We live here because???

Kellen is confused why we live in Minnesota.... the Vikes suck and so does the weather! It isn't even even Halloween and we had our first snow fall.

Another crazy busy week that has flown by. Thursday night we met Ann Mac, Theresa, Karen and Alma for happy hour and dinner at Jeffersons. We learned from Alma that eating fruit is good for you and helps you poop. Kellen filed that piece of advice away for now since his mean mom won't even let him eat applesauce anymore. Kellen also got to meet some of mom's party friends Skupa and Cindy as we were leaving. He really enjoyed them and thought they were rather funny even at 7:30 p.m.

Kellen had a great time with Grandma Beck's on Friday night. Mom went to a concert with Jojo and the mom's drank a little too much. Sure does work to get a great night sleep we both found. Neither Jolene or I were aware if our children woke up during the early am hours. Don't worry before you turn us in to social services, the dad's were home and we didn't drive!

Texas is the favorite outfit on college football Saturday. In fact, Kellen wore one of his Texas outfits to church today because he worries people might make fun of him if he keeps wearing the Vikes outfits... even prayers aren't helping.

Saturday Kellen enjoyed going out to lunch with David and Anne and we had a great fun. Kellen took in his first WSU volleyball game with Jojo, Mic, Deb and Addie. It was great to see everyone and meet Addie- Kellen thought she was hot.

On Sunday Kellen tried to make a snow angel on the deck with his cousins Tyler and Colin. Although it was great fun, what the hell are we living here for again??

We are going to have to change the theme of our party from BYOB to BYO sled. Seriously.....

Lovin life

Kellen had another busy week filled with lots of new learning. We had an appointment with his new pediatrician at Gunersen and learned that nearly all 4 month old babies can sleep through them night-- it is in fact that parents that prevent them from doing so. At the time I was thinking-- dude I assure you we make no unnecessary noise from our end of the house when the little one is sleeping (not sure if I or Andy would have spit that out first). So boot camp it was going to be. Kellen had been doing great sleeping from around 7 until 6:30 until a few weeks back when he acquired a stuffy nose and couldn't figure out how to breath through his mouth. Well he must have heard us threatening because with virtually no intervention he is sleeping through the night again. What a great learning-- what mom and dad says.... Kellen does. Oh if it were only that easy!

Kellen weighed in at 13 1/2 pounds so still on the tall and skinny side of life. Everything else checked out great and both of us really liked the new peds doctor. Of course I was hoping for someone who looked like Dr. Mcdreamy but a very knowledgeable geek will do.

On Wednesday Jolene and I braved our first night alone at Bergies with 3 kids under 2. Went okay and for some reason we only had Diet Coke. Should have had a few beers to settle our fears!

This weekend we spent some time around the house, Andy started cleaning the garage (no laughing when and if you ever see it) we take small baby steps around here to improving things. Might just secretly turn us in to one of those HGTV shows where you sell your shit to make other improvements around the house. Saturday night we went to a bonfire at Corey and Jo's new house and checked out Jo's parents camper. Seriously bigger than our house on Kansas Street but a great time had by all.

Sunday we took in early church and a waffle breakfast (just what both our diets called for) and enjoyed the nice day. Andy was "dying" from a cold so Kellen and I went on a road trip in the afternoon so he could rest. Thank god he made it through and we picked up an exersaucer along the journey. Kellen is fascinated with it and Murphy can't figure out how he can spin around in it. Sunday evening Riley, Kellen and Logan hung out while we grilled out and enjoyed a few beverages. Hoping that Kellen will pick up on Riley's eating habits as the kid won't stop eating broccoli and squash. Perhaps we could try the threat again to see if it might work!

Kellen got a new sweatsuit and bib from Grandma Beck's. She returned from Florida with Holly and her family. Kellen just loves the bib that says, Grandma bought this with Grandpa's money in Florida.

In addition to his time with Murphy, outside time with Dad, Kellen's new favorite pastime is is playing the piano. Perhaps a musician on our hands already! Just hope he can sing better than any of us can. Murphy might have the best voice in the house!

Getting ready for Halloween- Kellen has about 10 Halloween shirts since Dad is fond of orange and the fact that it looks great under camouflage. You know the kid is going to be made fun of when half of his wardrobe comes from fleet-farm or Cabella's. Thank god for our kind friends who donate the rest of his "normal" clothes so Andy isn't totally in charge of the closet.

That's all for this week- hope you are planning to come celebrate with Kellen at the Fall party!

What a week and what is the deal with these bugs

It was just a wonderful week to be Kellen-- grandma mac visited from Tuesday to Saturday and they did all kinds of fun things. Kellen had a few observations after the visit....

1) Kellen thinks he is going to need to eat at least one squash per week for the next year. Grandma Harry should not confuse the pumpkins with the squash when planting the garden next year. We would have had a hell of a pumpkin patch but instead we will all be eating squash for the next year and a half. But thanks to grandma mac for freezing it all!

3) Grandma Mac makes up more words to song that you can imagine. Kellen will never learn the mouth it Watermelon technique because he will just think you can make up whatever you want when you don't know the words.

4) Even though Dad says we should eat green beans first Kellen loves when Grandma Mac feeds him because he get a fully tummy on apple sauce and can skip the green beans. He wishes she would stay forever.

5) Grandma Mac's antique trips are for the birds. Grandma met mom in Rochester to look at an "antique table". Needless to say we couldn't find the place and not sure a GPS would have even helped with a screaming demon in the back seat. I guess Kellen has already been brainwashed by Grandpa JB and dad to make our antique hunting trips miserable. To top it off the table was not even an antique so all this for nothing.

6) Grandma shouldn't buy Halloween costumes so early in the year. Kellen had his heart set on being a giraffe but as you can see it is a bit small (unless giraffe's don't have spots on the bottom of their legs). Might have to hand that one on to Logan. Could be the cutest giraffe I ever saw (but perhaps I am biased).

In addition to the fun, Kellen went to his cousin's school with his Grandma Becks on Friday. Kellen went to dad's friend Drew's wedding on Saturday night. Needless to say it was a short trip because Dad did not believe Mom when she told him it might not be a good idea to take Kellen out at bedtime. So we left at 7:30 (just 15 min past bedtime) and dad got to learn the hard way (men....). At least mom and dad got to go to bed early to catch a few extra hours of shut eye.

On Sunday we went to church and Kellen misbehaved again (perhaps we will get asked to leave before we even join the church). Kellen had a great day with his dad, hauling wood, going to see Uncle Tom and Grandpa Dano to shoot guns and feeding the pigs. Sunday night Grandpa Harry and Granny Jay came for dinner and to visit. All and all it was another great week expect the bugs are bothering Murphy and that is disturbing to Kellen.

Eating new things and hanging with my friends

It was another busy and fast week for Kellen. Once again mom's friends forgot to tell her that when you first try the whole cereal thing, it will take at least an hour and require at minimum an outfit change and perhaps even a bath for the child and perhaps the feeder as well. Thanks again guys...... what would we do with out you.

Kellen does seem to enjoy his cereal though-- as you can see from the picture we wear about as much as we eat-- if he doesn't spit it out simultaneously when the spoon enters the mouth he barfs the rest up as usual. Looking forward to our visit the his new pediatrician and hoping they have some magic barf pill. Perhaps his mom can use it to next time she drinks too much.

Kellen had a very busy weekend in Dubuque. He hung out with Karen, Kim, Kelly and Ryan on Friday night. Saturday we went to farmers market, then to Loras homecoming and to the Chili cook off. Kellen forgot to wear his" are these people really my relatives" shirt as we ran into mom's cousin's Jana, Jason, Brennen, Jessica, Corey and family, Tami, Marty and kids and Aunt Jan and Uncle "won't come to my house to fix anything" Jon. Great time had by all and Kellen tried beer for the first time. Can't believe his dad and grandma JB weren't there but he seemed to enjoy it and mellowed out quite a bit after 3 drops.

Saturday evening we had dinner with Jan, Jon & Carolyn and John-- Kellen is still very confused what to think of Grandma John Haupert. He might take the lead from Murphy and keep his distance from the crazy man :)

Sunday was a kid filled day. We went to Brad and Dana's to see Nancy's new baby Ella, along with Ken and Elaine. Ella is just beautiful and Kellen enjoyed her company. We then packed up the mom-mobile and headed north to have dinner with Angie, Mitch, Blake and Jaeger & Jo, Corey, Riley and Logan. Talk about a house filled with boys. Blake was a busy guy and enjoyed marching around the house to the sound of his shoes hitting the hard floors. Riley didn't know what the hell to think of Blake running around and was pretty content playing with his diggers. Logan slept through the whole thing and Kellen just took it all in. Mom put the final nail in the coffin on having some more little ones and Murphy is having bad dreams about Kellen being 1 some day. It was great to see everyone and had a wonderful meal. Not sure how 10 years ago mom, Ang and Jojo were chasing boys (and what we thought we would gain if we caught one..... still haven't figured that out yet). And today here we are still chasing boys (ones that seem to all act a little bit like their dads). Felt a little alone drinking as Jojo isn't quite up to it yet and Angie was more interested in the caffeine free diet coke as opposed to the Bush NA. All and all a great time and even though we collectivly live 1 hour from each other it takes a miricle of god to schedule a time we can all gather together.

Should be another beautiful week filled with lots of fun as Grandma Mac is coming for a few days. Kellen will undoubtidly add to his book or learning toy collection as gram will have a few days to load up the car before arriving on Tuesday. Murphy is especilaly looking forward to seeing her as his dad forgot to bring Murphy when he met mom in LaCrosse on Friday to depart for Dubuque. I think fogetting the kid might have gone over better with Grandma JB---- Murphy did enjoy the piece of quite however.

Have a great week and more updates to come!