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.

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!

From 1 to 2: The Past Few Weeks in Review

We had finally gotten into a routine with the new house and a two-year-old girl, but now we’re adjusting to life all over again because of our baby boy. I have been taking time off from work. We’ve had a series of doctor appointments; everything seems to be fine now.

Keelie was so carefree and unaware that her life was about to be turned upside down.

Here she is below thoughtfully composing music with the piano we recently bought on the cheap.

Here she is meeting adorable Cousin Lainey for the first time under the watchful eye of Uncle Steve, with Kori still pregnant…

Here I am with newborn Kyle…

Keelie meets Kyle face-to-face for the first time…

A kiss from Keelie…

Keelie looks after PJ, the doll Kyle gave her as a “hello” present…

The whole family…

Cousin Macon and Nanny with Kyle…

Granddaddy and Puma with Kyle and Keelie…

By popular demand, more pictures of Kyle…

Thinking of his next milk fix…

Keelie likes to hold her brother, which she can only do under strict supervision…

Poor Shelby. She used to be the baby…

That’s her “freshly groomed” look. Keelie went with me to drop Shelby off for her grooming. Keelie must not have seen that before, because she was very upset when I simply gave Shelby away to a stranger. I turned to Keelie and said, “Look, we have a new baby now. Every time we get a new baby, we have to give away the oldest. You’re next.”

Okay, so I didn’t really say that. I explained that it was like when Henry, a character in one of her favorite shows, got his haircut.

Here’s another shot of Kyle…

Kyle sleeps a lot in comparison to Keelie at this age. Then again, he knows how to nurse, so that helps. He HATES having his diaper changed and screams like heck the whole time. A couple of nights, he has woken up every hour or so, wanting to nurse for five minutes, as opposed to the “standard” 15 minutes every three hours. Other nights, he has mercifully slept through most of the night.

We’ve had a few visitors. Our friend Chrissy dropped off dinner one day (bless the Hampsons!) and Carla dropped off some baby stuff as her kids are older than ours – bless you Carla and Steve! Kim, Mike, and Macon dropped by to visit and brought donuts – bless you! And thanks to all of our family and friends and coworkers who have been supportive and congratulatory and have even sent gifts. It means so much to us.

That’s all for now. Thanks for checking in. Feel free to comment here or send us an e-mail at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com. Find us on Facebook if you haven’t already!