Summer 2012 Already?!?

Hey everyone! How are you doing? Facebook and Twitter continue to be the place to go to keep current on what we’re doing, but I do like the blogging format. The problem is, the moment I start working on a blog and the kids see the pictures, they climb onto my (Ken’s) lap and start making requests of who they want to see in pictures.
However, the kids have been staying with my family (for good reasons I will get into in another update), so I was able to throw this together without having to stay up extra late at night.
Let’s see… where did we leave off?

Ah yes, it was around Christmastime when we last gave an update. Living close enough to Disneyland to see and hear the fireworks does have some advantages. Kori and my mother (and anyone else who comes along) have been taking Keelie and Kyle to Disneyland on a fairly regular basis during the week. Those kids have no idea how spoiled they are!
Here’s Grandpa Pellman making a visit in January.

Kori and the kids meet up with some other mothers with young kids, often weekly. Here’s Kyle at a meet-up where they were learning about Groundhog Day. The day, not the movie.

It’s like looking at me [REDACTED] years ago.
Whenever the kids are sitting peacefully together, it is a good idea to capture the moment with a picture…

… and, perhaps, a commemorative coin from the Franklin Mint.
Every year, the kids have special Easter outfits. Here’s Kyle’s… such a ham…

And Keelie’s…

This was NOT Keelie’s Easter clothing…

…but she is wearing Kyle’s tie.
Big doings around here included the arrival, in May, of Cousin Aubrey, born to Kori’s sister Kendra and Kendra’s hubby Steve. Aubrey joins Cousin Lainey, who was born just nine days before Kyle. Kyle, remember, adores Lainey, and so does Keelie. Keelie is happy to have a younger girl in the family. Kyle is happy to have a cousin his age. They are now happy to have a baby around, too.
Here’s Kori with new arrival Aubrey…

And proud grandparents, Bill & Pam (known to my kids as Granddaddy and Puma.)

Yup, Keelie is happy to have another younger girl in the family…

I think this is the moment at which Kyle realized he was no longer the baby of the family…

He’s no longer the baby, but yes, he loves holding his Cousin Aubrey.

One thing making life a lot easier now is that Kyle is pretty much completely potty-trained, even though he’s still not even three years old. Yay!!!
Kori and the kids get together regularly with Kendra and her kids. In addition to that, going to Disneyland regularly, and meeting up with the local moms & kids regularly, Kori and the kids will regularly visit my family in Pasadena, and sometimes I will join them after work. We visit Puma & Granddaddy along with Kori’s other siblings, and Kori and I have been meeting up with a small group from our church every two weeks or so. So, we’re keeping busy.

Keelie made out like a bandit for her fifth… FIFTH(!)… birthday in June, enjoying a special day at Disneyland Kori worked hard to put together for the ladies. They wore matching purple shirts Kori made.

Granddaddy took that beautiful picture. Keelie also had a “small” family-only party at our house… which meant 25 people.
And here’s Keelie wrestling with Cousin Macon for some grub…

I have been appearing as a guest from time to time on The Sweep Spot podcast. So if you want to hear me rattle on about Disneyland, you can do so by listening to the episodes on which I’ve appeared.
Thanks for stopping by and checking out this latest update. Please keep in touch at let us know how you are doing. You can leave a comment here or contact us a KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com

Eat and Sleep

Kyle was into his second day without a proper nap. He usually takes one long nap each day. We were having a family dinner for our niece's second birthday, and Kyle was determined to eat his dinner despite being sleepy. This went on for a couple of mintutes before we started capturing it. You might want to click on the "full screen" button at the bottom right of the video ("Esc" ends the full screen mode)...

He usually eats with utensils now, but since this was spaghetti, we let him use his hands.

And a full update covering the last several months will be posted... eventually.

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.

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.