Hello All! This weekend we had a special visitor. Kelly's cousin Mike. He is a Major in the Air Force stationed in Germany. He had to come to U.S. for work and was going to be flying through Chicago. He made a special trip to spend time with us and we of course were thrilled!! We wish he could have brought his wife, Holly and son, Tyler. Maybe some day we will meet up with them in Europe, that would sure be fun. Imagine the Briden Bunch's European Vacation, what fun!!!! Cousin Mike or Cousin Uncle Mike as the kids called him at times was welcomed into the Briden home like any friend or family member by WRESTLING. Our kids love to wrestle their Dad, Grandpa B, Granddad Briden, Aunt Heather, Uncle Rick, Aunt Kristin, Uncle Kirk, Uncle Jeff and now Cousin Uncle Mike has been added to the Briden club of fun Wrestlers. Thanks for coming to visit us Mike we pray you, Holly and Tyler are protected by God while serving our country abroad. Thank you for your service to our country!!! Thank you also for driving all the way to and from Chicago to our neck of the woods. Maybe next time we can visit yours?!

Enjoy the pictures everyone was in on the action. Even Hope sat in her bouncer seat watching all the action and kicking her legs wildly. Soon, Hope, soon you will be down on the floor taking your daddy down : )

Hello All! I am excited to say I submitted a photo to Michigan in Pictures~Photo Blog. I love this blog and all the beautiful pictures of our home state. I told Kelly when I submitted it last night " If they put it on the blog, I am so going to buy the Nikon D40 I have been wanting!" My husband is very frugal and financially wise. He grunted " O.K. " I think he underestimates my ability or at least my subtle manipulation, HA! HA! Click here to see the photo. Have a good day!!!

Hello All! This will be short and sweet as I have little time to type this morning. Our weather has been GREAT!! We have spent so much time at the beach lately. We have had a picnic dinner, hunted for beach treasures and thrown endless rocks and sticks into Lake Michigan. We can't get enough of our time at the beach. The kids were fascinated by the dead duck and fish so I captured them for posterity. I have beach video coming soon : ) God Bless you today!!!

Grace our oldest, turned six in February. Click here to read that post. She it now toothless on the bottom front. She lost both within a week of the other. She is so proud : ) Our baby is getting so big!!!












I have also attached some random potos of us playing outside. The kids love our "swing". They hang by their arms from the trapeze bar via a long rope Daddy hung up. Everyone of them enjoys running and jumping of our hill of a backyard.

The "big"girls playing outside and loving life : )


Our favorite Gnome in Grace's backyard garden. He is sleeping peacefully. We found him on our property at our old farm house in Missouri. He mad e the move with us and he has been very happy in Michigan : ) Love you and God Bless your Spring!!
One last thing today is my Dad's Birthday, Grandpa B. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA B, WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!

Hello All! Yesterday morning Faith's class had a field trip to Frederick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids. I drove instead of taking the bus, I get motion sick on the back of school buses. It is always to hot and you bump up and down like you are in a boat on rough water. I will most often choose to drive when the trip is an hour on a school bus : )

At Meijer Gardens they have a neat Butterfly exhibit inside with all the tropical plants. It was great fun yesterday. We got to see many beautiful butterflies and it was nice enough to play outside as well in the children's garden. Luke has overcome most of his fear of flying insects. I wonder how that little man would have handled a disabling fear of insects in Africa? He did great yesterday, no running away screaming or anything. Faith always enjoys being out and about. She enjoyed the plants and the butterflies the "blue one" was her favorite. Hope did great as well. She has huge butterflies that hang in her bedroom. I wondered what she thought of it, she was awake the whole time just taking it all in.

Outside we went to the children's garden and ran like crazy. Luke loved the "Big Beaver" sculpted out of some kind of moss, I think. Faith enjoyed the large birds nest and playing on the human size bird's eggs. It was a great day and within two minutes of leaving Luke was passed out. I had to take his picture : ) Yes, I did take it while driving down the highway. Maybe I have taken multi-tasking to far?! God Bless!!! I hope you enjoy the photo collage!!

Hello All! This is Hope laughing at Grace tonight while playing our "Get you" game. She laughs so much at the kids. She loves to watch, smile, talk and giggle at her big siblings!!! They all love her so much, it is neat to see their relationship develop. As she becomes more alert and animated they all want to help me "babysit" and play with little Hopey (yes all our nicknames end in the E sound, Gracie, Faithie, Lukey, and Hopey) : ) Enjoy the giggles and have a great night!!!

I haven't posted in awhile, so I thought I would post a few musings:





First of all, we had a wonderful Spring Break and I thoroughly enjoyed the time I had with all of us together. Crazy Bounce was a blast! We also went to the movies to see "Horton Hears a Who". We tried to fly kites one day, this resulted in a lot of running, and very little "flying", but good exercise for all!





Crystal is nominated for mother of the year award. She proved her devotion to her children a couple of weeks ago. The temperature finally broke above freezing and the sun peaked out. Crystal took everyone to the playground and literally broke off chunks of ice with her bare hands of the playground equipment so her kids could play safely. Obviously, this was primarily devotion, but a touch of cabin fever thrown in. I was on baby duty. Crystal and the older three stormed the playground, but Hope needed a nap, so I stayed with her in the van. I believe in leading by example, so I reclined the seat and showed her how napping is properly done.

Some things don't transcend gender lines, as we experienced today. We were in Subway having lunch when a bride-to-be came in. She was in regular clothes, but her hair and make-up were all done up and she was wearing a long white veil. This delighted our girls and they couldn't stop looking at her. As she was leaving, she walked right by our table and the girls both said, "You look beautiful!" Of course, the bride lit up and thanked them. Crystal and I affirmed them for being nice and encouraging. Well, as we were praising them, a random man entered though the door and Luke shouted, "You look handsome!" I can't quite describe the look the man, clearly coming off the worksite, gave in response to a three year old's compliment. Crystal certainly couldn't describe it either, as she melted in embarrassment, as evidenced by her face turning bright red. We are constantly telling Luke he needs to talk louder, as he often mumbles. Why did he have to heed our advise at that time?

Hello All! I promised CRAZY BOUNCE photos and here they are. Kelly took the kids yesterday to bounce till they couldn't bounce anymore. They had a great time. Kel was also gracious enough to let me stay home and have a few quiet moments with just one baby. Thanks Kelly!!! Apparently their was only one other Daddy at, the full to capacity, Crazy Bounce. It was my hubby and many soccer moms. I think that many Mommies in one place makes him nervous : )





The kids enjoyed the big tiger slide and many obstacle courses. Grace was a big help to both Luke and Faith. Both of the younger two had some moments of fear on the big slides. Grace came to their rescue : ) She is such a thoughtful big sister!

During the ride to Crazy Bounce, Faith had a cute thought. They passed a large smoke stack on the highway going to Holland. Faith said as she was studying the stack in the distance, " I love those things, it's making us new clouds!" She is such a positive little things in many ways. She is commonly our encourager and cheerleader. Only Faith could be excited about the dirty smoke stack on the horizon : )













Here is our sweet, Hope. This is her second time in the swing outside. She has on a sweet L.L.Bean bunting on that Grandpa B and Brenda bought for her. The bunting is so cute because it has teddy bear ears at the top. She needed it the other day as it was sunny, but not warm enough for her little bald head to be exposed. I am amazed by how she is changing. It is so hard for me to believe she is four months old and on the 30th of this month she will be 5 months : ) Wow, my little baby is drooling alot, smiling at everyone and laughing. What fun we are having with Hope!!!
God Bless you all!!