Fall Sports...

Caleb (9)    Levi (4)   Ethan (7)

Ethan is playing Little League Fall Ball for the first time. He loved playing baseball so much this past spring/summer that we signed him up for the fall as well. He is loving it!

Ethan has been playing great this fall! 

He has been hitting a lot of doubles and loves sliding into second!

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Levi is playing AYSO soccer for the first time this year.
He is so excited to be playing soccer and is always asking
how many more sleeps until his next game! :) 

GOAL!!  Levi has been scoring lots of goals at his games!

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Caleb is in his 5th year of playing AYSO soccer.
He finally got an orange jersey...for those who don't know Caleb loves the color orange!

Caleb's team has won both of their games so far this season. 

Caleb has scored at both games, his favorite is when he gets a left foot goal!  

We sure are having a great fall cheering the boys on! 

First Day of Preschool...

 Can't even believe it, Levi started Preschool today!!

First day of School...

Caleb 4th grade and Ethan 2nd grade!

Baseball Birthday...

We had a great weekend celebrating Ethan's 7th Birthday! It started out on Friday night with his last Baseball game of the season...his team won so that made it even better! :)  Then on Saturday we had the party with Grandparents, Aunts & Uncles, and Cousins. Ethan had chose a baseball theme party and we sure had a fun night. Then tonight (his actual Birthday) Ethan and Kevin went to the Whitecaps Baseball game. Ethan's baseball team had sold the 2nd highest amount of tickets, so they got to go on a tour of the stadium...went in the press box, locker room, and ended in the dug out!! Super fun and super exciting for the boy who is all about Baseball right now! 

We sure love you Ethan and hope you had a great Baseball Birthday!!!

Baptism of Caleb and Ethan

This past Sunday both Caleb and Ethan were baptized at our church. It was a very special and exciting day!! When each of our boys were born we dedicated them to God and wrote a Family Covenant with the prayer that someday they would choose to follow Jesus. And here we are 6 and 9 years later with two boys wanting everyone to know how much they love Jesus and how grateful they are for what He has done for them! God is faithful!! We are truly honored to see God's amazing plan for their life unfold. We will continue to pray that they will grow more and more in love with Jesus!

Here are some pictures and video of the special day. Kevin baptized Ethan along with our children's pastor and Caleb with one of Caleb's shepherds from church. It was quite emotional so sorry, the video is shaky. Also special thanks to Aunt Rachelle for taking the pictures of the baptism. Enjoy!

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Spring Sports Here We Come!

Ethan is playing Baseball this Spring for the first time. He is SO excited!! His team, the Angels have been practicing for the last few weeks and games start at the end of the month. He can't wait and we can't either, we are all so happy for him! He is so proud of his "bag" with all his equipment...glove, helmet, bat, batting gloves, etc. Oh and don't forget his cleats! :) And now last night at practice they got their uniforms, yay!! Hudsonville Ice Cream is his team sponsor.
Here is a sneak peek of Mr. E

Caleb is very happy to be playing Soccer this Spring! His team has been practicing for the last couple weeks. Kevin is still coaching his team, they have the same team for Fall and Spring. They had their first game bright and early this morning. His team won and played really well...we lost track of the goals for our team, but last we remember maybe 10-3? Caleb was able to score a great goal, along with a lot of other boys from his team. So it was a fun game, the whole team was on fire and a nice way to start off the season. We sure are all looking forward to more of his games...go Blue Sharks!

GOAL!!

Life can be busy with practices and games, but we really have fun with it! I love to see how excited the boys are about their sport, as well as seeing their brother just as excited for them! And next fall we will be adding Mr. Levi to the world of sports! :)

The boys...

Traverse City

Caleb had another appointment with his JRA doctor this past Monday. Since it was over Spring Break we had scheduled it in Traverse City and made it a family event. We left Sunday after church and on our way we stopped at one of our favorite places, Sleeping Bear Dunes. We climbed the Dunes, took pictures, and gathered info from the Rangers because Caleb is doing a project on Sleeping Bear Dunes for school. From there we headed to the hotel and the boys basically swam the rest of the night! Our hotel was right on the bay so we did venture out on the beach before bed. In the morning the boys went swimming up until we had to check-out. After we left the hotel we got lunch and then went to Caleb's appointment.
Here are some pictures from our time in Traverse City...enjoy!

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Caleb turns 9!!

It's hard to believe 9 years ago today we were holding Caleb for the first time! We are so thankful for him and the blessing he is to our family!

Caleb always has a smile on his face and loves to laugh! He loves to be silly and have fun, but he also loves to serious and have good "talks". Caleb has such a kind heart, he is always looking out for others and is such a good friend.

Caleb loves to be outside playing sports, catching creatures in the backyard, skateboarding or biking. If he is in the house you would find him playing Legos, the Wii or in the workshop. He loves to read at night before going to sleep. His two favorite series right now are Magic Tree House or A-Z Mystery. Caleb's favorite subject in school is Math.

Tonight we had his party with the Grandparents, Aunts & Uncles, and Cousins. Caleb chose the theme of Phineas & Ferb. We sure had a fun night celebrating Caleb and his 9th Birthday! We are so proud of him and the young man he is becoming!

Leap into Reading

Today at school Caleb and Ethan have a special day to celebrate Leap Year...Leap into Reading! They had to dress up like a character from their favorite book. Their school has all kinds of fun things planned today including a parade around the school with all the kids and teachers in their costumes. They also are ending the day with a chapel and will be talking about the greatest book of all!

It can be stressful trying to figure out these costumes and "who to be" but I am so thankful for fun days like this. Both boys were beyond excited this morning! So I wanted to share some pictures. :)

Here is JACK from Magic Tree House: Ghost Town at Sundown

And ELEPHANT from Mo Willems: Elephant and Piggie

Dog

Kevin told the boys years ago that when Caleb turns 10 we will get a dog. Well this week Caleb turns 9, so there has been a lot of talk of next year's Birthday. We were all in the van on the way to church yesterday and the boys were talking about our "future dog". Kevin reminded them that they will all have jobs to do to help with the dog...feeding, walking, etc. Levi pipes in and says...

"My job will be to pet him"

Beans

So Levi had us laughing at the dinner table again last night. I had made green Beans for the vegetable with our meal. However Mr. Levi is not a fan of them, so he says to me...

"Mom, while you were Zip-lining Grandma didn't make me eat Beans"

Love how detailed he is, not just "while you were gone"....it's while you were Zip-lining! What a kid!

Hart Family Cruise

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Blue

Last night I made a new recipe, it was a Taco Casserole. The boys did not like it at all. We heard things like disgusting, gross, etc. but the best was Levi's....

"I think it has blue in it"

*For those of you who don't know Levi is allergic to Blue (and actually we are starting to think Red too)...Cotton Candy, certain Popsicles, most Fruit snacks, lots of Juices, and many more things. It's actually quite crazy all the things that have Blue in it. And sometimes his reaction just depends on how much Blue is in it. So really we just try and stay away from everything with Blue. Levi is good about it and knows he can't have it, because then he gets hives (aka Itchy Itch) all on his neck, stomach, etc. So last night he was hoping the casserole had blue in it too! :)

What our boys have been up to the last few weeks...

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The big 4...

Happy Birthday to our "dear, dear" Levi!!

Today Levi is turning the big 4!! Last night we celebrated our little Pirate Buck-a-Roo's Birthday with his Grandpas & Grandmas, Aunts & Uncles, and Cousins! Levi wanted a Jake and the Never land Pirates Party so we dressed up like Pirates, decorated our house, the kids found treasure, and ate a yummy Pirate ship cake. We sure had a fun night celebrating Levi. As most parents say, we can hardly believe he is turning 4!! He is growing up way too fast! We enrolled him in Preschool for next fall and it just seems crazy to us that he will be off to school with Caleb and Ethan next year. Levi brings so much joy to our family! He keeps us on our toes and laughing all the time! We are so thankful for Levi and looking forward to giving hims lots and lots of kisses now that he is 4!