Costume Cuties

We had a little poodle puppy(Cortney) and a princess from Beauty and the Beast(Stephanie).

We had a fun Halloween night! As a neighborhood we decided to close down our street for our first ever costume parade. It was fun to get the neighbors together, plus we all invited other friends and family. We walked from one end of the street to the other and then we ended with cider and treats. Our visiting was cut short with raindrops, but it was wonderful for the kids to see each others costumes and to get a little trick or treating done early.


Cousin Noah was a cute dinosaur!

It's easier to get a pumpkin to smile on camera than our kids!

Future Nascar Driver?

Our neighbor girl has recently outgrown her pink corvette and therefore the Leep sisters have a new set of wheels in the garage. We enjoyed the warm fall days when the girls could play outside for hours. Stephanie has really become quite an accomplished driver. She can speed around trees and back up with ease. At first Cortney was unsure about riding along because Stephanie's driving was quite jerky, but now she's comfortable enough to take her baby along for a ride too! Daddy is quite proud of his little race car driver! She is even more fun to watch than his Nascar celebrities.

We have been behind on updates

Sorry that we haven't been updating our blog lately. It was partly due to the fact we had some creepy comments on our site from unknown people. Hopefully, now we will be able to have people visit our blog that we know are safe and love us as a family. Can't be too careful now days!

Our Little School Girl

Stephanie started preschool this year! She is so excited that she is now 4 and can go to school like the big kids. She attends a Spanish Emerson Preschool which has proven to be a interesting adventure. She likes the kids in her class and she seems to be learning Spanish and is applying it more each day. It's hard to get a lot of excitement out of her regarding her day. Often, she just says "we learned Spanish" and doesn't expound on it. We wonder if it's hard to explain what they do because everything is in Spanish. She does say she likes talking Spanish, so we will take this as a good sign for now.

Stephanie is 4!!!!

On July 20- Stephanie greatly enjoyed her 4th Birthday! She had been anxious for the day to arrive!

We celebrated the day with a special lunch with her friend Jade and the mommies. We then went to the mall for a carousel ride and a little shopping.



Then in the evening Stephanie enjoyed a party with all her loving family. Aunts, uncles, cousin, grandparents and even great grandparents. She loved all the attention and gifts. We all love to see her excited and happy! She is a joy to all who love her!

Besides the abundance of new polly pockets...Mom and Dad got Stephanie an easel for her art projects. Stephanie is really into drawing and making pictures. Hopefully, she will have fun with this for hours to come in the future!

Doesn't Stephanie look like a big 4 year old with her new short haircut?

Welcome the Ranch "Reunion"

We enjoyed some fun, filled, family days at the Double J Ranch.

We met up with the entire VerWys family(Rebecca's dad's side) for a few days and nights at the Double J Ranch up near Muskegon. The accommodations were wonderful and with the company of the 35+family it was great!

Lasting Memories were made!

One of the main attractions to the resort was it's indoor water park. Cortney thought it was a bit chilly in the cooler water, but Stephanie found lots to play with and she enjoyed the lazy river. Even great grandma and great grandpa had fun relaxing around on the tubes. Jeff and Becca had fun racing down the slides together when not on parent duty.





Otherwise, it was just fun hanging out, talking, eating and playing with family you don't see much! Of course we were toke lots of great pictures ... Getting 8 little ones to smile for a picture is quite entertaining! My two girls were the beginning and the end of this picture. Cortney definitely was at her "end" on this occasion!



I'll try to post a picture of the whole group sometime! 4 generations is a cool thing!

A visit to the Farm

Today we enjoyed a family outing with our church to a farm.

The girls had some fun "first" experiences!

Cortney really loves animals! She is not afraid or timid. She had fun petting and feeding the animals at the farm. Cortney got to ride a pony while mom walked along side. There were also goats to feed, a hay ride with bunnies to pet, and much more animals inside the barn to visit. It's fun when Cortney would make the animal noises related to the animals she saw. It's much more fun to see an animal in person than from a book. This was a fun "first" experience for her with animals!


Stephanie had her "first" experience with fishing! (As was Dad's first official attempt to bait a line, cast a line, and reel in a fish.) They both seemed to be enjoying themselves!

Stephanie and daddy watched the line.
They were successful with 2 fishes.

I guess we know that to get Stephanie for her birthday in July. A pink pole for a "girly" girl who loves her dresses, but is willing to touch worms and slimy fishes.

Father's Day

Today we celebrated Dad! Jeff is a wonder father to his girls and we appreciate him very much!

Jeff is definitely Stephanie's favorite because he is a special bedtime story reader! Jeff will also play anything Stephanie desires, including Polly pockets.






Cortney loves her daddy and easily gives him her best smiles! Jeff has a special patience with his girls and he wants to give them the world!

Grandpa "wise" and Papa Leep play special roles in the girls lives too! We are blessed to have them around for hugs and kisses! They provide such love and support in our family!

Happy Father's day to all the Dad's out there!

Today we enjoyed father's day brunch at Great grandpa Verwys' "house". A father's faithfulness is past down to the generations. We are grateful and truly blessed in our heritage!

Cortney and Papa Leep have matching smiles!

The Pool is Open--First Swim of the Summer

The pool is ready and so are the girls! Today was a 90 degree day with a nice breeze, so it was great for the first swim of the summer!


Cortney loves the water and sticks her face right in to blow bubbles. Stephanie loves the water, but is a bit more cautious and is not into getting her face wet. Stephanie is excited that she can touch in the shallow end more this year because she is taller. She also is anxious to try the new things she learned at swimming lessons within the last month. We will have to keep our eyes on Cortney constantly because I can just see her chasing balls right into the pool. She loves balls as you can see from her picture.

Stephanie had these goggles most of the time she was in the pool and you can't see a thing out of them! Goofy girl! She was having fun and stayed in the water till she was quite a prune. It's going to be a fun summer!

The Pool is Open---please feel free to come and play! We love friends and family to visit!

"Bankers Away"--we think this will be the name of our boat!

So, we have accomplished one of our dreams... Every since we started dating we would love to sit along the channel at Holland State park and look at the boats cruising the channel and dream about owning a boat someday. Someday has come after much though, deliberation, and research. So, this Mother's day weekend we took possesion of a 10 year old boat that seems to perfectly fit our family. We have enjoyed multiple trips and adventures with family and friends already this season. Jeff is really enjoying being the captain and is begging me to learn to drive. I seem to be busy making sure Cortney doesn't climb out(she is our little monkey) or entertained. Thankfully, there is plenty of room to move around and keep her occupied with toys and goldfish crackers. Stephanie loves the boat and wants all her friends and family to enjoy it with her! So, please come and "cruise" with us soon!

We had at night out the the lake with some couples from our church. We had cruise to Saugatuck for dinner and then came back with a gorgeous night sky. The cooler temperatures were not a problem!


Memorial day, we enjoyed a beautiful day on the boat for a picnic lunch. It was a great way to hang out! Rob brought his new girlfriend Allison and Ross and Sarah are always an item. The family just keeps getting bigger. :) Tons of fun!

Tulip Time with our Little Dutch Girls

Though most people who live in Holland hate Tulip Time, we really enjoy being close to the festivities. It was fun to dress the girls up in their matching dutch girl costumes and go to watch the dutch dancers in the evenings. Stephanie really liked the "tap" dancers this year and she would kick like them. We also had fun taking in a parade. Cortney liked all the floats and bands to wave at. Stephanie liked to make up her own dances to the music of the bands passing by. Cortney stuck with eating a snow cone to keep cool and content. Another year is done, but you can be assured we made sure to eat our elephant ear before the time was up.

Our Topsail, NC vacation (late April to May)

This was the beach where we made fun memories! We enjoyed a 2 week stay at an oceanfront home with Jeff's family. There were 7 adults and 3 kids, but with a house containing 9 bedrooms(sleeping for 20) and bathrooms galore we never felt crowed! Stephanie loved having a room with bunk beds because she could rotate beds for night time and "rest"time. Cortney enjoyed jumping in the ocean and she had no fear of the waves. We had a great weather and with the ocean and sand what more could we ask for!?





Jeff worked one of the weeks "remote" and mommy and the girls got to play on the beach. We appreciated the opportunity to stay at our vacation home longer this way. Cousin Noah and Cortney enjoyed splashing in the ocean. It was fun to see the two of them in action together being that they are so close in age. (14 hours apart) Almost like having a twin.