These are pictures taken with Tony's dad and grandma. We don't see them very often so it was nice to spend the day with them. Kaiya enjoyed lots of horsey rides on Grandpa's knees and reading books with Grandma. Kaleb is at the perfect age for Grandma Cook to snuggle.

On the car ride home she was tuckered out.

Skate Night

One of my most favorite times while in Indiana was at the roller rink. Yep, that's right. The roller rink. My friend Connie invited us to her church's mother/daughter skate night. This was the church I went to in high school, so that was fun to see familiar faces. Anyway... it was Kaiya's first time roller skating and the smallest size skates fit her. She wasn't too sure about them at first because on her little legs, the skates were so heavy. But she did just fine.

We did about 3 laps before her legs got tired. She was smiling the whole time and managed to do it without falling down.

After she took the skates off she put her shoes on and pulled me around the rink. It was hilarious and she thought she was really cool doing it. :)
And here is the roller queen of the night, Mimi. Unbeknownst to us, my mom is an excellent roller skater. When we asked her how she got so good she attributed it to Saturdays at Kreklaw's in Eugene, Oregon as a jr. higher. Apparently this roller rink even had a bus that drove around and picked kids up to go to the rink for the afternoon. She and my aunt & uncle would go every weekend. Sweet.
I loves me some Sami.

MOO-OOO!

Kaiya currently loves anything to do with farms and Old McDonald. She refers to our library as "Old McDonald" because sometimes we check out a Baby Einstein DVD with farm animals on it. So when we went to Indiana, Uncle Brent has farmer friends that let us visit the cows. Kaiya loved it.

We had the Ashenfelters and Boyds over on Friday night for dinner and games. It was fun to have the kids interacting. Kaiya really loved the big girls and fortunately they were just fine having a little shadow for the evening. They chased and played together all night.

Here's Cassie, Samantha & Kaiya playing with Little People

Tyson holding Kaleb w/ Samantha

Connie taught me this cool feature about my camera that lets me pull out a certain color while leaving the rest black & white. I've been playing with it a bit. This is my first attempt.

Connie & Kaleb

Kaiya's first time eating Papa's french toast. This is a tradition in my family. My dad makes killer french toast and the morning of special occasions (our weddings) or when we come to visit he cooks up a batch of french toast. As you can tell, smiling with her mouth full, she loved it.

Kaiya is pretend gobbling her food...

Indiana

Last week we were able to take a trip to Indiana. I don't have time to post all of the pictures today, so they will have to come over the course of the next few days...

At the airport. Our plane was delayed an hour... as if travelling alone with 2 kids isn't challenging enough. :) Kaiya did okay in the terminal and then started getting a little sassy once we got on the plane. She really wanted nothing to do with the seatbelt. And there was no making her understand that the seatbelt wasn't an option. Fortunately a sweet lady next to us offered to hold Kaleb so I could corral Kaiya.

And after my desperate prayers, about 5 minutes in the air I looked over and found this. She literally passed out midsentence while telling me that, "NO!" She didn't want an avacado. :)
Ahhh.... The perfect flight. Two sleeping babies. Kaiya slept the entire flight and woke up just before we landed. I couldn't have planned it better myself. :)
Sink Bath!

We are sticking out our tongues because most of the bath Kaleb was sticking his out. And it figures that once we try to pose a picture he stops sticking his tongue out. Oh well!!

Newsletter #3 Anti-depressants/Depression

Right now, with the schedule I (Tony) keep, the newsletters are coming more at a pace of one every other week rather than weekly. I made this one a little more interactive meaning that I put links to several articles and videos that you can check out when you get a chance. Here is the link to view the newsletter!

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhtf6hvg_2crh32zch

Baby Dance

So I found this DVD at the library called Baby Dance. And Kaiya LOVES it. My only criticism of the DVD is that it does not have the repeat play feature like many baby dvds. Because we watch this one over and over and over. And I really don't mind because she is not just sitting there vegging out. She's learning smokin' hot dance moves and working on coordination, creativity, etc.

Nanny kindly supplied us with all of the pieces we were missing to maximize Kaiya's dance moves. Every time we played the DVD Kaiya would point out to me that the little girls were wearing tu-tus. Then she would say her own name in the saddest voice possible. And I'd say, "No, Kaiya doesn't have a tu-tu." Thanks to Nanny -- she now has a tu-tu. I had given her a baby rattle for the maraca dance, but we now have the real thing. Warning -- 2 yr olds can be violent with maracas. Do not leave a 3 month old, 2 yr old and maracas in the same room unattended. (Just kidding -- it didn't happen, but she did accidentally whack me with one of those things and they are more dangerous than they look.)

We're still in need of a cowboy hat for the cowboy dance -- but she did learn how to say, "Yee-Haw!" She cracks us up doing it. I'll have to catch it on video before she outgrows it. Here are a couple pictures that Tony's mom took of her in action.

Birthday Part 2

This post is mainly for Aunt Bekah & Uncle Brent's entertainment. Thanks for the birthday package you sent. Here are a couple cute pictures of Kaiya opening the presents. You can see her animated expressions as she opened them. Thanks!!

This expression is her face just after saying, Ohhhhh!!!
Happy Camper!

Happy Birthday Kaiya, Part 1

A week ago, Kaiya Grace turned 2! She had a visit from Tony's mom, Nannie, who flew just for the special occasion. Instead of a cake (sugar overload), we decided to make a fruit creation. I got my inspiration for Edible Arrangments -- a company who makes fruit bouquets. Anyway... I bought styrofoam at JoAnn's Fabrics and carved the #2 out of it. Then I wrapped it in foil and started sticking fruit to it. It was so much fun and turned out perfect!

Tony and I lucked out on her birthday present this year. I actually found this at a yard sale for $20. It is nearly brand new and in perfect condition. And she LOVES it.

Then Mimi & Papa got her the IKEA children's kitchen playsets. They have a baking set (which she is opening now), cooking set and then place settings. They are all made out of real metal/wood and glass, so they are literally miniature versions of what I use in the kitchen.

Kaiya got to go with Nannie to Toys'R'Us to pick out her birthday gift. She wanted everything in the store. :) But among a few other things, we settled on this car. She can't quite move herself around, but she still has a blast in it. And Daddy gives her a ride in it every night to her room... it's like the "night-night taxi."

Things Bethany learned...

I can't resist the chance to give Bethany a hard time for not having a blog. And since she hasn't jumped aboard this bandwagon I will have to make this post for her. She e-mailed me a few things that she learned over the weekend...

1. You need a caravan of strollers to get through Disney World, so it's important not to forget one in the car. Twice. (Thankfully, Tony is responsible for the forgetfulness...)

2. It is possible to change three poops in under ten minutes.
3. If one child starts to cry, at least one (if not two!) others will join in for solidarity
4. Sippy cups are coveted treasures-- but only if they belong to someone else!
5. It is possible to fit three carseats and two adults in a small size Toyota, but the adults will have exactly 4.5 inches of leg room.
6. Kaiya does not like her breakfast stolen. If necessary, she will go in after the stolen piece to retrieve it.
7. A late night Wal-Mart trip = Girl Time. :)
8. Friends stay friends, even in the craziest of circumstances-- but that doesn't mean that we don't covet a weekend away! :)

At the end of February we had a visit from my friend Bethany and her little girl Enna. Enna is 6 months younger than Kaiya. We went to the beach, IKEA, Disney World, and the park while they were here. It was a great time and also exhausting. Before the trip, I don't think either one of us realized how tricky it would be coordinating schedules for 3 little ones under 2 years old.

Things I know:

1. Someone else's crouton off the floor at IKEA does not taste good.

2. Someone else's wipe out of the diaper genie at IKEA tastes worse.

3. There will be no moments of silence in the car -- at least one child will be fussing, crying, SCREAMING.

4. Kaleb's finger tastes good. As well as his arms and legs.

5. Two year olds can teach each other naughty things.

6. If Enna has it, Kaiya wants it. And vice versa.

7. Food = Quiet

8. Food + Barney = Really Quiet

9. Mothers with multiples ROCK.

This the first time we had ever been together with our kids and so it was awesome to reach the end of the time together and still be friends! I know that my friendship with Bethany -- which started when we first moved to St. Louis, before either of us had children -- will be able to transition with each stage of life we move through. Hence the 10th thing I know:

10. I love my friend Bethany!

Kaiya's expression during the entire "It's a Small World" ride.

I feel so behind on blogging lately. I have yet to blog my visit from friends Bethany and Enna... I'm awaiting better pictures from Ruthie's camera so I can really do it justice. :) Because Ruthie was babyhelper/camerawoman during our trip to Disney World. And I am working on my list of things I know after putting 3 kids under 2 yrs old together for and extended period of time. It's gonna be a classic. :) I also have to blog Kaiya's birthday because she turned 2 this week!!!

At the end of February we connected with our friends Donna and Paul. They are good friends of our family and were down while Paula umpired college softball games for a week. We visited the ballpark once and then had them over one evening during the week. It was so fun to see familiar faces and I loved being able to have my hands free a bit more than normal. :) It didn't take too much convincing to get Donna to hold Kaleb... or Kaleb AND Kaiya for that matter. I didn't end up with any pictures of Paul, but he taught Kaiya a few tricks and she did her best to wear him out. (As if umpiring softball games in the warm Florida sun didn't wear him out enough...)

Vaccination Newsletter

Click Here for the link to Tony's latest newsletter. I hope you find the information as shocking as I did when I began to educate myself on this topic. Knowledge is power! --Rachel

Blog Background

Here's the deal on the background. You click on the orange bar at the top of our blog. It says something like, "Click here to get thousands of free blog templates." That will take you to the Pyzam website where you can search through their templates. They have lots of good ones.

Follow the instructions on the page -- should tell you to copy the code and paste it into the Edit Html spot on your layout page. If you need specific help with this, let me know and I can try to help!

Quick update

Hey guys,

Some people have asked when the next newsletter (about vaccines) is coming out. This is one area of research that I have spent a great deal of time with. I am trying to figure out ways to shorten it from about 300 pages to about 3. It's like telling to Tolstoy to condense war an peace down to 5 pages. Okay, maybe not exactly the same scale but you get the point. I will be done in the next day or two.

Park

The house that we are living in is up for sale so occasionally we have to leave while it is being shown. This was the case on Thursday, so we loaded up and headed out to the park. It was a good thing that Tony went with us, because there was a bully at the park this time. Seriously... a 3 year old bully who hauled off and hit Kaiya twice!! She was in tears at the top of the curly slide because for no apparent reason this kid decided to slug her. In his meanest Daddy voice, Tony looked at the kid like he was going to seriously hurt him and said, "Do NOT hit her." The mom came over and made the child apologize, but he continued to reek havoc on the park. I snapped a picture of the little stinker as they left the park. You can see his hand is pulling back because at this point he was hitting his mom. Lovely.

Kaiya loves this bike rack at the park. I think because it is the perfect height for her to go under and over it. Anyway... got some cute pictures of her playing. I think some of these are frame-able. I'm gonna get them in black and white and stick them in the empty frame that I have had hanging empty for like 2 years now. She's wearing the dress the my Grandma Blackwell got her for Christmas! The perfect choice! :) Thanks Grandma!