It's a bird, it's a plane....

...it's my family falling 12,000 feet from the sky!

Yup, some of the people I love more than anything in the world risked their life last Sunday by jumping out of a plane at Fremont Municipal Airport! The sane people, (my mom, my sister, Tara, and myself)looked on from the security of the ground with our nervous stomachs and babies in our arms (one parent had to stay alive, right?!)

This whole crazy family adventure was actually my dad's idea. I guess he thought that things like falling off cliffs, getting lost in the mountains and being stranded in Alaska were not thrilling enough experiences to fulfill that risk-taking side of him...so why not add skydiving to the list and have half the family join him? :) Actually, knowing that everyone safely landed and had the time of their lives, I am grateful for this crazy idea that he came up with as it was quite fun to watch and created memories that will last a lifetime. Thanks Mom and Dad!! :)


Thankfully, this was not our last family picture. :)


My sister Jess and her boyfriend, Mike


My sister Andrea and my dad




"Tough guys", Mark (brother-in-law) and Tim


Tim and Mark walking to get on the tiny plane


Tim in the air


Tim safely landing (ahh...sweet relief!)

Summertime

It's been awhile since I've posted as there's not much new here at the Keelers. We are staying busy and enjoying the last days of summer! We've been blessed with lots of good times with family and friends, enjoying our boat, working on finishing our basement, watching the Olympics (can you believe that according to my best times during my track and field days, I'm only 3 seconds shy of winning a gold medal in the 100m sprint and 8 seconds shy in the 400m?!...haha...that's actually a lot!!...it's just fun to think about!), eating Captain Sundae ice cream, working, running, organizing a "back to school" event through our church for families in our community, getting excited for friends who've just had babies, staying up too late writing on this blog....

Enjoy a slideshow (in the post below) of some of my favorite pictures that have been taken recently!

Summer Snapshots

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."