Happy Belated Easter!

I can't believe I even titled this Happy Belated Easter...how pathetic.  I'm trying, but now that the weather is nice we're outside playing therefore I have little free time in the house anymore.  I had to post pictures from Easter as having a little girl to dress up for Easter this year was so much fun, along with my handsome little man!  Also, I really do hope to do a post about Keith, but once again I just want to touch on how meaningful Easter was for us as a family this year.  We spent Easter with the Kindt's this year.  It was so nice to be together as a family, even though we were missing Evan's dad, Keith.  Easter really helped ease some of the pain I've felt through the loss of Keith.  It re-reminded me of the amazing God we have and because of Him sending His one and only Son to die on the cross for our sins some day we will see Keith again, healed!  What more could we ask for during this difficult time!  Once again I want to thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers as we deal with the loss of Evan's dad and Grandpa Keith.  My heart still breaks that my little ones will probably never remember their Grandpa Keith, but is reassured that some day they will get to meet him and not say goodbye!  Enjoy our Easter pics!

Easter Baskets

Makenna's pretty necklace made with love by cousin Susan!

Denver's fshing pole; his words when he saw it..."I did it!".

We told Denver when he was using the potty chair and wearing underwear he'd get a fishing pole and he remembered!

My Beautiful Babies!

A (QUICK) Family Photo

The lil girls in their pretty dresses.

Easter Egg Hunt

Fishing at the end of the driveway.

(He came up with this on his own)

First time out fishing with his new rod...Easter evening.

We have a walker!

I figured if I waited to update on Makenna's new skill I may never get the video downloaded as there would be too much else to update on with her 1 year update so enjoy the extra update! 

Lil Miss Makenna has figured out how to walk.  She had been taking steps for quite some time, but when she'd realize she was "walking" on her own she would immediately plop herself down to the floor.  Of course she thought she should show off her walking skills to her Daddy first while Mommy was at work....in turn I didn't believe Daddy at first.  The official date of walking began April 24th, but the stories Dad had were from earlier in the week, and the steps probably go back to the beginning of the month?  Its so hard for me to keep it all straight and of course I haven't been good about writing it down on her calendar....which some day she'll chew me out for, but I'm only human!

The other night I finally realized we hadn't video taped Makenna walking yet so I did right before bed time and she wasn't impressed...so she really doesn't cry when she walks, just when she's tired and Mom makes her do things for the camera.  Enjoy!  Next week (maybe!) we'll have a 1 year update...can't figure out where the last year has gone.

11 Months Old

I know I say this often, but I just don't know where the time goes!  I can't keep up with anything, and now blogging has become even harder to keep up with, which I don't like, but I guess so it goes.  Makenna is a little over 11 months old.  Believe it or not I got these pictures done just a couple days after "the big 11 month day".  It's amazing how you fall in love with your little ones more and more every day.  Just when you think you can't love them any more, you do!  This little girl is some thing special!

The "new" things for 11 months are starting to fuzz into what I'd consider "after" the 11 month mark, but this is what I think should go with the "11 months":
-I THINK she associates "ma ma" and "da da"
-says "moo" for the cow...a little more of a buzzing of the lips than a real good moo, but definitely associates it with cows and with her Papa
-crawls EVERY WHERE
-cruises EVERY WHERE...she pretty much runs along things now and would be walking, but there is a little fear in her and when she realizes she's doing it by herself she immediately plops herself down
-taken up to about 7 steps we think
-loves to play, play, play...but must be walking during the play time as some point! (she's pretty much obsessed with being on her feet)
-rides Denver's 4 wheeler (that is now out of commission) and his "bicyclable"
-occassionally is found in her crib sleeping sitting up...I can't remember when this began, I'll have to look back at pictures and the dates on them....she started crying when we'd put her down for bed (she finally quit this) and would sit up and then fall asleep and we'd have to go back in and lay her down
-her 4th tooth is on its way in (top middle right)

Big Boy Underwear!

Denver is potty trained!!!!!  I never thought I was going to be able to blog about my potty trained boy...at least not until he was 3, but he surprised us!  Evan had encouraged me to try getting Denver into underwear and several times I had sort of tried, but every time I was conquered quickly and just didn't have the energy to work on it.  I'm not sure what all happened, but it was really pretty easy.  We told Denver if he wanted to go fishing with Daddy this summer he was going to have to wear big boy underwear.  Every time I had tried to take Denver to the bath room in the morning prior to this he would throw a fit.  The first morning after being told it was time if he wanted to go fishing with Daddy he started to get upset and I quickly grabbed a fishing magazine of Evan's and said, but "look at these fish and what you could catch with Daddy if you are a big boy" and he immediately sat down and went.  He had several accidents, but not many and when he did he typically got very upset at himself.  We did con him with treats for going though and Denver seemed to figure that one out.  He seemed to go running every time he had the slightest urge and we felt he was getting a "sugar high".  So I tried taking the treats away and said he had to go number 2 if he wanted them, but then we had some regression, but that also went along with wearing a pull up instead of underwear on Easter and being out of his routine so not sure if it was from not getting treats or not.  I went back to giving him treats, but only if he asks and we're back on track.  We're still struggling with going #2 on the potty though.  I thought that part was going to be easy as he had done that more than #1 prior to this, but he hasn't done this much since we've gone to underwear.  Instead he goes and hides and leaves a mess for us to clean up.  Any advice to help him with this would be greatly appreciated!

Showing off his big boy underwear.

So proud!

As long as I'm updating on Denver anyway I figured I should tell you a little more of his "learnings" as of lately.  Denver now counts to 10 very well by himself.  He never would really count very far, especially on his own, but now he LOVES to play hide and seek and after hearing us count to 10 so many times he does it quite often without us even asking him to.  Denver's ability to form complete sentences has grown exponentially.  He blows us away with what he comes up with and says.  We can tell he really understands us and what's going on.  Tonight he asked if I was going to work.  I said no and he went on to say "you go to work and take care of babies" and he always talks about Daddy going to "Marvs" and fixing cars.  Denver continues to be CRAZY about the farm!  He wants to go to the farm every day and wants to do chores.  Denver has become very bossy and when Grandma came the other night he pretty much told her he was going to the farm with her and he was going to go ride in the tractor....too bad if she didn't agree, it was happening! :) 

Denver has a fear of insects and band-aids.  I was upstairs and Denver was down stairs playing when I heard a shreak and went running.  There was a bug...that's it...they don't have to be bothering him, he just has to be able to see them and he flips out.  I've never been able to get a band-aid on Denver either.  Every time we put one on he cries and cries and we end up taking it off.  On Easter he pinched his finger and took skin off.  This finger seriously needs a band-aid and some "magic sauve", but he gets so upset when we even bring the subject up...he'd rather have pain than a fun colored band-aid!

I know there's more, but that's what comes to mind right now.

Family Photo Shoot

I finally talked Evan into a family photo shoot.  I had been wanting a good family picture of the 4 of us for our wall of photos and now I have it!  Here are some pictures from our photo shoot at Schoolmeester Photography.

Makenna had enough by this point!

Schmeckfest 2010

Last weekend we took the kids to Schmeckfest.  My sister, her husband, and my adorable nephew were able to partake in the adventure with us, which made it extra fun for the kids.  First we had to go visit Grandma Verni in the kitchen. Then we spent time in Sterling Hall visiting with people while Denver ran off lots of steam. Denver and Makenna also got to spend some time with their Grandma Kim, Grandpa David, and Auntie Em! Later we went to the museum to look around which Denver really enjoyed. He wanted to climb on things though and had a hard time understanding why he couldn't. After we were done taking in the Schmecfest festivities we met up with Papa Rodney and Great Grandpa Melvin at Papa's for supper.

Cousin Jacob and Makenna riding in the wagon

Denver exploring the museum

and enjoying a sucker (for going potty on the potty chair...hope to do a post on this soon!)

Daddy/Unlce Evan pulling the troops!

The Troops

Jacob, Denver, and Makenna

(Jacob wanted to ride in the wagon so bad he didn't care if Denver sat on his lap!)