our happy lil' explorer

We're having so much fun watching Teagan crawl around and explore the world around her! She is quite the active lil' girl and is almost constantly moving and finding the next thing to pull herself up or to put her mouth on...or both. Her personality is coming out more and more as we watch her in this new world of hers. Besides being a mover, she is really a content and happy (except when it's bedtime...that's another story!) baby who radiates joy from every ounce of her being! Here are some pictures to show you what we mean (open mouth = loud, ear piercing shrieks of joy!)

my beloved grandma

After living life to the fullest for 89 years, my beloved Grandma (Oosting) passed away yesterday. We are so sad to see her go, however, we know that she is no longer battling her dementia and the infections that too often frequented her body. My grandma was one of the wittiest, most loving and strongest women I knew. Although it was difficult seeing her in her last days of life, I am grateful to have spent time with her last week and share a final moment with her before saying "goodbye." She was an incredible trooper over these last couple of weeks when her health began to deteriorate more and more. True to her strong nature, she waited until my Grandpa and her children were with her, holding her hand as she took her last breath.
This "story" captures my Grandma so well and brings me tears as I recall who she was and all the memories of her that I will cherish in my heart forever! We have peace knowing that she is resting (warmly!) in Heaven, teaching the angels how to make her famous lamb cake and watching with joy down on the family she loved so dearly.

Please pray for our family and especially for my Grandpa who will be facing the days ahead without his beloved wife and best friend of 61 years.

We love you Grandma and we look forward to spending eternity with you!


Grandma with me and Teagan at the nursing home a couple of months ago.

Our Hero

After 6 months of training, Tim officially graduated from the Fire Academy last Friday and is now a Park Township Volunteer Firefighter! I am SO proud of him and all that he accomplished over the past 6 months...long nights of classes and meetings (2 - 3x/wk) and both mental and physical focus, skill and hard work all to serve his family and his community (okay, and to satisfy that lil' boy dream of riding in big red firetrucks). We enjoyed a celebratory dinner at our house with all of our parents before heading off to the ceremony. It was a great night!

He will remain on-call 24/7 but is on-duty (must report to getting called out) 2 nights a week from 6:00pm - 6:00am. He has been participating in calls since first starting the training, however, he could do basically everything (alarms, car accidents, medical responses, gas leaks etc.) but go into a burning building...until now (yea). Despite some reservation on my part in regards to risk-taking ventures such as these, I have complete confidence and pride in Tim as a man who would do anything and risk everything to help someone else. He is truly our hero!


My Daddy, My Hero!


Getting ready to eat the DQ ice cream cake I had made for him (with the Park Township emblem on it!)


Receiving his certificate


So handsome!


I love this Firefighter!

it's time to lower...

the crib! We put Teagan down for a nap yesterday and a little while later we heard her crying. Tim went in to check on her and quickly summoned me to come and look at what he discovered. Here's a picture of what we saw. :)



Yes, our 6 month old can now pull herself up to a standing position. We lowered the crib to the lowest position it could go...better safe than sorry when dealing with our lil' "wonder child."

milestones

This cutie patootie is entering the world of solid foods, sitting up all on her own, revealing her adorbale laugh, army crawling and saying "ma, da and ba!" We love her so much, we just want to eat her up!


mmm...rice cereal!


If she could only talk, she would have told me why she kept falling over when I set her down after putting her jeans on (see pant hole). Sorry sweetie! :)


1st Captain Sundae experience!

For more adorable pics of this cutie, check out a post from Monday on this blog!

cousins

4th of July

We enjoyed a beautiful 4th of July weekend up in Spring Lake - picture perfect weather and great company, including Tara, Mark and Myles and my Aunt Wilma who were all visiting from out of town. Here are some of my favorite pics from the weekend!


cutie patootie


playing baggo (aka "cornhole")


"Mommy! I don't want to sit in the baggo hole so you can take another picture of me!"


enjoying the bonfire


the guys and tara enjoyed a morning outing of fishing on dad's new boat!


tim showing off his wakeboarding skills!


brooke enjoying an early morning slalom ski!