See this little (ahem, excuse me, BIG) boy right here?

[In the LARGE chair at Sam's Club]

He is binky free!

On Monday night we had our Bye, Bye Binky party.  We'd been gearing him up for it for three days (with talk of two more days until your Bye, Bye Binky party, one more day...etc.).

He picked out the cake at the store, helped mom bake it and was VERY excited to blow out some candles (because at the age of 2, you don't just have cake without some candles involved).

We then decorated the padded envelope, got one last suck on the binky and then placed them inside (we had two left around the house).  We sealed it up and drove to the post office to mail* them to the baby boys** who needed them.

How has it gone?

It took him two hours to fall asleep the first night, but he then slept through the night with no problems.  Yesterday, he didn't have a nap (but I attribute that to our wonky schedules on Tuesdays--I probably could have picked a better day) and last night he fell asleep in the car on our way home from running an errand and again slept through the night.  Today, he had a nap (albeit a short*** one).  We'll just take it one day at a time.

*We did actually mail them off.  Our mailbox is a locked one with an outgoing box that wouldn't fit the padded envelope.  I wanted Easton to remember dropping the envelope into the mail, so we went to the post office and he dropped it down the shoot.  Thanks to the Fisher Price Little People DVD with "mail carrier Kelly" he understood that she would be getting the binkys and taking them to the baby boys who needed them.
**The "baby boys" live at Grandma's house.  She'll be "taking care of" that envelope for me.
***Short for Easton, meaning 1.5 hours. The boy normally sleeps for 2.5 to 3.5hours.

An Actual Announcement

but perhaps not the one that my last post had your brain leading towards.

RONNIE

PASSED

THE

BAR!!!

It's like a gigantic weight has been lifted (and I'm not even the one that took the test!).

A non-announcement

You may (but probably don't) remember that when we announced my being pregnant with Kendree, we had Easton wear the shirt seen here.

I had him wander into my parent's house with it on and just waited for my mom (who was the only one home at the time) to notice. 

She didn't.

So finally, I had to say "Easton, show Grandma your new shirt!"

Then she caught on.

So, when Easton showed up at her house about a week ago wearing this shirt...

(so, you can't really see it, but it says "Big Brother")

...my mom casually says to me, "Is this shirt a NEW shirt for Easton?"

Not getting what she was implying, I said, "Yes.  Grandma Cali got it for him."

And so she says, "So does it MEAN anything?"

Light bulb clicks on.

And I rush to say, "NO, it does NOT mean anything.  No announcements from me.  Maybe when Kendree shows up in a shirt that says 'big sister'."

But bless her heart for checking.

Kendree - 7 months

Our little Kendree girl continues to grow up--darn it all.

I feel a bit like a broken record, but she is still the best, happiest, most content baby you'll find.  I know you all think I am making this up, but she was babysat by a non-family member for 10 hours last week and my suspicions were confirmed.  She's an angel child. 

My guess is that she is just over 17 pounds.  She is in size 6-9 and 9 month clothing (except for anything made by Gerber in which she wears 18 months--side note: I'll never figure out why their sizes are so off).  She can sit up for about 3-5 seconds on her own and then gets so excited that she launches herself backwards.  The balance is there, just not the perseverance. :)

She is cooing, squealing and babbling like crazy nowadays and gets especially excited when Easton walks into a room and pays her any attention.

While she immediately puts everything in her mouth we still have no sign of teeth and to be honest I am perfectly okay if it stays that way for a while.  Kendree is successfully eating rice cereal now and we are introducing other foods this week--hooray for branching out!

She continues to love the swing and the stand-up bouncer thingy, which is great for me.  Easton gave up the swing at 5 months, but I love having a place to put her that is at least a little "big brother-proof."

She has finally mastered rolling from her front to back, but still only does it a handful of times every week.  She is perfectly content to hang out on her belly and I guess if she is, then I am too.

Now on to the pictures.

Eating Rice Cereal for the first time:

Such a good girl, chilling in her car seat.

Official 7 month shoot:

And the one that didn't quite work out.

Pretty girl:

He will do his part...to avoid those epic battles

Last night, as Ronnie and I were doing our nightly "straighten up the living room, dining room, kitchen" routine, he was putting a few stray pieces into a book/playset that Easton got from Grandma and Grandpa Cali.  It looks like this:

It has a board book in the first few pages and then opens up to two toy compartments and a place to store the play mat that it comes with.

Ronnie says to me, "When I put these away, I always put Buzz and Zurg in two different compartments.  I wouldn't want to be the cause of a massive battle after we go to bed."

Gotta love a guy who is always thinking.  I'm sure Buzz was grateful (not as sure about how Hamm, the soldier, Rex and Woody felt).

Easton 2.75 years

Wow, can you believe he is thisclose to 3 years old?  It's going to rock his world when he has to tell people he is three and not "two ana half."

Easton is crazy.  He loves to read books, sing songs, line up his cars and watch movies.  His current favs include ABC Signing Time and Casey at the Bat (classic Disney cartoon).

Easton has been sleeping in a big boy bed since we moved into the new house on August 3rd.  We figured why not totally rock his world and do all of the the changes at once?  No, actually, it went really well, because we didn't have to go through the "giving the crib to Kendree" fight.  He got a new bed and a new room and a new house and it was just. that. exciting.

He sleeps awesome in it for both naps and bedtime and still doesn't really get that he can get up when he wants to (but who am I to teach him that!).  I have a feeling that when we finally take away that binky, we may have more of an issue, but that remains to be seen.

Easton is 37 inches tall and around 27 or 28 pounds (none of those measurements are official, just Ronnie and I randomly measuring him). He is still skinny as a rail and though he needs the length in 3T pants, they fall off his skinny bum (a trait from my side of the family).

He is currently very into signing all of the letters of the alphabet and recognizes all of his letters when you point to them.  At first I thought it was just because most of his books with letters are in alphabetical order, but then he shocks me with reading out "O-F-F-I-C-I-A-L" off of one of his toy cars and proves me wrong.  He reads from left to right about 50% of the time and right to left the other 50.  I figure I don't have to push that too hard just yet. He recognizes numbers 0-12 and still has difficulty counting consistently from 12 to 20.  We get phrases correct (like 18, 19, 20) but numbers are still jumbled and missing in the middle. 

Easton also loves colors and shapes and rainbows are quite possibly his favorite thing ever.  He loves them in books and movies, but then last week we were going to Wal-Mart and saw a double, full, rainbow.  It was so funny to see him realize that they actually exist in life.  He almost couldn't list off the colors fast enough.

Easton is getting to be such a great big brother.  He loves his "Kenny Bear" and while he is still a classic big brother a lot of the time, he wants to help her and include her in things that we do.

We love our Easton--and he loves you!

Easton Riding the Elmo Ride at Sea World

I know that only close family care to watch Easton ride a ride at Sea World--so that is why this is on the little ones blog. 

Ronnie and Easton are in the Orange Elmo (which Easton requested--we are starting to think that may be his favorite color, but can't be sure).

Our California Trip

We were able to spend some time down in California with Ronnie's family and had a GREAT time!

Here's a taste of what we did:

Kendree got to meet Grammy. (It was a happier time than her face portrays, well, after she got a little sleep it was).

We went to Sea World.  Easton was terrified of the Shamu show (the loud music and noise, I think) but then settled down and enjoyed the rest of the trip.  When we got home that night, Aunt Katie asked him if he had seen any sharks and he said, "I no see no howdy howdy!"  (referring to the shark in Toy Story that puts on Woody's hat and says "Howdy, Howdy, Howdy")

Easton got his face painted (baseball on one side, basketball on the other)

He also rode the Elmo fish ride and had this look on his face virtually the entire time.

Kendree was a great little girl as usual.  Although shortly after this picture was taken we discovered a massive blow-out.  Good thing mom brought extra clothes!

Easton got to meet Big Bird and Elmo--and wasn't at all afraid of the massive characters!

The best part was what both kids did before we were even out of the parking lot (and Kendree did not get burned--she just has that "turn red as soon as it sees the sun" skin that she inherited from her mama).

Ronnie, KaLee, Easton and Grandpa Cali got to go to the Angels game

And we hung out at a water park as well!  Easton loved soaking Grandpa.

We also had general crazy times--playing with the stuff that Daddy was sorting through.

We can't wait to see everyone again!

Kendree - 6 months pictures

Better late than never...here's the pictures of Kendree at 6 months.

Official Momma shoot:

Hanging out in the swing

"Hold you, Kenny!"

The trip of a (Ronnie's) lifetime

My dad's brother has a boat in Alaska (and yes, I realize I could have used "uncle" in that sentence, I was just wanting you to understand where all the connections are).

Three to four times a year he invites three people to go up to Alaska with him to fish.  They do halibut fishing, salmon fishing and some crabbing.

On the 5th of July, at the family barbecue, my dad was bragging to Ronnie and I about how depending on when his Alaska trip panned out, he may not be able to help us move (luckily for us, and unluckily for him, he was indeed around for the moving).  Ronnie mentioned that he would LOOOO-OOOO-OOOVE to go sometime.  My dad said that he would ask Larry (my uncle) if all of the slots were full.  Ronnie and I didn't think it would actually pan out, since Larry normally has a line of people ready to go.

The next day, my dad called Ronnie and asked if he was serious about Alaska.  Ronnie responded "YES!" and the plans were set.  It took a bit of schedule re-arranging and all of the budget for Ronnie's birthday and Christmas's for the next five years or so, but he was ready to go.

There are just four things you have to do to go on  an Alaska trip:
1. You have to not annoy Larry, my dad, or the other gentleman who went.
2. You have to be okay with eating seafood for every meal for a week.
3. You need to be able to sleep through multiple people's snoring.
4. You have to not annoy Larry, my dad, or the other gentleman who went.

I guess Ronnie passed all of the tests, as he did not get thrown overboard and came home safely.

Now on to the pictures!

Ice from the glaciers.

Beautiful scenery.

Ronnie catching a skate ray (unintentionally)

The ugly side of halibut.

Whales, whales and more whales.

Ronnie with a silver salmon.

Waterfall

Ronnie with another salmon

Crab!

Ronnie and my dad by the very large halibut that my dad caught (pretty side of the halibut shown).

Why Hello There!

Let's see if we can get some catching-up accomplished on this little blog of mine, shall we?

We're back from various trips and settling into the real world.

Ronnie started work, the kids and I are keeping busy (with what, I don't know) and life in general is great.

While I know that "catching-up" posts generally stink, I'll try to make them as painless as possible. :)

Kendree - 6 months

Kendree had her doctor's appointment today, so I decided to delay this post by a day.  Her official stats:
Weight: 16 lbs. 10.5 oz. (70th percentile)
Height: 26 1/8 inches (70th percentile)
Head: I never remember the actual measurement, but it was also in the 70th percentile. 

Gotta love those proportional kids!

Can you believe it's been 6 months?  Yeah, me either.  The craziest part of this milestone for both of my babies is that in my family, my grandma (and hence my mother) has always told me that it takes 6 months for you to integrate a new little someone into your family completely (and they should know, what with the 13 children between them) and it is so true!  Now, going to the store with both kids, doing a night-time routine for two, bath time for two, feeding, napping, etc. all seem totally normal.  I can't imagine Kendree not being a part of our lives.

It's when I feel somewhat in control that I know I'll be getting a curve ball thrown at me any day now! :)

Kendree continues to be such a good baby, but is finding her voice a bit more.  Most of the time, the noises she makes are just LOUD, not that she is upset.  It was just this week at church that I wished for the first time that she took a binky more regularly.  It was really nice to just shove one in Easton's mouth when he was being a noisy boy.

Kendree has still not rolled from her front to her back.  I continue to leave her on her stomach for extended periods of time, to encourage her to roll both ways and all it has done is make her really like being on her stomach (which isn't really a negative thing).  She'll get there eventually, I'm sure.  She's scooting around (slowly, and mostly not on purpose), and it has made me start to actually think about what is on the floor, around her, etc.

She has decided this month that she would like her feeding at night again, and is waking up around 4am every night.  I imagine (fingers crossed) that that will extend back out to 5 or 6 when she is eating cereal/solid foods.  [side note: I think I mentioned with Easton, but due to some research regarding the time you nurse vs. allergies, we have chosen to nurse exclusively for the first 6 months with both of our kids.  Kendree will be starting rice cereal in the next week or so.  Don't you worry, the large rolls on her thighs, arms and cheeks will assure you that she is nowhere close to hungry. :) ]

We continue to work on a consistent schedule with her naps.  I'll admit that most of that is my fault, as she falls asleep within minutes of getting in her car seat, so when I run errands she will always take an unscheduled nap and mess up her schedule.  Oh well, such is the life of a second child!

Kendree has decided this month that she is done with the swaddling.  She began not really settling down for the night unless her arms were out, and after a few nights of that, I gave up.  It's nice to not have to worry about whether the swaddle blanket is clean.

Kendree has no signs of teeth coming in anytime soon, but she sure has started to enjoy chomping on things (her finger, your finger, chew toys, blankets, etc.)  I always say that my kids can wait as LONG as they want to get those little chompers.

I, myself, have yet to make her really belly laugh, but all Easton has to do is look at her the right way and she will die of laughter.  He will do anything to ensure she will continue laughing.  It's one of the only things he can do with her, hence it is one of his new favorite activities.  I just can't seem to stop the most lively session from being right before we need to be getting them both to bed!

Her current favorite toy is the diaper wipes package.  I'm constantly worried about her getting a little piece of plastic off of it (thanks to Ashley), but if she can see it, she will do anything within her power to get over to it.  It's also the first thing that has made her cry when I take it away!

When in her car seat, she prefers to have the tag blanket I made for her above everything else.  I'm so glad I got that out sooner with her than I did with Easton (I really didn't make his until he was done with that kind of thing).

As always, we love our little Kendree-girl (who Easton has recently started calling Kenny-bear.  You would die of adorable-ness if you heard him say it).

I wanted to get this post up ASAP, so I'll be adding the pictures at a later time.  Hopefully very soon!

But sometimes, they just have to deal for a while

So, you all know we are moved.

I haven't mentioned (at least in any kind of detail) that the kids and I will be traveling to Laramie one day a week for my work.  All in all, my kids are great travelers (something that comes from being forced to travel?).  I'll admit I do rely on the DVD player, maybe a bit too much, but coming up with things that Easton can do without any help from me has been difficult.

Which brings me to the title.

In the three trips I have made as the driver to Laramie I've learned that I have no skills.

Skills to do things other than actually drive, that is.  So when our DVD player decided it was done two days ago, I was a little panicky.

Don't get me wrong.  I can hand something to Easton, and take a drink, but anything much beyond that and my stress level greatly increases.  All I can think about is the rollover stories, the police sirens and lights, the ambulances.

I try my best to get both kids as settled and prepared as I can before we take off, but inevitably Easton drops his game/book/toy or can't quite reach his sippy cup and begins to go into meltdown mode (did I mention that the trip home to Cheyenne is when he is really, really, really ready for a nap?).  Sometimes, there is an exit coming right up and I can pull off, get him re-situated and then be on our way, but other times we are in a classic Wyoming situation (no exits for 10+ miles) and he just has to deal.  Kendree, the little angel, has fallen asleep within 10 minutes of leaving every. single. time.

Am I alone? Does everyone else have mad skills while driving?  Am I totally missing out on some secret?

Card Winners

Random.org has spoken.

Comments number 3 and 9 are the big winners!

That means a big congrats for Aubrey and Erica!

I have both of your addresses :) so I'll get those out to you right away!

And no, this wasn't rigged.  The fact that it was two family members who actually both have the same last name is a total coincidence.

Silence

I never would have guessed how much I would enjoy sweet, sweet silence.

I've been traveling back and forth from Laramie a few days this past week and on my way home to Cheyenne, the kids have both fallen asleep every time.

What do I do with my silence?

Revel in it.

Who needs the radio?  Give me a few minutes of calm silence any day!

Burning Questions or I am not yet unpacked enough for a different post

I've loved your answers to my "life or death" questions.  As soon as Ronnie, ahem, I mean Donnie, makes a decision, I'll be sure to let you know.  As for the duplex/townhouse, the picture is of the general idea of the one we live in, but not a picture of the actual building.  Ours doesn't have the pretty rock and trim, unfortunately.

So, because I haven't unpacked, and the kids and I are just kicking it--I decided it was time for another round of burning questions and this time there is a prize involved!  I'll take everyone who comments and then randomly select two winners.  Each will get 6 of my handmade cards.  For an idea of what they look like, you can go here.

Without further ado:
1. Is a Dustbuster or similar vacuuming apparatus worth your money?  Would a carpeted dining room sway your vote?

2. What slightly obscure kitchen tool (even if you don't use it that often) could you not live without? 

3. What book can you read over and over?

4. Honesty here people, how many times have you read the Twilight series?

5. How often does one who lives by a mall actually go to the mall?

6. What child TV/movie program do you detest the most?

7. What are your favorite go-to snacks for kids (or heck, for yourself)?

1. I've looked at them at the store no less than 20 times, but have yet to come home with one.  The more days we live on our carpeted dining room, the more I think it is an absolute necessity.

2. Apple slicer/corer.  Dude, cutting an apple any other way is way too much work!

3. The Love Comes Softly series by Janette Oke.

4. Four

5. I've lived in the same town as one for coming up on two weeks and have yet to make a trip there.  I'm afraid if I start to go, I won't be able to stop! :)

6.  It's obscure, but Howdy Town.  I could KILL the theme song, you know, if it was alive.

7. One of my favorites is dehydrated apple slices and I offer them to Easton almost daily, but he has yet to eat them.  Other than that, we do pretty standard stuff: grapes, string cheese, cheese slices, marshmallows, pretzel sticks, raisins, etc.

Moved

We're here.

With all of our stuff.

Three trailer loads (just ask my dad--he can probably tell you the number of boxes).

I really, really hate moving.

I thought that if I talked myself up before it happened and continually chanted "Moving is great!" it might help.

It did a little.

But not a lot.

Hopefully we can dig ourselves out of the boxes in the next few days!

P.S.  I'm sending an email out with our new contact info.  If you don't get one and would like one, let me know.

This is Life or Death, People

Life or Death situation #1:

Let's say, hypothetically, that your name is Donald.  Your entire life you have been going by Donnie.  You are now in a position professionally and personally (at church, etc) where you could change and start to go by Don.  Is Don the more professional name?  Does it even matter?

Life or Death situation #2:

See this picture here?

Is this a townhouse or a duplex (please note that the left side is not connected to another building--it's kinda hard to tell)?

Your help is, as always, appreciated.

I'm in need of advice

So, our new place in Cheyenne has great space, but it is two levels.  The main floors has the kitchen, dining room, living room, half bath and entry and upstairs is the three bedrooms, two bathrooms and the laundry room.

I have never lived in a two-story house before.

With a 2.5 year old and a 5 month old, do you recommend dedicating some of the living room to toys?  Having special "downstairs" toys and then others that Easton can go upstairs to play with?  Just leaving all toys upstairs?

I'm just trying to minimize the amount of toy-carrying I'll be doing daily, since Easton can only carry certain things up and down stairs and I'm not super comfortable with him upstairs by himself for extended periods of time.

Your help is appreciated!

And we're* done

As I post this now, Ronnie is finishing up the Wyoming bar.

Hooray!

Let the summer actually begin.

*I use the term we pretty loosely considering I'm not actually the one who took the test.
[We won't hear results until mid-October.  They love to torture you with the EN.TIIIIIRE process.]