Wordless Wednesday

It's frickin cold here peeps!

Wordless Wednesday

Christmas time is here!

This was the first year Charlie got to help with the tree and she loved it! She had so much fun putting the decorations on the tree although they all ended up in the same spot. :)

Only one broken ornament later and our tree was ready! Charlie promptly asks us to turn on the tree lights the second we get home. Seems she's got the holiday spirit!

So far I've only gotten 2 presents bought so I've got my work cut out for me this coming weekend!

Poor Charlie has been sick with a fever and bad cough the past 3 days or so. Hopefully she'll kick it soon. I hate seeing her so sick. Especially because I don't have any vacation in my new job yet I hate not being able to comfort her during the day. Luckily Wade's job is flexible and he's able to work from home and take care of her.

Here are some pics from our tree decorating. I'm just so blessed. I've got myself a wonderful lil family! Merry Christmas everyone!!!

~Kel

Wordless Wednesday

Be Thankful

I know I am. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

Wordless Wednesday

How about a flashback pic? August 2010

Trick or treat. Smell my feet.

Charlie had so much fun this Halloween! We didn't really go door to door bc she's still a bit young for that so we just took her to a neighbors house and then up to our friends, Bob and Amy's. She then proceeded to eat her body weight in candy (thanks to Amy being a sucker for her pleading to her for "Mo. Mo peas." which in her language is "more, more please"). After inhaling all that candy she ran around with a sugar high and had a great time seeing lots of other kids dressed up come by. All in all, a great time.

And here is Charlie is her puppy costume that she picked out. She was an adorable puppy if I do say so. Biased or not. :)

Charlie's baptism

So we finally did it.  She's just over 2 years old and we finally got her baptised.  The thing is, we don't belong to a church up here.  Yes, we've been living up here for 8 years now and we've gone to church, just never joined.  So when it came time to get Charlie baptised we weren't sure where to get it done.  Wade's mom asked her church (the church Wade went to when he was growing up) if we could have it done there and they turned her down.  TURNED DOWN baptising a child.  Whose own grandmother is a member and whose own father used to be a member.  I'm not so sure God would be ok with that.  I think it is atrocious that a church would turn down baptising a child let alone one where a direct family member is a current member.  So that didn't pan out obviously and we just placed it on the back burner. 

Fast forward a bit and we found out one of our good family friends, Thom, was going to school to get his pastorial license!  What a great sign!  All the waiting was meant to be!  It would mean so much more to have someone we know and love do the baptism.  So I jumped and (no pressure) asked him if he would be willing to baptize Charlie once he got his license.  He said he'd be honored and so we waited.  It just so turned out that the original timing put her 2nd birthday as the opportune time to do it but unfortunately God had other plans and Thom's licensing was on hold for another couple months.  And so it got pushed to October.  And I'm happy to report Charlie is finally baptized!

Last weekend in a sweet ceremony in front of about a dozen family and friends and even more church members we've never met, Charlie was christened!  Thom did a fantastic job!  We'd never have known it was his first ever baptism if he hadn't told us!  I am glad that his first of many to come got to be with our lil sweet pea. 

Charlie did what I knew she would do and screamed bloody murder but thanks to Thom making it special for her she quickly stopped as soon as he had a giant picture of Happy Feet shot up on an overhead screen.  To which she stopped crying, pointed and said "Happy!!!"  To cute.

So THANK YOU Thom!  And Katie and Jill!  And all of our family and friends that made the trip to her baptism.  It meant a lot to us and I know even though Charlie won't remember it she will be able to look back at the pictures and see all who care soooooo much about her.  It was a wonderful experience.

Love,

Kel 

Wordless Wednesday

Fall fun looks a lot like summer fun just with a jacket.

All work and no play makes Kellie a dull girl

So I've been back to work full time for just over 2 weeks now and I can honestly say it wears me out. When you work 8 hours and then come home to a toddler it's a lot of work! I had it so easy before!

I'm liking my new job so far but honestly haven't gotten into it much yet. The training is intensive and long for my position so I'm just starting to dip my toes in the water. I think once I know what the hell I'm doing I'll really like it!

We took Charlie to her 1st baseball game to cheer on the Twins and she had a lot of fun. I don't think she even noticed the baseball players out on the field though! She was more interested in the people in the seats behind us, beside us, below us, everywhere! Regardless it was a good time and the weather couldn't have been better!

I'll leave you with some pics from that day!

Cheers!
Kel

Are you ready for some football?

God, she makes me smile.  :)

I have a love/hate relationship with football.  I love the sport, I hate that it means winter will be here in no time flat.  That being said, right now I'm loving it b/c the weather is still beautiful and I love catching the Cyclones on Saturday and the NFL teams on Sunday! 

Last weekend the Cyclones beat the Hawks away from home!  This was incredible!  The game was great (although both teams played sloppy)!  Here's a pic of Charlie in her ISU gear.  Cutest little Cyclone ever!

Go ISU!!!

Charlie got her first black eye at daycare last week.  When I went to pick her up it was just a goose egg on her brow bone and it's now completely black, blue and green.  Pretty nasty looking!  They said she was walking and just tripped over her own two feet!  I find that very easy to believe b/c honestly I'm surprised this is her first black eye w/ how often she falls and what a klutz she is.  What can I say?  She takes after me in the gracefulness category (or lack thereof).  Ha!

I started my new job last Wednesday and although I think I'm going to really like it once I get trained and comfortable with it I'm not liking my commute home.  It means less time with Charlie which makes me sad.  The evenings fly by when I don't even get home until almost 6 and Charlie goes to bed around 8-8:30.  I guess I can just say I've been spoiled.  At my old job I had a 5 minute commute.  It was literally 1 mile from our house.  I could have walked/rode my bike there (but never did b/c I'm a lazy terd).  So the 45 min drive home from my new job is killing me.  I'll get over it but I just wanted to complain about it.  :)

Nothing much else to report.  We've been having fun like normal.  We took Charlie on her first golf game.  She loved the cart and running around on the greens! 

We also hit up a block party on Sunday and Charlie had an absolute BLAST dancing to the bands.  She even had a little fan club who cheered her on and kept telling me how adorable she was.  As a mom, I'll listen to people tell me how cute they think my daughter is anytime b/c I agree!  :)

Happy Monday!  We're one day closer to the weekend!

Cheers!
~Kel

Now that it's almost September...

I guess I should really work on blogging more!  The month of August is gone and I only posted once this month!  I'm not even sure where the time went...

Some quick updates:  I finally got a new job and start Sept. 5th.  I have mixed feelings about this.  I haven't worked full time in over 2 years and I'm really going to miss my time I had to spend just Charlie and me.  But I know we need this job (the extra $ will definitely help) and the job sounds like it's going to be a great fit for me.  I think I'll really like it once I get started but I think I'll miss Charlie too...

We traveled down to Des Moines last weekend to celebrate Brayden's baptism.  We had just seen him 3 weeks prior but I swear he is a whole new baby!  He looked twice the size and is already holding up his weight on his legs (w/ help keeping him stable).  He smiles so much now too and is such a sweet boy.  I love the lil dude.

Not thrilled to be getting her pic taken at the moment.

Charlie is learning so much at such a rapid rate.  I think she learns several new words every day and continues to amaze me when she says something new.  She's conquering fears left and right as well.  Going down a slide alone?  No problem!  Climbing up high on playground equipment?  Done.  Riding her trike super fast down our driveway aimed straight at oncoming traffic?  Check.  Yep, we've definitely got to stay on our toes around this one now!  She's fast and curious.  Two lethal combinations.  But her squeals of happiness while doing these things?  Priceless.  I love this girl so much.

We've been working on potty training, but it's just that: a work in progress.  We can get her to pee in her potty but not poo.  And she'll only go on it if we ask her continuously and bribe her with M&M's.  We'll get there eventually so I'm not putting too much stress on her.

Since I have been a bad blogger I forgot to post her 2 year stats.  She's still a tiny lil peanut weighing in at a massive 21 pounds 9 ounces, which puts her in the 1st percentile again.  She's 33 inches tall which puts her in the 27th percentile for height.  Seems her height has dropped down b/c up until now she'd always been on the taller side for her age.  She must be getting on track to be a shorty like her mama. 

Still loving Minnie!

Other than that nothing too major going on.  Just enjoying our summer weather and being outdoors as much as possible.  Winter will be here before we know it.  I'm dreading it.

I'll try to stay on top of things here in blog land and post more regularly.  I really have no excuses not to.  Just pure laziness on my part!

Xoxo~
Kel

Happy birthday to my 2 favorite people!

A day late a dollar short on this one but happy late birthday to my wonderful hubby!  We celebrated by having the neighbors over for ice cream cake.  I know.  Lame.  But when you turn 33 on a Tuesday it's not that big of a deal.  I know this first hand since I just turned 33 on a Tuesday in May.  Anyway, Happy Birthday Wade!  Love you!

And today is my lil peanut's 2nd birthday!  Happy birthday, Charlie!  I can't believe she's 2 already!  Time flies when you're having fun so we've obviously been having a blast b/c it feels like I just had her yesterday!  Ah!

We celebrated a little bit the other weekend down in Des Moines w/ caterpillar cupcakes and friends.  Then this last weekend she had her big hurrah at home w/ lots of friends and family here to celebrate.  She had a blast and got even more spoiled than she already is.  Although I didn't know that was possible.  Ha!

So happy birthday to the 2 most important people in my life!  I love you both so, so much!

Xoxo~
Kel/Mama

We've been busy lil buggers

Wow.  July is totally slipping right past me!  It feels like it should still be the middle of June.  Did I miss a month somehow?  The summer goes by way to quickly!

Well, let's try to play a little catch up!  We've been traveling.  To Des Moines, Galesburg and home again and then I took a girl's trip to the Dells.  And next week Charlie and I will be heading back down to Des Moines.  Seems like we are gone more than we are home lately and that's okay b/c it means we are busy out having fun and making the most of the summer!

So what else have we been up to?  Well, in our free time we've been:

Coloring

Playing in our tunnel, popping out the end and saying "ta-da"!

Practicing our couch gymnastics

Snuggling up on Brayden

Napping

Enjoying the lake and boating

Perfecting our "tans"

Dancing

Celebrating

Playing in our new sandbox (thanks Dada!)

Making sidewalk art

And hanging w/ the neighbors

What could be better?  We've got it pretty damn good.

Cheers!
Kel

(I'll try to get back to more regular posting, but no promises.)