A Great Day

See, We Are Alive and Well, Just Busy!

Let's get caught up! It all started last spring with a babe that became mobileand a 4 year old playing soccer and a 2&1/2 year old that mastered pedaling. It turned into garden prep, which turned into firework/local festival/big wheel race training season (he took 1st in his age group by the way), which led to Noah's 3rd Birthday, which led to more summer fun festivitieswhich led to Andy's Birthdaywhich brought more time spent in the garden and finally seeing some of the fruit of our labor (these aren't our sunflowers, but I love the pictures and don't have too many cute pics of my own garden)Which most recently has brought us to celebrating the day we started this journey together 7 years ago! I'm blessed to have this amazing man by my side every step of this digging, ball kicking, chasing, pedaling, candle blowing adventure. I couldn't have picked a better partner to buckle in with when I got in line for this Roller Coaster, so glad I let God choose! Andy, I look forward to the next 77 years of the journey with God guiding and your hand in mine. I love you!

Our First Spring

Here are few signs of spring in the Valley. It's so nice to be settled into what we see as our forever house or at least, our 'till we can afford to live on the water' house. We will look forward to these signs of spring for many years to come. Except hopefully we'll find some mushrooms in the mix too!



With Spring in the air we're doing alot of playing around here. And what's a post without the boys...
Noah the ExplorerFisher the Soccerman
Fun with Newspaper


Praying for a little warmer days...

Good Thing a Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Planting trees with daddy, happy Earth Week! Big Boy...

Bigger Boy...

Biggest Boy...

I can't tell you how often I look around at this crew and am just without words. How did I get here? Is that my son dribbling a soccer ball? Is that my husband ticking my baby untill the most beautiful giggle fills the room? Is that my son waking up from a nap in search of mommy cuddles? Are those my tears of pure joy? Absolutely! I am so grateful!

New Growth...

Although signs of spring outside seem to be showing up at a slower pace than we'd like, growth inside these four walls seems to be constant. Check out the little sprout, a few days shy of 7 months old, he's over 18 lbs and popping teeth left and right, at the moment more right than left, very cute, right? Everywhere we go people ask, "Is he always this happy?" and my response is "Actually, yes, he is."
This is one of Corby's favorite tricks, the books call it porpoising. He's also been cracking us up by rolling himself across rooms. He's facsinated with the cat and seems to love every baby food we've tried so far.

Noah has mastered the tricycle in the last month and while the snow was gone he and Fisher had been doing laps on their "trail" around the yard. The trail is basically downhill and Noah loves the thrill. He has become quite the chatter box and I love to hear him talk! He rolls his R's and T's like he's Spanish and he has a bit of a lisp on his S's but people comment on how clearly he speaks, so it's not hard to understand him, just absolutely adorable (I know I'm a bit biased). He loves to play with playdough and would stay in the bath tub forever if we let him.Finally, we have the veteran big brother around here, Fisher. He surprises me more everyday with just how much doesn't get past him. For a couple weeks now, he's been asking how to spell words randomly throughout the day, and as of late he's changed his request, now he wants me to help him sound out the word and he'll tell me which letters make each sound. It's pretty interesting this "game" came from his curiousity about reading and not by my prompting. Fisher loves do anything that involves earning money and insists on eating oatmeal EVERY morning for breakfast.

I hope that life affords you the opportunity to persue the passions you enjoy, rolling across the room, play dough, or whatever it is that tickles you!

A Cure For Cabin Fever

So finally I've found the cure for my journaler's block, it took some fresh spring air and a healthy dose of sunshine. I've apologized in previous posts for only doing recent photos of the kids and not having the time to journal the way my heart desired and the whole purpose for which I originally started blogging! This past weekend we hiked as a family a short trail a few miles away from the house. It was a gorgeous 45-ish day and we were ready to witness all things beautiful about March in Michigan; melting snow and mud! I say that somewhat tongue in cheek, but seriously get gitty about spring! I talked to a friend in Florida who had no idea that melting snow had a smell (I know it's the dirt not the snow, but that just isn't quite as romantic now is it), poor girl to never have experienced such a scent. It was soaking in that glorious early spring day that I found inspiration about midway through the hike, Corbin in the front pack on my chest, Noah in front of me Andy in front of him, and Fisher leading the way. I started realizing how relaxed I was, enjoying the time as a family. I wasn't multi-tasking or thinking about what I needed to do next, I was simply present. That's when my mind started to take it all in. Of course it was beautiful to see the sun glisten on the streams of melting snow and hear the sound of the river hitting the rocks as it flowed past, heading to bigger waters, but as a momma the things that struck the deepest chords of my heart were the blessings of my amazing little humans. God swept away the cobwebs that had been clouding my vision daily with whining and back talking to see the amazing personalities growing within my boys.

Fisher led the hike, on a mission to find the seven bridges for which the trail was named. He counted them as we went along, he stopped momentarily to watch for wildlife or to make a snowball to watch float down the stream, and as much as he enjoyed later getting stuck in mud for what he said was "three and a half hours," he never lost sight of what he had come out to do; FIND THOSE BRIDGES. That's my oldest, a boy on a mission. From the day he came into the world he's been intense! He was very alert as a newborn, potty-trained easily, rode a bike at 3, and loves to win! Along the way he and I have butted heads in the event that his mission and my mission do not coincide, but I am excited about God's plan for that kid, He's going to use him to do great things because of his ability to persevere!

I was even more amazed by our "Little Noah," I've been noticing who he is come out more and more, but Saturday it came through crystal clear. That boy is on this earth to take it all in! It seems that wherever we go Noah is our caboose and for the longest time I thought that was for obvious reasons; he does have the shortest legs of the walkers in our family, but that's not the reason at all, it's because that boy is going to appreciate all the things the rest of us passed by. I remember watching him last summer get down on all fours to examine a worm in the garden or a bug on the sidewalk and thinking how cute he was, not totally realizing at the time I was witnessing the essence of Noah. He is the the scientist and explorer. And no matter how hard I try to get that kiddo to pick up the pace, there's no rushing him. He's going to investigate this planet we live on and he's going to do it in his own way on his own time table.

My hope is that I can be the momma that each of them needs and I can encourage them in ways that allows them to thrive in each of their respective gifts and interests. I know that these could just be phases that each of the boys is going through and I vow to stay tuned in well enough to understand them at any given moment and not put them in a mold. But for now, this momma can just take a few lessons from each of them! I hope to take lessons from Fisher on determination in completing a task started and from Noah I will more often take in the beauty of that which lies right in front of my nose. Which at the moment is a beautiful sleeping 6 month old who is growing up himself right before my eyes! Does it get any better?

My Babes Are Growing Up!

Milestones are being met like crazy around here! First and most exciting is my 2&1/2 year old potty train, YAY Noah! He's doing absolutely beautifully! We're even taking him in public with his new Thomas and Cars underpants! No accidents in about a week now! Things are so different with that kid than they were with his big brother, I feel like I need to learn to parent completely differently with him. He loves to be independent and really doesn't seem to be persuaded or even encouraged by our positive praises. There have been multiple times now when we'll find out later that he went potty on his own without any help. Andy found him rinsing out the little potty (just like I do) after he had gone and then got himself dressed. He probably wouldn't have even told us, but Fisher tattled on him for "playing in the bathroom." He's incredibly independent! And one curious little guy too.

We're making our way through winter in the Bogard household. The little boys and I have been staying busy going to playgroups and storytimes around ER. We've been enjoying meeting new people and developing new friendships, I'm so excited to be a part of this community and planting some roots. It's interesting to meet little ones at playgroups and think of these kids as classmates for my boys. This is a picture from last week when we went to fat Tuesday at Pearl's, I love that place! Yummy!

Spiderman and a Tiger

Andy has been logging some hours on his 60 year old tractor keeping the driveway plowed. I think he enjoys it much more than he lets on. He also took Fisher Ice Skating for the first time last weekend, they sure looked like they had fun.


Last night we all went to a parking lot to do some riding around on the bikes. Fisher got a new bike for his birthday in December, but has been a little leary of it. It's a litte bigger than his old bike and he hasn't been real steady on it since he's not able to get up to speed doing laps in the basement. The "big boys" went again today with their daddy and had a great time again. Noah has figured out recently how to peddal his tricycle too, so he's very excited about that as well.


Baby C is all smiles these days and even has a couple pearly whites cutting through that big ol' grin. He enjoys rolling over and has started to wiggle his butt in the air just a tad when he gets really determined. I don't remeber the older boys enjoying their toes quite as much as Corbin either. He has recently gotten his bottom teeth and turned 6 months old this last week so we started his on a little avacado and he loved it! These boys continue to enrich our lives in more ways than we ever would have guessed. Well, duty calls, there's a baby crying downstairs. Sorry I'm so scattered tonight, I really wanted to post but, can't seem to find the time to do it!