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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Two Kids and Holding

Hey everybody – we’re still alive and kicking, but busy as we deal with the realities of a two-something-year-old girl and a boy who is hurtling towards six months of age.

The cousins-born-nine-days-apart are getting along just fine…

Keelie enjoys exploring her artistic side…

Sunday, January 17th was a special day. Kyle got baptized at the church where her Puma and Granddaddy sing in the choir, and where Kori used to go, and where his big sister was baptized!

This was an even bigger deal than Keelie’s baptism because cousin Lainey was baptized at the same time. People came in from all over the country to be here with us.

Above you can see Aunt Kirby holding Keelie, and Aunt Vicki in the background.

And below, both babies are walked around the congregation after being baptized.

Grampa Pellman holding Kyle…

There was a nice reception back at Puma & Granddaddy’s.

Aunt Vicki and Auntie Kim holding Lainey and Kyle…

Aunt Chris (Kyle’s godmother), Puma, Paddie and Beth…

In addition to the 80-degree winter weather SoCal has been experiencing, we have had our cold and rainy days as well. We actually got a lot of rain for the area, causing mudslides in wildfire burn areas. But we got a rainbow, too…

Earlier this month, we met up with one of Kori’s MommySisters (a group of women who have been talking since they were all pregnant and due in July 2007) at Disneyland, to spend a few hours with them during their visit. Heather also had a baby in August of 2009, so while Keelie “hanged out” with Annabelle, Kyle and Genevieve enjoyed looking at each other from their respective strollers.

Kyle mostly likes to stay in his mother’s arms, but other locations are becoming more acceptable to him…

He does NOT like this teething business.

Now where have we seen that before? Ah yes…

That’s an old picture of Keelie.

Some people see a resemblance between Kyle and me, especially pictures of me as a baby…

What do you think?

We’re celebrating the anniversary of our first date, so I wanted to take this short stroll down memory lane.

Six years ago, we met for our first date in the bookstore at Downtown Disney Anaheim. The bookstore was convenient, because if one of us was delayed, the other could browse.

Disneyland was not only the venue for our first date, it is where I proposed to Kori.

Since Kori was such a big Snow White fan, I correctly guessed that the Snow White Grotto & Wishing Well would be a good place to propose. I timed it out so that Snow White would be there, which also conveniently allowed for cameras to be present and in use without spoiling the surprise of what was going on.

We married in Pasadena, in a beautiful church along famous Colorado Boulevard…

And then, two and a half years later, Keelie came along…

With Kori looking like this when pregnant…

…and with Keelie being such a bundle of joy, we tried for a second baby, and now we have Kyle, too.

It is hard to believe it has been six years since that first date.

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

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