Mostly Sports and Activities

We're wrapping up the last couple weeks of summer vacation.  Kellan is back at school next week. In the mean time Jim has kept the kids as busy as usual.  Two hours (at least) are still spent at the pool.  Another two weeks of T-ball on the calendar and football "camp" started today. Three hours a day Kellan goes with kids from 5-8 yrs old to play flag football.  He really enjoyed himself today, didn't have a favorite drill and did admit to getting tired toward the end.  

We're finally getting the kids in bed by 8:30 vs. 9:00 - the two of them basically just pass out. Otherwise Jim and I are happy to get some Rockie game watching in on TV, glad they're doing well.  I'm spending many extra hours working trying to tie up all the loose ends, but no sooner do I get something done one more thing lands on my plate.  Still hanging in there, very low on energy, but glad Dexter's staying put (though I'm pretty much over making it until my last day of work on 7-31).  

Kellan had a 4 month check up for his legs.  We were all very anxious.  We were hoping to hear he didn't need to wear his night braces anymore.  It's been a long haul and he's been great, but is done with them.  We gave him a one night a week break the last few weeks leading up to the appointment.  Unfortunately, as great as the doctor says he's doing, she's still worried without the day braces and the weekly pt sessions he's still not quite strong enough to sustain a growth spurt.  So we go back in 4-6 months, hoping he grows and is strong enough to support all his progress - and then the braces will come off.   We were all disappointed.  Kellan has a calendar in his room and looks forward to picking a night each week where he doesn't have to wear them. 

Not a whole lot of picture taking.  I'll take some soon - it will be evident which child has Jim's nice, easy tanned skin, compared to other who is as white as I am (though I have a bit of a tan going).  The videos are some I haven't gotten around to posting until now, including Jim pitching to Kellan for T-ball.  Enjoy!

x

Zoe "helping" me put away Dexter's clothes.

A busy few weeks...

Even though our last few posts have been weather related, more relevant events have finally happened.  We bought the kids a water slide a couple months back, but unfortunately they have not been able to use it until now.  It's been fun watching them.  With the 180 lb limit I was even able to get on it...not with as much flexibility and coordination as the kids which made for a scary time at the top of the slide for me (funny for others).

Kellan lost his first tooth...then he lost it a second time.  No sooner did it fall out then we warned him multiple times to leave it in the house.  He insisted on carrying it everywhere.  Somewhere in our backyard is his first tooth.  It made for lots of "Will the tooth fairy still come" conversations and of course she did.

The same week Kellan "graduated" from kindergarten.  He had a "special me" day we all attended.  We didn't take any pictures, but we did do a video.  For those who saw the first day of school video on You Tube, we have a follow-up, not nearly as funny (and not sure if I can post it to this site since it's on the long side).  We're proud of the boy and look forward to his next big step - 1st grade starting on July 28 (hopefully Dexter hangs in there).

We had lots of visitors for cousin Jenna's wedding.  Cam and Phoebe came and stayed with us and we were really happy to see Fred, Monica, Papa Jim and Grandma Lawna - who brought "big bus" and Sadie.  It was a non-stop, fun weekend.  Kellan and Zoe's favorite thing was dancing at the wedding.  Believe it or not dancing is one of the things they love to do together. We missed Tiffy and Lyla.   

Now for the Fourth.  Damn weather.  We had rain Friday and Saturday.  The kids couldn't stop talking about the fireworks.  They went out earlier in the week and bought a bunch.  It cleared up at about 8 pm and we went out at 8:45.  No sooner did Zoe get a sparkler in her hand she started freaking out.  This is the same child who last year loved the fireworks and doing sparklers.  She lasted maybe 10 minutes before I took her inside and watched Kellan and Jim out our bedroom window.  She said - "I wanted to come in because Duke is scared", which was true, but not really the reason. 

That's about it for the last few weeks.  Kellan continues with swimming lessons and t-ball.  Zoe absolutely loves the pool.  She jumps in on her own and "swims" underwater.  Since we moved the computer up to our loft she spends hours a day on there.  She's pretty good for a 3.5 year old and we can leave her completely independent on it for quite a long time.  Hopefully she doesn't start "surfing" to other sites.  We're finishing up on Dexter's room.   I'll take pictures when it is finally complete.  At least it's painted and we can now get in the door.  All his clothes are washed.  I'm still hanging in there, four weeks from 7/6 - or one week if I consider Zoe was three weeks early. AHHHH!

Love Us

PS - I have lots of pix and videos so probably won't post them all this time round, but will save some for the next post(s).

Weather

LEGO MANIA

I've been waiting to update the blog until I had something other than the weather to talk about - well it's been a few weeks now and the weather is still the only thing to really talk about.  I don't think there's been a day we have not had rain.  We went from 80 degrees to 45 degrees overnight.  Typically the day starts bright and beautiful.  Enough brightness to wake the kids up around 6 am (you can see from below poor Jim isn't as awake as his bed guests).  Then about 4:32 pm as I am driving home from work a storm roles in.  We were at an outside mall ten minutes before a tornado landed, rolled cars and destroyed the exterior of stores, windows, etc. We went to the Rocky game on Sunday only to be evacuated during the 5th inning for a tornado warning and rain (this one didn't touch down).  

I was also hoping to report the loss of a first tooth.  Kellan's so close to losing his bottom tooth, but of course that hasn't even happened yet.  He's getting restless to be done with kindergarten (6-23).  His last swimming lesson was today and he will be starting the next level in a couple of weeks.  T-Ball started (though half the practices have been rained out).  Jim is managing his team this year.  It's not so much t-ball.   Each kid gets 5 overhand pitches pitched to them (by Jim) and if the kid does not hit one of those, then he/she gets to hit it off the T.  We like it when all the kids hit the first pitch - otherwise can make for a very long game (13 kids per team times 5 pitches each).  Kellan is still a star batter, but needs work on catching and throwing.

As for Zoe, she remains Kellan's shadow - if not dressing like him, wanting to do everything he does.  She's still beating him up.  Zoe starts pre-school in Aug and is excited to go out and buy a back pack.  We also signed both of them up for soccer at the end of the summer.  

Dexter continues to grow, larger and larger.  More and more people are saying I'm getting bigger. I like to correct them and say "don't you mean HE's getting bigger?" (little bit of denial on my part).  

Jim's friend Chris and his son Caden (born a day after Kellan at Hoag in NB Beach) came out for a visit. The boys all had a great weekend together - playing legos, going to the dinosaur museum, Garden of the Gods and the Rockies game (see below for pictures).  

We're looking forward to Jenna's wedding and family coming into town on 6/25.  Otherwise work has been crazy  for me (7 weeks and counting) and of course Jim is crazy with all the kid's activities.  

Love us.

Summer Fun...well at least for a few days

Last weekend was gorgeous.  Mid-80's, summer is here!  Well, no sooner than I packed up all the kid's clothes did this week of bad weather arrive.  Thunder and lighting all weekend.  So the pictures are from last weekend, not so many picture opportunities from Memorial Day.  We still spent a lot of time at the pool - outside pool opened, but only spent about 15 minutes out there until the rain came.  Zoe's getting braver and now goes down the intermediate slide, still won't put her head under water and is very confrontational with the kids that turn on the water fountains that spray her in the face. It's actually hilarious and I would love to get it on video.  I wouldn't even need to be close enough to hear what she's saying, her body mannerisms are very clear, lots of feet stomping, arm crossing, sometimes sitting on the ground & crying...  

Totally random subject, for all of those who have bought Kellan legos, don't fear your money wasn't well spent.  Since Christmas he spends hours a day doing legos.  He went through building his own creations for a month, but is back on track with creating everything over again from scratch.  Jim and I spend hours helping him find pieces.  If he's not at school or the pool these days he's in his room 5-6 hours a day doing legos.  Zoe knows how to get to him when she's mad at him or he's teasing her - she still bites him unfortunately, but realizes that breaking a recently completed structure into hundreds of pieces will also make him cry - hard.  

There's been a lot of Dexter talk these last few weeks.  Maybe it's because he's obviously on his way. I need to start writing down some of the things the kids say/ask.  They're very curious if he will look like them.  If he will like Disneyland - I'm sure he'll be disinherited if he doesn't.  We're still completely avoiding the question of how he's born.  They want to dress him, feed him, bathe him. I hope the novelty doesn't wear off before he gets here, it's looking like he may not need Jim or I.  Of course at this moment I can't think of anything funny...maybe the next post...

Hang in there papa Frankie - close to Kellan's heart and in his everyday strive to walk better/run faster, is the pride you gave him in telling him he taught you how to walk again.  There's nothing he's more proud of - keep it up.  

PS - maybe I'll get a video of Kellan when he doesn't say "poop".  My goal is to only film them once in any situation (as you can tell by the previously posted videos)- with that said, "poop" will most likely always be mentioned in the video, no editing done here.  Not the best video and I really have no idea what Zoe is saying, but I don't think anyone will care - you get a sense of the screaming that Jim loves.  

Happy Mother's Day!

To all the mom's out there - Happy Mother's Day.  We hope yours was full of pampering, a possible spa trip, sleeping in past 7 a.m.,  some well deserved R & R.  I was able to sleep til 7:30, clean a couple of bathrooms, did seven loads of laundry and finally got around to dusting our bedroom - exactly what I wanted to do.  We are all very lucky to have/had such wonderful mothers in our lives.  We are sorry we missed everyone. 

Besides cleaning, we made a trip to the pool and 31 Flavors (don't think I need to say whose idea the latter was).  Kellan has been so excited to show me how he can go down the "big" slide since he was able to pass his swim test.  Zoe even made it down the "froggy" slide a few dozen times.    

Pictures and vids all from the pool today (vid shots of Kellan a bit difficult to get) and as you can tell - Zoe is the more interested of the two in being photographed.

Visit to WA

We made our last airline trip as a family of four in April to WA. Even though we now consider ourselves flight experts (maybe a travel book is in order?), we can't say it's gotten any easier. Zoe was a nightmare on the way home.  I won't go into any details, but there was a lot of kicking and screaming involved.  Luckily, Kellan was in the seat in front of her.  Our next trip in Sept won't be any easier with a newborn and a dog.  Not sure if I will feel worse for us or the other passengers.  

We visited the grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousin Monty and friends for a few days.  We had a really good time, lots of people to meet us at the airport,  Aunt Debi took a couple days off to play, we made a trip to the zoo and Seattle, saw Aunt Jessie in the midst of her finals, Uncle Mike and Amber, Brad and Reina.  We even had lots of sunshine and better yet we missed a huge snow storm here.     

Other than the pictures, I meant to post the video back on opening day, but as always a bit behind.  Most of you have heard this by now.  History behind it, Jim sings "Take me out to the ball game" with Zoe's Rockies hat on his head every night before she goes to bed.  She now sings it constantly and I mean constantly.  It's actually brought her out of her shell a bit and she will approach anyone as long as she can sing them the song.    

Kellan is back to swimming lessons and starts T-ball in a couple of weeks.  I just hit my 27th week of pregnancy and getting bigger by the day.  Jim enjoys telling me stories of people he talks to who have three kids and how difficult it is.  I'm still trying to come up with a great response.  If anyone has any suggestions - PLEASE let me know.     

Sick Kids, Grandparent's Visit & Easter

We have been on house arrest the last two weeks.  Kellan has been on break.  One week into his break, he came down with bronchitis and a double ear infection.  I don't think he's slept more, including naps since he was three years old.  Zoe copied his cough for a week and then on Easter she ended up in urgent care with an ear infection.  With that all said, we're happy they're getting over being sick and just in time for our trip to WA on 4/16. Unfortunately not before Grandpa Jim and Grandma Lawna visited for Easter.  We had a great time - other than Zoe either crying or sleeping their entire trip.  We still had a few smiles on Easter, along with a new bike for Zoe.