Swaddle practice

The other morning Lucy had her dolls lined up and we covered them each with a little blanket.  I took the opportunity to practice swaddling a baby again and wrapped one up, which, to Lucy, meant that they all needed to be swaddled.  As soon as I brought out the camera, Lucy proceeded to lay down like she was sleeping with them.

Stroller rides

Lately Lucy has been asking for me to pull our stroller out for morning walks around the block.  The split second I have the stroller out and ready she will jump in the basket underneath and not get out.  This is how she stays for our whole walk and she loves it.  Now I just look like the weirdo who pushes around a seemingly empty stroller. :)

Lucy's got moves

The dancing bug has bit Lucy lately and she wants to dance all the time.  We often turn on pandora and have little dance parties after breakfast in the morning while cleaning up.  This was one of those mornings and she was really feeling it!  This video just makes me happy. :)

And just for kicks, here are some pictures of her later in the day.

Ryan's 33rd birthday

We celebrated Ryan's 33rd birthday on July 9th!  Every year on his birthday, Ryan gets a marzipan cake from a bakery.  Last year it didn't work out and I felt bad about it, so this year I was determined to get him one.  After calling approximately 95 bakeries around town and half of them not even knowing what marzipan was (weird for a bakery), I gave up.  So I told Ryan and let him pick what he wanted to have for his birthday treat.  He chose banana cream pie and homemade lemon custard.  We made both of these together the night before, which was a fun activity, and then also per his request, we had steak and twice baked potatoes for dinner.  Ryan got a lot of calls, texts, cards, etc. from people, which is also a fun part of having a birthday.  Overall I think he had a great day!

Aaron's Angel Day

For Aaron's Angel day each year, friends and family of Lisa and Brandon let off balloons.  Lucy loves balloons and loved playing with it.  There's a little picture of him in my nightstand drawer that Lucy looks at almost everyday, so I like to think that she kind of knows who he is. :)

Fourth of July

The morning of the actual 4th of July, our friends (the DeMills) invited us to join them at the Hilliard city parade.  It was a great parade- not small and dinky, but not overwhelmingly long and boring.  They also have kids that match up age-wise with the Rasmussen's kids, so they all had fun.  They all played a game of tag and then the parade started.  They collected candy like it was Halloween, too!  After the parade, we came home for naps and then went back to the DeMill's for a BBQ, sparklers, poppers, games, etc.  Because we were out so late the night before, the kids had all pretty lost it by the time we got home and so put them all straight to bed and called it good with the fireworks we saw people do on our drive home. (Also, Lucy somehow got a random cut on her nose which is why it looks dark in these pictures).

Red, White, & Boom

Columbus does a big firework show every year called Red, White, and Boom.  They actually do it on the 3rd of July for a couple of reasons- so that everyone can stay out late (get drunk) and have the next day off to recover, and also so that it doesn't interfere with city fireworks.  It gave us something fun to do on the 3rd, so we didn't mind.  We heard it is crazy downtown trying to get out after fireworks, so we went downtown earlier and went to the kids area with inflatable stuff and free food and drinks, and then we drove out of downtown and watched the fireworks from a distance and ate lots of treats in the back of our van.