Baths Bowling and Basketball Games

Payton loves bowling and talks about it ALL the time. At home we set up water bottles and bowl them over with a basketball. Sometimes he uses the ramp and sometimes he sets it on the floor and pushes it.
After every single throw, he would gallop back to everyone and give everyone five and say "Kyler's turn" over and over.


Kellen after a bath

Payton knows he is only allowed to pour the water on Kellen's feet and body, so when he picks up the cup he always says "just Kellen's feet?" Like my answer might change.

We went to the girl's highschool game the other night because Keaton and some of his friends did a drum line for half time. They were awesome. The girls' basketball team...not so much! When we left after the halftime show, they were losing 30something to 5

You can't see it in the picture but Payton is wearing his future Whitefish Bulldogs shirt.

Payton love jumping on his bed and it probably isn't the best idea but we let him do it. He has to have some kind of energy outlet until its summer :)

Kellen has grown a lot lately. He is 4 months old and at his appointment he was 16 pound and 26 inches long. He can roll over from his tummy to his back and is so close at rolling the other way. He can sit up on his own for about 30 seconds (still kind of wobbly) and can hold his upper body off the floor on his stomach. He giggles like crazy when you play with him (or try to wash him with a washcloth). He is such a easygoing and happy baby. We recently moved him out of our room and into his crib and it has gone pretty well. He sometimes wakes up at 4 or so to eat but always goes right back to sleep until about 8.

We have been working on Payton with potty training. It is earlier than I had planned but all his friends are doing it so he is interested. At home I let him run around with out any pants and he doesn't have accidents. When we are out and he has a diaper on though he doesn't attempt
( or even ask) to go in the potty. I am just letting him go at his own pace because he isn't even 2 yet. He is getting really smart and he talks a lot. The past week we have been focusing on being very consistan with discipline. We only ask him to do something once instead of repeating it over and over and it is really been effective. We are all much happy and he is listening and behaving better and challenging me less. I have been reading Dr Dobson's "Dare to Discipline" and it has been great.

Kellen smiling and blowing raspberries

Here are some new pictures. I don't have time to comment about them all but enjoy!
Payton and Kellen with their valentine characters from Great grandma and Grandpa. Payton loves his Elmo :) He is getting chubby. I love chubby babies.

Winter carnival. All bundled up.

Gregg and Payton's creation right before they knocked it over.

Snowman building is hard work!

Payton's art

2010

Kellen is starting to love Frogger as much as Payton loves Giraffy

Kellen is jealous

Payton always want to copy Kellen (no he doesn't normally have a pacifier)
He even wanted to be swaddled

12 weeks old and 14 lbs

Only 363 days until Christmas...

Payton getting an early start on his "Thank you notes"

Kellen watching Payton try out the new wagon

Kellen's Glowworm

Payton loved his new tent, now the question is where to set it up in the house! For now its in the living room because he likes to sit in it and watch Elmo
He loves crawling through the tunnel

The boys opening up their stockings. Payton ate an entire thing of Orange TicTacs (a holiday tradition instead of an orange) in about 5 minutes. Good thing Christmas isn't every day

Kellen was very smiley in his new Christmas jammies

Abby and Payton resting after a lot of hard work opening gifts

Look at all those presents

Kellen and Grandma

Abby Cadabby

What a patient dog!

It will be fun to see them all grow up together

At almost 9 weeks I think she weighs as much as Payton!

Here is our new puppy Abby. She is almost 9 weeks old. She was born on Oct 23 so she is 3 days younger then Kellen. She is a Lab/St Bernard mix. She is named after Elmo's best friend on Sesames street who is a fairy in training. Payton loves the Sesame Street Abby and so we thought it was a suiting name for this little girl.

We got her this afternoon. A few days ago I saw and add for the puppies in the paper and jokingly said we should check them out. Gregg liked the idea. We wanted to get a puppy but were planning on waiting until spring when the yard was fenced in. Gregg went and looked at them after he got off work today and came home saying she was the cutest thing ever. Of course after we took the boys and went and looked, there was no way we were coming home dogless. Well so much for my clean new house.

She is actually a pretty mellow dog and the owners said they have had previous litters with these two dogs and they are much mellower then labs. She is so patient with the boys pulling on her. I love her already!

Kellen - 8 weeks

The busyness continues... with 2 boys, a house (which is finally put together) and a bunch of Christmas stuff. Since we have moved in I have had a chance to host a lot of events including a Christmas dinner for our small group, a baby shower for a friend, and a Women's Christmas Party for our church. I love being able to have a place I can do this. It has been fun to decorate! Payton and I made a bunch of snowflakes the other day and have them hung in the window and on the cabinets. He got to try out scissors for the first time and he is getting the hang of it, but most of the time tries to do it with 2 hands. He is growing so much. He can say pretty much any word and has got quite the sense of humor. We have been using timeouts as a way to help him obey for the last month and they are working out surprisingly well. He sits there with his hand over his mouth for the whole minute and then comes and gives us a kiss and tells us sorry while we talk to him about why he had timeout. He has really become much more obediant and we don't have to use it as often as we did at first. He is very loving to his brother and has become much better at being gentle with him. He loves dancing in front of him and watching him smile and is super thoughtful bring him his pacifier or a toy when he cries.

A little brotherly love (why is Kellen crying in most the ones of them together?)

Payton opening his present in the gift exchange with our friends

Kellen laughing - He now is "talking" and smiling voluntarily a lot
His new warm outfit from Aunt Lisa

Kellen is growing quickly taking after his big brother. I will be interested to see how much he has grown at his 2 month appointment, but due to Christmas that is not until Dec 30th. He is really strong and can hold himself up on his arms when he is on his stomach for a long time. He is sleeping a 7 hour stretch at night from about 9:30 - 4:30 which is awesome for me and then he goes back to sleep until after Payton and I are up for the morning. I have loved watching the boys interact and know they will more as time goes by.

Wearing his new hat and blanket that my mom's Aunt Marilyn made him. They are the most beautiful blues and greens. They didn't show up as welll in the picture. I LOVE them!

Christmas time is begun!

This year we went out to cut down a Christmas tree with 2 other families. All together there were 6 kids 3 and under and we had a lot of fun.

Here we are getting all bundled up

In front of our Christmas tree before we cut it down.

Kellen enjoying the day

Payton getting ready to start. He ended up walking most of the way.

Payton and Olivia

Payton helpin his mom pull the sledThe end result

My boys Perfect baby skin

Sleeping under the tree

Smiling

Payton feeding Kellen his first bottle

Big eyes

Mommy's boy