Happy Birthday Laney!

We spent the day at my parent's house this past Sunday to celebrate Lane's 1st b-day. It was such a great day filled with family, presents, swimming and most important, cake. Lane LOVED her first experience with sugar and devoured her entire piece of cake in no time ( she must be mine :)).

It is hard to believe that our little girl is already a year old. I sometimes wonder where the time has gone and now understand what people meant when they said "it goes so fast." This year has been a whirlwind of new and exciting things and Lane has brought us so much joy. We love being her parents and look forward to the many adventures ahead.

We love you Laney, you are truly our little blessing!!!!

Camping.....round #2

Brian, Tara, Jeff and Holly
Rob and Chris
Kate and Tim
Jordan and Leah
Our campsite

Rachel
Tara and Rob playing an always fun game of bags

We went camping again this past weekend, but this time around it was without the kiddos. We went with our big group of friends that tries to go every summer together. This time around the weather was great and there was no reason to pack up and head home at 2:30 am.

On Saturday we ventured out for a 3-hour tube ride down the Thornapple River which was very relaxing with a lot of hilarious moments thrown in for good measure. The weekend was full of good food, fun conversation and lots of laughs. Now, that's what I call camping!

Camping.....or not

What's that saying? A picture is worth a thousand words? I guess I really don't have to say anything then but I feel some explanation is necessary....and a little humorous I guess. This is a picture from inside our tent during our attempt at camping this last weekend.

Apparently, Lane didn't receive the memo that she was born into a family that camps...and likes it. I realize some of you may be thinking, why take a 1-year-old, non-walker, camping? Because, Lane is a child that usually does great with new situations and places and since we camp every summer, we thought she would be fine and it would be a lot of fun. We also went with two of our good couple friends that also have kids. Their family's had pop-up campers and we had our tent.

Lane decided she wasn't fond of the tent, or her pack-n-play in the tent, or us with her in the tent. Thankfully the campground was about 20 minutes away from our house (the only way we agreed to try this!) because around 2:30am, after only about an hour of her sleeping and plenty of tears and tantrums, Chris packed her up and brought her home for the night. They returned early the next morning just in time for the heavens to open and the rain to begin. It rained the entire day....and in case you forgot, we were in a tent. After a few hours of hoping for a clearing line, and no naps taken, we headed back home. Lane slept like an angel in her crib and I enjoyed a hot shower. Call us crazy, but after it cleared up, we went back to the campground to hopefully allow Lane to enjoy the kiddie carnival planned at the campground and get back to some good-old fashioned camping fun. Instead, the moment we arrived, the heavens decided they weren't done and again it poured rain and we retreated to our tent. Basically the whole process repeated itself and Lane, Chris and I and the entire rest of the campground had had enough of us, so we packed it in and headed home for good.

Don't let this post fool you, we have not been defeated. We will be attempting this again...with hopefully, more promising results!!!!

Traverse City Cherry Festival

A couple of weekends ago we headed up North with our good friend's Jon and Cricket. We handed our little one over to my sister and parents for the weekend and stayed at my parent's cottage in Onekama. We had a lot of fun just hanging out, dining at Arcadia Bluffs Golf Course and taking a walk on the pier out to Lake Michigan. Jon, C and I also ran in the Traverse City Cherry Festival's 10K and 5K races on Saturday morning. TC is only about an hour away from the cottage but it still meant we had to be up at 5:00am to make the races. C and I decided to take it easy this time around and run the 5K, which was a way different feeling than running in our last race which was a 25K. We had fun though and enjoyed a huge serving of Traverse City cherries after our race. Jon was even more ambitious and ran the 15K. Besides a few unforeseen gigantic hills, Jon enjoyed the run too. After the races we took in the Cherry Festival parade and had a great lunch. Overall, it was a nice combination of an adventurous and relaxing weekend. Anyone want to join us for next year?

Allergy

Lane has been on soy formula since the very beginning due to a overall body rash she got directly after trying her on regular formula at about 7 1/2 months. Since it is time for her to begin drinking milk rather than formula, I called her doctor the other day to ask if I should try whole milk or just go directly to soy milk. The nurse at the doctors office acted very laid back about the whole thing and said just to give her the whole milk and if she has any sort of adverse reaction to give her the soy. Her last words were" she should be fine."
Well, she wasn't fine. I attempted to give her a small amount of whole milk mixed with her formula last Friday for lunch. Within 20 minutes she began to projectile vomit everywhere (and I mean everywhere), her eyes started to swell shut and she was sneezing uncontrollably. She had hives over her chest, abdomen and groin. And then....the worst of all she began gasping for air. I have never been more panicked in my life and tried my best to calm her down while I called the doctor. Of course....it was "lunch hour" at the doctor's office so I had to call another number to actually talk to someone. The woman who answered didn't pick up on my panic right away and rudely told me to call back during normal business hours. I think she got how serious I was after a few choice words were spoken on my end. Lane's breathing began to slow down while I was on the phone so they suggested I give her Benadryl asap. This helped immediately and she slowly began to return to herself. So, soy milk it is. I am hoping this is all she is allergic to as I pray we never have to go through that again. I will definitely be addressing this further at her 1-year check-up in a couple of weeks!

The Kitchen

Here are before and after pictures of the kitchen that I promised. I much prefer the new chocolate brown color to the old, drab tan. We still need a few finishing touches like seat cushions, rugs, and curtains but you get the idea. We also have to get a new "O" on the HOME (because I messed it up upon application) and then add the white lettering underneath that says, "where your story begins."

Bath Time with Daddy