Bacheloring it up

Aaron and the boys have been bacheloring it up all week before the wedding. Tuesday night Aaron took Ryan, John and Robbie to the Orlando Magic/Philadelphia 76ers playoff game.

Wednesday Dad took Aaron, John, Ryan and Josh to Wekiwa Springs for some canoeing/fishing...which turned out to be more of a canoeing trip and less of a fishing one.

Thursday John, Ryan and Dad painted Aaron's new house where he a Tracy will move in after the honeymoon.

Friday night after the rehearsal dinner all the guys had poker night and today (Saturday) they all went target shooting.

I can't wait to get home from vacation so I can see my hubby! haha.

Summit Church Beach Baptism

We've been having a blast since we landed. Aunt Becky picked up Ryan and I at the airport on Sunday afternoon and the three of us headed out to the beach for Summit Church beach baptism. My cousin Isaac is the pastor - and he has an INCEDIBLE church. Aaron and Tracy are both on staff there - and it was so fun for me to get to see Aaron in action, serving Jesus and serving the people at Summit. Aaron pretty much coordinated the whole event - almost 1,000 people attended, 84 were baptised and Ryan and I got to be there to celebrate with them.

We love seeing all the Hunters. Isaac and Rhonda and their kids Jada, Ella and Lincoln. Josh and Lisa and their kids Noah and Ava, Joel and Lizzy were there and of course Aunt Becky. We all sat in lawn chairs listening to Isaac preach as the sun came down.

What a great start to our vacation! Here's a picture of My cousin Joel telling Ryan and I stories about opthalmology. If you ever need Lasik, Joel's your man.

Growling Babies

We are having such a great time in Florida. A bunch of my cousins and their families live down here - so last night we went mini-golfing with them. Ava was really amazed by my belly. She kept listening and telling me she could hear my baby growling in there.

Family

Ryan and I have incredible families! A few weeks ago Ryan's mom and dad moved to town and we've had such a great time "doing life" with them. It wasn't quite as easy to do life together when they lived in New York! We're so blessed to have them here. Ryan and his dad got up this morning and headed out to White Pine Trail for a bike ride. I love that they can spend time together.

Today we are packing our suitcases in preparation to fly to Florida for my brother Aaron's wedding...and we're sneaking in a little Beeson Family Vaca the week before. I cherish the time I get to spend with my family...I'm so excited for this week!

It's days like this that I am reminded again how incredibly fortunate I am to be surrounded by the people I am surrounded by. The faithfulness of generations have impacted my life today. I have an incredible husband who brings with him a whole brigade of incredible family members and friends. I have incredible parents, siblings and friends...and I have an incredible little baby who will grow up to be an incredible little person growing (rapidly) in my belly! I am so thankful.

Have you heard the chorus of the Sara Groves song "Generations"?

Remind me of this with every decision
Generations will reap what I sow
I can pass on a curse or a blessing
To those I will never know

To my great, great, great grand daughter
Live in peace
To my
great, great, great grand son
Live in peace
To my great, great, great
grand daughter
Live in peace
To my great, great, great grand son
Live in peace, live in peace

Remind me of this with every decision
Generations will reap what I sow
I can pass on a curse or a blessing
To those I will never know

Showered with Friends

Last weekend Bryan and Michelle and Aaron, Ashlee and Hannah came to our house for a visit. It was so so fun to have them here. The boys took a little 40 mile bike ride while the ladies came with me for some shopping at Nordstrom's Rack and then to a baby shower Ryan's mom threw me. It was so fun to see a bunch of my girlfriends from Hope and from Chicago and from Grand Rapids all in one room!

Bryan, Aaron and Ryan were quite the trio when we all lived on the same block in Chicago. They would all run and bike together pretty much every chance they got, so Saturday was a blast for them. You have to hear Aaron tell the story on his blog. Apparently at the 20 mile marker when they turned around and realized the wind had been at their back up to that point, they all got a little nervous about making it all the way back. Talk about pushing it to the limit! They couldn't even make it home to eat - they had to stop at Yesterdog to refuel with some hot dog deliciousness before they reached certain death.

It was such a fun weekend - we love you guys and miss you so much!! Come visit again soon!

Chris Cox Photographer

Ryan's brother Christopher has a new photography website! I love seeing the world through his eyes - he captures the uniqueness and makes it beautiful. His pictures tell a story.

Here are some of the pictures he's taken of Ryan and I over the last few years:

VERMONT

BRIDGES

You have to check out his new site and some of his pictures from the cross-country drive to California he took over spring break with some of his buddies from Hope College.

He'll be in the Grand Rapids/West Michigan area all summer...so click HERE to contact him for more info about booking a session.

Man Bib

It is a campaign for Australia's Solo soft drinks. Solo Beverage company aims to turn pasty, hairless boys into real men with their Solo Man Bibs. The Solo Man Bib hooks easily around the neck and gives men instant rub-worthy pecs, complete with chest hair and even a Solo gold necklace...

HT: ragamuffin soul

The Buzz Around Town

World's Largest Art Prize is happening in Grand Rapids...I'm kinda looking forward to checking out some of the submissions and casting my vote when they come to town!


The Prize (thank you Rick DeVos)

* 1st place: $250,000
* 2nd: $100,000
* 3rd: $50,000
* 4th: $7,000
* 5th: $7,000
* 6th: $7,000
* 7th: $7,000
* 8th: $7,000
* 9th: $7,000
* 10th: $7,000

Posers

My Dad tells great stories! You'll enjoy watching this one from the weekend services at Granger.


Posers from Granger Community on Vimeo.

Parenting Advice I Can Actually Succeed At!

I love Amy Poehler...and I love her parenting advice.

“Always remember your kid’s name. Always remember where you put your kid. Don’t let your kid drive until their feet can reach the pedals. Use the right size diapers…for yourself. And, when in doubt, make funny faces.”

Here's the article...seriously funny!

Happy Birthday John Boy!!

Dear John,
I thought you were really great back in the day when you were one of Aaron's best buds. Then you fell in love with Angela, and I thought you were really really great. You've always been like a brother - and for the last 5 years you've actually been a brother and I think you're getting greater and greater!
Happy Birthday - I'm so glad you were born!

A Walk In My Shoes

Apparently bit-by-bit without realizing it I have been altering the way that I walk as I grow closer to delivery. In the last weeks of pregnancy some ladies waddle, some arch their back a lot, some stop walking all together. To deal with the front load that I bear I have begun swinging my arms much more than is reasonable for a normal human.

Since Ryan is my husband, sometimes he looks at me. He was watching TV and I was standing in the living room putting lotion on my stretching skin. I didn't realize he was looking at me until he said "Why are you standing like that? Stop squeezing your butt cheeks together so hard!"

I said - I'm not squeezing my butt cheeks together...then I looked back and realized "wait...maybe I AM!! Weird! I didn't even notice!"

That's when I realized that perhaps the reason I've been swinging my arms so hard is because I've been trying to balance by squeezing my butt cheeks together which makes walking forward very difficult. The problems are compounding and making me walk like I have serious problems!

Go ahead and try it yourself. Squeeze your butt cheeks together really hard - now try to take a step forward.
...not so easy, is it!

Today...

• I wore a dress to work. It's 60 degrees just in time for my jeans to be getting a bit tight.


• I cancelled my MySpace account. I never check it and I don't like the ads.


• The baby kicked me with both feet and punched me with both hands all at the same time - very weird feeling! Maybe we've got a feisty one!


• Ryan watered the lawn...well, it's going to be a lawn eventually.


• I ate a PB&J sandwich for lunch. I love them. I eat them for lunch pretty much every day.


• The girls from work took me to dinner for a little baby shower. So fun! Here's a picture to show you exactly how much fun.

Wild Men

Great news! Will Ferrell is going to be a guest-star on Man vs. Wild in June! I'm thinking this is not one I want to miss!!

In the "Man vs. Wild" episode, Will Ferrell joins Bear Grylls in the far north of Sweden, where they spend 48 hours performing tasks such as rappelling down hundred-foot frozen waterfalls, tandem-abseiling off a helicopter and staying warm overnight in subzero temperatures.

The two also find food in the forest, improvise snow shoes and drink their own urine.

"Will did an amazing job in subzero, very unforgiving conditions," Grylls said. "He trusted me when it mattered, and we survived. ... He should be very proud of how he performed."

Ferrell called the stint on "Man vs. Wild" "a thrill of a lifetime, even though I did get urine-drunk, which is sad."

Discovery Channel prexy-general manager John Ford noted that the duo not only share a snow shelter but eat reindeer eyeballs together.

Read the entire article HERE

My Place In This World

Did anyone else spend many hours of their Jr. High years passionately singing this song into a hairbrush? I usually switched to the air guitar during the bridge then brought it home with the hairbrush again.

I also recall practicing for and planning to do a duet with Mike Singleton to this song. He was the best singer in Mrs. Hipsher's 7th grade choir class...needless to say, the duet never happened.

He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

For the first 4 years of our marriage every Easter Ryan would say to me "He is Risen!" and I'd say "Yeah!" or "Wahoo!" or "Happy Easter!" or something like that. Ryan would always have to remind me that I'm supposed to say "He is Risen indeed" - but for some reason I never remember to say it. But this year (it only took 5) I remembered! Ryan said to me "He is Risen!" and I replied "He is Risen Indeed!" It made Ryan so happy!

Aaron and Tracy

My little brother is getting married in just a few weeks! I am so thankful for Tracy, for her genuine spirit, her laughter, her life. Look how happy she makes Aaron!

They're both on staff at Summit Church in Central Florida where Tracy is the Director of the Children's Ministry and Aaron oversees the First Impressions Ministry and helps with Mission Organization. I love that they have been serving Jesus together and that they get to continue doing that after their wedding.

The whole fam is heading down to the sunshine state for the celebration - I can't wait! To see more pictures or read more stories about Aaron and Tracy, check out their website.

Ridiculousness for your Tuesday

Maternity Photos

Saturday morning Ryan and I had a little maternity photo shoot that turned out INCREDIBLE!! My friend Mindy from college lives in Hudsonville with her family and is really quite good at this whole photography thing! She dealt well with the fact that Ryan was making me laugh the entire time. He is so handsome - don't you think?

If you live anywhere near West Michigan I highly recommend Mindy doing a shoot for you. She was great to work with, has incredibly reasonable prices, made us feel comfortable and had lots of creative ideas for how we should stand or what we should do. Mindy does families, babies, kids...pretty much anything you want...and she uses all natural light, which is pretty cool! Check out her website for info or if you want to see more pictures from our shoot.

www.mindyleigh.com
Check out the "Maternity" section under gallery 1

The Rest of the Story

You may recall the story of our recent purchase of a certain lime green chair which turned out to be too big to fit down our hall...

We were just about getting used to having our lime green chair in the living room when Ryan's friend Ajay came over.

In addition to being a brilliant resident physician, apparently Ajay has the magic touch when it comes to moving furniture - even though the tape measure showed us that the feat was impossible, Ryan and Ajay removed some doors and managed to find the perfect angle to get the chair down the hall and into the nursery!

This is the happiest day.

Through the Eyes of an Artist

Look at this beautiful picture Hana drew of me!! I work with her dad Dale at vox - and yesterday she came into the office and asked to see my belly...I thought she was just interested in how funny I look - but she was doing research for her drawing.
Precious. I'm amazed at the similarities!