Back soon!

Forgot to let everyone know that we are in St. Louis for a while. We'll be back next Sunday, so probably no new posts until we get back. Except for this one:) But we'll have lots of pictures to put up I'm sure. Funny thing is, we're visiting my family and they are probably the only ones who read this blog so they already know we're here! But just in case anyone else reads it, I didn't want to leave you hanging! And for anyone who reads it, drop me a note. I'm always curious who's checking up on us!

Other pictures

Saturday morning started off with a 5K run...Here's a lovely backside picture of me about to cross the finish line. As you can see by my time, it wasn't fast, but I finished! Not too bad since that's the most I've run since right after I found out I was pregnant with Jackson.

This is a picture of part of the street sweeping. The men and boys carry the buckets and fill up with water from big troughs along the side of the street. The boys actually just pore the buckets on each other so the street gets wet by default. The women and girls follow behind with brooms and sweep the streets.
This is my friend Shanelle fresh from street sweeping. Jackson was very interested in her outfit.
Jackson and Dad enjoying the parade. The first day, Jack would start to cry every time a band passed by because the drums would scare him. By the third parade though, he actually liked to watch them go by. It was a great weekend, but it's always a little tiring. If anyone wants to come visit during the Tulip Festival next year, we've got some room and love to have company!

Parade Pictures

Here are a few pictures from the Tulip Festival this weekend. It was quite a hit-lots of people from all over came to join the festivities. These are the Dutch Dancers that do a little show right before the parade. You can see some of the stores on Central Avenue- even the stores have a Dutch look to them!

This is the Pride of the Dutchmen Band from the high school here in the OC. They march all decked out in Dutch outfits complete with wooden shoes. It actually makes a really neat sound as the march down the street and adds to the rhythm.

And this is the float that carries the Tulip Queen and her court. The Tulip Queen is at the top.

Tulip Time!

The Sioux County Courthouse in Orange City all decked out with beautiful tulips

Well, it's Tulip Time here in the OC, which means that everyone is breaking out all of their Dutch costumes and prettying up their lawns getting ready for the Tulip Festival. It's quite the big ordeal. The carnival rides started arriving on Tuesday and are set up on one end of Central Avenue (our main downtown street) and the OC street department has been setting up all of the bleachers along the rest of Central getting ready for the parades. You might think I'm making this up, but I'm not. It's really pretty neat. I enjoyed my first Tulip Festival last year and it was very fun. There are tons of yummy food booths, some with special Dutch treats like sauciejes (aka-pigs in a blanket) and poffertjies (yummy Dutch "donuts" with powdered sugar). And the parade goes on twice a day, but the fun one is in the afternoon when they do the street sweeping. That's where everyone who dresses up in their Dutch costumes walks down the street with their brooms and buckets and literally "washes" the streets so they are clean for the Tulip Queen and her court. Crazy, but fun! The festivities begin tomorrow and run through Saturday, so we'll be busy enjoying parades and food. I'll take lots of pictures and post them for you. Click here if you want more info on the Orange City Tulip Festival.

I want my Mommy!!

My first Mother's Day was quite a success. Todd got me the sweetest card and we decided that for our Mother's Day/Father's Day gifts this year we are purchasing bikes so we will try to do that sometime this week or next. Todd kept asking me what I wanted for Mother's Day and even though I kept saying, "Just the bikes, Babe", he surprised me with the prettiest orange (my favorite color) begonia yesterday. Very sweet. I will try my hardest to not kill it.
This journey into Motherhood over the last 7 months has been a crazy one. Sleepless nights, a sick little boy, and so much joy that I can now sort of understand how my mom feels when she tells me that she loves me. I am constantly amazed by my mom-as are many other people. She's quite the lady. I can honestly say that I have never met anyone who knows how to love people better than my mom. Whether it's her family, her students, or some person that is difficult to love to the rest of us, she does it and she does it well. She has taught me that true love is a commitment more than a feeling and through all of the ups and downs has continually pointed me to the ONE who is Perfect Love by her example. I only hope that I am able to do the same for my children. I love you my Mom and I miss you very much. But I can't wait to see you very soon!

I also wanted to say Happy Mother's Day to the newest Mother I know. We have a new baby in the Vogel family- Tim and Lizzie (Todd's middle brother and wife) welcomed their first baby, Lillian Grace, born at 12:30 this morning-just in time for Mother's Day! Congratulations guys! Can't wait to meet little Lily!

Lots of pictures...

This is one of Jackson's favorite toys right now. It is a step stool that has his name on it, but his name is written in blocks that come out of the stool. It was actually a gift from some very fun people- Thanks Mr. & Mrs. F! He loves to sit and try to put the letters back into the stool. He also has been using it to help him learn how to pull up onto things...
J actually LOVES to take baths. He could be bawling his eyes out and as soon as he hears the water start running and we strip him down he perks right up.
And he's finally getting enough hair to do the bath mohawk! It still needs some work, but it's a start!
And this is his latest trick as of this morning... Todd went to get him and he was standing at the side of his crib just waiting. It's crazy how much he has grown up in the last month.

Happy Birthday Eva!!

Eva, my niece (my sister's daughter), is two today! She is the sweetest little thing and I love her to pieces. Lindsay called me the other day and let Eva leave a message for me on my cell phone and it was very sweet to hear her voice. I love you Eva and I'm sorry I will miss your birthday party! This first picture is one of the latest of Eva "playing" with the kitty at YaYa's house. The second one is Eva with her little brother Shepherd and Jackson at our last visit.

One more...

One more video we took yesterday of Jackson "sort of crawling". He's been belly crawling for about a month now and this is the next stage. He sort of does a one legged crawl and it sort of makes him look like he's got a bum leg. Quite amusing, but then again, we think everything he does is funny/cute/sweet...you get the idea. The video is sort of dark- sorry.

As promised...

This is a bit of video we took of Jackson eating. As you can see, he is pretty vigorous! To view the video, you have to click on the play button on the bottom and then click on it again.