Celebration Station in Tampa

Someone in the house feels like this:

She's blowing snot bubbles and her cough sounds worse than it is...But, I just fed her some toast, cheese and water and now she's jammin' to Black Eyed Peas. I think we're on the upswing!! Dang, airport germs. We just returned from a very fast and extremely celebratory weekend in Tampa Florida to celebrate this guy:

My dad turns 50 this week and my sisters and mom planned a HUGE surprise for him. It involved four of his siblings, two of his nieces, three of his grandkids and some other Tampa residents who are somehow related to Dan or to me. (haha!) It was a really good surprise. He had no idea all those people loved him so much. There were lots of good times and family story swapping.
My sisters and cousins Karen and Jennifer. So fun to see all these people outside of Indiana where we usually reunite. (not pictured, Uncle Mark, Aunt Sis, Aunt Mary Grace and Aunt Carrie, Granny Claire, Uncle Denny, Aunt Jenny .... my camera was replaced by taking care of the baby).
We also had a tea party baby shower for Raschelle and soon-to-come Ella! It was a neat little Bed and Breakfast and we got to visit with more family and bless the Myricks with lots of lovely little baby things.

Here are the two pregnant sheilas in the fam: 20 weeks and 35 weeks...give or take a few:
Oh yah! David Haller lives in Tampa. Though the weekend seemed to be focused on DeGeyters, we penciled in some Uncle Dave time and saw him for a second or two!! It was a cold night on the beach but still so good to see him!

Lastly, we celebrated Allie's birthday! We had a strawberry shortcake themed breakfast and partied in the sunshine with Allie and Zach. Such a fun filled weekend

13 Months

As a present, God gave us a 70-degree Sunday afternoon family funday. We packed up a picnic lunch and headed to a Huntersville park and playground.

We swung/swinged/swang on some swings. (help...grammar police?)

Ari is slowly learning to walk with our hands. She loves it. She'll walk really quickly though not yet 'on her own'.

(I love this pic above)

I was unbelievably grateful that Dan had Sunday off. We deserve a day like that more often!

At 13 months, Ari is around 21 pounds, talks and babbles all day. She says many words and will repeat anything that you say. Her favorite words are: dadda, mamma, dog, bird, bunny (or a word for it, sounds like gurney), shoe, sock, more, hi, hey, byebye, no, go...and some other words that she makes up along the way. Her word for most things is 'gah'. She eats a lot of food and sleeps really well.

Whats under there? 'UnderWHERE?"

Happy Birthday Dan!

We love you!

Family Pics

A few weeks ago, we got some family pictures and I finally edited and uploaded them. Look at our sweet ONE YEAR OLD!