December all ready

Hi there,
So it's December right?  Where did the rest of the year go? 

Well the boys have been doing well; they had their 18 month appointment last week.  Keegan is a whapping 23.2lbs and Paddy is 25.6lbs.  Paddy was 1.5 inches taller than Keegan and has huge feet.  Chuck thinks he will be taking after my brother in the height department.  Keegan will probably be more like Chuck in the 5'10" range we hope.  We don't want them to take after their short mom. ;-) 

I have some photos to share that were not posted but seemed like cute ones you guys might like the first set is from our Pumpkin finding adventure.

Adventuring into the maze

Paddy and Daddy, sometimes Paddy calls himself daddy.

Hay!

Keegan in action!

 

So as you can see the pumpkin finding was a lot of fun!

 

The boys are very physical as they LOVE to climb up on everything.  They are very proficient at climbing into a chair and sitting at it, and if that isn't good enough they can then climb onto a table just for fun.  Keegan is very fast he walks at the same pace I walk at.  Paddy is more of a stop and smell the flowers kind of kid. 

 

They both are very good at signing and know how to point to their body parts when asked.  We are working on animal noises now!

 

Here are a few more photos from Halloween, I couldn't resist as I just found them on my camera.

 



 

I will do my best to do a Christmas post here in the next month.  Till then have a wonderful December!

 

Oktoberfest

So much yet so little has happened since my last post. The boys act like toddlers now for sure as they race down the stairs now. Safe, probably not but no matter how many times I tell them be careful, that's dangerous, they still do it. Lucky for us they are tough so when they do fall down most of the time they just pick themselves up and do it again.

Words are flowing out of their mouths like water. Some we understand others not so much. Keegan can tell you a story and talk a mile a minute with very few words that makes since, but he always pauses for you to interject then continues on. I have no clue where he gets his mile a minute talking from, Chuck? :-)

The family did Oktoberfest this year, Nancy, Kelly, Kelly's boyfriend Brian, my parents and our friends Mike and Heidi went. It was a lot different for us as mom and dad, but the boys had a wonderful time. We swam, and walked around, jumped in the bounce house, like I said a lot different than other years for us. We missed Kevin, Jennifer and Austin, but it was probably a good thing as Payten was born last night!

I also have some photos to share from our fall photo shoot with my friend Lisa from Black Cat Photography. I totally recommend her for family photos!!! She does an amazing job!!!

Innocent boys

Family

Four wide

The boys were playing with rocks and having a blast!

Yet again these two are so sweet (I'm allowed to be biased)

The Norman Rockwell photo

The boys with their mama

Love how chill Chuck is with the boys

Probably my favorite!

Keegan so sweet.

Paddy with Kisses bye-bye!

1 week in, no Nana, no Chuck

Well I must say we are doing quite well so far. It has been one of those Murphy's Law kind of thing so far, but that's how I live my life. If it can happen it will. I try to be prepared for the worst case scenario as that usually makes the worst case not so bad.

 So my work got super busy and needs me here 24/7. Being a mom, now I just say I can't. Luckily they understand, but it makes me feel bad as I used to always be able to help out in situations like this. So I've only had one late night and several early mornings where I leave for work at 5:30. This week is supposed to get worse, but that's just Murphy playing with me.

So then my poor Nanny is sick, lucky for me my mom is in town until Wednesday morning. So hopefully she will get well, or I guess Ii will just have to hang with the boys and not work. (Sucks for my work, not so bad for me.) The boys woke up this morning with a cold, which they have had one small one before, but really we are not versed in the whole sick thing. I knew it was coming someday, but of course it is going to come when there is no Chuck or Nana Nancy. Damn that Murphy!

Paddy and Keegan are really impressive to me; yes I'm a proud mama. Last night Paddy walked over with a book in hand, took out his binky and said very clearly, 'read this.' Oh how cool is that!

Keegan last week decided to hurl himself out of bed, so that was remedied before Chuck left. He lowered his bed to the lowest possible setting. He is still standing on his turtle trying to get out of bed. Silly boy.

The boys have had a wonderful summer outside playing in the kiddy pool and the sprinklers. I am pretty sure I have two outdoor boys so we will be investing in some rain boots to let them play outside this winter. Might not be as fun for us, but I figure we will bundle them up and let them play outside, as I think that’s what boys are supposed to do!

So this was started 2 weeks ago, and now I am finally finishing it! Nana gets back today, yea!!!

The boys are just boys... Keegan has been doing 'tricks' on his tricycle. He stands on the seat and thinks he's cool. I have mini heart attacks all the time telling them 'no please don't do that it's dangerous!' Paddy loves to stand on the foot rest and jump from that onto the ottoman. Then he watches us and laughs. Children are crazy!!!

Both boys eat very well, but when they are done Keegan slyly drops off his food to Kicker. Paddy isn't quite that sly.... He takes to full on over hand throwing his food. Needless to say when Paddy is done with is food his food gets taken away quickly.

We took photos yesterday with Lisa and I will post those soon!!

Relaxing Vacation

We decided we needed to get back to North Idaho at least once this year so we planned a very low key vacation.  I think that is all you can do when you have two kids just over the age of one.  So we planned our trip out so we didn't have to be in the car for too long of a stretch, I think on the way over it was 2 hours max in the car at a time.  That worked out really well. 

We saw my parents, my brother and his family, and then the Vandals in Sandpoint, the Whitesel's, the Gunters, and the Bopp's. Below are some photo evidence of the fun we had.  Taking two naps a day it was a rather relaxing vacation for Chuck and me!   I'll do another post with more milestones of the two little guys we all know and love.

Jenn and Austin in their matching Sven skirts

Austin and Kevin on the swing set.

Paddy loved Austin's Sandbox

Keegan swinging and lookin good.

The triplets, the twins and Eleanor

Look one girl for evey guy, this is the life.

Keegan very reactionary to the camera!

At the Season's

Paddy playing and having a blast!

Dad and Paddy in the lake

So much fun they were always passing each other running here and there.

Hiking!

Start of the boys first year.

So much has happened since my last post, I think that is what I say every time! Well we have two runners in the house. Going different directions or right on top of each other, it seems like it's one or the other.

Paddy is really coming along in the verbal department. He says, 'more' as he signs for more food. He sure loves to eat! Other words he says are, ball, mama, dada, Nana, thank you, and lots of babbling that you can tell he knows what he is saying, but we are clueless.

Keegan is talking a lot as well, when he can get a word in. He is a very physical boy. He has NO fear and his favorite toys is a ball. He loves to carry around balls, kick them, really anything athletic he can do with a ball. I'm pretty sure he will be a sports nut!

The boys love to pick strawberry’s in the back yard with me. We have lots of them so it is a free for all, and I always come in with wet, dirty boys. I guess I should get used to that. They do love being outside and playing in any water source and dirt they can find.

I will get some video posted soon I have lots I just don't seem to remember/make the time to post them. I will try to do better. I will put up a few photos from the baptism. That was a nice evening and the birthday party went very well as well. So I will post a few photos from the festivities!

The boys love their dogs! They especially love Allie. They know how to pet nicely and love to share food with her. She is such a sweetie to them. We are sad to say, Allie has been fighting skin cancer for almost a year now, and is going to go up to heaven (I know she deserves to be there) on Saturday. We are very sad, but unfortunately that is life. She will be missed by the whole family, probably in this order... Kicker, me, Keegan, Paddy, then of course Chuck.

Paddy ready to PARTY!

Keegan trying to stay awake.

Oh yea!!  My first sweets.

Oh yea grandpa give me this stuff, love it!

Baptism with the god parents Anne and Ivan VanDeWege

Chuck looking handsome as ever!

Quick update before the big day

So the boys will turn 1 on Sunday. We have planned a busy 24 hours where we are going to get the boys baptized at our new Church on Saturday night. Then on Sunday we are doing the whole turning 1 thing. Nancy (Nana), which Keegan now can say, is taking care of almost everything for the baptism as far as the festivities after the Baptism. I recommend having your mother-in-law move close and help, if she is as amazing as Nancy.

So Keegan is officially walking. He stops, starts, has very good balance. Really he is pretty awesome. Keegan is our boy who has no fear. He is very determined and makes the cutest face where he scrunches his noise and does fish face and breathes fast in and out when he gets into his zone. It's rather funny!

Paddy, dangerous is his middle name, LOVES to climb up on everything. He can literally climb over the gate we have in the living room. Luckily he hasn't perfected it yet so he isn't super-fast at it, so we can still catch him in the act. He is not quite understanding the whole concept of gravity, I feel like that will be a lesson he learns soon. Paddy is taking a step or two but isn't totally right there with Keegan, but from what I know about these two little boys he won't let Keegan be the sole walker for long.

The boys got their first hair cut on Tuesday. We went to my hair dresser and she did a great job! Chuck after the fact thought the boys should have gone to a more manly place. ;-) Sorry dad, maybe when they are older you can take them out for haircuts and shaves.

Ok, well this one is a quick one, so next week I will fill you in on how the big 1 goes!!!

 Oh yea and these boys, like all kids I’m sure, pure entertainment!!!! 

11 months... time sure fly's when you're having fun

Wow so I'm a bit behind as I haven't posted for a full month. We had Easter at our house this year again, everyone came over and we had a nice little Easter Egg hunt. RJ, Kalista, and Austin participated, but the boys sat this year out. Next year they will be all over it I'm sure.

Paddy and Keegan are getting closer and closer to walking, but not quite there yet. They are very quick crawlers and pretty quick on their feet furniture surfing. They stand by themselves and have started to take those steps but if there is nothing close for them to grab they usually fall. We have had a few successes from one piece of furniture to the next with a full step in between. So I'm sure they will be running around in two different directions soon enough.

Paddy sleeps straight thru the night most nights, but Keegan seems to wake at least once and often twice. This was the case until last week when we put Chuck in charge of night duty. It took 3 nights and Keegan was broke of waking up. No mom, no milk, fine I'll just go back to sleep.

Chuck just put all the latches on the cupboards tonight instead of the rubber bands I was using. ;-) Chuck and I leave tomorrow for Vegas and my parents are coming to stay here with Keegan and Padraig for our first vacation without the boys. Thank you very much to Ashely, mom, dad, and of course Nancy who helps us out each week so much!

So I have a few Easter photos to share that my good friend Lisa took. She does such a wonderful job!!!

Also I will post a few videos in the next little bit. Keegan and Paddy LOVE to play peek-a-boo and let me tell you it is so cute!!!

The boys are starting to fight a bit, we have had a few biting incidents. Keegan with his 8 teeth has found a few reasons to use them. So far they seem pretty reasonable, like when Paddy is taking the bottle from his mouth and his fingers are in Keegan’s mouth. I think I would bit him too. :-) Well not now, but as a 11 month old for sure!

Love this photo

Keegan so serious where does that come from... not mom!!

Cousin's

Chuck and Keegan

Paddy oh is that a camera I need to smile for.

Cousins and mom's

Keegan tired allready?

Great grandpa and grandma and the boys!

Paddy blue eyes