Kellen, the Big Kid

Kellen is really insisting we treat him like a big boy now....it is so cute!

The lastest thing he wants to do, is sit at the table like we do. No high chair, no booster seat....no nothing! The other night we were busy getting ready for dinner and the next thing we know, Kellen is sitting at the table. He had climbed up on the chair and sat down.....all by himself.

The nice thing is that he is doing really well sitting at the table. We were a little worried at first, but he is doing great.

Basement Fun

"Do you mind? I trying to work here!"

Colleen and Kellen absolutely LOVE going in the basement to play. I think it is because there is so much more room for them to run around. They could stay down there for hours if we would let them.

Here are a few pictures from their fun. Colleen chasing Kellen through the tent and tunnel......Kellen playing on the computer - almost looking annoyed at us making so much noise...the kids riding the big wheel together.

I just hope that they will always continue to play so nicely together!

Potty Training....Already?

No, no, no.....Kellen can't possibly be ready for potty training. He is still my baby, but he thinks he is a big boy and he thinks he is ready.

Recently, he has shown an interest in the potty and insists on sitting and "going potty". Kellen will sit on the potty while the family sings the Pee Pee on the Potty song and when it is over, he grabs the toilet paper and puts it in.

It is so cute - he thinks he is such the big boy.....doing exactly what his big sister does!

**The funny thing about Colleen being a big girl is the fact that she doesn't want to be. Yesterday we took the bed rails off her bed because we said she was a big girl now. Well that lasted for 15 minutes and then she insisted that she needed them because she wasn't a big girl and she was going to stay little forever........if only that were possible!

Getting Ready

Trying to catch Colleen to get her dressed

Colleen started gymnastics Saturday morning, so the whole family decided to get up and go with her on her first day.

Colleen was SO excited to be going to gymnastics....she got up early on Saturday morning (around 6:30 am) and kept asking when it was time to go (which wasn't until 9am) Colleen was also excited that she would be going to class with her best friend Natalie.

Everyone started to get ready and Kellen knows exactly what he needs to do, as you can tell from the pictures. He always goes into our bathroom and grabs the hair brushes and begins brushing his hair. Then he will try and brush your hair - if you let him.

When picking out Colleen's outfit for gymnastics, I asked her to pick out her own underpants. The first pair she selected, I thought were fine....but she looked at them again and told me "this will agitate me, I need another pair" Don't ask me where that came from, but it was so funny! I guess she thought the pair would give her a wedgie!

Finally, we did make it out of the house and were on time for the beginning of the class. Colleen can't wait until next week so she can do it again

Bath Night Fun

"Look what Daddy did to my hair"

Kellen reading in bed

The kids really enjoy bath night.....so much so....it is hard for us to get them out of the tub!

Kellen would stay in all day if we let him. He gets so upset when we tell him it is time to get out.

Colleen is the same way....but since she is a little older, she understands that her hands will turn into raisins if she stays in too long

Here are a few pictures from our bath night fun

Bye Bye Paci!

We decided it was about time Kellen stopped using the paci at bedtime. He has already stopped using the paci at school for naps, so we figured why not at home.

Well, we started out on Monday and he would fuss for a little longer than normal, but each night the fussy period has gotten shorter and shorter. He can definitely go to bed without it now!

The one thing that we did supplement during this transition period was Baby Tad. Baby Tad is a toy that will light up and play music. He can press the shapes to play different songs and other stuff.

Baby Tad has a "Good night" option which will play soft music for 6 minutes. We have been using this to help with Kellen going to bed and it has been working. The only bad part about Baby Tad is that we will randomly hear "That's the purple triangle" at 3am from Kellen rolling over onto Baby Tad and accidentally pressing the button.


Another cute thing that Kellen has been doing is participating in grace at dinner time. Colleen, Jeff and I sit around the table and hold hands. Kellen instantly knows what we are doing and reaches out his hand to Colleen so he can hold hands too. So cute!

One bad thing that happened to Kellen last week was his 1st biting incident at school. Don't get the wrong idea, Kellen did not do the biting.....one of his friends bit him - TWICE. Poor Kellen got bit on the back and on his hand. His teachers said he didn't fuss that much and he was back to his normal happy self in no time.

Personally, I think Kellen is so used to Colleen picking him up, "helping" him and everything else - that another child biting him, didn't even phase him.

Kellen's 1st REAL Snow

The beautiful view from our deck

Kids pointing and laughing at the snow

"Kellen, this is a snowball"

Colleen's Snowman

Kellen got his 1st REAL snow yesterday.

I think we got anywhere from 3.5 - 4.5 inches of snow yesterday. The kids daycare closed early, so I had to venture out with all the crazies and pick them up by 3pm. I decided to leave my office at 1pm - just in case. Boy, I was glad I did that. My office is only 12 miles away from their school and it usually takes 20 minutes (tops) to get to work. Yesterday it took me an HOUR to pick them up. Going 10-20 miles per hour on Interstate 95 was a lot of fun!

After I finally made it home with the kids, Jeff came home from work and took them outside.

Kellen was very interested in the snow and had a great time walking around in it and trying to make a snowball like his big sister.

Colleen just wanted to get outside and make her snowman. Jeff and Colleen spent about an hour or more outside working on the snowman. She was so proud of it when they were done, so you can imagine how upset she got when the snowman was no longer visible this morning after the rain melted him away.

I had to explain to her that just like Frosty, her snowman went to the North Pole where it is always cold and to visit with Santa.

Looks like we could be getting more snow in the next week or so - so I know the kids were be excited to go out and play some more

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Colleen and Daddy blowing out the candle

Colleen and Kellen with Daddy's homemade card

Daddy's birthday balloons, hand picked by Colleen

Jeff's coconut birthday cake....Mommy did a great job!

Happy Birthday Daddy!


Jeff's birthday was yesterday and he was very excited that Colleen used her "magic" to make it snow.


The day started out with Colleen waking Jeff up by singing happy birthday and giving him birthday hugs and kisses. Then Colleen had to show Daddy the birthday balloons she had picked out the night before. (This was a secret that the kids and I did and Colleen never did tell. She always hinted that we had something special, but never let the cat out of the bag).


Next was presents and breakfast.


In the afternoon, Jeff took the kids out to play in the snow and they had a great time. After getting warmed up, we sang Happy Birthday and had the yummy coconut cake.

Then Mommy and Daddy went out to dinner while Mr. Bill came over to babysit. (Thanks again Mr. Bill)


We went to Sakura which is a Japanese Steakhouse. It was a really fun time.....neither of us caught the shrimp in our mouths after the cook tossed it to us.


All in all, it was a great birthday for Jeff. Thanks for all the cards and phone calls

Guess who's a BIG boy?

Kellen keeps amazing us every day with all the things that he can do.

A few weeks ago I started brushing Kellen's teeth with a real toothbrush. He loved it!
Then I let him try it himself and I was shocked.

He can brush his teeth all by himself. Sure sometimes he forgets that he shouldn't be biting it, but he does move the brush side to side to get his little teeth clean.

San Diego, Super Chargers!

As many of you know, Jeff is a HUGE San Diego Chargers fan.

So you can imagine how happy he was when the Chargers beat the Colts this past weekend.

To help the team along, we also get the kids dressed up in Chargers attire. Colleen looks so cute in her Charger Cheerleading outfit (which really doesn't fit anymore) and Kellen looks just as cute wearing his blue and yellow colors.

What made the game even better is that Jeff got an HD antenna so that we could watch the game in HD. SOOOO awesome!

Hopefully the Chargers can pull out another win this weekend againts the Pats.

Got Milk?

Kellen has already learned that we keep his milk cup in the fridge.....so anytime he gets thirsty, this is the picture we see.

He goes over to the fridge and pulls on the doors and whines until we open it for him. We know he wishes he was like his big sister and could open the doors all by himself!

Our new piano

I know what your thinking.......when did we get a piano?

Well, we got a Fisher Price piano from Target on an "after Christmas" sale. We didn't realize that BOTH kids would love it so much and fight to see who gets to play with it first.

Messy, Messy, Messy!

Since it was bath night last night, we decided to go ahead and give Kellen something messy

Oh my goodness, did Kellen have a good time. You can see from the pictures that he enjoyed eating his ravioli!

Kellen has been doing great. He has been enjoying his first couple weeks in his new class at school. He moved up from Moos to Ponies.

Kellen has also been learning a lot. Kellen can point to his nose, his feet and his head. Kellen is also the jokester! I think he gets that from Jeff. He is always doing things to get you to chase him or just to get a reaction from you. Taking remotes are his favorite thing.

Messy, Messy, Messy (Professor Hinkel, Frosty the Snowman)

Colleen's Ready for Gymnastics

Colleen hasn't been to gymnastics class since I was 4 months pregnant with Kellen.
Since that time, we have been too busy to even remember to enroll her back in the classes....but now I have finally gotten on the ball!

We took Colleen to a "test" class last weekend to see how she would do in the Rising Stars class. This class differs from her previous class because Mommy doesn't have to attend with her. She does everything by herself - like a big girl.

Colleen had a GREAT time. She really enjoyed the balance beam and "the pit"

When class was over Colleen was upset because she wanted to do it again.

Now we just have to wait for a new class to open up or wait until Howard County's next session to start in a month.

Happy New Year!

Colleen and Kiely stretching their dough

Colleen and Kiely rolling out their dough

Happy New Year!

Kids counting down for the ball drop

Cheers!

At the last minute we decided to invite Colleen and Kellen's cousins over for a New Year's Eve party.

We went out and got party hats, noise makers and everything you would need to have a great bash!

We had make your own pizzas and you can see the girls had a great time rolling out their dough.

We also had punch and champagne glasses for the kids to drink from. They thought they were so adult and kept wanting to do "cheers" every chance they got.

At the end of the afternoon, Jeff made a ball and rigged it over our chandelier in the foyer, so the kids could do their own count down for New Years

They all had a great time. Next year we will be more prepared and have an even better party!

PS - Colleen made the funniest comment while she was playing with her cousins. I called all the kids upstairs to watch the ball drop and Colleen was sitting downstairs at her computer. I told her to hurry up and get upstairs and she responded "But wait Mom, I have to do my email"

I busted out laughing because I didn't know she even knew what email was and to actually be pretending to type when she said that.....it was too funny!

Colleen's Play Date

Colleen and Natalie playing the princess DVD game

The girls playing with Moon Sand

The day after Christmas, we scheduled a play date with one of Colleen's friends from school, Natalie. (her best friend to be exact)


The girls had a great time playing together.


They especially loved playing with Colleen's new "Moon Sand"

Playing with my new camera

Colleen's "kids" sleeping in her bed

Colleen sleeping on the floor

I got a new SLR Camera for Christmas, so here are a bunch of shots of me playing with my camera.

The one with all the stuffed animals is Colleen's bed. I walked in her room to ask her why she was sleeping on the floor. She responded "Mom, all my kids are in my bed and there is no room for me, so I will sleep on the floor"

So cute!