:: Farrell's Pig Roast ::

::Me in my first Ferrell's Pig Roast Hat::

The last Saturday in July is always one held for a special event with our family. Its the time of the year for the annual Farrell's Pig Roast!! My dad (Dan) grew up down the street from the Farrell's when he was young on the farm, and every year now they host a HUGE party for all of their friends and family to celebrate with each other. FIRST OF ALL there is food!!! its a huge potluck style so everyone brings a dish or dessert for the buffet line and the Farrel's provide the pigs, corn on the cob, and LOUISIANA STYLE CRAWDADS... mine and Morgann's personal favorite!

::Brogan met Gerri for the first time! ::

Cousin Emma and I had a blast while everyone was enjoying the food!

Most of the gang eating our GREAT food!

They have all sorts of fun things to do there! When Brogan gets a little bit older he will have a great time just like we did as kids playing on the moon bounce, getting tractor rides, volleyball, face painting, a magic show, swimming in the pool, and getting fake tattoos! This time all we could do was get our caricature drawn with Me and Auntie Chelsea which is fun and something we can always remember this time by. Brogan also loved playing with everyone ELSES balloon animals and hats.

HELLOOOO

Hanging with Uncle Trav

Auntie Chels Turn to get her picture drawn!

Auntie Morgann and Alyssa on the tractor rides!

Brogan also met Pat and Kay Farrell for the first time! He loved playing with grandpa Pats glasses and they said that he really looks like "Woody"--> Brogan's great grandpa, my grandpa Wood! Its been a long time but we miss having them around!!!



And i promise this post is almost done... it was a full day event!! Now for my other favorite part(besides the crawdads) the DANCING and Music!!!! They have 2 different bands come to play during the day, both cover bands. One that does more modern music in the early afternoon while we eat, and one that does older, country type music in the later afternoon/evening. I remember many years polka-ing with my dad and dancing with my sisters late into the evening at the pig roast, and now I can share this with Brogan! How Fun!!! We also yearly do a limbo contest! And proudly say I am still the CHAMP!! wahoo! haha Never to old!

"Jack be nimble jack be quick... jack go under LIMBO STICK...."

Morgann and I Limboing together!

Our first dance.... :) Love my little man!

- Oh Ya... How sweet it is to be in Love by you!!!!

-PIG ROAST '08-

:: Granpa's Knee Surgery ::

Grappa Wood had his knee surgery this week. We were so excited to go visit him in the Hospital! This was Brogan's first hospital visit and he LOVED looking at all the new things in the hospital room. Grandpa also had a HUGE window that took up one ENTIRE wall that Brogan liked to look out at the trees and Lake.

::Me and Grandpa::

::Drinking my bottle using my feet::

Giving grandpa his present: a picture frame that says "I love my Grandpa" with a picture of me and him, He loved it

There was also a really cool waterfall and pond outside that had lots of fish in it! I was so captivated by them! they were bright colors of orange and red! What a fun visit!!!

" We find delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body" -Ralph Waldo Emerson

::6 Months, A half year of blessings ::

6 months!!! I can't believe how fast time has gone.... where did that little baby go!

Brogan is off and running.. well not literally but he can get where he wants to go! We can't turn our backs without him being in the other room! He crawls around so fast now! He has been experimenting with a lot of different sounds lately. He also likes to blow rasberrys or spit when you wipe off his face, or if he gets really excited .GGGGGGG is his favorite sound at the moment. I have a feeling GRAMPA is going to be one of his first words. Those two are inseperable and he can always bring a smile to Brogan's face!!! We're going to have fun visiting him in the hospital for his knee surgery later this week!!!



Brogan is eating all sorts of foods now and experiments with new things all the time! He has recently been trying the Gerber Puffs, and is still a little confused about the new texture, but gets them down ok. We still haven't come across a food that he doesn't like! Which is pretty obvious... he still is definitely not underfed! We love his chunky cheeks and little roly poly legs!


Sitting up is still a little bit of a challenge, although we are doing a LOT better, Brogan is still a little round bottom. When he gets excited he will throw himself backwards and hasn't quite gotten the whole concept. But who needs to sit when you can CRAWL :)



We did SOO much better at our pictures this time!! Smiles and laughing all around!! It was very hard for us to choose which ones we wanted! It was hard to get him to sit still on his own, but he really liked the lady taking them and she did a realllly good job!

:: CRAWLING ::

5 months 3 weeks and 2 days.... CRAWLING!!! WOW I can't believe it! I was actually going to post a video of him trying to crawl and doing the rocking back and forth thing, but i came home from work today and there he was crawling across the living room floor! He's not really up on all fours yet, but he's fast!

Heres the video i was going to post of him trying just 2 days ago:



Now here is him crawling today!!!! LOOK AT HIM GO! All the way across the Living room!!

" If Evolution really works, then how come mothers only have 2 hands... "
- Milton Berle

:: First Boat Ride ::

What a weekend of TRAVELING!!! when I got home Sunday i picked Brogan up from Buddy's Parents house and then we went up to Newaygo to Pettit lake for a boat party!! My uncle and aunt were celebrating their new boat and the memories of the old one. AND TONS OF MEMORIES there are!!! We stopped at Meijers before hand and grabbed Brogan a new life jacket so that he could have his first boat ride. And since both Buddy and my own family love to spend time on the lake in the boats, what better time than now?!

We started off kind of shaky... while trying to get a picture with Cousin Caleb

2nd Generation of Cousins

Starting to get a little big more used to this....

"Who was I kidding THIS IS GREAT!!! " Big smiles all around :)

Mom and Brogan

And Below is the famous boating naps. We took these as kids and now Brogan is following right in the same footsteps. He'll be skiing and wake boarding and tubing in no time! But for now he was lulled right to sleep by the sound of the water and the hum of the motor. We love the water and we especially love sharing it with out friends and family.

When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses.
~Joyce Brothers

:: Mom's first night away ::

To add to the rest of our weekend, Buddy's friend Drew had his graduation party at his cottage. Since Buddy was planning on coming home for the weekend, it had been in the works for this to be the big night that I left Brogan for the first time. We had to work up to it, I was a little bit nervous.
He stayed with Buddy's mom while we went up there and they seemed to have a blast. Buddy and myself missed him A LOT, but we made it through the night with videos and pictures on my cell phone hahahaha :) We just love him so much!!!! Then early this morning Buddy left to go back to Iowa to finish out the season. WE"LL SEE YOU IN 3 SHORT WEEKS!!!! WE LOVE YOU!! We've almost made the first whole season! What an accomplishment for Buddy and us!!!! We can't wait to have him home again!


Was there ever a grandparent, bushed after a day of minding noisy youngsters, who hasn't felt the Lord knew what He was doing when He gave little children to young people? ~Joe E. Wells

.:* 4th of July * :.

We had so much fun on Brogan's 1st 4th of July. It was a very long weekend though. Buddy had a bye week this weekend so he was able to hitch a ride home with some friends to experience it with us. It is also his birthday weekend, tmr the 7th he will be 22. Happy Birthday Babe!!!

We started off at the parade in Grandville Friday morning. Auntie Morgann and Auntie Chelsea and soon to be Uncle Kody met us there along with Grandma and Grandpa Rivera and Uncle Jon and his girlfriend before they took off on their motorcycles! We walked there from Auntie Brookes house it was SOO hot!

Brogan fell asleep on the way to the parade but as soon as we got there the motorcycles that started it off woke him up! He sat right up and wanted to know what was going on. He didn't cry a bit, and was very interested in everything. ESPECIALLY his American flag! He got a BIG bag of candy that mostly mom and dad ate. Also he got a special treat! Dad gave him a couple licks of his popsicle! he lovvvved it... of course, and it probably felt really good on his gums!

:: My first piece of Candy ::

After the parade we checked out the 3 on 3 basketball tournament going on at the middle school. He sat with Brandon and dad and watched the guys play and loved it! He's such a boy. Loves sports already!

At night we went to Drew's and watched the fireworks from his back yard. He was so amazed. Even though it was past his bedtime, he wasn't too bad, but fell asleep before i even had the car on to go home. What an awesome day!