summer fun

I can't believe that it's already near the end of July and summer will soon be over! Here are some recaps from the last couple of months:

* Siblings are moving! Tim and his dad spent this weekend riding halfway across the country and back helping his brother, Matt and his fiance, Kelly, move from Washington DC to Chicago. We're so excited that they will be closer! My sister, Andrea, moved to Grand Rapids and my sister, Tara and her husband, Mark (and baby Myles!) moved from California to Cincinnati, Ohio! We're planning on visiting them next weekend!!

* "Romper/Grasshopper" Update: We were able to hear the heartbeat again at our doctor's appointment just over a week ago and we have our ultrasound scheduled for Augsut 23 where we'll find out how well "Romper/Grasshopper" is growing and if it will be a he or a she!!

* Jess and I enjoyed a great 26th birthday week complete with a nice dinner early in the week courtesy of my parents. To end the week, my sweet hubby made me feel special with a dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Snug Harbor, a beautiful card/note, some shopping time and a bag of my favorite indulgence...Dove dark chocolates!! :)




* We enjoyed meeting up with a group of friends for our annual camping weekend at Hoffmaster State Park in June. We had such a great time. We also enjoyed making memories with these same friends on Memorial Day up at my parent's cabin where 3 of us revealed that we were pregnant!


Yup...that's Tim smoking a pipe.

The Palacios family making the morning fire.

Cutie pie Ian Palacios

Jess, Marl, Katie and Brooke

* Our CABLE group threw a baby shower for our friends, Nate and Jenni, who are having a baby girl in August...after having 4 boys! We're so excited for them!

Nate obviously loving the baby food being fed to him by Jenni during one of the games we played. :)

The guys.

* A friend from Hope, Corrie, got married to an awesome guy named Phil on 7/7/07! We had a great time celebrating with them!





* Another friend from Hope, Colleen, and her hubby, Johnny, had a precious baby boy, Trey, on June 18th! We're so happy for you guys!!

Running for Rachael

My cousin's daughter, Rachael, is 14 and was recently diagnosed with lymphoma. She is currently receiving chemo treatments through DeVos Children's Hospital. The good news is that based on the results of a PET scan a couple of weeks ago, the cancer is gone! We praise God for this! Despite this, Rachael will still need to endure chemo treatments for awhile longer. She is such a beautiful, brave and faith-filled young woman! In honor of Rachael and her strength, my sister, Jess, competed in the Lakeshore Miracle Run yesterday morning which benefited the DeVos Children's Hospital. Check out the pics of this event as well as a video of the Grand Haven Triatholon that Jess recently completed!

preggo update

I'm now in my last week of the 1st trimester! I actually haven't gotten "sick" yet, however, I haven't felt the best (nausea...overall yuck feeling) the entire time and I'm really hoping that it will pass soon! It gets the worse when I'm not eating...but then nothing sounds good so it's hard to eat anything...and the cycle continues. I really can't complain though because I know so many people who've had it a lot worse! I'm trying to stay positive and remember that the sick feeling is just a reminder of the blessing growing inside of me!

We have our next doctor's appointment on Friday! We can't wait! We're hoping that at the doctor's appointment after the one this Friday we'll be able to have an ultrasound and find out if it's a boy or girl!! I'm so eager to know and can't imagine having to wait until the day I give birth (it's funny how times have changed with that)! My excuse is that knowing beforehand will make me more mentally prepared...and will allow me to go shopping for specific things!! :)


A little bump!


My sweet hubby surprised me by buying me a body pillow so now I can sleep more comfortably. I love my body pillow!! :)

new blog

My sister, Jessica, started a blog through her business, Valeo Personal Training. She keeps it updated with questions (asked by her clients) and answers and other tidbits of information that is very interesting! I've already learned a lot and I'm sure you would too! Check it out: www.valeotraining.blogspot.com.

OUR BIG NEWS!

For those of you that haven't heard yet....

WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A BABY!!!

God has blessed us with a little one growing inside of me for the past 11 weeks! Baby Keeler (aka "Little Romper" or "Grasshopper") will be making his/her arrival around January 11, 2008!!

We are SO excited for what God has in store for our family and are loving learning and dreaming about the child God has chosen for us! We had our first "official" doctor's appointment last week and were able to hear the baby's heartbeat! It was actually the earliest our doctor has ever heard a heartbeat!! It was so amazing and made everything just a little more real! We are in awe of the way God creates life... "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." ~ psalm 139:13-14

I've been feeling pretty good - more nauseous in the afternoon/evening - but nothing to complain about! I'm hoping it will all pass within the next couple of weeks!

We look forward to keeping in touch with how everything is going and praise God for this blessing of new life!



Grandma Dock and Oma's initial reactions after opening their Mother's Day gift with a "grandma's brag book" photo album and the picture of Bailey above! :) Grandma Keeler had a very similar reaction the night before. :)


the keelers!

petoskey

Tim and I enjoyed our 6th annual trip up north to Petoskey last weekend! Tim plays in a soccer tournament up there with a Hope alum and some Petoskey residents. We've made this weekend our little vacation get-away for the summer. We stay in a bed and breakfast and have our little traditions of places we eat at and places that we like to visit. This year we discovered a fish hatchery/conservation center/nature trail that we hadn't been to before and enjoyed the scenic walk (Brooke especially liked feeding the baby fish...). :) Tim's team was awesome and made it to the Finals but ended up losing by one. We had such a great time again this summer! Here are a few pics:





the cutest soccer player ever!






Tim and I find humor in the little things of life. Take for example this ball of sports tape that Tim set on the bumper of the car (left corner) by accident at the beginning of the weekend...and it never fell off! It stayed on until we got home and finally threw it away in our garage! :) Hehe.

sweet baby myles

My sister, Tara, and her husband, Mark, made the big move to Cincinnati this past weekend as Mark has started his residency. Because they couldn't move into their house right away and Mark had already begun working, Tara and Myles spent last week here in Michigan. While they were here, were were able to spend a lot of quality time with them and we loved every minute although we missed you Mark! Myles is the sweetest baby we'ver ever met! It's impossible to be in a bad mood around him because his smile is never ending and he just lights up the room! Here are some pics of the precious baby boy!


Aunt Brooke loving on Myles.
Sun bathing in his new (big!) hat.
Baby Kenny Chesney.
Myles and his Mama
Myles and Oma
Flying high!
I'm ready for my first boat ride, Opa!
Hanging out with Opa.
Snoozin' with Auntie Andee
Mama and Myles reading "Miles the Crocodile."