Harvest Time

Keegan and I have been watching our garden grow and blossom. It is fascinating to watch the veggies slowly grow into something that will be edible. We have been keeping an eye on our zucchini and cucumber plants. We have had a few zucchini that were almost ready to pick. I went out to the garden, tonight, and found that those zucchinis had a growth spurt over the last couple of days. I picked 3 good size zucchinis. Keegan and I will be baking with them tomorrow. He is super excited to use the veggies out of our own garden. We also have tomatoes on our plants, but it will be a while before they are big enough to pick (or ripe enough). There's just nothing like produce straight from the garden! :)

Our Little Book Worm

Keegan loves to read. It is amazing to see how quickly he is picking up the art of reading. I love to watch him read a book and then ask him questions about the story after he has finished. I really didn't think he would comprehend each story he was reading since he has to work at sounding out some of the words still. He never ceases to amaze me. He can tell you all about the story when he is finished. He has said from the beginning of this last school year that all he wanted to do is learn to read so that he could write stories like his daddy. Well, he is on his way. There is a ton of reading going on and he is always writing little stories. Maybe one day I can share one of his little stories with you all. I never dreamed that my 4 year old would be learning to read.

Injury

I couldn't believe what I was hearing! I had to ask Keegan to repeat himself. I asked him how he got that scab under his eye and he replied "K" took his pencil and poked me. I was shocked. I asked him what he did to "K." He replied "I was telling him that he couldn't write on that." This little boy didn't like what he was being told so he stabbed Keegan with his pencil. He just barely missed his eye. I was stunned! Of course, we talked with his teacher the next day to get the whole story. Keegan knew exactly what he was talking about. This other little boy was suspended for 2 days. Thankfully the school takes violence very seriously. I can't imagine my 4 year old being suspended. This little boy has only been at the school for a month and they definitely have their hands full with him.

A Birthday Celebration!

I can't believe a year has passed since I wrote this post!

Happy Birthday Keegan! Nothing pleases me more than watching you hide God's Word in your heart. It amazes me the comprehension you have of God. I love to hear you talking about praising God and giving Him glory as we go about our daily lives. May you continue to fall more in love with our Saviour every day!

Thank you God for this precious boy that you have entrusted to us! What a joy it is to watch him grow in the knowledge of you. Help us to be amazing role models of what it means to be a follower of Christ.

We love you Keegan!!

Boys

I just wanted to share a new picture of the boys. I can't believe how big Truitt is getting. He is now walking and even a little running. He is starting to sign more and more. He amazes us at what he comprehends. He is a little cuddler too.

Ready to Read?

Keegan has been doing very well at school. He said on the very first day of school that he wanted to learn to read. He has been determined ever since. He already knew the phonetic sounds each letter made, so he was well on his way to reading. He can now sit down and read a very simple beginner book. He is also starting to write little stories. It is the cutest thing I have ever seen. He draws pictues and then labels them. He is working hard to sound out words, even if they aren't the correct spelling he has correctly spelled them using the phonetic sounds. For example....he would spell bird "burd" or he tried to do snow mobile the other day and it said "snu beo." I am so proud of him! He is growing up so fast!!!! I can't believe my 4 year old is ready to read.

Catch Up Time

I can't believe it has been so long since I last posted! So much has happened there is no way I can write about it all.

First, we had a great Christmas! We had a wonderful time celebrating the Savior's birth. We were so spoiled (as usual). It was so much fun to watch the boy truly enjoy this special time of year. The best part was knowing that Keegan really understands the true meaning of Christmas.

Next we celebrated Truitt's 1st Birthday! I can't believe a year has passed since he entered this world. Wow! Everything just goes much faster with a second child. He is a happy boy that loves to be around people. His cute smile and big dimples brighten my day. He is feisty, opinionated, cuddly and sweet. The week of Christmas he took his first steps. He can stand for long periods of time and walk (when he wants to). Before long he will be cruising everywhere all the time.

I also missed my blogiversary. It has been more than a year since Chris created this blog while we were in the hospital, after giving birth to Truitt. I haven't updated the blog as often as I wanted to, but I will try to do better this year.

We were able to get away with Chris' family (thanks to his parents) for a few days around new years. They rented an amazing house for us to stay in. The kids had so much fun feeding the goats, sheep and pony. They also enjoyed jumping on the trampoline. It was nice to get away from all the normal pressures of life and just relax and enjoy some time away.

Currently, Chris and his brother are under a huge amount of stress. They are working night and day to finish their novel. They missed the Dec. 1st deadline the publisher had for them, but thankfully they are being very gracious and extended the deadline to the end of Jan. Please pray that they would finish this novel on time. We can't wait for it to be done so that he isn't working non stop. I have read the first part of the book and I am amazed at how good it is! Not just because he is my husband, but because it is really good. I kept finding myself saying "Wow, I can't believe how good this is and my husband wrote it!" Now I need to find time to read the first book.

Pictures from Keegan's Birthday

Here are a few pictures from Keegan's actual birthday. I will try and post some from the party we had this last weekend very soon.

* at school carrying the globe around the "sun" while his class sang their little birthday song.


* no we are not crazy! He specifically asked for a pink baby with a bottle :) He is our little nurturer.


* He earned a patch for his vest at Cubbies. He chose to wear the Mickey ears since it was hat night.

Growing Up!

My little boy is 4 today! How does the time go so quickly? It seems like just yesterday I was in labor waiting (not so patiently) for my little boy to enter the world. I can still remember most of the details of that long night. At 8:42AM the dr. finally pulled you out of my womb. I was excited to finally see you, but boy was I exhausted. It wasn't exactly the birth I had dreamed about, but I wouldn't change anything. God knew that you would enter the world via c-section. All that matters is that I was blessed with my healthy little boy!!!

I have been blessed with so many wonderful experiences as your Mommy. You never cease to amaze me! You are such a loving, nurturing, cuddly, creative little boy. Just thinking about who God created you to be puts a huge smile on my face. I love to watch as you create new things or explore the wonderful world around us. Your eagerness to absorb all things is contagious. I have learned many things along side you. Thank you for keeping me on my toes. My faith has continued to grow as I pursue God's guidance in how to be the best Mommy I can be. The most rewarding part has been watching you hide God's word in your heart. I love the fact that you enjoy learning about God and that you are able to tell others about Him. It melts my heart when you pray for your brother's (or others) salvation. I know that you will play a special part in making sure that Truitt falls in love with the Savior also.

Keegan I love you and look forward to many more memories with you! Happy 4th Birthday!!!!!

Life

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Life has just been busy. This week started like any other, except for I got woken up by the sweetest little boy singing Happy Birthday to me. You guessed it! Monday was my birthday. Chris and I were blessed to have an evening out with our good friends, Keren & Steve. We went to dinner at Bahama Breeze and then did a little shopping. I desperately needed some new clothes. We left the restaurant with full tummies. The food was amazing!!!!

Awana started back up this week. Keegan is now a Cubbie. It is so much fun to watch him learn new versus. The kid is like a sponge. I wish I could memorize things that quickly! He is so eager to learn and it is amazing how much he retains.

Chris left this morning for the Fantasy Fiction book tour. I am very excited that they have gotten this opportunity, but we already miss him! You can check out all the authors live, today at 7pm (pacific).

The kids and I will be participating in the Walk for Hope this Sunday! My entire family gets together to do this walk every year. We do it in memory of my Aunt Judy that passed away, from Breast Cancer, 4 years ago today. We miss her dearly and want to do anything we can to help find a cure so that other women don't have to endure this awful disease.

On a side note....I'm not sure if I updated everyone on Keegan's schooling. He has been moved up to the Pre-K class. This was his second week in the new class (first full week). He is now going 5 days a week from 8:45-11:30am. He is doing really well and loves school. I look forward to picking him up everyday to hear about how school was. My favorite part is when he can recite their Bible story for the day. It is so cute to hear him tell me all the details.

My Boys!

I can't believe how different my boys are built. Truitt is nowing wearing clothes that Keegan wore at the age of 18 months. Yes, Keegan has always been a lightweight, but it still blows me away. Here are a couple pictures of the boys in the same outfit. Keegan at 18 months and Truitt at 8 months.

School Boy

Keegan started Preschool today. He was so excited. I can't believe he is old enough to go to school already! The 2.5 hours flew by. It was strange to have a quiet house for that long. Truitt napped the whole time Keegan was at school.

Keegan couldn't wait to show of his box of extra clothes. Daddy decorated it with all of Keegan's favorite animals. It had a dolphin and elephant on one side and a zebra on the other.

After we signed him in at the office he ran right outside and found our friends, who have a boy in 1st grade. They were standing in line outside his classroom. Keegan ran right out to them and yelled "hi guys!" We had to tell him it was time to go to his classroom. He had no fears or anxieties about starting school. In fact, he asked me yesterday.... "Mommy, after you and Daddy take me to school are you going to go home?" I said "yes Keegan and then we will come get you when school is all over." He got the biggest smile on his face. He might as well have said, good I'm glad I will be all by myself. I could tell that he was thrilled to finally be going to school without us.

Miller for Change

Chris' dad is running for House of Representatives. Our family is helping with whatever we can for his campaign. Keegan always says we are doing things "so Grandpa can win." The other day we were talking about the letter M and words that started with M. Keegan asked if milk started with m. I told him it did. I then reminded him that Miller started with m. His response was "oh, like the Miller campaign?"

Kid Talk

Keegan is always coming up with new things. He is a creative little guy (much like his daddy). He has an amazing imagination. Here is a conversation we had this morning. I am still laughing!!! He is definitely all boy.

Keegan : "here Mommy, hold my elephant, cause he is nasty."
Me: "Why is he nasty?"
Keegan: "Cause he toots on people when they hold him."


And the story continues.....
After lunch today this is how the conversation went.

Keegan: "Mommy, want to hold the tootin elephant?"
Me: "I thought his name was Penny?"
Keegan: "His middle name is the tootin elephant."
Me: "Oh, ok."
Keegan: "He only toots on bad people, but not on good people."

Where does this kid come up with it?

Fun with Boys!

Keegan got a fishing pole for going poop on the potty. He was so excited to use it, so I set up a little "pool" in the kitchen.






Truitt started rice cereal last week and then had his first "real food" last night. He seems to really like food. He has sweet potatoes last night.


Isn't he a cute boy? He was playing in his exersaucer and smiling at me. I just couldn't resist this picture. It is really hard to get pictures of him. Whenever he is doing something cute I pull out the camera/video camera and he stops whatever it was that he was doing. He will just look at me with this puzzled look, like "why are you pointing that thing at me?"

No - That's Not a Black Eye!

It was a beautiful day today. Keegan was out in the backyard while I was finishing up work. It was shortly after 5pm and Angela came running into the office! Something was wrong - very wrong.

Keegan, being the curious creature that he is, had managed to open up the hot tub chemicals and pulled out a spray bottle. Now, even though we have warned him time and again not to play with anything in the hot tub bin, he decided to help himself anyway. So, in effort to have some fun spraying things he began to play with the one labeled "DANGER: KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN MAY CAUSE SKIN OR EYE DAMAGE". You know, the kind we should have had put away in a locked container...but haven't gotten around to it quite yet. (I feel about this big right about now)

Anyway, within seconds he had sprayed himself in the eye and came screaming into the house calling for Mommy. Angela called the poison control center while I attempted to flush out his eye with water. The process went from bad to worse as we were told to flush out his eyes for 10 minutes before calling back to the Poison control center. Now, while flushing out the eyes sounds easy enough - try explaining it to a 3 year old while he is kicking and screaming for you to leave him alone.

Needless to say - I ended up pinning him down while Angela flushed his eye out with water as best as we could. Grandma came over and had to help as well - it was a pretty emotional ordeal.

By the grace of God, when it was done Keegan's eye looked actually pretty good - so much so that the Poison Control Center guy told us not to worry about taking him into the Urgent Care. He said everything should be fine. We were lucky! But the spray left a pretty nasty mark below it on his face. (It should go away in a couple of days)

So, what have we learned today kids?

Well, for one - Keegan learned NOT to play with chemicals - even if they are in fun spray bottles!

Daddy and Mommy learned that we need to buy a better container to store them in - preferably one with a lock. (Oh, what fools we parents be!)

Learning!

I found Keegan in the livingroom, last week, working on writing his name. He had pulled out all the practice cards for the letters in his name and was working away. My little boy is growing up so fast!!

Wordless Wednesday!

Progress

I am so excited that Keegan is making progress in the potty department. Up to this point he had no interest in potty training. We have tried everything....candy, stickers on a chart, big boy underwear, pull ups. You name it, we have tried it. I figured he will do it when he is ready. Well, I decided to get some new big boy underwear for his Easter basket. After changing his poppy diaper this morning I asked him if he wanted to try his new big boy underwear on. Keegan said sure. I was schocked when he left them on for more than 2 seconds. He wore them all morning without any accidents. He tried to use the potty multiple times, but never went. Right before naptime I told him that he needed to try and use the potty one more time and then we would put a diaper on him. I set him on the potty and went in to use the bathroom myself. I suprised when Keegan came running into the bathroom 3 seconds later saying that he went pee in the potty. I decided to check the little potty and sure enough he did it! There was lots of praising going on at our house at that moment. We ran right out to Daddy's office to tell him the exciting news. We then put a sticker on the potty chart and Keegan called Grandma to tell her the exciting news.

I know some of you are thinking big deal! He wore uderwear for half a day and peed in the potty one time. Well, to us it is a HUGE deal! I am so excited that Keegan is finally willing to at least try using the potty or wear his big boy underwear. I hope this is the start of Keegan becoming potty trained! It will be really nice to only have child in diapers.

List Time

I am a list type of person. I have a hard time remembering things if I don't write them down. I also seem to get a little satisfaction from crossing things off my list after I accomplish them. On the flip side, I always seem to be a little disappointed if I don't accomplish everything, which often happens. Life just seems to happen and it doesn't always match what is on my list.

I was making a list today of all the things I would like to get done this week. Keegan decided he would like to make a list too. So, he started scribbling on a piece of paper. He told me that his list said the following:

"Go to the Pet store.
Get a new fish.
Bring him home.
Put the fish in Orange's bowl."
(Orange is our beta fish that died a couple of weeks ago)