2010 Christmas Card and Letter

Hey Everyone!

Keelie stopped taking her naps, so our blog updates have been lacking. I used to work on the updates while she napped so she wouldn’t climb in front of the computer and ask to see more pictures. This update will also be serving as our environmentally-friendly (all-electric!) Christmas card and letter, which should work just fine, since you are here reading it.

We’re so excited about wishing you a Merry Christmas…

Can’t you tell?

“Lemme tell you about what a great deal this is, lil’ brother. We go to sleep, and when we wake up, there are new toys over there under the tree!!!”

Print that out, if you must have a tangible card.

This year has been mostly another boring one. which is good. Once again, we didn't lose our home, I didn't lose my job, no major crimes were committed against us, we didn't have to file a lawsuit against anyone, none of us suffered a major illness or injury, and the dog didn't die.

But we WERE interviewed for a podcast called “The Enthusiast Enthusiast”. We talked about being Disney enthusiasts.

Unfortunately, we did have two family passings this year. Aunt Vicky, the honorary grandmother for whom my younger sister was named, passed away after years of declining health. My stepbrother Justin also left us; he was too young to go. Both are missed!

On a positive note, we’ve been able to enjoy the growth of Keelie as she passed her third birthday celebration and Kyle as he enjoyed his first. And he did enjoy it…

Unlike his cousin Lainey, who had her celebration together with Kyle’s, Kyle had no problem getting messy with cake.

Kyle is almost 16 months of age and he still doesn’t sleep through the night except for rare nights here and there. I heard a lack of sleep may efekt mentle abilly tees, bud eye havn no tissed uh problum.

Kyle is a daredevil climber. He also has quite the temper. Not sure where he gets that. Ahem. He likes music a lot and will dance to it when he can.

Speaking of dancing, as we said in a previous update, we enrolled Keelie in dance class (ballet and tap) since Kori enjoyed dance classes when she was a little girl. Keelie’s class had a recital at an Anaheim holiday event.

She loves going to dance class, but it is hard to get her to pose for the camera with a good smile. We have to take the good shots candidly. Keelie also enjoys Sunday school, educational programming, and long walks on the beach. Uhm, well, ok I made that last one up.

We didn’t take any trips this year. Our free time that we spent out of the home was mostly spent with family. It is always nice to have the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins entertaining the kids because otherwise, given their ages, when we are out somewhere with them all of our energy and attention goes into making sure the kids don’t maim themselves or other kids, don’t break anything, don’t get stolen, and don’t miss a trip to the restroom or changing table. Take heed all of you who are planning to become parents.

Although we didn’t take trips, we did use our annual passes to take the kids to Disneyland frequently and now we also have Knott’s passes, so the kids are going to visit there regularly, too. Thanks to the grandparents who have contributed to both sets of passes!

That’s our year in a nutshell – er, uh, blog posting.

Whether you are celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ and worship Him as Lord and the One who has saved you from your sins… or are enjoying other festivities and traditions of the season, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a very happy and healthy New Year.

Below are some of the better pictures from the last several months… at least the ones that aren’t incriminating, if you care to look…

Please keep in touch!
–Ken, for the Pellmans of Anaheim
December 2010
KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com

=== === === ===

Kyle enjoying a park in late August…

Keelie posing for Granddaddy Keel, expert photographer…

Puma, Uncle Steve, Kyle on my lap, and the back of Granddaddy Keel’s head…

Keelie at the Huntington Library, thanks to Grandma Kathleen…

Grampa Pellman holding his youngest grandchild…

Keelie ready for it to get dark on October 31…

Keelie enjoying a local park…

With Nanny at Teddy Bear Tea at the Langham…

Kyle is all dressed up and ready to wreak havoc with a crayon…

See ya next time!

We’re Enthusiastic

We’re enthusiastic about The Enthusiast Enthusiast.

"The Enthusiast Enthusiast is a podcast for people who are highly interested in people who are highly interested in a particular activity or subject. Both educational and entertaining, each Episode is centered around a new enthusiast and their hobby of choice."

The most recent edition is on Disney enthusiasts. Ms. Jessica Lee Williamson boiled down a couple of interviews of us into a 15-minute podcast and some pictures. It includes how we met, and my teenage fixation on my first true love... Splash Mountain! Keep an ear open for a very good description of "Disney magic" by Kori.

One Year Ago

Things were very different a year ago. Kori was heading in to the final stretch of her pregnancy with Kyle, and had been in the hospital for the birth of our first niece.

It is amazing how much they grow in the first year.

Here’s a picture from back in late June, with Kyle preparing to feed the dog – which conveniently means he doesn’t have to eat as many vegetables.

He tries to make this warning label seem all the more scary…

Keelie enjoys taking a “bath”.

Kyle celebrates Independence Day by practicing his purse snatching skills.

He figures that as long as he smiles and wears outfits like that, nobody will suspect a thing.

We we to Aunt Vicky’s memorial, which included a luncheon at Caltech. Is Keelie contemplating her choices in high education?

Kyle makes his “old man without dentures” face…

And Keelie continues to make her pieces of art…

I’m not sure if that’s supposed to be Liberace or what. Oh… Keelie just told me that is Minnie Mouse. Liberace, Minnie Mouse… it is easy to get them confused. As Kori pointed out to me, it is obviously Minnie Mouse. Before the addition of the black bow, it had been Mickey Mouse - notice the white gloves, the red shorts, and the yellow shoes? Speaking of art , Keelie has started taking dance classes as of this month.

Thanks to Auntie Kim and Uncle Mike, Kori and I slipped away to see “Weird Al” Yankovic at the Orange County Fair. Yankovic and his band have long been my favorites. We don’t get a lot of nights out, so this was a rare treat.

Kim and Mike took the kids to a park, and I think that was Kyle’s first time to play directly on grass. So we didn’t quite get the same reaction when he took him to the park later that same weekend…

Keelie, of course, is a veteran of the park, so she can show Kyle the ropes… literally.

Kyle just got his first haircut!

Kyle is starting to walk. Keelie walked much earlier, but Kyle picked up a few American Sign Language signs before Keelie did. Kids develop at their own rate, of course. Kyle has been very good at crawling, while Keelie had not crawled much before she took to walking.

Thanks for stopping by. Let us know how you are doing and what you’ve been up to. You can comment here or e-mail us a KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com.

Summer is Here!

Since I last updated this blog, I had a birthday, Keelie had her third birthday, and my nephew Macon graduated from my alma mater. On a sad note, we lost Aunt Vicky. No, not my sister. The woman who married my mother’s late uncle. She was Aunt Vicky long before that, though. She had been in declining health and had defied the odds for a long time – her death was not unexpected, but still sad.

She’s the one in red in this picture…

When she saw the picture later, she asked, “Did I really wear red to your wedding?!?” Of course, it was December and reds and greens were part of the look of the wedding. She was like a grandmother to me, though she hated to be called that, so it was always “Aunt” Vicky.

On to happier thoughts… like playtime!

Yes, we have a playpen full of colorful plastic balls.

The next five pictures were taken by Kori’s father, who definitely knows his way around a camera.

Keelie is getting into animated features, so I get to watch some of the DVDs in my collection. “Toy Story” and the sequel are favorites. She sings “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” and she also likes “Mary Poppins” and will sing the songs from that movie, which goes along fine with the Sherman Brothers songs she knows from Disneyland.

Kyle is quite the crawler, and he’s learned to stand up without holding on to anything and sit back down.

The whole family relaxing in the hot tub…

Kyle has been in the habit of nibbling on his own toes. When I try, Keelie says, “No Daddy! Kyle’s toes are yucky!” They aren’t yet though, since he’s not walking. Well, he was doing his thing and his cousin decided she wanted to try…

…ah yes… one of those pictures that will come back to haunt both of them.

Keelie and Kyle got decked out in Tiger Orange for Cousin Macon’s graduation.

I went to SPHS, as did Kim, Vicki, Chris, and Blaine.

There’s Cousin Blaine holding Kyle, Autie Kim, Cousin Macon in his gown, Nanny, Uncle Mike, Aunt Vicki, and Keelie.

Keelie contemplates turning 3.

For Keelie’s birthday, we had some people over for a party – it was mostly a family event, but when you have families the size of ours, that’s a lot of people. We’d only hosted one such event before since moving in. Keelie had a lot of fun and certainly enjoyed the presents and cake. So much so that fives days later she informed Kori that she was ready to turn 4, have everybody come back, and have me bring home another cake – but one with four candles. But she also talks about going back to being 2 and thus getting her crib back.

Kyle hams it up for the camera as we watch Keelie enjoying one of her presents…

Keelie points to where she’s going to hit the ball.

Well, there you have it. Thanks for stopping by to check out this latest update. Leave a comment here or e-mail us at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com.

Technorati Tags: Ken Pellman

Spring 2010

Okay, so the updates here are getting less and less frequent. Maybe it is because we’re out painting the town red. No, that can’t be it. Maybe it is because we’re too busy Facebooking, or because whenever I try to work on an update when Keelie is around, she demands to get between me and the screen and then “requests” to see pictures of certain people.

But here we are… another update. And looking back since our last update, I am reminded what boring lives we lead. That’s a good thing, I suppose. To give you an idea, one of the most exciting things in the past couple months was that the bank contacted us to propose a refi of our mortgage; they covered the closing costs. It made a lot of sense and lowered our payments. See – not much excitement. But there are plenty of cute pictures!

We celebrated the anniversary of our first date - which is close enough to Valentine’s Day that it covers that, too – by going to Pasadena. We spent time with Grampa Pellman and Grandma Kathleen.

Keelie is at an age where she really enjoys climbing around on stuff in a park. She also requests to see various family members.

Keelie surveys the park, plotting her domination…

Kyle takes a more relaxed approach…

“These aren’t the droids you are looking for.”

From there, we went over to my mother’s. Kori and I escaped to have dinner at Gus’s BBQ in my home town, South Pasadena. Even though I’d been by the place thousands of times over the years, I’d never been there. I think my parents might have gone there eons ago and weren’t impressed. However, I’d read that the place had been completely overhauled. Sure enough, the place was doing a lot of business, but they still managed to give us a booth table (meaning a table for four) so that we could sit next to each other on our anniversary. I enjoyed the meal - and especially the company, of course.

I don’t think we’ve been on a date since. Can’t imagine why…

Oh… right.

Keelie was inspired by the Winter Olympics. No kidding…

However, I’m not sure what this arrangement is about…

Perhaps she is taking care of her doll the way Mommie takes care of Kyle?

Most indoor pictures we get of Keelie these days have her squinting, because she knows when the flash is coming. But we did manage to snap this one…

But, of course, she usually has food on her face and resists us when we try to wipe it off. Kyle, unlike his sister when she was his age, is a drooler, so he always has a bib.

Naptime…

Keelie’s godparents, “Oma” and “Opa”, spent some time with us Easter weekend. They live next door to Puma & Granddaddy, so we spent some time in the park across the street with them before dropping in on the Keel house.

They gave Keelie a stuffed bunny, and she was convinced it was THE Easter Bunny. She even tried to feed it the carrot we left out for the Easter Bunny. We had to explain to her that it was a doll of the Easter Bunny, like she has dolls of Mickey Mouse, Minnie, etc.

Mommie and Kyle share a moment when he’s awake…

And here is Daddy and Kyle sharing a moment while Kyle naps…

If only Kyle would stay asleep like that through the night. He’s done it once or twice in his life, so we know he can. He’s no dummy… he works it so as to get the most interaction with Mommie throughout the night.

He’s got the Pellman eyes, to be sure. The lids hide under another flap of skin.

And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for…

NUDITY!

Yeah, we finally got the bathtub fixed. We’d been using our shower all of the time for the kids, as the bath wasn’t getting hot water. But a couple of days of professional work and $$$$ changed that. Exciting stuff, huh?

Thanks for stopping by and looking over our annoyingly “proud parent” pictures. Leave a comment here or e-mail us at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com and let us know how you are doing.