Keegan's First Christmas

Christmas was absolutely wonderful, and so much more fun as a parent! Keegan was completely spoiled by both sets of grandparents, his parents and his aunts. We celebrated Christmas Eve at our place, with my family and then Christmas day at Matt's parents.

Helping Mom & Dad decorate the tree.

(Our sweet neighbor made the hat and scarf for him)

Yeah he was really sucking on the candy cane that he pulled off the tree … but I had to get a picture before I took it away!

Posing with presents.

It looks like he knew how to tear into the presents, but it took a lot of coaxing.

Should he really be getting presents that are bigger than he is?!?!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

He immediately started pushing his new toy around the living room. He’s going to be walking before I know it!

Christmas Eve dinner at our house with my parents, my brother and his girlfriend.

We call this his green gummy-bear-outfit.

No break for Mom ...

Keegan loves the bath so much that when I am in the shower he wants to join me. As you can see by the little feet sticking out under the shower curtain, he gets in between the shower curtains and the tub and plays in the water streams while I shower. He, and the floor, is always completely soaked by the time my shower is done. It sure is different having an audience while I shower!

He's Crawling!

Shortly after I posted the video of Keegan "army crawling" he starting "real crawling." We realized that he was restricted by his pants, and when we took those off and let him play around in his diaper he started crawling. It was as if he had been doing it his whole life. He can now crawl in any type of pants on any type of surface, and he moves fast!

O Tannenbaum...

This year we got the nicest tree of our marriage. It's a 12 foot tall blue spruce (I think) and our only complaint was that the needles are REALLY pokey. I mean draw blood pokey!

Or so we thought that was our only problem ...

Yesterday, after a relatively busy day of going to church, choir practice and family dinners, we decided to finish trimming our Christmas tree. We had all the lights and ornaments perfectly in place and we were ready to sit down and relax for the rest of the evening, but only after we put the star on top of the tree. As Matt tried to put it on top, the tree fell over on top of him!! Pokey branches and all I lifted it off of him and we spent the next hour trying to get it back in it's base, rearrange all the strewed lights and fallen ornaments and clean up the infinite number of tiny glass shards all over the floor. The water spilled all over the presents and we had to open several of them to make sure they were not damaged (un/fortunately they were all ones we purchased), and I found out that I am minorly allergic to pine when a burning rash spread all over one of my arms. But thats not the end of the story ...

Around 2:30am we heard the unmistakable sound of the the tree falling and ornaments shattering on the ground!!! AGAIN!!! So, 2:30 this morning we put the whole thing back together again! (This time in 1/2 the amount of time.)

So this morning:

• over 1/2 of our bulb ornaments and glass icicles are gone
• I can't let Keegan practice his crawling because there is probably still glass that I haven't found yet
  
• I am picking empty wire hangers and 1/2 shattered ornaments off the tree
• the strands of lights are all cross-wise
• the previously wrapped presents are sitting opened in the middle of the living room
• I have a dozen dirty wet towles to wash
• Matt has declared that we will never have a star on top of our tree
• we are already considering shopping the after Christmas sales for a fake tree for next year

Remarkably, Keegan slept through the whole thing!! Hallelujah! We got one cute picture of him in front of the tree before this whole ordeal, and we don't want him anywhere near the tree so there probably won't be anymore.

Hope your tree trimmings were less exciting, and more relaxing than ours. Happy Holidays!

Not quite crawling ...

I was waiting to post a video of Keegan crawling, but I am not so sure that that is going to happen. Right now he "army crawls," with his belly on the ground. He has been doing this for about a month now, and he is getting really fast at it (even faster than in this video.) He is now pulling himself up on everything, and loves to walk along the furniture and do laps around the coffee table. I think the next step might be walking and never full on crawling. Enjoy!

Keegan's Frist Thanksgiving

Keegan definitely enjoyed his first Thanksgiving. He is at such a fun age where we can let him try new foods, so he got the jist of the Thanksgiving feast. I think he had the most fun playing with the sweet potatoes.

Sunday Morning ...

...waiting for Mom to get ready for church (she takes forever.)

Congratulations Jodi and Adam!!!

I just got back from a week in New Jersey celebrating my best friend Jodi's wedding.

Mr and Mrs Rosen!

Adam (cousin), Aryn (sister), Rande (cousin), Jessica and Me.

On one of our days out there we got to go into Philly and I had my very first cheese steak ever. "Wiz and onions please!"

The Liberty Bell

Independence Hall

Home Improvements

When we bought the house we knew that our back deck needed some work, and a few months ago Matt and his Dad set out to replace a bunch of the rotting support beams and floor boards. They got started and realized that it was a lot worse than previously thought, and that it was going to be more work than they could handle. So, we hired a contractor and decided to do the deck completely different. This is what it looked like before they tore it down:

No deck

New deck

We are really happy with it, although I miss being able to let Abby out our bedroom door.

Blast from the past...

I think I was around 7 years old when I was in love with the New Kids on the Block. I had the board game, buttons, t-shirt, hat and even the Jordan Barbie doll (with the synthetic rat tail.) Well I was really wishing that I still had my shirts since I got to go see them the other night! I'm actually in New Jersey right now for my best friends wedding; and Wednesday evening, straight from the airport, we went to see them in Philladelphia. Originally, it was just for the laugh factor, but I have to admit that I had a lot of fun! The stadium was filled with females all between 25 and 40 who were screaming like teenagers. We could barely hear the music, but somehow still remembered more than half of the words to the old songs. They actually still look and sound great, and all-in-all we had a great time! Thanks Jodi!!

Swim Lessons

Matt and Keegan are enrolled in a Parent-Tot swim class. It isn't so much teaching him to swim, but more getting him comfortable with the water. So far, he loves being in the water and we hope that sticks with him!

Where's the Tin Man?

Happy Halloween!

Keegan got his 8 month pictures taken at Portrait Innovations. It was a lot of fun since we did a bunch in his halloween costume. ROAR!

Jack-o-lanterns

Keegans pumpkin with the two teeth.

Matt's cool pumpkin.

Happy Fall!

Pumpkin Picking

Yesterday we went to a pumpkin patch with my parents, brother and his girlfriend. It was a beautiful, warm fall day, and we all had a lot of fun.



My Mom and Dad

They even had baby animals. Keegan thought they were a little strange since they didn't look anything like his dog, Abby.

Keegan and Grandpa Huber.

My little Pumpkin got his own pumpkin.