Down and give me twenty

Aren't I a mean mommy??? Making my 8 month old do push-ups???

Keagan is trying sooo hard to crawl. He gets extremely frustrated and then loses it. I try to give him as much time on the floor as possible so he can figure it out, but after awhile my eardrums need a break!!

Silliness

Here are some random pictures over the last several weeks that I have been meaning to document.
Kellen's personality is really starting to blossom. Not that he hasn't had one but his imagination is soaring and he thinks of new things to do all the time.





Putting Daddy's work shoes on. He thought these were hilarious to walk in. I thought so too.






Hard at work in the kitchen
He insisted one evening that we bring the kitchen outside. We were eating dinner out on the patio and he decided he would make us up some dessert.


Of course you have to have coffee with the dessert. This is one of his most prized possessions right now. Thanks to Nana and Poppa!!

This morning as we were getting ready for church, Karsten called me into the office to "see what our son was doing." When he says that I always cringe because I know that something is probably not something I would allow! It actually wasn't too bad.

Kellen thought Keagan's Johnny-jumper would be a great swing. I'm actually surprised that it took him this long!!!

His new best friend - Maddux. We watch a friend's puppy several times a week and Kellen has grown VERY attached to him. He carries him around all the time and if Maddux isn't here he asks for him.

The Tickle Monster!

As you can see, Kellen has taken a liking to tickling his brother. I think he likes being on the giving rather than the receiving end sometimes!!!!

A mess but a lot of fun!

Last week (yes I know - I'm way far behind) we went over to our friends house to make caramel apples. She had more than just caramel though! We had reeses pieces, white and dark chocolate, nuts...you name it - to cover our caramel apples. The kids had a lot of fun making them and I enjoyed eating them.


Poor tablecloth - you might be ruined after what we put you through.

HK and Kellen doing what they do best. Licking and picking the caramel and toppings off the apples.

Our finished project. They were very messy but yummy. I think everyone had a great time!

8 months old

Another month older! My baby is growing up too fast. He's getting so big and starting to figure things out for himself. He isn't crawling yet but can roll around all over the place and scoot himself backwards. His favorite place is to get caught underneath the footstool.

Yes - it's a fake french fry in his mouth. He still loves the get anything and everything into his mouth. Especially now that Kellen has all his play food laying around.

We have started giving him puffs - which he loves. He's doing really well with them and is quite unhappy if they aren't on his tray right away.

more please!

attempting to feed himself. He's working hard on his pincer grasp. He can usually pick things up but loses it in his palm on the way to his mouth.

OH and finally those stubborn teeth came up!! He's not been happy lately because of that - just think - how many more to go??!?!?!

Keagan continues to be VERY vocal and his latest thing is screaming at everyone. He wants everyone - including the dogs - to look at him. It's hilarious. Even the nursery workers at church thought he was quite funny! I think we may have a bit of trouble on our hands in the future!

A Night Out

Last weekend my parents came down so Karsten and I could attend a murder mystery dinner party that was hosted by the residency program. I'm laughing right now just thinking of the entertainment. We had such a good time visiting with our friends and meeting new ones.

If you have never attended one of these functions you should! They are such a good time and are usually quite funny!! The play took place in Mayberry - yeah as in Andy Griffiths Mayberry! I cannot describe how funny it was.

Me and my honey

Our good friends Nate and Betsy

A picture of me and Betsy - and look! We aren't standing side by side with our big bellies this time!!

This isn't a very good picture but this was Aunt B.

I am happy to say that I did guess right on who the murderers were!! But so did 2 other people (Nate being one of them). We had a wonderful time and good food. I had a headache by the time we got home from laughing so hard!! I hope we can do this again soon!!

Labor Day Weekend

Wow! I'm really behind!

We had a busy Labor Day weekend. First we had the Thomas Day Out in Nashville and then Nana and Papa Slater came for a quick visit saturday night. They also brought Kellen's birthday gift and on Sunday Jim and Virginia Stevenson came through on their way from Georgia.

Jim and Virginia are very close friends to the Slater family and are like grandparents to Karsten. Thank you for coming to see us! I'm so glad they were able to see the boys. I'm just disappointed that I didn't get a picture of them with Kellen and Keagan.

Mommy and Keagan - sorry bud - mommy and you don't have enough pictures together.

Keagan sportin' the halloween pj's. I had to break them out because they will be too small for him if I wait too much longer! And they are just too cute to pass up. So much for planning ahead and buying things the previous season!!

Kellen received a john deere shirt from Jim and Virginia.

Kellen got a kitchen set from Nana and Papa Slater along with lots of accessories. The french fries were a major hit!

You want fries with that???

I'll make you some more fries.

Thank you everyone for the gifts!! Kellen has played with his kitchen every day since we put it together. And I'm gaining lots of weight with all this food that he's fixing!!!

Our first day of "school"

Yesterday was yet another milestone for us. I enrolled Kellen and Keagan in a program called Mother's morning out and it's every tuesday morning from 9-12. It's not officially preschool but they do those types of activities. For Keagan it's just nursery playtime. Anyway, that morning I told Kellen that he was starting school today and bless his heart - he was so sad - that the school bus wasn't going to pick him up. I told him that I would be taking him across the street to the church. He was okay with that but was definitely disappointed.

I think he had a great time because when we got home he pouted in the hallway a good 15 minutes and wouldn't eat lunch or take his backpack off. He said he didn't want to come home. Keagan on the other hand had a rough morning. He didn't sleep AT ALL while he was there - but I don't think the other kids did either. They were all quite upset when us moms arrived back at 12.

I however had a great time for those solo 3 hours and I will look forward to it every week.

Kellen sporting his Thomas backpack. He was super excited to go to school.

Keagan oblivious to what the morning would bring.

A Day Out With Thomas

Karsten and Kellen spent an afternoon with Thomas The Tank Engine this weekend in Nashville, TN. The Thomas movies and trains are still some of his favorite toys. We went last year as well and I think we will continue to do this as long as the boys are interested. They are able to ride an actual look-a-like Thomas the Train as well.

HOWEVER I have been very delinquent in picture taking and especially in making sure I have a charged battery. SO these pictures are courtesy of Karsten's phone and a few proofs from the professional photographer they have on site.

With Sir Topham Hat

They have all kinds of activities for the kids to do after they meet the characters and ride the train. Karsten took this video with the phone so it's not that clear but Kellen LOVED this bouncy slide. He spent the rest of the morning going up and down this thing.

Kellen is the one going up the stairs at the beginning of the video.

Rend Lake - Part 2

These are just random pictures of the weekend. For some reason, most of them are of Keagan. I didn't take many of everyone else.


Getting frustrated about something - probably because nobody was looking at him. He does that.

okay seriously - I think Keagan was upside down more than he was right side up!! Every time someone would hold him on their lap he would throw himself backwards! It was hilarious!!

Higher Daddy Higher!!!

Wow! That fire looks really neat upside down!

I like being on Daddy's shoulders.

We had a great weekend and the boys (especially Keagan) did better than I expected they would do. Thanks Nana and Pa for a great weekend. I think this would be a good time to start investing in some jet skis and some more tents!!! :-) Hint Hint

Rend Lake Part 1

So I finally rounded up all the pictures for this past weekend at Rend Lake - now I can finally blog!

The entire Dudley family went camping for the first time in a long time. We used to camp every 4th of July but it gradually went extinct until recently. Mom and Dad have a camper now so they go quite often....the rest of us got to enjoy sleeping in tents - on gravel - seriously. I guess I can't complain though. I got the camper with the baby. So next year I imagine Shannon will get it. While we were there of course we celebrated Kellen's birthday and Matt's parents brought their boat. So we all enjoyed some skiing action as well.

I love this picture. Kellen and Daddy hangin' out


Mommy and Kellen snuggling. It was quite cold out that early in the morning. I didn't get in the water the first time out. I have to wait until the sun comes out!!!


Kellen really enjoyed the boat ride - he loved dipping his hands in the water. He tried really hard to catch a fish!

There's Luke giving it a try

Matt getting ready to get up on his bare feet!

Pat - barefoot skiing - the Anderson boys all barefoot ski. They are really good at it!!

There's me! I also tried to slolum (sp?) ski. It was very hard and I did finally get up - for a few seconds. I was really sore and am still sore almost a week later!!

We all had a great time!