From Christmas to Easter

You know the story… Facebook and other things like that have sucked the life out of blogs like this one. But I still want to keep blogging here. I find it a convenient way to chronicle our lives in a linear way.
Things have been mostly uneventful. Kori and I are raising our two little kids, and anyone who has done that knows that pretty much takes up life for many years.
And when I start to edit pictures to include, Keelie will climb onto my lap and demand to watch videos and see pictures.
So I don’t get to do these updates as often as I’d like.
I’m still working for the same place, and that’s good. There are good people there who do good work. Kori has become very skilled at couponing and bargain shopping. It has become a sort of hobby for her. It’s amazing how she can walk out of a store with bags full of merchandise, having paid maybe a couple of bucks out of pocket… and it is all legit. And, of course, she’s still doing everything else that she does to keep the household running.
We’re starting with some pictures from Christmas 2010…

Grampa Pellman keeps the kids entertained…

It’s great when we visit family. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins keep the kids entertained and safe. It gives us a bit of a breather.
Cousin Macon and Uncle Mike keep Keelie in line…

Aunt Vicki and Cousin Blaine…

Christmas Eve at Auntie Kim’s was great. Christmas morning started out great at home…

Keelie is growing so fast!

Keelie and Kyle love to spin in these chairs at Puma & Granddaddy’s…

These outfits the kids are wearing were gifts from Uncle Steve’s parents… how nice was that???

Later in January, we met up with our friends Lynn, Erin, and Luke in the evening at Disneyland. Keelie and Luke bonded…

To this day, Keelie talks about her buddy Luke and can identify his state, Utah, on the map. Lynn and I need to discuss a dowry.
And now a picture of our messy eater…

There have been a few times lately when Keelie has fallen asleep before we could do our nighttime routine…


Again…

What are little brothers for?

So next time, Keelie found another place to fall asleep…

I’m surprised Kyle didn’t paint Keelie up with his food the way he did himself…

Then, of course, there are times when they mess things up together. After noticing it was too quiet, we discovered why… the kids had emptied the full paper shredder…

That brings us to Easter. Here’s a nice family portrait…

But it wasn’t the only picture Granddaddy Keel took…

And this one is very telling…

The kids love to color, especially with their Aunt Kirby…

And they both love their Cousin Lainey. Kyle and Lainey are thinking of taking their act on the road…

Kyle strikes a pose…

Keelie in her Easter dress…

Keelie tells Puma and Granddaddy what’s up…

Kyle and his Daddy…

Thanks for stopping by to read. You can comment here or contact us at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com. You can also follow me on Twitter @pellman.

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.

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December Descends

Kyle’s first Thanksgiving Day is behind us. Keelie is appreciating the Christmas season more this year, being two-and-a-half. Our fifth wedding anniversary is approaching. On top of all of that, we’ve all been under the weather at some time over the last several weeks, with Kori and Kyle still dealing with that as I type. So this update is pretty much going to be all about the pictures. I’m thankful life isn’t more interesting for us right now.

I’ve included a few pictures like the one below, to demonstrate Kyle’s second-favorite place to be.

Having his left cheek on Kori’s left shoulder is where he wants to be…

…when he’s not nursing, anyway. But we’re not posting pictures of that. Notice the roll of paper in the above shot… it is standing in as facial tissue.

Keelie loves her books. Now that her baby brother has been around and out of the womb for three months, she’s caught on to the fact that he’s not going away, and sometimes she gets jealous of the attention he gets. But she does frequently offer him kisses anyway.

There he is again!

And below, he’s next to Cousin Lainey.

And it is back to his second-favorite spot…

Here’s Cousin Lainey being a flirt, as she and Kyle are held by their scruffy fathers…

Kyle with Nanny…

We were able to have a Thanksgiving meal with Kori’s side of the family a couple of nights early, where Keelie had a lot of fun with her aunts and uncles, as she typically does. Then on Thanksgiving Day we went to my old apartment in SoPas where Vicky and her latest roommate (and longtime friend) hosted my side of the family, among others.

We were able to eat outside, after sundown. That’s SoCal for ya.

As you can see, Keelie couldn’t wait to clean up.

Kyle got fussy at one point, despite being the arms of Nanny and Aunt Vicki. But when Uncle Chris took him, Kyle calmed down and was docile for quite a while.

So we call Chris the Baby Whisperer.

Vicki got her turn to hold Kyle…

Keelie is very fond of her Uncle Mike. Here she is playing with him, seeing who can blow the biggest bubblegum bubble…

..

Notice Mike’s shorts and flip-flops, all you who are about to be snowed in.

Planning some mischief…

Playing with Cousin Macon…

More with Uncle Mike…

And who knows what Kyle is plotting from his portable throne?

The kids have been keeping us busy. We live close enough to Disneyland that I’m able to take Keelie there from time to time after returning from work, like we recently did to view the holiday edition of the fireworks.

A lot of annual events are coming up, and we hope to make most of them. Maybe we’ll see you at one?

Thanks for stopping by. Let us know how you’re doing. You can comment here or e-mail us at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com.