K & A Updates

Addalyn is now 8 months old. Where has time gone? She seems to make "leaps and bounds" in development in a weeks time.

Her new list of tricks includes: 3 teeth (2 lower and 1 upper), she feeds herself puffs or Cheerios, she shares a room with her big brother, and she is NOT interested in crawling whatsoever!

-Together Kai and Addie stay up in their room talking and singing for almost an hour every night. We're still adjusting to try to get them in bed a little sooner!

-Addie wakes up daily at 5am for mommy to change her wet diaper. Annoying! But she likes to snuggle and fall back asleep until around 7am. Praise God!

-She will NOT eat baby food with a plastic bib. It must be cloth or she boycotts the whole meal! Seriously? More laundry. -She is completely content to sit and watch Scout or Kai play or chew on her toys for 30+ mins! -Every time Daddy walks through the door she give him a GI-normous smile (like the one below). This girl loves her daddy! -Kai and I are trying to teach Addie to clap. She just thinks WE are funny and laughs. No clapping yet. -If Kai is laughing at us or the dog, Addie watches him and laughs. She adores her big bro! -She is still the sweetest thing ever!

Kai is about 2.5 years now and for the most part a pretty sweet toddler. He continues to surprise us with what he is able to communicate and remember!

-He is catching on that when he tests mommy and daddy there ARE ALWAYS consequences. Finally! He will apologize as soon as he remembers he's going to timeout...in hopes of not going. -He was on a potty training role for a while until I switched the incentive from M&M's to a sticker chart. Bad move on my part. He is no longer intersted. So we're considering Plan C to begin soon! Probably back to food incentives. -He loves to take bathes with Addie, although doesn't like to share his tub toys. I am teaching him to barter with her to keep everyone happy. -He is noticing and questioning differences in boys and girls. This is interesting. When he does say something eluding to body parts, it's mostly just honest. -He loves Scout. They are buddies. He reads her books, shows her toys, wants her to participate with his games and play (hence, she is in the tent below). -Recently, he's developed a stutter with certain sounds. We're just watching it now....praying its just a phase of communicative growth.

Kai gave himself a black eye with the swing outside. Just a faint reminder of it on his right eye the last week or so. Baby #3 is now 16 weeks old. We plan to find out the sex Feb. 9th at our next appointment. I am still feeling sick almost daily....will it ever end?! I am starting to prepare myself for prematurity prevention again....shots weekly and bi-weekly ultrasounds after 20 wks. Praying to avoid bedrest but praying "harder" for a healthy baby. We'll keep you posted.

Western Stock Show

If you love crowds, cattle smell, and eating or buying your way through hundreds of vendors, the Stock Show is the place for YOU!

We knew Kai would really enjoy all the animals this year......and he definitely did. He's been singing every version under the sun of "Old McDonald's Farm" the entire week (before he even knew what a stock show was). We decided the "easiest" thing to do considering the crowds would be to skip the stroller, carry Addie in the backpack, and let Kai walk. Bad idea. Next time we'll be taking a double stroller to do the work for us!

The petting zoo was definitely a highlight. Kai was mainly interested in the goats, although this llama really seemed to take an interest in him! We thought he was going to get a kiss at one point!

Another highlight was all the JOHN DEERE tractors on the event grounds. This was probably the largest tractor...so we had to check it out. Kai wanted to sit inside, although that was not an option. He settled for climbing the ladder.

Quick side note: Ponderosa uses John Deere tractors. Recently, Derrick brought home a free-bee calendar with pictures of all the different tractors and their functions. Kai liked it so much we "read/discussed" the calendar before bed and naps for probably a week straight. He can tell me every crop or function those tractors do!

The main goal for our visit to the Stock Show was to see all the animals, eat lunch, and make it through the SuperDogs show before naptime. The SuperDogs was a show of performance dogs that jump hurdles, catch frisbees, and race through obstacles. We planned for kettle corn during the show to keep Kai entertained...and it did until 25 mins. into it and then he konked out! Addie took a little snooze before the show even began....after munching on her kettle corn. Altogether a fun time, but a long, exhausting day.

Tubing at Ponderosa

A few weekends ago we had a beautiful sunny day for some tubing! We took advantage! More weight= a longer run.

With this in mind, Kai loved to ride with Derrick instead of by himself in order to reach his goal every time down the hill ..... hit the hay bales at the against the fence!

Kai had a great day! He got a ride up the hill in the tube AND down the hill! It doesn't get better than that!Addie had a blast watching everyone take runs down the hill and getting pulled around in our little wooden sled. She would literally laugh, scream and flap her arms when she saw Daddy and Kai coming closer. Addie and I attempted a tube at one point, but it wasn't super successful. I wasn't willing to climb very high....therefore, we weren't even close to hitting the hay bales! Fine by me.

Taking a breather!

Christmas 2009

This is my last holiday post....I know, I know, we're almost a month out from Christmas.....so moving on.

Kai and Addie looked so cute on Christmas Eve in their little outfits and we didn't even get a pic of them together! Sad. We by-passed church service this year due to widespread sickness which was different. But we hit all the F's: food, fellowship, family, and fun.

Poor Addie. This was her look and position all Christmas morning. She was so sick and lethargic she literally woke up and went right back to sleep through all the present opening madness. She just wanted to be held. She got pretty comfy with Uncle Kyle that morning and just snoozed.

Kai got a truck load of new toys to keep him busy. He got this green Strider balance bike from mom and dad, along with new train tracks, tool box, shovel, safari animals, medical kit, Thomas tent, books, clothes, etc. etc. Thanks to everyone who contributed. Hope you had a blessed Christmas and New Year celebration. Now on to 2010.......

Sous Chef Kai

During the holidays there is plenty of baking and cooking to be done. This year Grandma was lucky to have an excellent Sous Chef, Kai. He wanted to be right in the action with every thing going on in the kitchen!

Here's Grandma and Kai making sugar cookies with Kai's new train cookie cutters. He was very cautious when pulling the cookie cutters out of the dough and used the spatula very well. They were even getting a little silly while cooking together. Grandma accidently flung flour in Kai's face....he thought it was pretty hilarious. They were having such a great time together!

I just loved the apron!

The next day, Grandpa supervised Kai decorating all the cookies he helped Grandma make in the previous pics while my mom and I frosted them. As you can tell, they were enjoying themselves. Let's just say the cookies were VERY festive with LOTS of piles of sprinkles!

Kai also assisted with Cheesy Potatoes. He thought it was so fun to shout "potatoes" all morning AND to cook "naked." He asks to be "naked" every morning (meaning play in his diaper only).....at least he still keeps his diaper on!

Because Kai got to help cook so much, he also got to learn to help do dishes! I hope he stays this enthusiastic about dishes until he's 18 yrs. old!! A mom can only hope.

Over the river and through the woods.....

At Grandma's house, we had endless activities to keep the kids busy. However, we did have a wave of sickness run through the house during our entire visit and blizzard conditions for days in a row putting a damper on a few of the activities. Addie had a pretty horrible spell of gastroenteritis along with Kai too. It made for sleepless nights and a non-energetic 7 month old.

This is one of the few pics we have of Addie over Christmas...and probably the only one with any sort of smile!

Grandpa and Kai at the Rapid City Rush hockey game! Kai really liked the zambonnies, the bilip that dropped coupons over the crowd, the ringing of the cowbells, and the popcorn we got for snacking. Because we kept feeding him and taking sporadic walks, he did make it through the whole game and way past bedtime!

At he hockey game.

Kai got a new shovel from Grandma and Grandpa so he can help Daddy clear the snow at home.

A huge highlight and entertainment factor while in SD was puppy Zena. My brother got a new puppy Great Dane ( 7 wks. old) while we were there. She is super cute and all legs! She really loved the kids and followed Kai around whereever he went. Next time we visit Kai will DEFINITELY not be able to look that dog in the eyes! Great Danes grow 70% in the 1st year of life!!

Reid and Zena

Pillow talk

Kai and Addie have become better buddies in the last month. Now that Addie is older, able to sit up, eat at the table with us, and always laughs at her brother they have the strongest bond yet. It's been fun to see that grow. Here's a pic of them laying in Kai's sleeping bag together in their bedroom. Kai practiced sleeping in his sleeping bag quite a bit before Christmas so he would be familiar with the routine when we visited Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas. It obviously led to many play opportunities as well. Kai also likes to play with Addie in her crib. He sticks to the "sit or lay" rule pretty well so he can stay in there with her. This particular night they were just lounging in there and really giggling together....who knows why!?

Papa and MooMoo also took us to the Denver Zoo (along with other camp family) to see the Christmas light display and whatever animals were out in the artic weater. We bundled up and braved the cold. We rode the Merry-Go-Round (which was a highlight), saw rhinos, hippos, elephants, giraffes, sleeping lions, and the indoor animal displays.

By the look of it, Papa and MooMoo had just as much fun on the Merry-Go-Round as Kai did! It was a fun thing to do together....just wish it was warmer! Next year I'm bringing my thermos of hot cocoa!

Rewind...Holiday Prep

I guess it really will start AFTER Thanksgiving with all the holiday prep!

We had the quite the experience with small Charlie Brown Christmas trees this year. Yes, you read right, "trees" plural. We cut our 1st Ponderosa pine tree during Derrick's lunch break one day (in a slight hurry and lacking a better time to go). Derrick's words against mine were "Babe, it's meant for the corner." Let's just say, the corner didn't even help this tree. The needles all turned brown and started falling off within the first 6 hours we had it in the house and it had huge gaps!

Out with the old, in with another.

We went on the search again......this time I got the final say. We ended up with a cute little spruce that served its purpose! Here's a few snapshots from both tree cutting excursions!

The family with the ugly Ponderosa Pine tree. Notice Derrick's holding it at an angle (for good reason). I was totally faking my smile! LOL Addie was a happy little tree hunter in her Elmer Fudd hat.

Kai is my outdoorsmen! There was something to play with or explore in each tree hunting spot.

During the holidays Ponderosa did a few improv dinner shows for the public. Aunt Mimi and Alex (my teenage babysitting saints) volunteered to babysit so I could help with a few of the shows. This was one night after the show when Addie was ALMOST ready for bed and in an excellent mood!

Kai and I decorated a gingerbread house this year. Our first one ever! He really enjoyed it, especially sampling all the candy and licking the frosting off the roof! I'd say I need some improvement as well in years to come. Notice the box picture behind the real thing......we'll shoot for that quality in a few years! Kai is also understanding pregnancy more this time around. He's witnessed my sickness and frequently checks my tummy and gives the baby kisses. He says "his baby makes him sick too" and "he thinks he needs a cracker to help his baby feel better"......he obviously gets the morning sickness stuff anyway. He really is sympathetic and comforting and he doesn't even know it!

Far too long....

Yes, I am back! It truly has been far too long since the last official blog and far too much happening to not be keeping up! Derrick even attempted to motivate me at one point by posting pictures with the phrase "Update to come..." Bless his heart, it didn't work. Excuses mainly related to (in some way): 1. PREGNANCY #3 (sorry if this is your first ear full of it) I have been beyond exhausted (napping during all available blog time), NOT motivated whatsoever, and am now back to puking morning and night. Love the baby, hate the hormones. We are full tilt and almost done with the 1st trimester. Thank goodness...hopefully yucky symptoms to subside and energy to return very soon!!! 2. HOLIDAY MADDNESS! It happens every year so it's not really a valid excuse, but we were able to spend Christmas with my family in SD this year. That means, shopping done on time, cookies made, holiday parties attended BEFORE leaving. Sheeezzzz....we DID make it. More to come on Christmas...I promise. So prepare yourselves....we're starting back before Thanksgiving and working through all these pics! So hopefully you'll be able to check more frequently and actually find something new! Enjoy.