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.

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.

Technorati Tags: Ken Pellman,Kori Pellman

Sleep is a Luxury

We’re ten weeks along with Kyle. I look forward to when he’ll be sleeping through the night. I’m so glad Kori takes care of him most of the time - and so is he! Let’s see… where did we leave off? Oh yes. With something like this…

Notice the reddish tone to his hair? I may be a little biased, but I think he’s adorable. Especially when he isn’t screaming in my ear.

Kori got a picture of Keelie sleeping, too.

Yeah, normally she takes her naps in her bed, but here she simply fell over in the pool and went to sleep, which was okay since it is devoid of water and in the dining area. She looks all peaceful and everything, but there’s hell to pay when she wakes up in any other place than her bed. She does not like that at all.

We made it to Boot Hill this year. Actually, I was the only one of the four of us who ventured through the experience. But Keelie was entertained by the walkarounds. I told her they were “spookies” and she referred to them as “smookies”. Boot Hill gets better every year.

We made it up to my hometown of South Pasadena on Saturday, October 31, as some friends call it. Others call it Halloween, All Saints Eve, or Reformation Day. Did I miss anybody? First, we hit Garfield Park to meet up with Grandpa and Grandma Pellman.

The park was convenient because their house had recently taken it upon itself to spontaneously begin the remodeling process early in a rather dramatic way. Keelie is better suited to parks than delicately decorated homes, anyway.

After leaving the park, the four of us dropped in to Nanny’s place for a while.

Then Nanny and Auntie Kim took Keelie trick-or-treating, with Kori, Kyle, and I going along. No pictures of that – sorry. But you can see where we went by checking out a few movies. Kyle was dressed as the Sun, Keelie as the Moon, and Kori and I were stars.

Clearly still on a sugar high, Keelie was happy to be going to Disneyland the next day.

We stopped by the Ranch.

Be nice to the goats!

Kyle, as you can see below, was very excited to be there.

Keelie can be a rather intense child. Witness this pictures we took of her coloring…

Yeah… this is NOT the same picture…

…she’s just really intense, like I said. You can imagine that she can be a handful sometimes.

To celebrate Granddaddy’s birthday, we all (Kori, Keelie, Kyle and I… Kendra, Steve, and Lainey… Troy, Toby, and Kirby, and Puma & Granddaddy) got together at Puma & Granddaddy’s for dinner. Here’s Kyle telling Uncle Troy all about what he’s been doing these days.

Being held by Aunt Kirby…

…who took Keelie to the park as the Sun set.

These pictures really catch Keelie’s personality…

Smiling at the thrill ahead of her…

Getting ready…

Let’s do that again!

On the way out of the park, Keelie had to stop at the trees and count as if she was starting a game of hide-and-seek.

Caught ya!

Ahhhh, the three babies… Lainey, Kyle, and Keelie.

Keelie makes a bit of a mess when she eats cake and ice cream.

But she does manage to keep her peeps entertained.

Here she is with the birthday boy.

That’s all for now. Thanks for stopping by and checking it out. You can comment here or contact us at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com. Be sure to keep us up to date on what you’re doing!