Blogging the Boys . . . & Baby Too!

Since I Can't Seem to Keep up with TWO Blogs . . .

2010-02-28T16:31:00.002-06:00

Please refer to my other blog from this point on when it comes to keeping up with our family:

These are the Moments

I've never been a good multitasker and, apparently, this is true with blogging as well! From this point forward, I'll be posting everything in my personal blog. And I promise to put in more about the boys! ;)

How Kyan Feels About the Weather . . .

2010-01-29T16:43:00.001-06:00

This is what it looks like out our back door . . .
And THIS is how Kyan feels about it:I agree, Buddy, I agree!

You Are My Sunshine

2010-01-19T19:50:00.002-06:00

Or something like that. ;)

My Little Artist

2010-01-14T14:06:00.002-06:00

Jaidan . . . hard at work drawing a picture of Daddy outside this morning:

Didn't We Do This One Before?

2010-01-11T13:01:00.002-06:00

Kyan, January 2010:

Jaidan, August 2008:They are both wearing panties around their necks. Maybe it's a boy thing??

Snow Day!

2010-01-07T16:19:00.003-06:00

Well, sorta.

We woke up this morning to what could best be described as a "light dusting." Jaidan had wanted to build a "Frosty" and, well, that wasn't going to happen. He was just happy to see snow, though, and seemed content with attempting to make snow angels.

Picture Catch Up!

2010-01-06T15:12:00.001-06:00

Catching up on pictures from the past few weeks. Check out these albums on Facebook to see all of our holiday fun!

Christmas
ICE at the Gaylord Opryland
New Years Eve

Enjoy!

The Many Faces of Jaybird

2010-01-05T20:08:00.003-06:00

Another 'Big Boy' Milestone

2010-01-04T12:57:00.002-06:00

Jaidan has taken to constantly telling me, "I'm not a baby like Kikey. I'm a big boy!" If I call him "Baby," I am quickly corrected. He is all about all things 'big boy.' And, this past week, he met another big boy milestone. He had outgrown his carseat and we moved him to a booster seat. He absolutely LOVES it and has told everyone we've run into about his "brand new big boy seat." When Eddie was leaving earlier today, Jaidan watched from the window and yelled, "Hey! He's taking my seat!" (Because the seat was in the car). It's safe to assume he likes it!

This picture of him in his new seat is my Project 365 (one photo a day, 365 days) photo for Saturday:

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T13:43:00.001-06:00

We spent a fairly low key New Years Eve. We're in Dallas so we just hung out with Tammy (Eddie's sister) and her family. We had barbeque, toasted at midnight, the kids played, and we were in bed at about 10 after the hour!! Here are a few pics:

Kyan's First Haircut

2009-12-31T11:04:00.002-06:00

At age 19 months, Kyan finally got his first haircut! His hair was nowhere near as wild and crazy as Jaybird's, but it was finally past time to get those curly locks trimmed. Here are the pictures:

Not wanting to cooperate for a "before:"
During:And not wanting to cooperate for the 'after' either:

Christmas'ing, Christmas'ing, and a little more Christmas'ing!

2009-12-27T19:57:00.004-06:00

Our Christmas celebrations officially kicked off Wednesday when Zhariah opened her gifts, but we had our little family celebration on Thursday. We had a small dinner and the boys each opened one gift. They got their Christmas jammies (to look cute in pictures the next morning!) and Jaidan proclaimed them to be his "favorite Christmas jammies ever!"

We got up bright and early Christmas morning (we actually had to wake the boys up! I guess I should appreciate these days while I can . . . I know it won't be long until they're getting up at 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning). Santa left toys for two very spoiled boys. See?
They had too much fun ripping into their presents -- Kyan did most of the ripping with his TEETH! They didn't have much time to play with all their stuff because we had to get on the road for Arkansas (and they couldn't enjoy their Power Wheels car thanks to the rain!). Our first stop once we made it into Arkansas was MawMaw and PawPaw's house and after that it was on to GiGi and BobBob's house. More spoiling!

When I can get Facebook to cooperate with me, I'll have a whole slew of pictures to share. But here are a few for now:

Zhariah's Christmas

2009-12-23T20:19:00.004-06:00

Zhariah has stayed with us this week since she's out of school and her mother has to work. She goes back with her Mom tomorrow so we gave her the option of opening her Christmas gifts today or waiting until after the big day. What did she choose? She's a 9-year-old kid: you take a guess!

Here are a few pictures:
Our big family gift was a Wii! Think Zhariah liked it?

Christmas with Uncle Booger

2009-12-19T12:27:00.004-06:00

We had our first Christmas of the year this past Tuesday evening. Since Little B was born less than two weeks before Christmas, there was no way he, Josh, and Jessica would be able to travel to Arkansas for the holiday. So we had Christmas with them while we were there. Here are a few pictures from the Christmas'ing:

Welcome to the World, Baby B!

2009-12-16T21:58:00.003-06:00

A very special welcome to our new nephew and cousin:

Billy Edward III
"Little B"
December 12, 2009
11:00 p.m.
7 lbs, 13 ounces
21 inches long

We think he looks like his proud Papa did as a baby. What do you think?

The boys wanted to constantly touch or kiss on him. Kyan wasn't too crazy about Mama holding the baby which makes me a little nervous for when Karis decides to come along!Welcome to the world, Little B! We're so glad you're here!

Saline County Courthouse

2009-12-11T13:54:00.003-06:00

We took a trip to the Courthouse Wednesday night to get a good look at the light display they have. Jaidan referred to it as "the castle" and even asked GiGi if there was a princess living in there. ;) He had a great time -- he loved running from display to display. His favorite thing were the reindeer and he also really liked Santa's workshop. He wasn't very impressed with the Grinch -- he thought he was scary.

Kyan, on the other hand, HATED the whole thing. All he would tell us is, "I told" which is Kyan speak for "I'm cold." It WAS cold so we weren't able to stay as long as we'd have liked and I didn't get near as many pictures as I wanted. Here are a few:

Kikey the Booger Nosed Reindeer!

2009-12-09T10:44:00.002-06:00

That's what we've been calling him! Kikey Roo sporting some reindeer antlers:

** The wet on his pants is due to him spilling a drink all over himself! **

Big Brother wasn't feeling the whole pose with the antlers thing:

"We're Making Christmas!"

2009-12-05T21:50:00.004-06:00

Much to Jaybird's delight, we put up our Christmas tree this evening. Jaidan is in love with all things Christmas. Whenever he sees a house that's lit up, he yells "It's a Christmas house!" He gets excited when he hears Jingle Bells or sees a Christmas cartoon on TV (we've been counting down until Dora's Christmas special -- it finally premiers tomorrow night). When we pulled out all the decorations today, he ran around yelling "we're making Christmas! We're making Christmas!"

All the pictures of our decorating and other Christmas-y things (we also made crafts and cookies today) can be found in my Facebook album. Here are a few favorites:

Head Over Feet

2009-12-02T21:04:00.003-06:00

I went back to the doctor on Monday. Everything is good -- I hadn't gained any weight, my blood pressure was perfect. The ultrasound tech had some troubles a couple weeks ago getting good pictures of the baby's heart (she's a VERY active little booger!) I had to meet with the tech again on Monday so she could once again try to get those pics. I don't know if Karis knew we were looking at her or what, but she certainly put on a show for us. She looked like she was waving, she moved around a ton, and she even decided to go head over feet for us! The tech happened to snap a pic at that exact moment so here it is!

Giving Thanks

2009-11-30T20:04:00.002-06:00

We had a great Thanksgiving and a great visit with all of our Arkansas family! It's nice that Jaidan is now old enough to really be able to enjoy this family. Today, he informed me that he missed MawMaw and when he was playing like he was talking on the phone, he was talking to Nadia (who, according to him yesterday, is now his "best friend)."

Most of the pictures I took over the week/ weekend can be found on Facebook, but here are a few of the favorites:

They've Been Christmas'ed!

2009-11-23T20:30:00.004-06:00

Part of me is ready to go ahead and pull out the Christmas decorations, put the tree up, that sort of thing. An even bigger part of me, though, is dreading trying to keep an 18-month-old out of a tree. *Sigh*

Last night, I drug down a box of our decorations to go through them. Jaidan decided to have a little fun with them:
(If you can't tell, those are stockings on his feet!)

Of course, baby brother had to be a Christmas Copycat!

It's a . . .

2009-11-17T19:38:00.003-06:00

GIRL!

We are having a little baby girl . . . a little Karis Olivia! We couldn't be happier!

I don't have a scanner to scan the ultrasound pics, but here's a pic of a pic taken with my camera:
Isn't she cute? ;)

It's the Cheeeeeese Face!

2009-11-16T15:05:00.002-06:00

Kyan makes the exact same face everytime he sees a camera come out! We call it his "cheese" face (because he's usally saying 'cheeeee' whenever he does it). This afternoon, I made a collage of a several of his cheese face pictures. It's not perfect because it was a brand new photoshop action for me, but I still thought it was TOO CUTE not to share!

2009-11-12T13:35:00.001-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Sword Fight!

2009-11-11T14:39:00.004-06:00

Daddy thought the boys needed a couple of (foam) swords the other day. Yeah. Thanks, Daddy! Anyway, there was a sword fight in our living room the other night. Since Kyan is still a little young to 'get' the whole idea, he had some help:

I also wanted to share a Jaidan funny . . .

Until recently, all he's talked about is a "baby sisser." Here lately, however, he is convinced we're having a baby boy. We had this conversation this morning:

Me: "Jaidan, are we having a baby brother or baby sister?"
Jaidan: "It's a boy!"
Me: "But what if it's a girl?"
Jaidan: "IT'S.A.BOY!"
Me: But what if it IS a girl?"
Jaidan: "I don't know. We'll leave her at Walmart."

Only Jaidan!

18 Months

2009-11-09T20:13:00.002-06:00

Our Kikey Roo is officially a year and half old today! It seems like the past six months, since he turned one, have flown by so quickly. He was a baby for me longer than what Jaidan ever was, but he's very much becoming a big boy these days.

He is still our little cuddlebug, but that doesn't mean he can't be, well, mean. He fell off his Big Wheel the other day and instead of just brushing off and getting back on, he kicked the Big Wheel! Silly kid.

He is also a little chatterbox. Not that it's easy to get a word in edgewise with a big brother like Jaybird, but Kyan has a VERY big vocabulary to just be 18 months old! His favorite words/ expressions are "high five," "I talk," and "Spongebob."

He is such a little joy and we're so blessed just having him in our lives.

Goal!

2009-11-07T20:34:00.002-06:00

Zhariah's last soccer game of the season was this morning. We all went and took a few pictures, too! Unfortunately, her team lost 2-0 but they played hard and that's what matters. =)

Mark Your Calendars!

2009-11-02T17:27:00.003-06:00

November 17th is the big day . . . the day we find out if we're having a Karis Olivia or a Cameron Blake! For the record, Eddie swears this baby is a girl. I think it's a boy. For the record, the Chinese gender predictor (which is "supposed" to be correct 90% of the time, but was wrong for Jaidan) tells us . . . it's a girl. I guess we'll see in two weeks.

And, now, how about some pictures of the kids decorating Halloween cookies the other night?

Trick or Treat!

2009-11-01T14:51:00.005-06:00

Halloween was a success in the Walker household! It didn't always go as planned, but the kids had a great day. Jaidan even informed me that he liked Halloween more than his birthday. I guess that means next year's birthday party will need to be a Halloween party! He loves all things ghost and goblin and, of course, getting loads of candy.

The Jaybird was a pirate this year (of course). We did his costume almost entirely out of homemade goodies and I think we did a pretty good job. He loved it. He really understood trick or treating this year and made the most of it. As soon as he rang a doorbell, he didn't wait for anyone to answer before yelling, "Hello! Happy Halloween!" And every single house we went to he had to strike up a conversation. "Arrr! I'm a pirate! Pirate Jaybird!" and he'd go from there. I'm so proud to have such a friendly little boy. =)

Kyan wasn't as keeon on the whole trick or treat process. He hated being in costume (kept trying to take it off, then wouldn't pose for pictures, etc). He didn't want anyone else to hold his bag. Didn't want to even open his bag for people to put trick or treat candy in it! He sat in the stroller most of the time, but when he was out . . . he kept trying to go into people's houses!

Zhariah went with us as well . . . as a scary vampire! She didn't want to quit trick or treating until she got a full bucket but after about an hour and a half she weenied out on me. Her bucket was almost full and she was tired so we headed back to the house (and she was asleep within half an hour!)

Here are a few costume pictures. I'll share pictures from the rest of the day (we also went to a pumpkin patch and the park) in the next day or two:He was one tuckered out trick or treater:

Halloweenie Crafting

2009-10-28T16:16:00.004-05:00

We broke out the construction paper, scissors, and glue sticks the other day and Jaidan had a good time making ghosts and jack-o-lanterns. Kyan was more content with grabbing the glue stick and running off with it . . .

Total Sweetness

2009-10-22T10:36:00.001-05:00

Jaidan singing (and getting beat up by his brother and making up his own lyrics to) "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star:"

Sweet Moments Catch Up

2009-10-17T10:17:00.003-05:00

I don't know why I thought I'd have more time to update in here once we moved! These boys keep me too busy! And, it's nice that Eddie comes home every night and we can spend time with him. A lot of family time these days.

These boys are wild and crazy and are constantly doing things to keep me on my toes. But they do have a sweet moment every once in a while. Here are a few recent ones:

Just being cute:
Jaidan climbed into Kyan's bed and they fell asleep together:Jaidan was crying and baby brother went to comfort:Kisses for MawMaw!:

Let's Go Ride a Bike

2009-10-13T15:35:00.004-05:00

We spent Sunday teaching Jaybird how to ride his new bike. The first few minutes (yes, just minutes) I thought it was hopeless and I was going to pull all my hair out. But, then, he just got it and he was off!

Here are a few pictures and a video.

**Please excuse the way he was dressed. Last year's clothes have become this year's play clothes and his jeans now look like capri pants!
** The video will have to wait for another time. It doesn't want to upload! =(

Jaidan's Happy Birthday

2009-10-12T22:15:00.005-05:00

We had a small birthday party for Jaidan at Chuck E. Cheese on Saturday. One downside about moving ten days before your birthday is that you don't have time to make a lot of friends to invite! I don't think it would have mattered to Jaidan if there had been twenty kids there: he had a BLAST! He rode the rides, played the games, didn't even want to touch the pizza as it interfered with play time, and had a lot of fun opening presents. Here are a few pictures:
His "big" gift from us was a BIKE! We had it waiting for him when we got back from the party:

Happy Birthday Jaidan!

2009-10-10T10:00:00.003-05:00

Today we are celebrating Jaidan's THIRD birthday!

It's hard to believe he's already three, but everyday he's growing and learning new things. He's such a wonderful blessing . . . a ball of energy with charm to spare. We're so lucky to have him in our lives.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAYBIRD!

Big Boy Haircut

2009-10-09T16:49:00.001-05:00

Jaybird has had haircuts in the past, but he had his first big boy haircut today. Those curls are gone! He does look cute, but I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it. I wasn't there when the hair cuttin' was taking place. Doesn't he look like such a big boy?

Grandparents May Not Want to Watch.

2009-10-06T10:47:00.002-05:00

This is how Kyan gets down the stairs:

No babies were harmed in the making of this video. =)

Happy Birthday, Zhariah!

2009-10-04T17:39:00.002-05:00

Zhariah turned nine on Wednesday and we celebrated her birthday yesterday. One nice thing about living in this area is that we're close enough that the boys and I can attend events like Zhariah's birthday parties! She had the party at a putt putt/ arcade/ laser tag place. I'm pretty sure all the kids had a lot of fun -- including Jaidan. He really seemed to enjoy himself and didn't care that he was the youngest active participant (Kyan hung out with Mom and Dad). Here are a few pics from the party:

Picture Catch Up!

2009-10-01T16:52:00.003-05:00

I was so busy during the month of September that I honestly did not take very many pictures at all! We had a baby shower for Josh and Jessica on the 12th and a playdate with our Texas friends last Thursday. In the interest of saving time (and picture space!), I'm going to link up the Facebook albums. You can see the pics by clicking here:

Josh and Jessica's Shower
Playdate

Enjoy!

Home Sweet Home

2009-09-30T20:16:00.003-05:00

We are finally all moved in to our new home in Memphis! It's been a crazy month, but we are so, so, so glad to be here. The boys seem to love their new house so far (particuarly the stairs!). Right now, they're sleeping in the same bedroom together for the first time. I hear a lot of giggling. ;) I will have pictures of the house (just not the living room - we didn't get a chance to paint before the move so it still happens to be an atrocious shade of baby poop yellow) as well as pictures of things that went on during the month of September in the next few days.

P.S. Happy Birthday to Zhariah! She turns NINE today!

Not Neglected

2009-09-07T11:56:00.002-05:00

Just a quick post to let you all know that this blog is not being neglected -- I'll just be MIA until after we move. We don't have any cable or internet at the moment and won't have any again until after the big move (we should be all settled in by October 1st and I know Eddie well enough to know that it won't be too long after that before he has our internet hooked up).

This move is going to be a great thing for our family. Please pray for us that everything goes smoothly and the boys adjust well (they already love the house so I don't think we'll have too many issues). And please pray for ME because this house has stairs and two boys + stairs + Mama about to have a coronary!

Jaidanisms: The Latest & Greatest

2009-08-20T20:14:00.003-05:00

Just a few recent Jaidanisms:

The other night on our walk, he fell down and go this very first skinned knee. We ran into one of our neighbors a little while later and he told her, "Wook! I broke my knee!"

We had to go Carswell AFB today to get my military ID made. While we were waiting (and waiting and waiting and - oh yeah - waiting) a lady there told Jaidan, "You are very handsome." His answer? "I know."

This evening on our walk we passed a hill of ants. He asked me, "Mommy, what do ants eat? Doggy poo poo?" You never know what kids are going to say!

And, here's a picture of him with his very favorite thing: stickers!

Our Little Bruiser

2009-08-18T11:13:00.004-05:00

Kyan got his first boo boo today.

We had gone to the park and left in a rush. (A man who, in hindsight, was probably someone's lawn guy, pulled across the street from the park in his kidnapper van and sat there idling. He gave me the heebie jeebies, intuition took over, and we left in a hurry).

When we got back to the house, I let Kyan out of his stroller to walk up the steps. He lost his footing, went down, and bumped his noggin on the sidewalk. Poor little guy:
He sure does look tough, though, now that i's all bandaged up. I think he's pretty proud of his boo boo, too. Typical boy. He keeps touching his head and saying "boo boo! Boo boo!"

Daddy Time/ Brother Time

2009-08-17T16:54:00.003-05:00

Eddie was home this weekend (and since we're more than halfway through the month of August then that means it's just a month and half until he's coming home EVERY night! Yay!) and the boys had a good time soaking up some Daddy time. Here are the three of them watching a movie Saturday night:
One of Kyan's newest words is "Bubba." The boys really love each other (not that that keeps them from fighting! Kyan's other newest word is "MINE!" taught to him by his older brother). This morning, Jaidan drug a storage box into the kitchen, added a blanket, pillow, and stuffed animals to it and let us know that he and Kyan were "going night night." It was too cute to NOT take a picture!Kyan wouldn't cooperate for the Kodak moment, but he DID manage to give me his Mr. Mischevious face after Jaidan was done with the whole photo shoot thing:

Updates of the KYAN Variety

2009-08-14T14:21:00.004-05:00

Our little Kikey Roo is not a baby anymore! He's 15 months old as of last Sunday and, man, he does something new every single day. He's in that stage now where he is constantly learning something or trying something. He's still major DRAMA (he and Jaidan bumped heads earlier and you would have thought it was something really MAJOR the way he cried and carried on), but he's at a really fun age.

He loves cars and trucks. He could probably play with them all day long. He has a few TV shows he really seems to like -- he gets very excited when Yo Gabba Gabba comes on, asks for 'Wow Wow' (Wow Wow Wubbzy) and does a dance whenever he hears the Backyardigans theme song. Since he's really started walking, he's into EVERYthing. We try to keep bathroom doors in particular closed because the kid has a thing for playing in toilets! (Yuck). He's also a very loving little boy and he loves to cuddle. He comes up to me numerous times a day and just wraps his arms around my legs and gives me a big hug. He's such a sweet little cuddlebug!

Some recent picturs of the Kyster:

Updates of the JAIDAN Variety

2009-08-13T13:43:00.003-05:00

I'll do a Jaidan update post today and a Kyan update post tomorrow. That's the plan, anyway. I've been so exhausted here lately it takes up energy just to blog! *Sigh*

Can you believe that Jaidan will turn THREE in less than two months? Where has that time gone? He's such a big boy in every sense of the word. Very opinionated these days as well -- he's already let me know what he wants to be for Halloween (a pirate) and where he wants to have his birthday party (Chuck E. Cheese, thank you for all the birthday party commercials!). He is TOO funny and is always making me laugh. Even when I'm angry at him (unfortunately). I raised my voice at him earlier today and he told me, "Do not use your loud on me!" He loves to get himself dressed these days. Unfortunately, he's been to known to dress himself in his brother's (too small) clothes and not get anywhere close to actually matching!!

We're planning on sending him to pre-school once we get all moved. He's told me numerous times that he wants to go to school. The only condition? He wants to go to school with Zhariah! I know that school will be good for him, but I'm not sure how baby brother will do with being away from him! Kyan is so dependant on Jaidan and the boys really do love each other a lot -- I think Jaidan being gone (even if it's just for a half a day) will be hard on the Kykers.

Here are some recent (and some silly!) pics of Jaybird:

Family Fun Weekend: Take Two

2009-08-11T17:29:00.003-05:00

Last weekend, it was Zhariah, Josh, and Jessica. This past weekend, GiGi and BobBob came to visit. The boys, of course, had a lot of fun and got a lot of spoilings. A few pictures:
You can see more pictures here (I'm running out of bandwidth on here! Trying not to post too many pictures at a time).

An Announcement

2009-08-05T16:36:00.002-05:00

Well, I had expected that when I next blogged about an addition to our family, it would be about a puppy. However, in this case it's not a four-legged furry member that will be joining the Walker clan (yet, anyway).

It was not planned, in the least, but . . .

We're having another baby!

We had hoped and planned to start trying for another baby around this time next year, but God had other plans for us, I suppose. Just like the saying goes "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."

The timing is a little off from what we had hoped, but that's okay. We most definitely wanted a third child and we could not be happier!

As for any concerns about my health, there are honestly more concerns with keeping my blood pressure under control (and I'm starting this pregnancy about 35 pounds lighter than the last so hopefully that will keep the BP more controlled) than any issues with the delivery/ c-section. I had one of the best high risk doctors in the country deliver Kyan and he let us know that another c-section would not present any risk other than the normal risks that all c-sections present. We're confident that this delivery will go just as smoothly (if not moreso!) than Kyan's.

We're looking at an estimated due date of April 10th. Since they'll do a c-section at 38 or 39 weeks, we'll have a late March or very early April baby!

Family Fun Weekend

2009-08-04T07:46:00.003-05:00

Zhariah came into town with Eddie this past weekend and we all had a great time. Can you believe that Zhariah started school yesterday? August 3rd?!?!? She'd only been out since June 4th! At any rate, the boys were so happy to see her. Jaidan didn't want to go to sleep Friday night because he kept telling me, "But Zhar-a will be here in a little bit!" Kyan has grown so much since she last saw him. When she got up on Saturday morning, Kyan toddled right to her and gave her a big hug.

We didn't do TOO much this weekend. Saturday, we just took the kids to McDonalds and let them play there. Jaidan thinks that's the best thing ever and, in no time, he'd made a couple of little friends. (It was really cute, too, because when we left they said, "Bye Jaybird!" He told them his name was Jaybird!) On Sunday, the kids went with their Aunt Tammy to go swimming. And then Sunday night, Eddie and Zhariah headed back to Memphis!

Here are a few pictures of the kids together:

UNDIES!

2009-07-30T19:04:00.003-05:00

Jaidan got out of the bath tonight and went and put on a pair of his undies. It wasn't two minutes later that I looked up and here came Kyan . . . carrying a pair of undies! He thinks he needs to do (wear?) everything that brother does.

Here he is modeling the big boy drawers . . . very stylish with his diaper on under them!

Under Their Watchful Eye

2009-07-28T22:02:00.004-05:00

The lawn service came today to mow the grass. As soon as Kyan head the mowers start up, he ran to the window and proceeded to 'supervise' until they finished up with the backyard. The moment was too cute NOT to take a couple pics:
When Jaidan saw that I had the camera out, he had to get in on the Kodak moment as well!

A Boys is Noise with Dirt on its Face

2009-07-26T09:49:00.003-05:00

In the world of scrapbooking, you tend to run across a lot of quotes. The one in the title is, without a doubt, one of my very favorites. Because it is SO TRUE! Especially when it comes to my boys. They are loud and dirty and messy. They are both 110% BOY. Jaidan is definitely the noisiest of the two while Kyan is SO MESSY. I've never seen a kid who could get dirtier any faster.

Yesterday morning, they had a good time doing what boys do best . . . playing in the dirt! They weren't making mud pies, however. Jaidan informed me they were 'making cake.'
Jaidan showing the cake:Yeah, he's EATING DIRT. And, yes, that's one of my good kitchen spoons! *Sigh*The clean-up!

The Jaybird and Kikey-Roo Show

2009-07-25T09:21:00.002-05:00

I am assuming it's something he picked up from a TV show, but here lately Jaidan has been announcing, "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER . . . JAYBIRD!" Last night, he hopped up on the fireplace and proceeded to give me a show. Of course, I had to pull out the camera! What makes it even cuter is that Kyan felt the need to come in for a few 'cameo' appearances. The video is a little long-ish (about three minutes) but a majority of it is really cute!

I'm not sure what exactly he's saying in most of it, but I did hear "Mommy,' "Daddy," "Jaybird," "Kikey," "pirate," and "computer."

My camera quit recording before he was finished so here is another one, this time of him singing chicken fried (I am mostly posting it, though, because I think it's way cute the way Kyan makes fun of him sneezing!)

Hide and Seek

2009-07-24T09:31:00.005-05:00

Since we got back from our Gulf Shores vacation, I've been a stickler for keeping things clean and organized. I kind of have to be that way, with us trying to get things together and packed up to move (or to garage sale!) But, sometimes, the boys are laughing too hard or having too much fun for me to stick to those rules. This morning, they got in the linen closet and spread sheets and blankets all down the hallway. I cringed at the thought of having to fold them all up but they were having too much fun to make them stop (plus, I figure I can fold them and put them right in a box!). Here they are -- Jaidan thinks hiding under a blanket is playing "Hide and Seek:"

Time Out!

2009-07-22T19:44:00.001-05:00

The boys have reached that point in their sibling relationship . . . the point where they fight! Kyan is in the hitting stage and this afternoon, he hit Jaidan. Jaidan was told not to hit him back, buuuut . . . he hauled off and smacked him anyway. They were put on separate ends of the couch and I thought the timeout moment was just too cute NOT to take a picture!

I'm sure there will be many, may more 'separate corners' situations in our future!

P.S. -- Doesnt' Kyan look so BIG?

Singin' in the Rain

2009-07-21T21:25:00.003-05:00

It's July in Texas and that means rain showers are few and far between. Yesterday afternoon, we got a tiny bit of rain. I promised Jaidan that if we go nicely to his room for 'quiet time' (that part of the day formerly known as nap time) that I would let him go play in the rain when he got up.

Well, the rain shower didn't last any longer than 10 minutes, but when he woke up there were a few sprinkles so he was more than happy to play outside in the "rain." His swim trunks were in the wash so I dressed him in a pull up and let him attempt to have the time of his life. Judging from the pictures, I think he had a great time. ;)

I love this first one. He was dancing. :)

Monkey Man

2009-07-20T09:09:00.004-05:00

Kyan has a brand new skill (other than chunking his cup into the trashcan -- I spent too much time yesterday looking for a sippy cup only to find it in the garbage!) and it's one that makes me nervous!

He now knows how to climb on the kitchen table. He's quite proud of this skill, too. He climbs into a chair and then from the chair onto the table, where he's been known to stand up and dance. Ack! Scary! You would think keeping the chairs pulled back from the table would keep this from happening but . . . he's one deteremined little booger. He'll push the chair over to the table just so he can climb!

Pictures:

Ho Ho Ho

2009-07-15T18:58:00.004-05:00

Jaidan decided to get into the baby powder this morning (and he'd been doing so much better when it comes to getting into stuff!). What he didn't get all over the bed in Kyan's room, he put on his face -- give himself a Santa Claus type of beard:
And, because it's too cute NOT to post, a pic of the boys playing together this afternoon. They look so sweet - don't let it deceive you!

Cuddle Bugs

2009-07-14T13:43:00.004-05:00

The boys will be moving into a bedroom together within the next few months (to give us space for a toy room and a guest room). I've let them try out sleeping in the same room a few times to help out with adjusting to this. I heard some giggles coming from Kyan's room at naptime today and walked in to find this:
And under the blanket was THIS:Of course, I can't pull the camera out without Kyan giving me this face:

"Chicken Fries"

2009-07-11T17:09:00.004-05:00

I realize I've been writing about Kyan a lot more than Jaidan these days! Eek! Kyan is just in that 'do something new' every single day stage.

Not to say that Jaidan doesn't keep us entertained and on our toes, though. He has a huge imagination and is such a fun little boy. He has his very first imaginary friend! His name is Hector and that's all I know about him. I have no idea where he got that name. I have no idea what Hector looks like or anything else. I just know they watch TV together, sometimes Hector plays outside with him, and this morning they both wanted waffles for breakfast. ;)

Jaybird also has a big mouth. I've been working on cleaning out our garage here lately and the other day I told Eddie, "we have too much crap. I have to have a yard sale." This morning Jaidan told one of our neighbors "we have too much crack so we have to have a sale." Ack!

He also has a very interesting fashion sense. Check him out:

His newest favorite song is 'Chicken Fried' by the Zach Brown Band . . . he, however, refers to it as 'Chicken Fries.' Here he is singing and dancing to it:

Finally!

2009-07-10T18:45:00.004-05:00

Kyan has been walking more and more here lately. He's moving from room to room, trying to keep up with big brother. However, whenever the camera comes out, he's been known to go down on all fours. I finally managed to get a video of him walking this afternoon. The lemonade jug he picks up has been his 'My Buddy' these days. Amazing that these kids have tons of toys and yet want to play with leftover juice containers!

The 'eeee' noise he makes his his way of saying 'cheese!' He does that everytime he sees a camera.

One Tough Pirate

2009-07-09T19:27:00.002-05:00

Anything Jaidan likes, Kikey likes too. And anything Jaybird plays with, Kyan wants a turn. This goes for the 'pirate eye,' the toy that the boys currently fight over the most. Kyan brings it to me constantly to put it on him and makes his very own 'arrr' noise. He's really tough with that binky in his mouth, huh?

I Think It's Safe to Assume

2009-07-07T21:11:00.004-05:00

That Kyan really enjoyed the dinner we had tonight! Or, at the very least, the cornbread we had. He had it everywhere -- in his hair, all over his body, and, once he was finished with his bath, all in the bathtub!
Since our dinner was so yummy, I'm going to share the recipe. We had Bacon Cheeseburger Chicken and it was sooooo delicious. I got the recipe from here so I'll just link it rather than re-posting. The *only* things I did different were to scale back just a teensy bit on the teriyaki sauce and I seasoned the chicken before browning it. Enjoy!

Family, Friends, Food, Fireworks, and FUN!

2009-07-05T14:53:00.005-05:00

We had a fantastic Fourth of July!

Our friends Kira and John invited us over to their place for BBQ and swimming. They invited a few other couples and their children over so the boys had plenty of people to play with. And best of all? Jaidan and Kyan were the only 'little' BOYS there! (There was another boy, but he was 12). Jaidan is such a little ladies man and had picked up a couple new girlfriends by the end of the day.

After the food and swimming, we headed over to Breckenridge Park to watch the fireworks show. There was a HUGE crowd, but we managed to find a parking lot behind a Walgreens that was practically empty. We parked there and sat up our chairs in a grassy area right across from the parking lot. We had a perfect view of the show and - best of all - didn't have to fight with the crowds. Woo Hoo! We didn't even have to fight much traffic once it came time to leave. Can't beat that!

Some pictures from our day:

Jaidan decided to crawl into the dog cage and, when he did it, the other kiddos followed suit:
Kyan enjoying some of Mama's homemade potato salad:The Playground Pimp:Kyan and Daddy:Swimming:Watching the fireworks show:

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-04T10:00:00.001-05:00

He Gets It From His Mama

2009-07-03T15:49:00.003-05:00

It's funny how different we can be from one child to the next. With Jaidan, I doubt the boy ever left the house without a pair of shoes on. When it came to Kyan, I was much more relaxed. And, to be honest, he's probably only worn shoes a handfull of times.

Now that he's walking, though, it's time for him to get more accustomed to shoes. I tried some of Jaidan's old shoes on him today to see if they would fit and SURPRISE: he loved the shoes! In fact, he screamed everytime I tried to take them off of him. Wonder where he gets that love of shoes from!

Fashionista.

2009-07-02T16:26:00.001-05:00

Gulf Shores

2009-07-01T16:13:00.003-05:00

We had a fabulous vacation last week in Gulf Shores, Alabama. The water was wonderful. The sand was the color of sugar (or very close to it!!) and the weather was hot, hot, and did I say HOT? It was perfect weather for a beach vacation.

The boys had a fantastic time. We couldn't keep Jaidan out of the water while Kyan preferred to play around in the sand. They both had fun in the pool at our condo.

We spent Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then Thursday morning on the beach right in front of our room. On Thursday afternoon, we drove into Pensacola, Florida, and saw the BEAUTIFUL beaches there. It's no wonder they call it the Emerald Coast -- the water was a gorgeous shade of green.

All in all, we had a great trip and saw some great sites. In the month of June the boys and I were in a total of 11 states: Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Louisianna, Alabama, and Florida. I feel so blessed that we've been able to do so much! The boys have seen parts of the country that I didn't get to see until . . . well, until they got to see it!

I, once again, took a ton of pictures. You can see many of them by checking out my Facebook album here.

And here are a few:

And he is WALKING!

2009-06-29T10:11:00.002-05:00

I think it's safe to say that Kyan is officially walking! He's up to five to ten steps at a time. He still likes to crawl, but he's walking more and more. And when we're in an area where there's a lot of stuff he can grab onto, he'd rather walk or cruise than crawl. I don't have any video yet, but here's a picture of him walking on the beach at Gulf Shores:
Yay Kyan!

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-21T19:07:00.004-05:00

We had a wonderful Father's Day today! MawMaw, PawPaw, and Aunt Karen all came over to help us celebrate. And . . . Uncle Booger, Aunt Jessica, and Jessica's sister, Cheyenne, came in on their way back from Virginia last night. They'll be here until tomorrow morning (they'll actually leave after we leave -- we're heading out for Orange Beach, Alabama, in the wee hours of tomorrow). We all had a really good time, though. Jaidan loved having an audience so he, of course, put on a show for everyone. Kyan was smiley and happy and just his usual sunny self.

Some pictures from the day:

Jaidan had Uncle Booger on a leash:

FYI: This did NOT keep him quiet!:

GiGi and Jaidan:

MawMaw and the boys (four attempts and this was the best we could get!):

PawPaw and the boys:

Me and the boys with MawMaw and PawPaw:

Daddy's boys:

Family Pic:

Mr. Cool:

Jaidan and Dylan:

Smorgasboard

2009-06-20T15:21:00.004-05:00

This morning, I made a pan of brownies. Once I had them all mixed, Jaidan asked me if he could 'like' one of the beaters. I gave him one and Zhariah the other one. Z laid hers down on the table to run to the bathroom and when she did, this is what happened:
Of course, when he realized it meant he could get his picture taken, Jaidan had to make his own face messy and pose for me:Later, Lindsey came over with Dylan and Kaleigha. Zhariah was still here: the first time all of the grandkids had been together. Even though a majority of them were dressed kind of crazy (or half dressed), we had to get pictures of them together:Just as I started to post this blog, I *had* to snap this picture of Jaidan and Dylan. We had just come in from swimming in the hot tub. They were watching "Light Car" and both wearing their Lightening McQueen undies:

Waiting for GiGi

2009-06-18T21:30:00.002-05:00

We've been in Arkansas all week and the favorite part of the day for all three kiddos is when GiGi comes home. (We'll let GiGi think they're excited to see her . . . we won't tell her that they know that means they get to go out to the hottub again! ;) Here they are this afternoon . . . waiting NOT so patiently for her to come home:

And just a super cute picture of Kyan:

Man Man has picked up a couple of new words here lately. He says "hot dog" and "quack." His favorite word, however, is ball. Unlike his brother, who always sounded like he'd been raised in Boston, Kyan definitely has a southern accent! Ball usually comes out sounding more like "bawwwwl."

Day at the Lake

2009-06-18T08:21:00.004-05:00

We were only home four days last week, but the kids were still chomping at the bit to go do something. We promised them a trip to the lake on Saturday. But, since the temperature ws 104 degrees (in June!!!) by mid-afternoon we had to put the trip off until after dinnertime. We took them to Joe Pool Lake, our first time to head out there. They didn't get to stay very long, maybe about an hour, but Jaidan and Zhariah had a great time splashing around in the water.

I didn't take my good camera (I have a fear of having it around water!) so the few pictures that I did take didn't really turn out that great:

The Windy City

2009-06-11T16:33:00.003-05:00

We had a great time on our trip to Chicago and the midwest! I can't imagine HOW the trip could have been any better. The kids were GREAT on the ride, we (okay, I) got to see a ton of sites, and we got to visit with some of Eddie's family that the boys and I had never met before. It was just the best little vacation and I am now officially in love with the city of Chicago!

In all, we've been in EIGHT different states in the past few days: Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi (we stay with Eddie's cousin in a suburb of Memphis when we're there), Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Indianna, and Michigan. If we'd had more time, we would have gone into Wisconsin to the Wisconsin Dells. Oh well, maybe the next trip (I already told Eddie I'm going to Chicago at least once a year!!!).

Our trip went something like this:

We left around midnight Thursday night/ Friday morning and drove all night. We got into Gary, Indianna (where Eddie's family lives) around 9:00 Friday morning. We visited with them and, that afternoon, Eddie took me to meet my friends. I stayed with my friend Elizabeth for the weekend and Eddie and the kids hung out with Tee Jean and Uncle Greg in Gary. I left Eddie a digital camera but guess what? He took ZERO pictures! Ahhh! Men!

Saturday, I went to the Sears Tower and the Navy Pier (I HAVE to take the kids back to the Navy Pier!!) and also ate my very first EVER Chicago pizza. It was awwwwwesome! Sunday, I went to the White Sox game and that afternoon Eddie and the kids met us at Millenium Park. We saw the neat fountains they have there (they show faces on them) and the Bean. We all went out to dinner together. Eddie, the kids, and I stayed in the city Sunday night.

Monday, we met up with Aunt Jean, Uncle Greg, and cousins Shaun and Ashley for a trip to the zoo in Michigan City, Indianna. It was a small zoo, but it was GREAT! The animals were all out and active. The weather was great and, best of all, it was CHEAP! I can't remember the last time we paid less than $5 a person to get into a zoo!!

After the zoo, we took the kids to Lake Michigan. It was WAY too cold to swim (we dipped our feet in the water and it was frigid), but the kids got to play in the sand and run along the beach.

We visited with family Monday night and then got up to start our trip home on Tuesday morning. We stayed in Memphis Tuesday night and then came the rest of the way home yesterday. Vacation is always a good time, but it feels good to be home and to sleep in my own bed.

I took about 400 pictures on our trip, and I uploaded a bunch of them to Facebook. You can check them out here. And here are a few of the best ones:

View of downtown from 99 stories up in the Sears Tower!

The best pizza EVER!:

The Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier -- we rode that thing!:

Wrigley Field (we only went at night and I didn't get too many good pictures):

At the White Sox game:

The fountains at Millenium Park:

The Bean:

The kiddos outside the reptile house at the zoo:

Lake Michigan:

Eddie and the kids outside of a lighthouse on the lake:

First Leg of Our Trip: Arkansas!

2009-06-03T07:57:00.004-05:00

We've been in Arkansas since late Saturday evening. The boys have had a great time being spoiled by GiGi and BobBob, meeting their new cousin Kaleigha, and swimming in the hot tub. We'll leave tonight and go to Memphis and then leave again Thursday night. Destinaton: Chicago.

A few pictures from this part of our trip:

Updates

2009-05-29T08:00:00.002-05:00

The boys are growing, gettinig bigger, and learning new things every day so I thought it would be a good idea to do an update entry.

Jaidan talks more than anyone else in the world has ever talked! (I wonder who he gets that from!) He wakes up talking, goes to bed talking, talks in his sleep, talks for his brother. He never stops talking. His favorite things are the show Wow Wow Wubbzy and the movie Cars (and I made the mistake of buying Huggies brand pull ups -- which are printed with Lightening McQueen and Mater and Jaidan wants to wear those all the time instead of wearing his regular underwear). Speaking of pull ups and underwear, he's been potty trained for quite some time now and, here lately, we've been doing naps (and sometimes) bedtime without pull ups and without accidents. Yay Jaidan!

Jaybird loves to play outside and playing in water. He constantly wants to "go fwimming" and he talks about going to the beach at least once a day. He's definitely a little water baby! He also loves parks and playgrounds. The boy just loves to PLAY! He adores his little brother and he's so good with Kyan -- it almost amazes me sometimes. Every once in a while, they'll argue over a toy (argue = wrench it out of the other's hands). But Jaidan is gentle with Kyan and loves to play with him.

Kyan is growing with leaps and bounds. He's not walking yet but he gets closer and closer everyday. He's gotten to where he's finally comfortable enough to let go and stand and he'll ocassionally take a step here and a step there. He doesn't talk a lot (he doesn't have to) but he does have a few 'words' that he uses: snack, Mama, Da-Da, Bubba, thank you, bye bye, night night. All of these are, of course, spoken in his own language and you have to be around him a lot to understand that what he means.

He is sleeping through the night every night! It took him no time at all to get down the whole self soothing thing and it makes night time easier for all of us. He also has two more teeth coming in for a grand total of eight. Not that having just eight teeth (four on top, four on bottom) slow him down. The boy can - and will - eat ANYTHING.

Kyan has also mastered a few milestones that I hoped would be later in coming. *Sigh* He can (and does, on occasion) climb out of his crib. He takes his diaper off (we've had a poop smearing incident this week). And he even climbs out of his high chair from time to time. It's amazing the amount of climbing someone who cannot even walk does!

We are all gearing up for a very busy June (the rest of the summer will be much more relaxed). We're leaving tomorrow night to go as far as Arkansas, but we'll be headed to Chicago next Thursday evening. Jaidan is a rockstar when it comes to car rides, but Kyan has his moments so this will be very interesting. We'll be spending a grand total of 30 hours in the car (5 to Arkansas, 2 to Memphis, 8 to Chicago and then back again) so, yeah, interesting!

Anything You Can Do . . .

2009-05-27T17:06:00.004-05:00

Anything Jaidan does, Kyan has to do as well. That's how I ended up with pictures like these . . .

Rangers vs. Yankees

2009-05-25T18:06:00.004-05:00

Five years ago, when I turned 24, I went to the Rangers vs. Yankees game for my birthday. Even though the tickets we had were four the upper level, we ended up sitting just FOUR ROWS behind homeplate. Not the same luck with my 29th birthday . . .

Our tickets were for section 328, row 22 and we ended up sitting . . . section 328, row 23. For the record, there are only 23 rows in each section so we were up at the very top. Our view:
We picked a great game to go to, though, because the Yankees won 11-1. The weather was a-ok, with temps around 85 degrees (MUCH better than the last time we saw the Yankees when temps were up close to 100 degrees!) We weren't the only ones who had the idea of going to the game, though, seeing as there were SCALPERS in the parking lot and over 40,000 in attendance! We left in the 7th inning -- not because I wanted to, but because Kyan was being an absolute TURD. We're going to have to either have a babysitter or wait until he's a little older to go back. :/ A few pictures from the game:

A-Rod (lots and lots and LOTS of boos -- and one guy shouting "Get the needle outta your arm!" LOL). I suppose it fired him up, though, seeing as he went five for five and drove in four runs!:
Robinson Cano:Derek Jeter (can you tell he's our favorite???)(By the way: The cather there behind him is Taylor Teagarden -- I saw him play when he was at the University of Texas. I thought that was interesting. Eddie, apparently, did not).

Me with a couple of our stars of tomorrow: ;)Johnny Damon:A shot of the new Dallas Cowboys stadium -- I can only imagine what a nightmare parking/ traffic is going to be once they open this up (in just two weeks!):Last but not least, this mischevious look pretty much sums up Kyan durinig the ballgame (even though we were back home at this point):

Upside Down . . .

2009-05-24T10:23:00.005-05:00

My newest favorite picture of Kyan. And, of course, when he did it, Jaidan had to do it too!

** Note: those flipflops are from last summer! Ha!

Follow the Leader

2009-05-23T11:23:00.003-05:00

Every once in a while you happen to have your camera at JUST the right moment where you can catch moments like this:
Kyan just adores his big brother and has gotten to where he follows him everywhere -- even if Jaidan is on his trike! It's a good thing they're only one and two -- Jaidan LOVES it and loves Kyan so he allows it. For now. I know these days won't last long!

Also wanted to share another Jaidan funny:

Last night he yelled, "Come on, boys!" at me and Kyan. I told him, "I'm not a boy, I'm a girl." He answered, "No. You're Mommy!" Ha!

Philosophy According to Jaybird

2009-05-19T11:23:00.002-05:00

Jaidan woke me up at 7:30 this morning. We had the following conversation:

Me: It's my birthday. Go back to sleep.
Jaidan: No, it's Jaybird's bir-day. Get up. Get up NOW!
Me: Tell me happy birthday.
Jaidan: I NOT TELL YOU HAPPY BIR-DAY! IT JAYBIRD's BIR-DAY! GET UP NOW!!!!

A little bit later:

Me: Jaybird is two. Kyan is one. So how old is Mommy?
Jaidan: FIVE!
Me: No. More than that.
Jaidan: *whispers* Six????

Daily Work Out

2009-05-18T10:42:00.002-05:00

I usually do 30 minutes on my exercise bike twice a day -- naptime and bedtime. About once a week, though, I let Jaidan stay up an extra half hour. He watches Wow Wow Wubbzy, I read a book, and we peddle away (he has a Smartcycle). Here we are Saturday night doing our work out together:

Memphis and Bragging

2009-05-17T10:36:00.006-05:00

I'm going to share a few pictures from last week's trip but first I want to brag on Kyan for a bit. He went all day yesterday without so much as ONE bottle! Yay for Kyan!! He went down for his nap without a bottle and went to bed without one as well. Those had been the only times he was still taking a bottle and, now that he's one, I knew it was time to stop that for good. For the past week, he's gone almost everyday without waking up in the middle of the night for a bottle (and thank you Jesus for that!). Last night was the same - no 3 a.m. wake up calls!

He didn't exactly enjoy going to bed without the bottle. Jaidan and I went out to check the mail and I came back in to find Eddie in Kyan's room - he couldn't stand the screaming anymore. Sigh. It had only been about two minutes! I told Eddie to give him five to ten uninterrupted minutes and he'd be asleep. Once I finally got Eddie out of the room, it took all of about three minutes before Kyan was sound asleep! Things like this make me wish I'd started sleep training a couple months ago. It would be nice to have all that lost sleep back!

Now, onto our Memphis trip.

Believe it or not, I only took 15 pictures the whole time we were gone!! I can take more than that any given day when we're at home. We just really didn't do all that much. We went to the park twice. We took the kids down to the river one evening, but with the BBQ cook off going on, it was crowded (not to mention parking was running around $20!) so we just drove around for a bit.

Here are a few of the pictures I actually did take. Some are from the park and the others are from Marvin's house (Eddie's cousin that we stayed with). He has bunk beds and the kids absolutely LOVE playing on the top bunk!

Mother's Day

2009-05-16T14:38:00.004-05:00

I guess Mom can thank Mr. Kyan Alexander (or the doctors at Dallas Women's and Dallas Presby Hospital) for being able to spend Mother's Day with both of her kids this year. If it hadn't been for Kyan's birthday party, I doubt we would've all been together. But, we were and it made for a nice Mother's Day.

Of course, we bought her a copy of Hungry Girl's 200 Under 200 cookbook and since I wanted to check it out, we made her open her gifts on Saturday night. =)

The boys made ceramic tiles with their hand prints on them:

And my gifts. I started off Sunday mad because I thought Eddie forgot (he didn't even tell me Happy Mother's Day when he got up that morning!!) but we went to pick up breakfast for everyone and came back with flowers and a balloon. Good for him (really, really good for him! It would have been a miserable ride to Memphis later in the day if he really had forgotten).

Happy Birthday'ing -- Part Three

2009-05-14T12:17:00.004-05:00

Kyan tore into his smash cake like a champ. For some reason, both of my kids have this incredible sweet tooth . . . Hmm . . . wonder where they got THAT from!

He loved the cake and I think he would make whoever came up with the whole smash cake idea very proud because he tore that thing up and then tried to lick the platter it was on.

Happy Birthday'ing -- Part Two

2009-05-13T10:54:00.005-05:00

At the rate I'm going, Kyan will be turning two before I get all the pictures from his first birthday posted! Here are a few more pictures -- presents, cake, and some miscellaneous.

By the way, Eddie picked out the cake hence the whole Speed Racer thing. I was wanting to go with bats and balls. He won.

I have to say, both boys were absolute rock stars at this party. I was really worried how Jaidan would react to all the attention Kyan was getting (especially since, when I tried to talk to him about it again on Friday, he told me, "Be Qui-net. I no wanna talk about it anymore!") But he did GREAT. And Kyan was such a little trooper -- not a single melt down or trantrum even with everything else going on!

I'll post pictures of him with his smash cake in another entry.

Happy Birthday'ing -- Part One

2009-05-11T21:47:00.007-05:00

We had a busy, busy weekend and now we're in Memphis until Friday so things haven't exactly calmed down any!

Our Kykers turned one on Saturday so, of course, we had to BIRTHDAY PARTY! GiGi, BobBob, Uncle Booger, and Aunt "Kessca" all came in to town for the party. We decided to have it at Joe's Crab Shack for a couple reasons -- there's a playground right off their deck AND it meant that *I* wouldn't have to prepare any food! It was a good idea, too, I'm pretty sure everyone had a great time.

Some pictures from the party:

Happy Birthday Kyan!

2009-05-09T10:00:00.000-05:00

One year ago we welcomed our newest little blessing into the world. It's almost impossible to believe that it's been an entire year that Kyan has been here with us, an active, fun, and loving part of our family. He has brought us so much joy (and so many sleepless nights!) into our lives in the past 365 days. We have truly, truly been blessed with this wonderful little boy.

It has been a year of ups and downs but, luckily,mostly ups. It hasn't always been easy (mostly for me) and there are times when I feel lucky that we've all made it to one year with my sanity in tact!

There have been tears (mine and his!) and lots of laughs and giggles. There have been fights with big brother (already) and tons of slobbery kisses. There has been an increasing number of nicknames thanks, mostly, to Jaidan (KyKy, Kikey, Kikey Roo, Kykers . . . I could go on and on). Kyan has gone from laying around, doing nothing at all, completely dependant on us . . . to this independant little creature who dances and waves bye bye and love the Backyardigans.

Here's hoping the next 17 years of his life slooooooow down!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KYAN!
We Love You!

It's What's For Dinner!

2009-05-08T17:31:00.002-05:00

Jaidan loves playing with the pots and pans and, earlier this afternoon, informed me he was making dinner tonight. Whenever I'd ask what he was making he would just say, "Dinner!"

Anything for Strawberries, I Suppose

2009-05-06T17:29:00.002-05:00

Jaidan and I both LOVE strawberries so I bought a thing of them earlier today. I chopped them and washed them and then gave Jaidan one. I told him he'd have to wait until after dinner to eat anymore (we're going to make strawberry shortcakes! Yum). That wasn't satisfactory apparently.

I had put the tops of the strawberries down the garbage disposal but hadn't run the disposal yet. Jaidan climbed onto the sink and pulled the tops out of the disposal!

I rest my case: kids are disgusting.

(I wrestled them out of his hands before he could get any his mouth, thank goodess).

And, on a final note, if you're also a strawberry lover Walmart has them on sale for $1.50 this week.

Something to Share

2009-05-04T10:06:00.006-05:00

Believe it or not, I still have boxes in my garage that haven't been unpacked (and, yes, we've lived here nearly a year and a half!) I was going through one this morning looking for a specific CD with pictures, when I came across what I'm going to share.

When Granny passed away, Mom and I took pictures from her albums and compiled them into a memorial video. We used Windows Movie Maker and it only burns CD's so we never did put them onto DVD to share with anyone else. I think after a while, I went back to work and we didn't put as much time into the project. But I found the CD with the movie burned onto it while going through my boxes. Blogger lets you upload Windows Movie Maker files -- so eventhough I can't burn it onto DVD, I can share it through here.

It's long -- over 18 minutes (I guess that's what happens when you have five generations, we had such a hard time going through and picking out pictures). The video isn't perfect. There are no transitions between the pictures and some pictures are a little out of place. We didn't edit the pictures and, in some of them, there's white space from where they were scanned. Of course, there have been marriages, births, and divorces since then so you'll see people who are no longer in the family and you'll notice the absence of those who've come into our family in the past few years. But this really does mean a lot to me. Watching it made me miss Granny and Grandad so much . . . I really wish my children could know them.

Mud Pies

2009-05-02T17:03:00.004-05:00

We've had one of those weeks where all it's done is rain, rain, rain and make you wish for July to get here so we can have three months of DRY. This morning, we had a break from the rain and, since the boys were going stir crazy, I let them go out to play for a little bit. They used that time to discover the art of making mud pies (Jaidan called them cakes though). Kyan doesn't like to get on the grass so Big Brother was nice enough to bring the dirt to the patio for him (thanks, Jaybird, I now have a ton of mud on my patio!):

We're in THAT stage

2009-04-30T09:35:00.004-05:00

For Jaidan it's the stage of thinking band aids are the coolest thing ever:

For Kyan, it's THIS stage:

Kyan is also in the stage of TAKING OFF HIS DIAPER. The past two mornings, I've gone in to find a diaper laying in his crib and wet sheets! Ugh!

Our Kykers is Not a Baby Anymore

2009-04-29T22:00:00.003-05:00

Every single day Kyan does something to prove that he's more a toddler and less a baby. Yesterday, he was trying to put on my flipflops. Today? This:
He's now eating with a spoon! After I initially put food on it for him, he started scooping up his mashed potatoes on his own. He made a big mess, but he still did it!

Teaching Him What He Knows

2009-04-29T11:39:00.003-05:00

Jaidan got a little toy Diego car back for Christmas of 2007. I found one at a Black Friday sale this past year, for only $10 so I made sure to scoop it up (those things usually run around $30) for Kyan. It was one of his Christmas presents but, until now, Jaidan has got more use of it than he has. This morning, however, Jaidan decided to try to teach Kyan how to ride his car. He would ride in front of him, pull a little bit, and then let go. He'd say, "You can do it, Kikey! Come mere! Come mere, Kikey!" It was really cute. =)Add, yes, Jaidan is naked. I can't keep clothes on the boy these days!

Cuteness Overload: Family Edition

2009-04-26T12:20:00.003-05:00

Last round of professional pics -- these are family pics and pics of the boys together.

Cuteness Overload: Jaidan Edition

2009-04-26T12:14:00.003-05:00

Jaybird's turn!

Cuteness Overload: Let Him Eat Cake!

2009-04-26T12:06:00.006-05:00

Kyan's pictures with the cake:

Cuteness Overload: Kyan Edition

2009-04-26T09:05:00.008-05:00

We went and had professional photos done on Friday. We did Kyan's first birthday, pics of Jaidan, family pictures, and a few shots of the boys together. The photographer took 138 pictures! Wow! Luckily, we ordered enough poses that we got a complimentary CD with all the pictures on it. The images aren't large enough to print out, but they're great for sharing online. I'll break them up into several entries and up first is the Kyan edition.

I had pictures done every month for Jaidan, but that didn't happen with Kyan. These were his first professional pics since we had his done in the hospital! We were a little worried about how he would act for them, but he did awesome. He grinned and giggled and just put on a little show. He LOVED the cake pictures and even cried when I took the cake away from him.
I didn't realize I was going to end up posting so many so I'll put the cake pics in a separate entry!

A Rite of Childhood

2009-04-25T21:10:00.002-05:00

Kyan is just two weeks away from turning a year old and prior to this evening was yet to try spaghetti. Mostly because I don't like spaghetti and I do all the cooking around here. And I don't cook anything I don't like! ;) But, it is one of those rites of childhood . . . every baby needs to dig into a plate of spaghetti and make a huge mess of himself! So I fixed a pot of it tonight and we let him tear into it. He absolutely LOVED it and it was pretty obvious he had fun while eating it!