Announcing...

I'm sure that anyone reading this already knows the news (at least if you've seen my dad in the past few months), but I'll make it official regardless. We are having another boy sometime in May/June. My due date is May 28th, but I'll likely either be 2 weeks early or 2 weeks late! The boy is very wiggly and stubborn (just like Kaelen). He gave us a thumbs up on the ultrasound. Kaelen's response to my growing abdomen has been to jump on it whenever possible... So, yeah, I think he knows what's coming! I'm a little nervous about my sanity with two boys (since my sanity with just Kaelen is fairly nonexistent), but I'm happy that Kaelen will have somebody to beat the crap out of (and vice versa)! Stay tuned for even more madness!

Editor's Note

The intended audience of this blog was originally Kaelen's grandparents. If you are not a grandparent and you are reading this, please note that the next few posts have quite a lot of pictures. First off, I'm lazy and I didn't feel like sorting through all of them to find the absolute cutest. And second, his grandparents are a bit demanding and are always asking for more pictures! So, I recommend scrolling through the pictures quickly and moving on. I do think my child is cute, but I'm not so naive to think that anyone else (other than my parents) really wants to see pictures of every little thing my child does!

Penguins

Thanks for the jammies grandma!

Cleaning help

Grandma's jello salad

Kaelen fell in love with Grandma's jello salad - this isn't a shocker, since I love it too. He had three bowls of the stuff within a few hours...

(yes, these are the SHOES! that he loved so much)

Cars, Trucks, Shoes and Meltdowns

Kaelen had fun opening presents. It took him a bit to get the hang of it, but once he did, he was a paper tearing machine. He got a pretty good haul - cars, trucks, pjs, socks, shoes, blankets, puzzles, books, bendy toys, and even a sock monkey! (He still isn't sure about the monkey... ) My favorite moment was when he opened up the first pair of shoes. He had been playing with his trucks and he wasn't too excited to open the present. Once he saw what it was though, he immediately dropped the trucks, yelled "SHOES!", and tried to pull off the shoes he was already wearing. We put the new shoes on and he loved them, until he saw the next present, which was also a pair of shoes. He again yelled "SHOES!" and pulled him the shoes he was wearing. Apparently he's my son!

After the presents were opened he had a few meltdowns and went down for a nap. Too much excitement for one morning!

(Sorry about the plethora of pictures... too tired to sort them all)

Christmas Eve

For my sanity, I'm splitting up the Christmas pictures on several posts. I hope this will reduce my yelling at Blogger... we'll see!

Kaelen's favorite activity during December was to take down the Christmas tree decorations. Sometimes he'd put them back up... between him and the cats, I'm missing quite a few ornaments (not to mention all the *@#% hangers...)

My parents came to stay for a week, and they spoiled him rotten. But, I guess that's what grandparents are for.

Christmas Eve was pretty low key. In fact, it was so low key I don't remember what we did! The only thing on the agenda was ensuring Kaelen wore his special jammies to bed. That's really the whole point of Christmas Eve, right?!

Why we don't make gingerbread houses...

First: It's messy. Very, very messy.
Second: The candy doesn't stick very well to the icing (refer to #1)
Third: Someone always wants to taste test the candy
Fourth: It's impossible to know for certain whether the candy that was tested was swallowed or spit back out and then put on the gingerbread house...
Fifth: Even if the candy on the gingerbread house is not used, the cats will somehow get to the house and lick every possible surface
And Last: Once the candy has been tested and the house is done, the tester will run around crazy for a few hours and refuse to go to bed!

Just Me and My Dad

Kindergarten preview

A couple of kids in our ward started preschool this fall, and to celebrate they got backpacks, which they of course had to bring to church! Their younger siblings got backpacks too, and pretty soon Kaelen decided he needed one. We packed his with diapers, wipes, snacks, toys and books, and now momma doesn't need a diaper bag for church! Wahoo! Sometimes we get a little carried away in our packing and he sort of topples over... but then again his favorite thing to say is "Ashes, ashes, all fall down!" (that and "I said no...." - not so pleased with that one).

Finicky bather

A few months ago Kaelen decided he was anti-water. He would scream during wash time at school, and he refused to cooperate (i.e. get in the tub or sit down) during bath time. I didn't really have the energy to deal with it, so we just skipped over bath time most nights... my bad. (In my defense, he usually got a sponge bath when we got him ready for school in the morning, so it's not like he was dirty all the time.) I tried everything to get him back in bath mode, including taking a bath with him (he'd at least sit on my lap in the tub) and getting him bath crayons. Apparently what he needed was daddy to give him his bath...

He's now back to being pro-water at school and at home. And best of all, daddy is in charge of bath time!! Yay for mommy!

Who taught you that??

I guess the old upside down bowl on top of the head routine is inevitable. It's especially fun when there's still food in the bowl. At least he likes baths again...

The Obsession

My husband is one of those strange creatures that I don't understand at times. He is a glutton for punishment, although not quite a masochist... not quite. He is a runner. And even worse, he runs marathons. Okay, he's only run two so far; but he fully intends to run more some day... if I will allow him the time off to train for it!

He ran in the Seattle Marathon the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Anyone who's been to the Pacific Northwest between September and May knows that is not a particularly good time to do a marathon, since it's usually raining (It's also not a great time to train for a marathon, as he discovered). But, I guess fate was smiling on him that day, since it was dry and temperate.

He ran the marathon in 4 hours and 45 minutes (approximately); he had wanted a better time, but the way I see it, he finished it, which is much more than I would have done!! Just like last time, he immediately swore this was his last marathon; and also just like last time, after a few hours had passed, he decided that one more couldn't hurt... See - glutton for punishment!




Wearing Uncle Ken's medal