Anxious & excited

Just checkin' things twice...

Don't you wish you were as cool as these kids?

Katie - video 19 months

What have we been doing lately?

Getting ready for Christmas, of course!

Last weekend Kevin sang in the kids Christmas program at our church. The 3 and 4 year olds sang "Away in the Manger" and "Go Tell It On the Mountain". They kids were adorable. We were stuck way in the back, so this video isn't too great, but you get the gist...

We were so proud of Kevin, he sang nicely and followed the teacher right up front (some of the kids are still really nervous - in fact, one kid puked - right in the middle of the program). Very memorable! After the Christmas program, we rewarded Kevin with dinner at McDonald's. (We have been on a McD's detox for a few months because Kevin is addicted to the toys!). After dinner we took the kids for a ride touring the Jolly Holiday Lights in downtown Des Moines. This has become a fun family tradition.

Katie, posing in one of her Christmas outfits:

Trying to get them BOTH to stand still is always a challenge:

Our tree is up, lots of cookies are baked and I am done shopping! Whew... time to enjoy!

Katie is a pirate, posing in the shirt I made for her (reversible, with snowmen on the otherside):

Upcoming events - Kevin's school Christmas party is this Monday. As part of a year end service project for the school, Kevin and I are dropping off the donations of breakfast casseroles and hard boiled eggs to the DSM Salvation Army headquarters next week. Remember a few weeks ago, the kids got the tour their mobile canteen truck? Well that was such a hit, his school decided to partner with Salvation Army and we continue to make donations each month.

Kevin & Nate have a role in the Christmas Eve church service. Kevin and a few other boys will play the role of shepherds and Nate will read their lines (very difficult for 4 year old boys to memorize a script!) I am playing the flute that night too.

Merry Christmas!

Katie - 18 month stats

We enjoyed a fun week in Chicago for Thanksgiving. The kids enjoyed lots of time with Grandmom & PopPop and visiting friends.

I took Katie for her 18 month checkup today. 18 months, 25 days:

26.4 pounds (75th percentile)

33.5 inches (89th percentile)

Here she is just being silly :)


The Spradling's came for dinner Sunday night. Katie brought lots of books to Uncle Joe:
Isabel loves to read books:

Baby Tyler is now 6 weeks old.

The weekend before the IT came

IT, that is SNOW! The dreaded four letter word hit Iowa earlier this week.

Prior to that, we had a great weekend outside - check out the kids -

(Katie has now decided that it's okay to wear hats & headbands. She would not let us take this one off. I think this headband looks like a bandage).

Kevin took this one from the top of the playset :)

5K Halloween race

I have not ran a race since Katie was born, so I decided to run our local YMCA Halloween 5K. I helped my friend Jill finish her first race. It was a good thing to do in order to offset all the candy. Any Chicago friends want to run this local race with me & Nate on Thanksgiving morning?

Halloween - part two

My two cutie pies:

Katie, Kevin & Isabel

Of course we had to "inspect" their candy when we got home, yum!

Kevin decided it would be okay if the "Pumpkin Fairy" came the next night. The fairy came and ate all his candy and left him with a new Batman toy. Genius! I hope all the guys at Nate's office enjoy the gallons of candy that all the moms have sent there.

Just playing

Here are some photos of the kids from the past week. Just playing, as kids should :)

Looking for bugs:

Our playgroup toured a local fire station. Can you find the kids (+tiger)?

Halloween - part one

Wow - I could really get used to this awesome fall weather (70 degrees and we are loving every minute we can spend outside). Friday night we took the kids to Living History Farms. They host a family Halloween which includes trick or treating, tractor ride, pumpkins, roasting marshmallows and a storyteller. We had a terrific night! Great weather, no crowds, and no crying (by anyone in my family).

As you can see, Kevin is a pirate. We dressed Katie in Kevin's old chickie costume. She refused to wear the hat. When we went to another party on Sunday afternoon she was dressed as a Hawkeye cheerleader (no hat required)!

I just couldn't resist re-posting a photo of Kevin wearing the same chickie costume 3 years ago!

More Halloween pictures this week (preschool party & trick-or-treating still to come...)

Photo shoot out-takes

After church this morning we noticed that both the kids were dressed to kind of match each other. This wasn't planned. We thought we would try to pose them for a Christmas card picture, here are the out-takes...

"Put your paws up" - we say that all the time!

As you know, it's super hard to get a 1 year old and 4 year old to stand next to one another, hold hands, gaze adoringly at the camera, and smile all at the same time! I don't have one of those super-fancy fast cameras so we did the best we could. While not professional, still cute :)

Lots of football talk

It's football talk around here...

Nate is teaching Kevin the proper football stance. No surprise, Kevin always wants to play full blown tackle football. He is showing off his new #85 shirt, just like his Grandpop's football number. My dad sent Kevin a photo of himself in his high school football uniform (circa 1960's) and Kevin just could not believe it was him!

Cousin Isabel took her first steps, finally, during the Iowa/Iowa State game! Nate caught it on video and also snapped this picture of Kevin helping Isabel.

Center Grove Orchard

Well, we have sailed right through our sadness that summer is over and moved directly into fall mode. We might just have to turn on the heat soon if the weather stays like this. It was really chilly downstairs this morning and both kids woke up with cold toes.

We love Center Grove Orchard!

I took the kids for our first visit of the season today. It was chilly this morning, but they didn't seem to mind. The mini-barnyard was just perfect for Katie (and me) because the animals are contained in their pens so they didn't come too close. Kevin loved the corn pool. This was Katie's first "dip" in the pool. I was impressed that she did not eat the corn kernels. We took a tractor ride, played in the mini corn maze and jumped on the giant bouncy pillow. We came home with a peck of apples and peaches.

***Both kids were sound asleep when we got home!*** I could not have asked for a better Thursday. We purchased a season pass to the orchard and have plans to meet Kevin's preschool playgroup there for the next few weeks.

I was only able to snap a few photos on my phone:

Catching up...

Time has slipped away from me, so here are some pictures to catch up!

Kevin was up early today so he had breakfast with Nate.

Kevin received this super cool 3-D dinosaur shirt in the mail from Grandmom & Grandpop last week. He sure loves dinosaurs lately.

2 happy kiddos at the Blank Park Zoo last week:

Adorable! I love this face!

Katie - 15 month check up

Today I took Katie for her 15 month check-up, here are her stats (15 months, 21 days):

Weight: 24 lbs, 6 oz. (69th percentile)

Height: 32.5 inches (93th percentile)

As a comparison, Kevin was 27 pounds & 30.5 inches. Again, I am fascinated by how tall she is! She needs those long, strong legs to run around our house and constantly chase her brother!

"Words" that Katie can say:

-ball

-hat

-hot

-Mamma

-Dadda

-Baby

-NO

-Cheese, trees, shoes (all sounds the same)

When asked "What does a cow say", she responds "Oooohhhh". Sort of.

Here are a few pictures of Miss Katie:

Was giving her her own cup of chocolate pudding a bad idea?

One last photo from the State Fair

Here are the kids on the way home from the doctor and running errands this morning. Katie was wiped out! Kevin is showing off the balloon he got at the mall.

Just hanging around our house

Just goofin' off with the kids yesterday morning (and because I don't think I have posted enough photos of Katie lately).

This is Katie's new "smile" face....

She is looking so proud that she just stole her brother's new toy that he won at the fair. Seriously, she is sneaky and so smart. She will wait until the exact moment that Kevin steps out of the room and she will swoop in and steal his stuff. This happens constantly. I am not sure if I should laugh and encourage her (this is my gut reaction after growing up with an older brother) or act as the peacekeeper and defend Kevin's toys.

All aboard

My parents came to visit this weekend and brought the kids goodies from their recent trip to Alaska....

Kevin was thrilled with his new train conductor costume, complete with a real whistle (so far, the whistle hasn't been too loud)!