels the same as when he was 40 :)

Keith had fun playing with the girls. So wished they lived closer so we could have them over more often!!!

This is often how Remi and Dolly are left in the morning when we leave for work. Snuggle bugs!

This picture was taken last week at the girl's Christmas party at my office. I'm lucky to work with a fun group!

Thanksgiving weekend 2011

Keith enjoying some of his deep fried turkey. Check out that hair and beard! He hasn't shaved in a loooong time (a beard trimmer is on his Christmas list)

Uncle Scott and Katie cutting the turkey

Waiting outside of Younkers at midnight waiting for the doors to open! We decided to shop in Grandville this year which was a nice change. No waiting out in the cold. Overall we did pretty good. I got home around 6am and took a 2 hour nap and then headed back out to shop around in Holland.

Keith and I went to Blue Star Tree Farm last week sunday to cut down our Christmas tree. So far Remi has not broken any ornament or knocked over the tree.

Park 2 Park, a new neighbor, Remi, Chicago...

On September 24 I ran my first 5K with a group from my office. I loved everything about it! I am going to try and continue to run (even though that is getting tricky with the colder weather) and would love to do more races next year. Maybe a 10K?

Look whose back in town (for good!) Aunt Carol moved into a cute little house just a couple of blocks away from me last month. Good to have her back in town :)

Keith has been working with Remi most nights training him with a "shock collar" which we recently purchased. Since we are not able to take him to the dog park for exercise every night we needed to do something because he continues to run off from our house if we are not careful. We had thought about getting an electric fence but this looked like a cheaper option and Keith likes working with him. It's going OK so far...will be nice we we can just open the back door and let both dogs do their thing without having to worry about Remi running loose. Thanks Aunt Carol for letting Remi use Sheba's old jacket!

And this was a costume I found marked 90% off at Target a few days after Halloween. Not sure what it is supposed to be but it seems to suit him :)

Jen and the girls and I met up in Michigan City yesterday and took the train into Chicago to meet up with Katie and Aunt Jean. We went to the Lincoln Park Zoo and then to visit with Rachel, Dave, and baby Charlotte. Wish we could have stayed longer! Here are a few pictures...

still slacking on the blog

So summer has pretty much come and gone and I have neglected to keep my blog updated. Sorry. All in all this summer has treated us well. I'm not exagerating when I say I probably had 20+ days at the beach (love it there!) So per Aunt Jean's request here is a new post....

This was taken at Hidden Ridge Campground on forth of July weekend. It was a perfect pool day and I had fun with Jen and the girls. I miss my purple feather!This was the weekend of Rachel's baby shower (can't wait to get the call/text when she goes into labor...should be soon!). It was a really warm day so Jen, the girls, and I took advantage of the pool at MVP (thanks to the free passes from Dave). Later that evening with had Taylie's 1st birthday party at my dad's house. The water balloons Jason brought were a big hit.

We had out annual camping trip up at Big Beal Lake the weekend of Aug 12-14. This was year #13 for me already. Keith went up early on Wednesday with Remi boy and I headed up friday with Dolly. I was amazed to see that Remi was calm and off he leash when I got there! He was such a good boy the whole weekend. This was probably the worst year of weather we have had up there. Luckily we had lots of tarps packed along and the guys created a "tarp village" so we could still be outside and not get soaked.

The guys spent a lot of time shooting bee bee guns at cans hanging in the trees. I even gave it a try and really liked it! And my aim is pretty good. Not ready for a shotgun yet though... Dolly and Remi both got loved and snuggled on real good

reliving his college days

We stayed pretty comfy inside our tent. All 4 of us slept on the air mattress

We managed to make it down to the beach for just a short time when the sun came out for a short time. Yes, that is the keg in the raft Our book club is almost a year old now and we've read a lot of good ones. We take turns meeting every 6 weeks. Below is at Amanda's house where we discussed Water for Elephants. I thought she did a cute job with the circus theme (we had mini corn dogs to eat too) :) Took in the Kid Rock concert last weekend at the Allegan County fair. Lots of fun.

And last but certainly not least...how about them Tigers?!! Would love to get tickets to a playoff or World Series (!!) game....

I know I haven't posted in a long time but my laptop broke but now it is fixed and I don't feel like writing at the moment but here are a couple pics

I will try and do a better update soon! :) Happy summer...