Halle walks!

The day has finally arrived!  Today, at almost 16 months old, Halle took her first steps!  She still crawls almost everywhere, but at least we know she can do it:)  Here is a video of some of her first steps: 

Good job, Halle!  We are proud of you!

mom's birthday!

Well, this post is a few days late--oops!  (sorry, mom!)  Last week, on June 21, my beautiful and very youthful looking mom turned 50!  Hard to believe, I know!  Jill and I planned a day for our family, with a picnic at the State Park, then to dad and mom's to swim, then to Aaron and Jill's house for supper and to hang out.  It was such a fun day!

Here is the birthday girl, holding a very relaxed looking Halle :)

Jill and Kaine had fun swinging together

Dad and Kaine spot an airplane!

A great picture of Jill and Halle!

Dad playing with the kids at Aaron and Jill's house

Mom, Kaine gives you a thumbs up:)

We had a great day, Mom.  Thanks for everything you do for us--you are amazing!  We love you so much!  Happy birthday!

Maple House trip #2

Last week we went on our second house trip with our Maple House girls.  I'm pretty sure I blogged about last year's trip, so maybe some of you remember it.  We went to the same places as last year!  Kings Island and the Creation Museum.  We really enjoyed it!  This year, we only had 3 residents, so that is a great ratio--3 houseparents to 3 residents :)  The only bummer was that I couldn't ride roller coasters, since I'm pregnant.  But that's okay, it was a small sacrifice!

Our group at the Kings Island entrance (sorry, kind of a dark picture)--The girl on the end, in the stripes, is our amazing assistant, Lisa Zaagman.  She is awesome!

Me with one of our girls on the log ride (one of the only rides I went on!)

Nathan and Lisa and a couple residents, right when they got done riding the Drop Tower!

Our 3 girls :)

Lisa with one of our girls posing with a dinosaur at the Creation Museum

Another group picture

All of us girls acting silly in the hot tub:)

I tried to teach one of our girls how to swim!

It was a fun trip!  As always, though, it was good to get back home and see our kids:)  

Some breaking news from Gateway:  Our house, the Maple House, is now going to be a coed house!  This will bring many different changes and challenges to our job that we are not used to!  But it is the best thing for Gateway, because until now there were way more girl beds than boy beds--this will really help even things out, and this way we GW won't have to turn away any boy referrals.  So you can pray for us, for that:)  We are so used to only having girls!