the walking continues

so the first day Bel walked she took a 4 day hiatus, but she has officially taken off. She is a happier girl and way more independent and self entertaining now that she can explore, reach new heights, see new things - she is content just walking from room to room for big chunks of time - then she'll stop for a little attention and as soon as I try to confine her to playing a game with me - she's off touring the house again.

We took this a few days ago and she has gotten even better - you'll have to pardon the shaking and whirring... again.

Also - happy birthday to me! It was a super fantastic day - this handsome guy took our early rising sweetheart while I slept - he made all our meals for the day AND had cake and presents for me too! It was such a good day.

that looks like a lot of candles on that cake and it is missing 3 - yikes - I'm closer to 30 than I am to 20!

I was so excited about my shirt from my sis and my sleeveless bike jersey from my honey I wore them both for most of the day

the moment we've all been waiting for

We knew that one of these days Bel would realize that she was just holding on to our fingers for fun and today was that day!

Bel and I were taking one of our daily strolls around the neighborhood and Bel paused to drum on a manhole lid (behind our house - not in the middle of the street) Then she stood up and walked away without even thinking about it. I went screaming giddily to the house for Ryan to come join us and when he came out she walked straight to him and gave him a big hug. We had so much fun getting her all tuckered out - it was a beautiful thing!

(Note: I dropped my camera a while back and now it shakes whenever it is on. Ryan pointed out that it's just like the old fashioned crank cameras that drown out all other sounds - so my apologies for the low quality cinematography.)

Crawling is still her main form of locomotion but I'm pretty sure she'll be coming around to the idea of walking full time and her lazy mom will be busy keeping her out of the street. Three cheers for our big little girl!

count your many blessings

For any of you that are news watchers you may have heard about tornados in the midwest last week - as crazy as it is - that was our town - the tornado hit just a few miles away from us.

dinner still on the counter in this one

that night ryan went to help - when he came home we made our emergency "where do we go / what do we do in case of a tornado" plan, the next day we got renter's insurance.

Considering the force and the damage, our town is pretty lucky and everyone has really reached out to help and support those in need. It's these kind of situations that make me realize what is really important and how blessed I am.

Tulip Festival

Last week all the Miller girls were in the neighborhood, so naturally I couldn't resist crashing the party. We went to the Tulip Festival in Pella. I dropped my camera and it died in the first 10 minutes (so sad). But honestly it couldn't have been a better time or place to do it. Mandy, Mel and Megs all take tons of fabulous photos, so our trip was documented by them way better than it would have been by me.

cousins - yay

chowing down on fair food - yum

I'm so glad Bel was with me so I had an excuse to go down this slide - yahoo!

Mandy takes to most amazing photos - here is my favorite set...

where's bel?"boo!"

"ha - gotcha! I am so tricky!"

It was so much fun to see the tulips and a bunch of people that I love and enjoy so much.

making memories and headlines

Last week I went on vacation to Abby's place in exotic Iowa. I have to give my husband a lot of credit here, because he is the one working his tail off, but for some reason I was just in a rut. So Ryan insisted that I go spend a few days with Abs - which of course would heal any ailment.
It is here that I have to refer to my life as a musical and share the song I sing whenever I think of my sister...

it has a long intro, but you'll know what I sing when it gets there :)


We had a super fabulous time and even made the front page of the local paper. http://www.thehawkeye.com/viewImage/FEA-Ragbrai-Training-042909-jpg

Last but not least, I couldn't help but laugh at Bel's little bit of mischief...

In other news - this is what happens at 10pm at our house for the last 4 nights...

and Bel is still working up the courage to walk on her own and having a great time learning.