Mmmm Good!

Tiana saw me cleaning up the frosting and was signing please so she got the honors of cleaning off the spatula!

Hmmmm how do I get to the frosting in the middle?

I think that she is a fan! Just wait until tomorrow sis..... we are doing photos in the studio of her eating her first cake. That is what we had to frost today.

Another Auntie!

Our exciting news from today is that the kids are getting another aunt! My brother Mark and Kyla are engaged!!!! We are all very excited to have her in the family. Wedding is tentatively planned for March... whenever it is we will be excited to have it happen.

Congratulations you two, so excited that it is all official!

6 Months and Birthdays.

Sunday marked the 6 months pregnant milestone! I am starting to show a little bit more.... taking my time getting big though. I got my first pregnancy comment while shopping on my birthday. Someone had commented that they loved my skirt and where did I get it. I told her that it was maternity. After a few seconds her comment was, "Well, you AREN'T pregnant are you!?!?!". Should have seen the look on her face when I told her how far along I was. She then proceeded in asking me if the doctor has checked how big the baby was. I reassured her that he is normal size... my lack of lung capacity can attest to that! He just hangs out inside rather than poking out. The little monkey got hiccups for the first time last Thursday evening, it was quite cute! Everything is still going great, some days I get heartburn and can't breath too well but others I am just fine..... depends on how he is settled for the day.

Tiana practicing those steps after her photo shoot for her first birthday announcement.

Keaton posing in front of Nana and Papa's new waterfall!

Uncle Ryan turned 18 on Sunday so we got to go help him celebrate.

The joy of being the only nephew or niece old enough to blow out candles.... you get to help everyone out! And for the record.... Tiana is still terrified of candles even from a distance!!!

Riding the pony with Daddy.

Today I spent the day baking cakes for Tiana's birthday. She woke up from her morning nap and Keaton offered to go play with her for a minute while I finished up what I was doing. I walked in a few minutes later to find them both giggling in her crib!

Tiana could walk anywhere she wanted right now if she wanted to. Currently she thinks that she has to have her walker to do so.... even though at times to turn it she simply picks the entire thing up and turns it how she wants. She figured out on Monday evening that she can stand up in the middle of the floor.... now she just has to put it all together and do it.

Happy Birthday Mommy!

I couldn't have asked for a better day! Daddy stayed home with the kids for a while today so that my mom and I could go shopping. I had forgotten how much you can get done without kids tagging along.... or should I say us tagging along behind Keaton! We were able to finish up shopping for Tiana's birthday as well as get my presents from my parents and still have time to do some browsing! We then met my Dad, my brother Ryan and Daddy and the kids for a birthday dinner. Keaton and Daddy made me a cake while I was gone so we got to go home and enjoy some chocolate! Yum! I also got a VERY special little card made by my kids (with Daddy's help).... the best kind. On the inside it says, "We love you THIS much" with Keaton's hand traced on one side and Tiana's on the other!

It was getting a little dark by the time we got home but we had to try for a photo.

My girl.... of course she started being goofy and smiling AFTER Keaton decided that he was DONE! Just wait 'til we have three I suppose... it will only get worse.
Today I was just so Thankful for a wonderful little family. I have the best husband in the world as well as just the cutest, most special little kids. I couldn't imagine life without them.
Thank you to everyone who made this birthday one of the best!

Beautiful Afternoon

We took advantage of a beautiful afternoon and met Uncle Derek and Nana for lunch and then some play time at the park!

2 and a Half!!

Our big boy is now 2 1/2! We had ice cream to celebrate and he got to blow out a candle. We sure are glad that we tried out the candle because in the process we discovered that Tiana has a phobia........ candles! There will be no candles on her first birthday cake! As soon as she saw it she lost it and didn't even want to try eating any ice cream. We had to force her to take a bite so that she saw that she would like it! We may try it again when it gets closer but judging by the way she reacted..... no candles for her!

As for Keaton, he is now fully potty trained which has been SO very nice! He has actually even been dry at nights so we are about ready to have him in underwear at nights also. He is really talking up a storm and we are really working on sentences. He can count to 10.... 12 when he is in the mood and say all his ABC's. He knows a lot of the books of the bible and loves answering all of the children's questions. He is up to knowing about 13 of the questions that Jay asks in meeting!

We are constantly entertained but his little antics. He is a WONDERFUL big brother and keeps tell us that he can't wait to play with baby brother!

A conversation the other day at the lunch table with Nana went like this:

Keaton: Passed Wendy's Nana. (We had drove by the day before and Wendy's is a favorite)

Nana: Do you remember when you ate there with Nana and Papa? We just went through the drive through though.

Keaton: Yeah Yeah, we ate the driveway!

We love seeing how his little mind works and the things that he comes up with.

This isn't a video of Keaton (he moves too fast) however it is too cute not to share.

We have been trying to teach Tiana how to sign Thank you and we keep running into a road block....... she just says it! Looks like we are going to have an early talker.

She did the same thing at dinner this evening only with All Done, which she usually will sign. Nope, not anymore, it is better just to say it!

Lazy Sunday

With both kids sick we took turns staying home with them from meeting yesterday. In the evening we let them play outside for a little while which seemed to help cheer them up a bit.

Something about playing outside helps cold symptoms not seem so bad.

They have had a blast playing together with the car.

Sissy waving bye-bye.
Off they go.

Peek-a-boo.

Keaton wanted to "hold her" going down the slide so we let them try one time.

They both got the bottom with a big grin on their faces!

Huh.... what seems to be the problem? My hair feels just fine.

You are probably getting tired of a constant walking update but she is getting so much better every day! Even though she is sick she is still wanting to keep trying. Yesterday she started taking off walking as far as she could go toward her toys or brother. Before then she just would walk to us. She even did great on the uneven grass outside!

Tiana 11 Months

We were able to get a few cute photos yesterday for 11 months in spite of her getting 3 more teeth and having a cold! She now has 5 teeth with 3 more coming up soon. This past month has really brought a lot of changes for our little girl. She all of the sudden doesn’t seem like so much of a baby…. A big reason for this is the fact that she is almost walking. She will take 5 steps all the time with as many as 8-10 thrown in when she slows down. We have a little walker that she just loves walking around everywhere. As soon as she sets her mind to it she will be walking on her own all of the time. She basically refuses to crawl unless she has to. If I am not busy and can help her she would prefer to cruise around holding onto one of my fingers. We walk all around the house and back again just for fun. She will stand and holler “ma ma” or “dada” and hold her little hand up until one of us will come take it so that she can practice walking. Her favorite game right now is to have both of us on either side of the room and try to walk back and forth between us. She will fall and get right back up with a big grin on her face. When she makes it the entire way she will clap and say “yaaaay” then sign “more please” and do it again. She has really started picking up on the signing this month also. She has added please to her ever growing list of signs.
Tiana also had her first word this past month, “Hi”. She will sign phone and say “dada”, telling me that she wants me to call Daddy at work so she can say “hi”. She has also become quite the Daddy’s girl. When he is home she just follows him around keeping track of what he is doing. She loves giving big kisses to each of us and knows that we love getting them. It has been quite interesting with her having a cold though….. adds quite a bit more liquid to each kiss! Keaton gets quite grossed out by her kisses right now but usually enjoys them when they aren’t as “wet”!

Showing off her goofy crooked grin that she gives us when she is being silly.

Just love this look of concentration! She is such a little girl... she had to hold a flower in each of her photos.

Can't believe we will be celebrating her first birthday pretty soon.

A few little Keatonisms:

His favorite little saying right now and a conversation that we have daily is:

Keaton: *SIGH*

Me: Honey, what's wrong?

Keaton: *Sigh*....... I'm Bored.

Don't know where he heard this word much less figured out what it meant. However, anytime we are not quite entertaining enough we hear how bored he is!

The other thing that I hear all the time when he gets a bit frustrated at me for some reason is "Ho-ney". I must say it to him when I want to get his attention or am a little bit irritated! Needless to say he now honey's me! It is quite cute coming out of his mouth.

Easter Egg Hunt

We went over to Nana and Papa's to take Tiana's 11 month photos. While we were taking pictures, Uncle Ryan hid some eggs for Keaton. It took him a little bit to figure out what on earth the eggs were doing all over but as soon as he found out that they had candy in them... he was game!

Just a little excited!

Tiana loved how some of them rattled.

Sharing some Jelly Beans.

Notice the new hair-do! She finally has enough hair to pull to the side. She is so good letting me do it and it looks so grown up!

Cruising along with the walker!

Our new ride! We just got a 2008 Town and Country and we LOVE it. It is so much easier to get the kids in and out of and makes it so we are ready for baby! Three kids makes a car no longer a possibility when they are all in car seats. We love all the extra room and of course the amenities this thing has...... everything you can imagine!

New Experiment

Tiana has been experimenting with walking lately and we got it on video this evening. You can tell that when she will slow down and balance she is doing really well. She just loves practicing walking between the two of us and will actually sign "more please" and want us to do it some more. We just have to convince her to slow down now instead of flinging herself into our arms after a few steps. Today she started walking/crawling around on her hands and feet like she is ready to stand up in the middle of the floor.

Getting Settled

One of the things things that we found for Keaton was a shirt with special markers. He can color the shirt and it washes out to color again!

So very glad to see us home again! She has been a constant hyper little girl since we got home!

Yesterday we got the kids a sandbox, thanks to craigslist! Today they got to try it out for the first time. We knew that Keaton would like it since he has been asking for one. We weren't sure how Sissy would do though if she would eat it or not. She LOVED it. The closest thing to a smile that I could get because she didn't want to look up from playing! You can see her two top teeth really well though! It is a tight fit to get both kids inside of it but they don't seem to mind. I had to drag them inside because it got really windy and stormy. Little updates:

Tiana now has 5 teeth and her first word is "hi" which she says quite often. She is now signing please too. The day before yesterday she took 5 very slow and purposeful steps so as soon as she sets her mind to it she could be walking.

Keaton's favorite little saying right now is "big much". How much does he love us? big much. How much does he like his sandbox? big much! He also says "na-na-na-no" and ya-ya-ya-ya-yeah" when he is really emphasizing a point! Just in case once isn't enough! Also the potty training is going quite well. We are in underwear all the time now with an accident only every few days. He is still in a pull-up at night but only because I haven't been daring enough to just have him in underwear.... maybe next week.