Keziah is 31 MONTHS!

I can't believe it either...she is another month older! How does this happen? Time is going by so quickly and the saying is true "Time flies when you are having fun" and nothing describes life better with the kids God has given me!

Kezzie is getting smarter, of course! She has been able to count to 10 for a long time now but this month learned how to make it to 20. Just recently she started to count beyond 20. If you help her get started she can usually continue on to 30. She will frequently miss a number here and there though! Still, very impressive! Another thing she is doing is she is 'measuring things'. She will stretch out a toy or piece of string and say 'twenty pounds' as if to say its length. So cute! She says the same thing when she is weighing herself too. I suppose the doctor's office is where she is getting the idea from!

Every morning Kezzie gets the farm animals out of her barn and lines them up. They can't ever be lined up on the floor though, they must be standing on some kind of pedestal. She gets frustrated if she can't find something to stand one of them on. She pretty much leaves them to sit there for the rest of the day until clean up and then she does it all over again the next day. She has recently even started lining up the animals from her Little People Noah's Ark set.

She isn't doing the greatest at listening these days. I am sure it is her age but I feel like I am failing miserably as a parent...any tips on getting her to do better with this would be great!

Kezzie is starting to say the funniest things-some that make sense and some that I can see how she would think they make sense. I will be starting to record these so I can share them with you and keep them for my own records! She makes me laugh so much by her goofiness! I just love this girl!

Still her favorite thing, by far, is the Wiggles. However, Dora is coming in a very close second. I think she struggles with who she wants to watch between the two every time we get in the car for a long ride.

Kezzie has really taken an interest in Adah lately. She loves to make her laugh and smile. She will copy things that I do to get Adah to smile (ie: if I pretend laugh uncontrollably to Adah she will laugh hysterically-Kezzie will do this at random times, sometimes it works!). She is also a very big helper when I need a burp clothe or Adah's paci. I have also caught her rubbing Adah's head to soothe her when she is crying. And very often Kezzie is quick to show Adah off to people at the grocery store or wherever we venture out to. You better believe that there is also another extreme to this relationship! Kezzie HATES to share (so abnormal, huh?) and will pretty much do whatever it takes to get her toys away from Adah. I have witnessed some brutal behavior coming from such a tiny person! She will shove her, poke her and just plain yank a toy right out of her mouth/hands if she doesn't want her to have it. Kezzie will always claim that it isn't safe for Adah to have and that's why she is taking it away. What a great Love/Hate relationship!

I can't express enough how incredibly blessed we are. God has given me an enormous job and responsibility. It is a great journey that He is leading me on!

Kindermusik & Swimming!

We now have kindermusik on Tuesdays for the summer session. And as a perk Emily and her two boys (Ethan-almost 4, Bennett-2) get to join us! She is trying to ready Ethan for pre-school and what better way then to get him into a room with a bunch of other kids where he has to listen and follow directions! He is doing excellent with this! Kezzie is also enjoying it. Not as much as the winter session we were in previously but still likes the activities. She is very shy when it comes to pretending in front of others and there is a lot more of it in this class. Since Austin would be a huge distraction to Ethan, I make sure he is elsewhere for the duration of the class. This week I had it lined up for him to go to his old sitters house (Nancy) whom has an underground pool! She arranged to have some of the other kids that were in daycare during his time to come and swim with him, so he had a great time. Once kindermusik was over the girls and I then got our suits on and got in the pool too! It was so much fun and a perfect hot sunny day too!

A Friendly Visit!

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We had the privilege of visiting one of our dearest friends this weekend and their newly adopted son Levi. We used to go to church with them when we all lived in and around the Cedar Falls area but just don't get to see each other often enough now that they moved to Dubuque and we moved to New Hampton. We decided we would go stay at their house for the weekend and after driving through some horrendous rain we made it there at almost 8:30pm on Friday. Saturday we went to an Arboretum with many flowers and a fish pond where you could feed the fish with food bought in the gift shop. Keziah enjoyed watching the fish eat and fight for every piece. It is a beautiful place but it was extremely hot so we didn't do a whole lot of walking around. We quickly headed back to their house for lunch and naps. During naps, the guys (Micah, Brian, Isaiah and Austin) all went over to a baseball card shop to look around. When they got back Jamie and I got to have a break and go to an awesome consignment shop where I got some really good deals on things for the kids. I even got myself an Abercrombie t-shirt!

Here are the two beauties of the bunch-Naomi and Keziah! It has been a while since they have seen each other but didn't have any trouble settling in to play together! Austin and Isaiah were the same way even tough Isaiah is quite a bit younger. Austin is such a good sport and ended up having a really good time with him and even showed him how to get a good campfire going! Levi had a blast with them all too. He is so carefree and smiley all the time. He enjoyed following the bigger kids around and doing whatever they were doing or he was happy to just play by himself. He is such a sweet boy and adorable too!

Sunday morning we woke up and got our stuff all packed up and then we went to church with them. Since it was Father's Day we thought we would leave right after church and go to my parents' to eat lunch and lay the girls down for their afternoon nap. We had such a great weekend. Too bad it had to come to an end! We love you Steele family! We look forward to the next time we get to hang out with you all!

Sprinkler Fun!

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Today was the perfect day to jump around in the sprinkler. Unfortunately our lawn had just been mowed and not raked so we had to do it in the driveway. It was still so much fun though. Adah and I sat in a lawn chair and just watched while the other two played. Austin brought out one of his old and very weathered remote controlled cars (in case the sprinkler ruined it) and raced it through the water making it skid out. Adah had a blast watching it go all over the driveway. I think this was a first for Kezzie but she surprisingly didn't mind the water in her face as much as I thought she would! And lately she has a thing with catching ants and carrying them around (unknowing that she squished them to death) as if they are her friends. So she spent quite some time doing that as well!

Heartland Days!

It was Heartland Days in New Hampton this weekend. A time for the town to get together and hang out! Friday morning the Library was putting on a story time/balloon artist show. My mother-in-law was kind enough to come over and listen for Adah while I took Kezzie to it. It was so much fun and just adorable. My friend Maria came with her five kids. Two of them even participated! The guy would tell a story from memory and he had 'hats' for the volunteers that put them in the character they were playing. He would then expect the volunteer to repeat what he said. Maria's boys did such a great job acting out the parts they were assigned to do!

There was also a parade on Friday night that we took the girls to. Austin was with his dad this weekend so he didn't get to join us. Adah loved the wagon ride but HATED the parade (and she was skipping her evening nap)! There was way too much noise for her liking-especially the fire trucks! We got there a little early to get a spot and I packed a picnic supper for Kezzie. She enjoyed eating it on the blanket and waiting for the parade to get started. Keziah loved it all. And best of all she got a whole bunch of candy! She didn't really get the concept of running after the candy and putting it in your bag from the beginning but learned quickly as she watched the other kids around her! She had so much fun and won't stop talking about 'the paray'! Cousin Rylan got to join us too. Jamie and Crystal were hanging out so they came and met us at the parade with Rylan. Isn't he just too cute?!!

Cousins!

Yesterday we spent the day with the Coyles and Brian's parents. It was great to have them in town and see how much the boys are growing! I love this picture of Henry and Steph!

New Videos!

There are 16 new videos down below...some are more fun for me to look at then they will be for anybody else, but take a look! Puddle Jumping is one of my favorites!

A nice break!

Over memorial weekend and extending into the next week we took some time to hang out at the river. Austin finished school (YIPEEE) on the 28th so we were free to stay and celebrate. Since my mom was off work watching Rylan for the week (and taking advantage of it by being up at the river), it made it really easy to want to stay up there too (my dad couldn't resist either so he took off work)! We ended up being up there from Friday the 28th to Thursday June 3rd. We had a blast! There were some really really hot days and some cool days too. We even had a couple days that were absolutely perfect! And it only rained one day-just enough for me to see if there were any leaks in the good ole camper! Everything held up great! The kids all slept really well with Adah having an occasional cry in the night. Daddy even came and stayed one night with us! Keziah really got into playing with Perry and Cindy's kids this year too. She is getting older now and enjoys pretend play a lot-which makes life easier for me! Aside from the occasional bump and bruise, there was nothing major to report! Austin of course had a wonderful time with Joshua. They enjoyed going out in the canoe and fishing across the river from the lots. Austin always looked forward to the night time because Grandpa (my dad) took him out every night fishing until 10/10:30. They would go to an area that entered into the main channel where there was a deep pocket there. They seemed to always come back with some nice sized bass and walleye. And of course if you are going to catch them, you have to clean them...so Austin got a good lesson in filleting! Almost every night we would enjoy a good campfire and an occasional s'more. I tried to let Kezzie stay up about every-other-night (until 9/9:30) We also enjoyed many walks with the kids. Keziah always insisted she walk. We never could understand how she had so much energy to go so far and still press on the rest of the day! She is so full of energy! One of the funniest things that happened that week was after it rained we decided to take a walk after being cooped up from the rain. As you can imagine, there were many puddles along the way. I originally told Kezzie to stay out of the puddles since she had her tennis shoes on, but she just couldn't resist. After not listening one time and getting all wet, I decided to just let go for once and let her get wet and dirty (I knew we were going home the next day). The entire walk she and Austin we jumping in every puddle they could find. She would come to one that wasn't very big and say, "Wook (look) at this one Austin, it's perfec (perfect), it's just my size!" She is so adorable! We got back to the lots and she discovered an huge one to play in. I caught some video of it until she ran off looking for Austin (she loves that kid).

We are truly blessed to have this luxury of a place to get away. I am already looking forward to the next time we can get up there. And as you can imagine...so are the kids!

Too many to choose!!

They are all just too cute to only pick a couple and stick on the blog...so why not just post them all?! Kezzie and I were going crazy with the camera the other night! This is the result. We even caught Adah in the act of rolling over! And I caught Kezzie actually being nice and sharing with Adah! I'm sure that will be rare as they get older. It already is pretty rare!
Today, for the first time Kezzie came to me tattling on Adah stating (in a winy voice), "Mom, Adah pinched me." I thought, 'oh no it's beginning'! Obviously Adah didn't do it on purpose! I don't look forward to all the tattletaling between the two!

Stacks!

I recently received my kit in the mail to store my breast milk so I can donate it to a milk bank...Kezzie has discovered the containers and spends countless amount of time stacking them. You need to also know that there are three different shapes/sizes of containers...she is partial to just one type and sorts through them all to find that particular one! Here she is with her newest creation-a third layer started!

Comps!

This is Keziah at about 6 months old...

And this is Adah at about 6 months old...

I'm not sure if they are all that similar?! The older Adah gets, the less I think they look alike. Adah's head is bigger or something...she's just chunkier all around. Still as beautiful as can be though! They are just uniquely individually made!

Thumbsucker!

Adah has discovered the satisfaction of sucking her thumb. Although she still prefers the pacifier, when found, her thumb will do just fine! It's so cute too!

Aren't new toys great?

Thanks grandma Smith (my mom) for the money to buy this incredibly convenient and fun toy! I knew I was saving that money for something special! Adah absolutely loves it and I love that I have somewhere other than the floor that she will stay occupied while I get lunch/supper fixed!

A visit to Great Grandma Smith!

We got to see Great Grandma Smith today. She recently had some skin cancer removed from her nose so we like to check up on her to see how she is doing and give her some extra lovin'! She didn't have any girls of her own so she loves it when she gets to see mine. And Kezzie always enjoys sitting up to the piano and playing a little tune. We love you Grandma!

Adah is 6 MONTHS!!

I have done a horrible job this month at keeping up with what Adah has been up to but I will try to remember-the days seem to run together and she is just growing so fast! The beginning of the month (5/3/10) she mastered rolling from her front to her back. We also started cereal this month...not sure the exact date and it really doesn't matter because she totally hated it. I tried it for about 2 weeks straight and eventually I just decided it wasn't worth the frustration it was causing both of us. We will try again in a couple more weeks!

Adah had her six month check up a little late this time since she got her 4 month shots late. There has to be a certain amount of time in between her 4 month shots and 6 month shots. So on June 4th we went in for her check up. She weighed in at 15lbs. 14 oz. (50%). She is 26" (50%) long, however, looking back at her 4 month check up she supposedly only grew .5" in the last two months so at some point something wasn't measured correctly...no big deal-she's still average! Adah did have to get some shots and Kezzie didn't like it that she had to watch her sister get hurt. Adah was pretty crabby the rest of that day and into the next but slept pretty good at night.

Adah is getting really close to being able to sit up and does a great job of getting around by rolling. Of course, she hasn't quite figured out that it can get her across the room by any means, but if there is a toy barely out of reach she can easily figure out she can get to it by simply rolling a couple times!

Adah is still at six breastfeedings a day. And still takes 3 naps a day. She is still sleeping about 11 hours at night!

The newest look we get from her is her tongue sticking out 24/7! It is really cute but I miss seeing her smile! I think her gums must be bothering her because I can often catch her chewing on her tongue and rubbing her tongue on her gums. Poor baby!

What a joy it is having another beautiful daughter. Our family is incredibly blessed to be able to smile and laugh with Adah! With her one ear that sticks out further than the other and a new mole that just appeared out of no where a couple months ago...we love her to pieces and are excited to see what she has for us next!

Baby birds!

Every year, somewhere around our house, we seem to find a nest full of eggs. This is so much fun for the kids (I love it too!) to be able to watch the eggs turn into little babies! We have tried to keep our distance so the mommy will feed them but it has been hard since they chose to put their nest on the ledge under our slide. I was relieved when I went and checked on them the other day and just happened to catch the last two (out of four) getting ready to leave the nest. It was pretty cute...Kezzie missed it since she was napping so I just had to grab my camera. Now they are gone and we can have our play gym and slide back!

Rylan Comes to Visit!

Jamie and Keith went away to Hawaii for a while so between my mom and I, we are watching Rylan! We are so lucky! He is such a cutie and so easy going! I had him Tuesday night until tonight. Jamie and Keith put him to bed on Tuesday night before heading to Rochester. This evening (thursday) my mom came to my house as soon as she got off work and took over. She is going to stay until tomorrow and then her and Rylan are heading to the river for the remainder of their time together. I will be right behind her tomorrow...as soon as Austin is out of school! Rylan did a great job for me. He hardly seemed like he was missing his parents! He and Kez loved 'playing' together, and Adah loved watching them! I think she was kind of wondering what he was doing here and why he was taking her mommy away from her! Kezzie also enjoyed feeding Rylan a bottle, watching The Wiggles in the recliner with him, and helping me feed him his veggies! I love how Adah is sitting so nicely next to me just watching Rylan get fed.
As hectic as it was, it was a lot of fun and very rewarding. Now to see how the rest of the week goes at the river! Wish us luck!

Big Girl in the Bumbo!!

Adorable...eh? She loves this thing and uses it frequently. It is really nice to get out when we are all eating supper or if I am trying to work in the kitchen. Of course, the second she gets out Keziah has to take a turn too (and yes, her little hiney still fits in it)!

Soooo Big!!

Look at this girl...isn't she adorable? She is getting so big! Just today she pushed herself up on her arms...I wonder how long it will be before she adds in the knees and starts crawling. I'm not going to rush things though, I like my baby just the way she is-not too mobile yet!

30 months!

She is looking more grown up every time I do this. A full two and a half years now! She is my big helper around the house and talking so much! She is full of attitude but is such a sweetie. Still doing great without her paci and is doing excellent on the potty. She is even napping in underwear these days! Last month I mentioned taking the safety door handle off her door so she could come out of her room when she woke in the morning, well this month we put it back on. She soon started taking advantage of that and we found her 'needing a drink or needing a kleenex' waaaayyy too often. She would open her door and help herself to the bathroom where she would hang out for a while and then run back to her room. She was also getting up much earlier than usual. Like over an hour earlier just so she could come out of her room or something! Anyway, it is back on now and things are back to normal. It is sometimes a pain to have to leave what I am doing (ie: nursing) to go upstairs to let her out of her room but she handles it really well and I would rather it be this way then fight with her to stay in her room!

Funny Adah/Kezzie story: The other day Kezzie asked if she could hold Adah, (this doesn't happen very often, in fact, it has been a really long time since Kezzie has held Adah) so I had Kezzie sit up in the recliner and I plopped Adah on Kezzie's lap. Kezzie was done in a heart beat and I thought to myself, maybe she would enjoy it more if she could actually see Adah's face and interact with her. So, I turned Adah around and put her legs so they were straddling Kezzie's tummy. Kezzie was enjoying this so much more and they were laughing and smiling at each other all the while I am supporting Adah's back and joining in the fun! All of the sudden Adah spits up A TON of spit up (she had just finished nursing) all over Keziah. The look on Kezzie's face was priceless. It went from a full blown smile to complete mortification! And she was even more offended that I couldn't stop laughing. She looked up at me and disgustingly, boldly stated 'Adah spit up' as she tried to push her off her lap. It was priceless!

I wanted to say a word on the rash on Kezzie's face too. It's been a while since I have commented on it but until this month I have still had to daily put Elidel cream on it. This is the first month that I haven't put it on in at least a couple weeks. Hopefully she is finally outgrowing this eczema that she has had to deal with for the past year now.

One of Kezzie's favorite things to do is match things. She is always trying to find things around the house that match. She will open up DVD cases and get the inserts out and match them to the correct case, she loves to match a picture that we once took of her receiving a gift to the actual object (ie: she just recently saw a picture of herself next to her Easter basket and in her basket was her stuffed animal chick, she immediately went and found her chick and put them next to each other and said ,'look it's a match'), she also has a couple matching games that she frequently requests to play!

One of Kezzie's most favorite things to say when asked a question is...'cuz I want ted to' with some very clear annunciation! This is becoming a very annoying response and just might have to be nibbed in the butt (is that the correct expression?) really soon!

Kezzie is still napping from about 1:30-4 and goes to bed by 8pm. She wakes around 7/7:30. She is never interested in something to eat for breakfast but loves her liquids! I usually mix 1/5 juice with 4/5 water. And after about an hour of being awake I offer her some cereal with milk, oatmeal, a bagel, or some toast (she hates eggs right now). She is doing pretty good with her other two meals but definitely isn't going through a growth spurt. She can't have a morning snack or you can forget her eating lunch at all, but she will always have an afternoon one when she wakes from her nap because that ties her over til supper when we eat around 6.

Until next month...we'll keep on smiling and thanking God for our precious little girl!

River Rats!

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It's official...my kids are some regular river rats! It's great! I will never forget all the memories I had growing up here on the Mississippi River in Prairie Du Chien. My parents' first camper was a pop-up and I can remember waking up on my end of the camper and being able to look out at the river. We camped in ours for the first time this last weekend and I got to experience that memory again as an adult. I couldn't stop smiling as I watched Keziah get to experience things just as I did when I was her age. My parents are gracious enough to share their lot with us so we can have many more weekends just like it!

The top left picture is of Kezzie up past her bed time, sitting around the campfire. You can tell she is looking pretty out of it and mesmerized by the flames! She was just trying to stay awake in hopes of getting another peanut m&m (we tried giving her a marshmallow and she still really hates them-something with the texture, I think)!! The next one is of us out on a boat ride ...Keziah enjoyed hanging her arm over the edge to touch the water and Adah just relaxed in my arms and fell asleep. I don't know if Adah was ever fully asleep but she was lulled by the rocking and humming of the boat! The next one is of Leora and Keziah playing in/near the water. The water was ice cold but it was pretty warm outside. Leora asked her mom if she could get in the water and she was told she could get wet up to her chest. Leora had a blast jumping off the dock and into the water while Kezzie sat watching. Kezzie wasn't quite brave enough to do it too nor would I let her (I didn't have anymore shorts to change her into and I didn't feel it was warm enough to put on a suit). She had her water shoes on though and just stood with the water up to her ankles. While getting packed up to come home on Sunday, Kezzie kept herself occupied by playing in the little pool filled with river water! It was exceptionally hot that day so I had no problems letting her get her suit on and 'go for a dip'. It was really sweet of Josh to take Kezzie in under his wing like he does his three younger siblings. Austin wasn't around to help keep Josh company so he moved to the next best thing and that was playing with the younger ones. He rigged Kezzie up a pole without a hook and she sat by the water's edge practicing her casting! Rylan and Adah mostly played in the pack-n-play or on a blanket laid out on the ground. We took a couple of relaxing walks and Kezzie and I stuck our feet in at the boat landing. With all the outdoor exposure I was left with two VERY tired little girls on Sunday! Kezzie fell asleep before she could even turn her book to the next page! And I threw a picture in of Adah in her bed in the camper. I got this really old bassinet at good will for $4. The legs fold under so it sat really nice on the couch next to my bed. It is a really nice size too so it should last her all summer. She slept through the night in it both nights that we were there!

I look forward to many more fun times like this!

Where Memories Will Be Made!

Here it is...our new (occasional) humble abode! It's going to be so much fun for our family! I LOVE it! Some of the photos are of it set up in our driveway getting ready for camping and the other ones are of it all set up at the Mississippi river all ready for camping! Once I got it set up at the river I realized there is an awesome canopy with a screened in area too! There are a few more things we need to get before we can fully do things on our own (cook, do dishes, etc) but we are getting there! Thanks for all the wonderful help mom & dad and Gary & Alena!!

A day at the Uglums!

Mat and Steph were in town this weekend with their two kids. It was great to see them and get to hang out in some good weather. All the kids played really well together. No fighting and little tears! Even Austin had a good time. Him and I even got to go outside and toss the football around and shoot some hoops. And soon everyone was out there. Austin also got to drive the golf cart around the yard for a bit with Uncle Mat's assistance! He was grinning from ear to ear! Kezzie loved playing with Remi (the dog) and trying to catch her! And Adah really enjoyed this bouncy seat thing...I think that will be our next investment!

First Time for Everything!!

Tonight was the first time Adah tried rice cereal. She did a really good job. I made just 1T of cereal mixed with breast milk and she took 3 good 'bites'. It was practically liquid but fed with a spoon! She made many facial expressions-both good and bad! I just decided it was time to give it a try since she has been waking up around 5/5:30am to nurse (she normally makes it to 7am). Only time will tell if this is a solution to that problem or maybe she just needs her mommy a little earlier these days!

Birthday Bash!

Here we are...the two April birthday people! We waited to celebrate until the last weekend in April since that is when Adam's birthday is. Dad grilled some amazing steaks and mom filled in the rest! She always makes awesome sides too! We finished off our meal with a little DQ ice cream cake. I got some great gifts from my family. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful loving family I can celebrate with! On my actual birthday (4-15) my sister Jamie came in the morning to spend it with me and eat lunch. She brought me a dozen pink (my favorite) roses. Just as we were headed out the door to go to the park (it was a nice but very windy day), somebody was pulling up to my house ready to deliver a bouquet of flowers from my mom. They were so incredible. And for the rest of April I enjoyed both bouquets as they smelled up the entire main floor of my house. After only 20 minutes at the park, we were ready to come home. It was time for lunch. I made my favorite crock-pot chicken recipe. It was a great day!