Click picture to go to my Iowa Trip 2008 photo album

"

Basketball Camp

Justin attended Basketball camp last week and loved it. Here is the 2 page layout I made. Megan had Safety Town during the same time, but for 2 weeks. She learned all about the different types of safety in our lives: electrical, traffic, fire and so on. They also got to take a bus ride to one of the local parks to familiarize themselves with bus safety for the upcoming school year. Megan has been busy telling me all the safety rules lately....not that she always follows them.

Justin and Megan are both playing ball this summer. Megan is in T Ball and Justin is in Coach Pitch....as parents we were in for a suprise that this year they finally give our coach pitch kids an "out"...in T Ball they didn't do outs :) More pictures and layouts to come.

We loved seeing all of our out of town "Iowa" family and friends. I will be posting more pictures and sending out pictures to you soon! Take care!! Danielle

Camping Photos

Click the photo to go to the website with the slideshow of our camping photos.

Finally getting some layouts made!

I have still been having computer woes, but perhaps I have finally solved my problems, at least for the moment my programs are up and running at a decent rate of speed again. As much as I love "playing" on my computer, I am definitely not a computer wiz! Hopefully all my computer needed was the "registery cleaning" after all the time I have put in to trying to make it run effeciently I will be mad if it dies any time soon. It is about 5 years old but until recently it has always worked great and does what I need it to do. I guess time will tell and in the mean time I am even more diligent about backing up all my stuff. As long as my new external hard drives don't quit like the old one, I will be in good shape. Photos I am a bit more obsessive about and they have always routinely been backed up to a disk as well, so in all my woes I have not lost any of my photos. Enough rambling about my computer.

We went camping "up north" with some friends last weekend and had a good (but rainy) time. I am downloading my photos from the SD card as we speak and hope I have some good ones. It rained a lot during our time at Harrisville State Park and on Saturday afternoon it also hailed. By the time the storm passed the ground looked as if it had snowed. Crazy!! We slept nice and dry in our pop up camper....our friends were a bit more damp in their tent. Over all though it was still fun. We love this campground as we had an awesome site right on the beach. We fell asleep at night listening to the waves and while sitting at our campfire we watched the almost full moon rise above the water each night. Unfortunately on the east coast of Michigan you don't get the awesome sunsets...but it is the only place I have ever seen the moon rise on the water and it is a site to behold. I tried my hand at taking some night photos of the moon...we shall see how they turn out. At least this year I remembered my tripod...last year I forgot the piece to mount the camera to the tripod :)

I spent all Sunday evening washing the damp and wet dirty stuff from camping. Today has been a rainy day, so since we are stuck indoors I have been cleaning my house...fun, fun, fun!

We are anxiously awaiting next weekend to travel to Iowa for our annual visit with Danielle's family and friends. The kids are very excited to go swimming and to try out the new golf clubs Grandma and Grandpa got for them. Oh and of course to drive the golf cart around and around and around Grandpa's yard.

New Email addresses

Gary and I switched internet/cable service providers, so we each have new email addresses!

danielleclippard@wowway.com

garyclippard@wowway.com

Kyle's 3rd Birthday

I am a month late in posting birthday photos, but normally I post scrapbook layouts and since I haven't gotten but one done in the past month, I decided to post pictures instead. If you click on the title you will be taken to the photo album with Kyle's birthday photos. He had a good celebration the weekend before his birthday with Aunt Lisa, Uncle Ryan and Matthew traveling in from Chicago and Grandma Betty and Papa Randall coming in from Iowa. And of course the Clippard side was present as well :) If anyone notices....I am aware that Kyle had the same Elmo cake last year for his 2nd birthday, but he insisted on having Elmo again for birthday #3. He still loves Elmo and Sesame Street!! We had cupcakes and more presents on the following Tuesday which was Kyle's actual birthday. He got to help make them which he thought was great fun!

Preschool Field Trip

Megan's class met at a local Nature Center and a guide taught them about animals and the nature around them on a walk and during a tour through the nature center. They got to touch a turtle and a snake and look a a frog. Megan thought it was all very cool.

click on the title to go to the photo album with Nature Center pictures!

Washington Oregon Trip

During May Gary had a business conference in Portland, Oregon. I flew out and met him and we spent 6 kid-less days exploring. We spent a day on the coast of Oregon driving from Tillamook to Seaside (in the rain) but it was still beautiful. Day 2 we drove north to Astoria and crossed the bridge into Washinton and drove up the western coast. We stopped at several state parks and saw some cool lighthouses and scenery. That night we made our way into Seattle. We stayed for 2 nights and toured most of the popular sites. We also took time to drive by the house where we lived in Kirkland and checked out the neighborhood. Not exactly like I remembered it from 30 years ago.... Day4 we drove to Mt Rainier from Seattle. It was the only day it did NOT rain on us, we had clear beautiful skies. We drove around the mountain counter-clockwise and had to go 1 1/2 hours out of our way on the south side as Steven's Pass still was not opened due to snow. We stayed the night on top of the mountain at Paradise Inn. It was a cool hotel built during the Depression and had just reopened after being refurbished for the past 2 years. Our room was the size of a closet and it had no phone or TV but it was still a really cool place and they still had so much snow it was hard to believe. Day 5 we drove back to Oregon and traveled along the Columbia Gorge. It was so beautiful, there was just waterfall after beautiful waterfall. We stopped at all the scenic views and took little hikes and I took lots of pictures. Our last stop was Multnomah Falls, we hiked all the way to the top and it was a hike...UP!! Then we at the restraunt at the Falls. The next day we got up early, turned in our rental car and spent an entire day flying back to Michigan and our dear lovely children! Kyle says we are never to leave him again! Even so the kids had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa Handley and are now wondering when they are coming to stay again?!?!?

You can click on the title if you would like to see my photo album of this trip, but be prepared it contains lots of pictures!

Kindergarten Class Picnic

Justin is still in school until June 16th. Today was his final party. We had a picnic outside on the playground. The kids had a blast. Click on the title to this post "Kindergarten Class Picnic" at the top to follow the link to see all the pictures.

Preschool Graduation Pictures

Megan's last day of preschool was June 6th and we had a big party outside at her school. The kids had a blast playing in the little pools and sprinklers. The preschool is located at our church. One of the things the kids get at the end of the year is a certificate telling which Fruit of the Spirit they display the most...Megan's was PATIENCE. Obviously she behaves differently at school than at home :)

About a month ago my External Hard Drive crashed and died which has been causing me a lot of delays in keeping up on my computer. I have only just started digital scrapbooking again as it has taken me quite some time to reconstruct my files to my satisfaction. Anyway here are some pictures with more to follow, just click on the link. http://s284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/danigary/Megans%20KCP%20graduation%20June%202008/?albumview=slideshow

Touchdown!!!!

Justin joined a flag football team this spring. This is his first experience with football and so far it has been a good experience. He has discovered a good use for his ability to run and run fast!!! He scored 2 touchdowns for his team last Saturday at their first game. This picture is proof that Kyle does indeed get into EVERYTHING!!! I asked him what he was doing and he told me "I am being a monkey momma!!" These are progressive photos of the same play, ending with Justin's touchdown.

Trampoline Fun

Gary and the kids have been making good use of the nice weather we were having. Hard to believe it went from 70 degrees to 2 days later having snow and the low 30's!!

Elmo the Killer Fish

We were cruising through the pet store looking for a special collar for our dog's ear. She has been battling an infection turned into an abcess and just a mess we have been trying to clear up with the vet for about 6 weeks now. Currently she wears an inflated tube around her neck 24/7 to keep her from scratching her ear. The tube is much better than the E-collar she was wearing before, we went through 3 of them because they break so easily and it was just large and really awkward. She now hates going to the vet and cries because she knows they are going to work on her ear again and it hurts!!! Here is her picture

Any, while we were there we ran across this Sesame Street fish tank on clearance and let the kids convince us to get a new pet. We ended up getting a red Beta fish. The kids kept after us to get more fish and I explained that the Beta's are aggressive and would kill any other fish we added to the tank. Next thing I know everywhere we go, Justin is telling everyone we got a new fish tank and our fish, Elmo, is a Killer Fish!!!

Bike Fun

The kids are having a great time getting outside now that the weather is warming up.

Smile

Bath Time Fun!!

April updates...

Here are the layouts from the Easter Egg hunt on Easter morning. As you can see, a good time was had by all.

We are having a cold and rainy day today. Wednesday we took Justin and his friend, Carter to the Tigers game. It was 50 and sunny, but today is just dreary!

Kyle and I both have colds again!! YUCK!! It has only been 2 weeks since our last colds.......

We plan on just hanging out and resting up this weekend. We hope you have a good weekend!!!

Megan's Birthday Dress

Here is a picture of Megan in one of the dresses she picked out during her birthday shopping excursions. She told me she liked this page because she looked pretty and I assured her she was correct! Nothing like a new clothes to make a gal feel good!!!

Egg Decorating

The kids (even Kyle got to participate this year!) had a great time decorating eggs. We didn't do anything fancy with them, just color and stickers. We happened to decorate the eggs on St. Patrick's Day....can you tell....except Megan she had a "good" shirt on and I made her change into an old shirt her cousins gave her. Maybe next year we will try some fanicer stuff.

Another Lost Tooth

Hello! Justin lost tooth #5 this morning, it has been loose for days and I am relieve to have it safely out! We are off school for spring break all week. Today we met some of Justin's kindergarten friends and siblings at a Bounce House and the kids had a great time burning off some energy. I noticed Justin's face looks scratched up in the this picture.....apparently they were roughing it up as well. We also joined the group at Mc Donald's for lunch....Mommy was exhausted when we got home.

We had told Kyle when we got home from Chicago that we had to send all his binkies off to the new babies who now need them more than he does and we were true to our word. Last night Kyle didn't even raise much of a fuss about not having it at bedtime. However, nap time on day #2 was not so easy. I almost gave in....but managed to hold firm when I thought of his dentist and his firm reminder that the binkie has to go. A little sad, but mostly glad to be rid of the germ carrying instrument my son would like to have in his mouth 24/7.

Our dog, Jenna, has had a rough month. First she developed an ear infection that we had trouble treating and one ear then developed an abscess...so the ear infection was gone but now she had an infection on the outer inside part of her ear. And it would not heal. So one day she got anesthesics and they really cleaned the ear out and started cortisone and different ear ointment. We think she is allergic to the ear ointment as it just made things worse and the steriods ended up making our dog incontinent.....she absolutely did not know she was going wee. Our 110 lb dog is a big baby and has never spent more than a brief period of her days anywhere but in the house with us and the cold temperatures outside were not allowing us to put her outside . We tried pads and doggie diapers...none of which work very well. Fortunately, the vet figured out the problem and we weaned her off the steriods and incontinence problem solved. Now the poor dog is still wearing the E collar around her neck to prevent her from scratching her ear and I am still holding me breath daily that it slowly seems to be healing.....very slowly....by using nothing!!!! Thats right stop cleaning and using antibiotics and then it starts to heal....go figure!!!! I think poor Jenna thought we really hated her last week and was quite humiliated by diapers, an e collar and being banished to the non-carpeted portions of the house. I am sooo thankful she is getting better as I couldn't take the mess any longer. Since we got home I have been scrubbing EVERYTHING and now feel we are a pee-free none again.