Christmas Unwrapped

We had a great trip to KS for Christmas this past week. We arrived the 23rd and stayed until the 28th. We spent lots of time with Keenan's family including 2 great aunties, aunts, uncles and cousins and of course ate lots of yummy food! :) Ari and Keira were both in top form. Ari was talkative and active and loved playing with his cousin, Charis while Keira was all smiles and giggles for anyone who caught her eye.

I'm trying to type this with a wiggly baby on my lap so I'll leave you with a quick funny and some pictures. We all loaded up and went to Christmas Eve service after dinner that night. Ari sat still until the service started and then he was done. We managed to get him coloring on the floor and he was quiet for a bit. Just as the preacher started his sermon we heard a loud "toot" (if you know what I mean). I tried to avoid eye contact with the people in front of us thinking it may have been one of them. Just as that thought crossed my mind I hear "Ari toot toot!" All of us had to stiffle our laughter. :)

Fun With Chalk

Ari is in rare form this week and keeping me busy with posts! I went to call Keenan and Ari in for lunch today and this is what I found...


Then I got closer...






Oh what a silly boy! :)

The Latest Where's Waldo?

Ok...I really should be cleaning now that both kids are asleep, but I had to get this up before I forgot. Ari instisted on playing with his workbench when I put him down for his nap today. I did our normal nap routine and left the room. I heard him in there playing for a good 30-45 minutes and then it got quiet. After I had Keira settled in for her nap I opened his door to find the picture above. It took all I had not to start laughing. What a silly boy.

Oh and yes, he practically lives in that blue camo jacket these days. Don't worry...we change the shirt underneath every day ;)

I guess it's time to get back to work now...

Ari's New Skill

A few weeks ago Ari started singing his ABC's! He loves for me to sing them to him and he must have been listening intently all this time because he's pretty good at it. He does skip some letters from time-to-time, but I know I'm impressed :) He also like to sing some other songs as you'll see.

Thanks for letting me gloat a bit! :)

Cozy Cuties and Other Randomness

A hug from big brother


Keira hanging out in the bouncy seat


Ari helping clean up


Sleeping sweetie


I couldn't resist buying matching pj's the other day and it proved to be a sweet decision...


Things have been busy around here getting ready for the holidays. I'm still finishing my cards and my goal is to get them out tomorrow. We'll see if that happens, though. Ari's last day of school is Wednesday then we'll have two weeks of "nothing" to do until we head up to Wichita for Christmas. I should get back to work for now, but I wanted to get a post up before it'd been too long. I have some videos I need to get up here and some stories as well. So much to do!

Brotherly Love

Ari had his first "real" playing with Keira time this evening. I wish I could have captured it on video, but I knew as soon as I grabbed the camera the moment would have been lost. It went something like this (I'm just trying to get this preserved in some fashion so I apologize if it doesn't come across well):

I laid Keira on the floor near the laundry room while I switched a load from the washer to the dryer. I then retrieved the humidifier from Keira's room a few feet away to fill up in the bathroom just across the hall from Keira. Ari came out of his room and saw Keira on the floor and exclaimed "Keewa all alone!" She made some sounds and he ran over to her, laid down on the floor with his face in hers and rubbing her head said "What happen Keewa?" in a high-pitched, but soft voice. She looked at me with a concerned look on her face, but seemed to enjoy the attention from her brother. He then ran into the living room, stopped suddenly and exclaimed again "Keewa all alone!" He turned around ran back to her and the story repeats from there about 10 times until I was done with my chores and decided standing in the hallway didn't seem fun anymore.

It was so sweet, cute and funny all at the same time. I can tell he's going to be a great big brother :)

Catching Up

The last 2 weeks have been a whirl-wind for our family. On the 17th we had Keira's 4 month check-up. She's doing great and is now 13 lb and 24.5 inches long! She did as well as could be expected with her shots and even kept her oral vaccine down this time! Her spitting up has just about subsided and I've been testing the waters with some chocolate and extra dairy here and there. It's hard not to go overboard after going without for so long.

The rest of that week I spent doing laundry, packing and cleaning the house before our trip to Denver. We left on the 22nd and spent just less than a week with my family. Both kids did great on the plane, but we were exhausted from shuffling them and all our accessories through security etc. It also didn't help that they each took turns not sleeping at one time or another throughout the week. Luckily we were home by Friday so we had a whole weekend to recouperate.

While in Denver we visited with lots of family and friends. On Sunday we went to Auntie Sue's then took a walk to the park where Ari fed the squirrels. He loved it and has been requesting to do it again. Ari also went tool shopping with Grandpa and Daddy and helped hook up the TV in the basement. I tried to go down and tell him it was bath time, but water fun couldn't compete with guy time. I was told "Mommy go back u-tairs!" Keira had fun as well and charmed everyone with her bright smiles and sweet laughter.

Here are some pictures from our trip. Enjoy! :)