Kreitler Kids' Blog

October 2011

2012-01-06T08:49:00.018-06:00

October is a bit backwards - starting with Halloween and working our way back to the 1st...

The Ste. Genevieve Elementry school had a Trunk or Treat this year. Poeple could enter their vechiles in the decorated contest. We entered as Jaws with the Jaws theme playing through the speakers. The van looked good, but unfortunaly we only got 2nd place. A little VW bug decorated as a monster toodk 1st place. Mommy put the shark together all by herself and thought she did a darn good job.

Daddy dressed up as a mad scientist this year.

Raya was a princess.

Broden was spider man

Kyrah was super girl (and also a pirate girl on actual Halloween night).

Early in October we took the kids to Stuckmeyers pumpkin patch. It was a great day, lots of things for the kids to do and many play areas.

Grandpa also planted pumpkins for the kids at the Cabin and we had a pumplin harvest one day.

More pictures from Stuckmeyers

Mommy decorated two pumpkins this year.

Silly goof off pictures. These glasses on Kyrah and Raya crack me up.

We also had a pumpkin carving day with the kids and Broc and Monica. The kids drew the faces on the pumkins and I cut them out. But they had to scoop the insides out.The final results....

Then tradgey struck...

We also saved up milk jugs to makes scaaarrryyyy ghosts which the kids painted the faces.

Results from the great pumpkin harvest.

Mommy ran the last of her Half marathon races on Oct. 23. She did 8 Half Marathon races in 2011, 5 of which were in Sept adn Oct.

Colonial days at Ste. Genevieve. The kids got to ride a huge plow horse.

We also made spookly gingerbread houses, although not much candy made it on the house.The kids will all be in Leslie's wedding in June, so the girls had their first dress fitting to see what would work for them. They had a great time trying on dresses. Kyrah will be a flower girl and Raya will be the minature bride.

In mid October we went to Sophia's birthday party which had a Scooby Doo Theme and was a costume party as well. Raya for some reason did not want to dress up.

Sophia is dressed as Daphane.

More pictures from Stuckmeyers. The corn maze was great for little kids, just enough turns for them to have fun but not get lost.

Here they are looking at this tiny tiny baby pig which for a pig was super cute.

Wagon ride time. I was a little nervous on this ride because the ride went all around the farm so we lost sight of them for awhile. Glad they all stayed in their seat.

And a nice outside picnic.

They really enjoyed the huge playyard. Although Raya needed a little boost up the rock wall.

The absolute favorite part for them of course was the horse rides. Although for $5 a ride, it seemed a bit short. As much as I have spent on pony rides, I could have bought a horse by now.

Early October was the Ste. Gen Homecoming and parade which Daddy was in with his softball girls.

Lots of candy from the parade then onto the football game. Again the kids lasted until about halftime, then they were getting a little too wild.

Connie had a party at her house when me and the kids stayed and spent the night. All of us were in bed together...it didn't work out so well. Everyone kept moving, stealing covers, then all three wanted to be touching me which is hard to do. We made it through and Mommy got up to go run a race and this is how they were sleeping. Raya sleeps with her butt in the air a lot.

Playing outside earlier that day at Connie's house.

Finally, October started out with a day at the cabin fishing. The fish were biting really good, but we instituted the catch and release method. The kids were more interested in the minnow bucket then the actual fish that came out of the pond.

September 2011

2012-01-05T10:41:00.004-06:00

September was a month full up parades and lots of outside time. The weather was great so the kids played outside on their bikes and playhouse. For a random reason my neighbor was cleaning out her house and had this kids bed in the front yard for someone to pick up. My kids of course thought it was the best outside play toy ever and would not get off of it.

This was also the start of Ste. Gen. football season. We took the kids to a couple games, but the stands are really crowded and they do not sit still very well. We were typically able to stay for about half the game, which of course involved about 5 trips to the concession stand for snacks and drinks. The kids loved the tall dragon that walked around. At first they were scared of it, but soon wanted to give it high fives. Kyrah liked watching the cheerleaders.

These pictures are from the Ste. Gen. Chruch picnic, pretty much the last picnic of the season. It has a lot of kids games and a bounce house so they had a blast. Plus they found some of their daycare friends at the picnic as well. Mommy got to take them to the picnic alone because Daddy was at a Rams game.

Of course I begged Tina and Jimmy to come help. Kyrah in her funny glasses.

Could you get a better summer picture then a kid enjoying a snowcone??

Kyrah also ended up sick one day in September and Mommy had to take her to work to pick up her computer. Here she is in the building cafeteria enjoying some cereal. She loved the elevator ride.

September starts parades! Waiting for the candy trucks to come!

Random picture of where they eat their meals.

A very nice tribute to Sept. 11.

They also had a prade with all the local fire trucks and police cars.

Broden got a special treat and was able to go to the Rams game with Mommy and Daddy! The Rams lost of course, but he enjoyed the excitement of the game.

That is actually Mommy and Broden - bad lighting.

August 2011

2011-09-13T12:37:00.008-05:00

So many updates and soo behind. On August 14th I traveled to the great windy city of Chicago to run the Rock and Roll half marathon. This was very nerve racking because who knows what the weather will be like in August!! Luckily, it was amazing weather! Cloudy and it even started sprinkling just a bit which was perfect because at that point I needed a little Godly cool-down. The race went great and I finished in 2:08:43. Here I am standing at The Bean - a giant silver bean shaped sculpture.

Ahhh proof of the completed race!

In August, Kyrah started back at gymnastics. We tried this last fall as well but she would not listen to the instructor and spent more time running back to me. So we are giving it another shot. She has done very well, staying in line and trying to get her cart wheels and backbends mastered. Her splits need some work, but not too bad for just starting out. In the below picture she is that tiny little speck of black next to the woman sitting on the ground.

Not sure what day this was exactly, but when Nick and Lydia come over they love to get in the big tub so of course everyone had to get in. I think there should be a maximum capacity sign put up after this night. The water didn't always stay in the tub to say the least.

August also brought the first day of school for Dennis and many children. I was seeing all the proud parents posting first day or back to school pictures on facebook, so I told Broc I would take his first day back at school photo. He posed for me as you can see...

Ahhh a rare moment of harmony sitting on Daddy's lap. Tight squeeze, but they can all still fit. They are still all the same size, right around 30-31 lbs.

Both Broden and Raya have some of the funniest sleeping habits. I caught this one of Broden - he must be chillax'n in his sleep.

With the start of school also comes the start of softball season for the Ste. Gen Hunters which Dennis is head coach. On a Saturday practice me and the kids came along to play in the gym and burn off some energy.

During softball season, Mommy has to be both drop off and pick up, although she does get quite a bit of help from Grandma and Aunt Tina. One night when I picked them up we decided to wash the car since it was so warm out. As you can guess, they got wet and ended up stripping and this is the result...

A hoosier bath

This was Kyrah's first official day at gymnastics.

Haircut time. It is hard to see in this picture, but Broden got a mohawk and Kyrah got a feather in her hair and Raya got bangs!! She is beautiful, but I think I will let them grow out.

They aslo got these snazzy new chairs - just their size.

Here's a photo of the bangs and the craziest thing is that she looks identical to me as a kid.

Arts and craft time. They are painting nicely in the garage so we can contain the mess.

We also started dress shopping for my beautiful niece Jessica, who is going to her first homecoming.

Broden at Sunday evening dinner at Grandma's with his usual sidekick - the baseball bat.

All the kids are addicted to horses right now. Grandma's neighbor has 3 horses that the feed apples and pears to. She also has this horse statute that they go up and sit on like they are riding it. The call it Flicka after the horse movie.

Watching Daddy's softball girls at the field. The kids LOVED going to the games. They don't exactly sit and watch for very long, but it is the perfect place for them to run around and play.

July Updates

2011-08-02T16:48:00.012-05:00

July started of course with a wonderful 4th of July party which actaually took place on July 2nd. We celebrated Lydia's 11th birthday at her house and had fun with fireworks. The kids were allowed to do snap 'n pops which they call "snappy pops", smoke bombs and sparklers. The LOVE fireworks! The noise doesn't bother them and they love staying up late to watch them. Here Daddy is overseeing the fireworks sparklers.

Waiting for dark and fireworks at Lydia's party.

A little more sparkler time. Hmmm Daddy - you think we should be that close to the fire???

Earlier that day was pool time. Daddy actually got to the party late because Broc was playing Legion ball, but he just missed a little swimming time.

ON the actual July 4th we went to the Ste. Gen city park to watch the real fireworks. The kids had fun playing around in the wide open spaces and playing on the slides. The really liked the big fireworks and would go so excited when they were going off. I can't get over how long her hair is in this picture.

Raya's "cheese" face.

Enjoying the fireworks! We even had our family picture taken by the local newspaper and were put on the front page of the paper.The second weekend of July is always the Ste. Gen Fair. It starts on Friday evening with a parade. The kids LOVE parades.

Of course the candy is the best. In this parade it is mostly tractors that drive by.

Uncle Steve helping Raya get her snack.

Kyrah enjoying her snack as well.

Later that night I took all three kids up to the Yanks to watch Broc play ball. I was pretty nervous manging all the kids by myself and it turned out great. They all listened well and stayed by me. After the game the kids got to run around on the field which they thought was the coolest thing ever.

Broc's team actually won districts this night as well so yeah - way to go Ste. Gen Junior Legion!

Saturday morning of the fair we took the kids up to walk around and enjoy the games. Raya loved going through the bounce houses.

Climbing the big tires with cousin Lydia.

A little swing time.

And no fair is complete without the corn pile.

Sunday evenings the entire Propst family usually end up at Grandma and Grandpa's house. This Sunday because it was super hot, Uncle Steve brought over the big water bounce slide. Broden would not go down the slide but liked to play at the bottom in the water.

The next day Kyrah stated getting sick. She came down with a 102 fever, belly aches and tiredness. It was an awful week. She just kept getting worse, her throat swelled and she had trouble breathing, and her eyes swelled. We took her to the doctor twice. At first they said it was heat exhaustion, then decided it was a viruse. The poor thing was miserable.

On Friday I finally took her to the JMH ER. Her throat was just huge. Here we are waiting in the ER. They came up with the same conclusion - virus and allergies. They gave her an oral steroid and some Tylenol. Later that night she was feeling better, the fever broke and her throat was better.

The bad thing was on Saturday she went crazy. After her afternoon nap she woke up screaming at me, throwing everything, hitting, biting me, etc. I think she had a bad reaction to the steriod and litteraly went crazy. Dennis was at Broc's ball game so I had to have a sitter come over and watch the twins so Kyrah would not hurt them. It was the worst I have ever seen a kid and it lasted all evening. Luckily Sunday was better, though she was still screaming and whiney she was no longer hitting and biting.

On Saturday Broden also got a new haircut... a mohawk! He looks awesome.

Raya was the best one all weekend.

I was trying to catch a picture of Broden's new haircut but he just was not cooperating.

Mommy had a night out on the 17th of July with Aunt Connie. We went to see the U2 360 degree. Awesome concert but super hot at Busch Stadium.

The next weekend of July started the beginning of Church picnic season! We love going to these and getting awesome food and letting the kids play the games. Raya and Kyrah got their faces painted with butterflies.

They rode the little car.

Broden standing in front of his favorite A-C tractor.

Finally at the end of the month Mommy and Daddy had a great trip to Playa Del Carmen Mexico. We stayed at the Riu Playacar Monday to Friday. The kids had Amanda stay over most of the nights and Grandma and Tina watch them as well. I think it was a long week for them being away from us, but it was the perfect amount of days for me and Dennis. Beautiful beach and great weather - very relaxing time together.

A day trip to Chitzanita.

This is a natural fresh water sink hole that we stopped at. Very pretty.

Dinner night at the "steak" restruarant. It was a great meal.

Pictures of the hotel pool

Our beach - we spent a lot of time here enjoying the weather and the surf.

Funny little dolls above the bathrooms showing the men and women.

The very awesome Mayan ruins.

Walking from the hotel to the beach.

June 2011 activities

2011-06-28T13:23:00.014-05:00

Lots of fun things have been happening in June. Dennis was off the first two weeks, and is teaching summer school the last two weeks which is only Tues, Wed and Thursday. The kids all took swimming lessons at daycare which anytime they get in the pool is tons of fun for them.

I am not sure where we were going on this trip, but all the kids had to have their sunglasses on. Broden is looking super cool in his shades and his flip flops on his hands.

On a Friday when they were home from daycare (they stay home Weds and Fridays) when Mommy had them, she took them to McDonalds for lunch and playtime. It is great now, they can all climb by themselves and we can sit and watch.

Yummy - One six piece chicken nugget with fries and one apple dipper is all we need to order for them and it covers all three. We were buying a nugget and cheeseburger meal, but found a lot of the food was wasted so we cut back. They do tend to dip their apple in the ketchup or their fries in the carmel, but they eat it all the same.

One evening last week a storm was moving in and out. It would rain then sun would shine, then rain, etc. The kids love playing in puddles and it appeared safe enough so out in the puddles we went. They had a blast and since we were just stalling for bathtime anyway, whocares if they got dirty and wet.

Eventually they ended up laying down in the puddles.

Raya wasn't scared of a litte rain!

So Kyrah followed.

Ohh - ohhh maybe it is raining a bit harder then we thought...take cover

Sun's back out

More puddles!

And the hair needs to get wet too. So they stick their butts up in the air and their heads down. It looks like a bunch of ostriches.

After puddle time, it was bathtime. I had two bubble guppies in the tub.

After bath we watch a little TV or read books. Broden has been screaming for baseball TV time. He will sit and watch a baseball game no problem. He yells at the screen if the guy is out or safe and when a batter gets a hit he always thinks they are home runs. "homerun up in the sky" is what he says.

Cutie Raya - she doesn't sit still after bath very well. She is usually wondering around the living room picking things up, climbing on stuff and drinking every sippy cup of milk or juice she can find.

One evening we went to Uncle Steve's house and he gave them Chloe's old barbie jeep. The loved sitting in it.

On June 24th we went to Suson Park, which has an awesome play area and animals that you can walk by. The kids loved it. Chloe and Eli went with us. It was a great day.

And one cranky moment. I don't remember what she was mad about, but it didn't last long.

All the kids went over to see the horse by the fence, but not little Raya. She kept her distance from all the animals. She is just not an animal person at all. The only animal she will tolerate is Lexi, the 3 lbs dog we sometimes doggie sit for. She does not bark and has no teeth. Raya will pet her but that is about it.

Chicken little...

Picnic lunch under a nice shade tree.

A little more play time at the park before heading home for the day. Which is also when Raya wondered off to the swing set side of the park and it took all of us looking a good 2-3 minutes to find her. I was about 15 seconds awaya from screaming at everyone to stop and look for my kid.

Probably not a good idea to let her climb the mountain, because though she was careful getting to the top, getting down is never as easy.

Luckily we had Chloe along to help her down and Mommy didn't have to climb up.

After nap the same day, Daddy and Broc went to Broc's ballgame so the kids and Mommy hung out. Raya was playing with Mommy's glasses. Kyrah and Raya also thought they needed to play in their swimsuits.

Kyah also wanted to climb a tree. Luckily this is as far as she got.

All time favorite picture. Kyrah just stopped playing and said "hug time". So darn cute!

I also attemped to get a few photos to put on a fourth of July card.

Raya takes really good photos.

A fun little photo of them all showing off their new shirts that our wonderful neighbors (and their regular babysitters) Allison and Lexi brought them from their vacation.

A little video of Kyrah doing a flip on the couch.

Another Huge Update

2011-06-07T08:35:00.011-05:00

So I finally downloaded my pictures off my big camera which had pictures all the way back to Christmas. Going from most recent date backwards ...

All the Propst Grandkids Memorial day 2011 at the Propst Cabin. This has become a tradition to take all the kids pictures on the cabin rail. Pretty good-look'n group.

This was arts and craft time at our house one night. The kids spent more time painting themselves then the paper, but thats why we did it in the skivvies...

More pictures from Easter. Showing off their pretty dresses.

Funny faces!

This was my attempt to get them to sit together in their Easter shirts, but it didn't work out so well.

After bath time, sitting on the couch making funny faces.

Christmas 2010. It was a great day!

Broden got a new train set, that got played with a lot at first now ... not so much..

These are the treats we put out for Santa.

This is what Santa left for four good little boys and girls!

Memorial Weekend 2011

2011-05-31T09:48:00.006-05:00

Had a great long weekend this Memorial weekend. Lots of outside time. The kids love to play outside and Dennis and I are firm believers of kids being outside to run and use their own brain to find things to entertain themselves (with a little help from blow up pools, bikes and swing sets).

Friday night Daddy took the kids for a "ride" on the tractor.

Saturday we went to Chloe's 10th birthday party at the RollerZone in Farmington. Kyrah tried roller skating for the first time. She didn't like it very much, even with Daddy doing all the work. Raya on the other hand loved having someone push her around on skates.

Sunday was family day at the cabin. The kids were in the sand and "pool" all day. Raya liked the sand and puddles the most while Broden and Kyrah liked the pool. The water was so cold though, but they didn't seem to mind until the minute they got out.

Broden did well floating around by himself. The water in this pool is only 3 feet deep so they were able to stand whenever they wanted.

Such a good look'n boy!

Hmmm does someone look a little cold??

Birds eye view.

The weekend ended with a little back yard pool time. Broden who last summer and even recently at the Community Center pool was never much of a water kids sure changed his tune this weekend. He was in the blow up pool more then anyone. He would take a running dive towards it and slide into it. This is vey different from previous pool time where he would sort of sit back and hated to get his head wet.

Raya of course is the water baby and loves all pool time except at the cabin where she likes to sit in the sand and play in "puddles" rather then get in the pond water.

Enjoying the slide.

Another example of a very different Broden. I have never seen him lay in the water like this. Not sure what changed in him this weekend.

The morning of Memorial Day, we took a trip to the zoo. To say it was crowded and had to have had every stroller within a 50 mile radius there is an understatement. Overall the zoo was a success, except we stayed about one hour too long. The last hour involved a lot of whining and crying, but they got to pet the goats and see some great animals.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend. Raya and Daddy looking soo cute. This is pretty much where Raya spent her time while in the goat pen. She is just not an animal person.

Broden would brush a goat then run away screaming. He is such a squeler, always so loud and screaming and talking all the time. We will have a lot of notes sent home from school if he keeps this up.

Kyrah showing Broden how to hold the brush.

Kyrah was dissapointed that we did not get to see the snakes. This is a picture of them in front of a bird display. She really liked the zebras and monkeys - the elephants too but that was the last thing when heat and tiredness had set in.

Huge Catch Up

2011-05-25T09:08:00.011-05:00

Oh blog why have I foresaken you... Tax season hit me pretty hard this year so that has delayed my blog posting. I will try to get all the updates for the past two months in now.

On a mildly warm day in April, I was able to join Dennis and Kyrah at one of Broc's high school baseball games. The ended up losing this game, but got to see some good hits from Broc. Here he is out on 2nd base.

Kyrah is getting into pretend playing and as the game progressed and she got bored with it. I saw her talking to her blanket and rolling herself up in it. She will now talk to her dolls and pretend they are talking back. The other day she was holding Dora near her dollhouse and asked Dora if she wanted to go in the front door. Then proceeded to push Dora through the door.

Ky wrapping herself up.

In later April after tax season I was able to pick the kids up from daycare and bring them to another of Broc's games. This one being in Ste. Gen at Yank's field. Raya was all about her sunglasses at this game. The did pretty good- sat for a bit, ate some hotdog and chips. Then were running around and rolling down the hill - typical kid stuff.

Raya rock'n the shades - very "Bono" of her I think.

Broden being cool like Dad. So intent on that Yahoo box rather then the game.

We try to bring some toys for them to play with but that lasts only so long. Eventually they found sticks and playing in the rocks more fun. Which is what kids are supposed to do. Of course supervision was required after a few bad pokes with the sticks, but overall they were pretty good at the game.

Rollign down the hill.

Easter was late this year (and rainy). The Saturday before Easter we let the kids try to die some eggs for the bunny to put out. They love craft and do it yourself type activities and as long as you accept the fact that there will be a mess involved all will be good.

All the kids liked hunting eggs on Easter. We had to do it inside though because of the rain and Raya was an egg hunting crazy woman! She was intent on finding eggs. Broden would pick one up open it (fake eggs of course) pick out the candy and eat it while Raya would just grab grab grab all the eggs she could. Then after they were all found she would sit down and open her treasures. She is a big fan of chocolate. Kyrah was a good egg hunter too but was a mix between Broden's slow egg find and Raya's egg rampage.

Friday night lights for Ste. Gen! Conference championship game between Ste. Gen and cross town rivals Valle. Played at Farmington ball field. Tons of people from town in the crowd. This was the most cheering I have ever heard at a baseball game. The excitement for the players and the nail biting of the game made for an outstanding time. Ste. Gen was up by 2-3 runs most of the game, then Valle tied it. Finally in the top of the 8th inning Ste. Gen scored and was able to hold Valle in the bottom of the 8th to bring home the Conference championship title. Huge night for Broc and all the Ste. Gen baseball team. Also announced at this game was that Broc made all-conference. A huge accomplishment for a sophomore. A very proud Dad and Broc after the game.

In May we were able to enjoy the Perryville MayFest street festival. After seeing Broden in this picture, I finally admitted he was due for a hair cut.

Enjoying a hot dog on the bench before going to ride some carnival rides.

So a total of $50 in carnival tickets later. They got to ride the merry go round, the boats, the cars and the airplanes, plus pull from the duck pond. All for about an hour of entertaiment. I told my Dad we could have gotten 6+ hours of babysitting for that cost, but he pointed out we wouldn't have these wonderful memories then. Hmmm jury still out on that one.

One night after picking them up from daycare we went to the park. They love going to the park and have a blast all the time. Plus they are able to pretty much play by themsleves with the exception of the monkey bars.

Notice the new haircut!

Last week I decided to have a yard sale to purge the too small clothes and abundance of toys we have. Broc found his old batting helmet to sell. Once Broden saw that he has worn it since. He walks around in his batting helmet on his "glovie" all the time. He even takes it to daycare with him and the helmet, glove and wiffle ball have to sit in the seat next to him. He is actually pretty good at swinging a bat and has even found a small metal T-Ball bat that he likes to swing and more often then you would think he does hit the ball.

While Broden was playing baseball. Our little Raya was doing what she does best. Off on her own doing her own thing. She loves to read books and will sit down by herself and read. Both the twins can sing their ABC's (with a few letters missing from time to time). Their vocabulary is excellent with tons of clearly spoken words. Raya has a much softer voice the Broden. Broden is loud and in your face like Kyrah can be.

The night before the yard sale the kids made cookies to sell. Here they are eating up the left overs. Daddy told Raya to put her head in the bowl and lick it so that is exactly what Raya did.

So because they all then stuck their head in the bowl to lick it into the bath they went. The twins are getting pretty good at going potty before bath time, Broden espically. He will pretty much go potty on the pot whenever we set him on it. He just doesn't tell us when he has to go. We are hoping this early pre-training will make for the actual training to go smoothly.

Raya has slimmed down some this past few months. She is not a big eater so she has lost her little baby belly.

Finally the morning of the yard sale arrives. Kyrah was a great salesperson. She stayed by her table to sell rather then go off and play like the twins did. She even sold out of her cookies within 2 hours. She made $110.50. Of course it helped when Grandpa came by and gave her $100 bill for one bag of 25 cent cookies.

She was so excited about her money. All she wanted to do was go buy a pool with it. Finally on Sunday I took her shopping with me and she contributed to the purchase of an inflatable pool. Now she is anxious for it to get hot so she can blow it up.

Finally, we are caught up to last night. I was able to attend the Ste. Gen Sport Banquet last night where the coaches honor the athletes. Broc earned his second year varsity letter and received top awards for highest batting average and most RBIs.

Here he is with his two awards which he put in his "treasure" box when he got home which is an old UnderArmor shoe box.

Hard to see but Broc's final stats for the season. He led the team in almost all catogories including At bats, hits, average, on base percentage, RBIs, runs, doubles, tripples and tied for home runs (2). Outstanding season for sophomore Broc Kreitler. He has some big numbers to put up next year to beat this year. Also announced at the banquet is that Broc also won all district!

Raya & Broden's 2nd Birthday Party

2011-03-15T17:42:00.002-05:00

These are just some of the pictures of the Double Trouble Big Top Carnival birthday party.

And what is a carnival without clowns...

Broden did not like the clown's nose.

Kyrah thought the clowns poka-dot dress so "so pretty" and Raya rubbed the striped tights.

The girls in their party outfits. I love Raya's smile - she woke up from her nap much happier then when she went down.

Pre-party pics of the decorations.

And birthday cupcakes with homemade icing.

Happy Birthday Raya & Broden!

2011-03-09T14:35:00.003-06:00

On March 8th, Raya and Broden turned 2! Wow it does not seem like they have been around for 2 years, but the first year was sort of a blur...

Raya got a balloon cake - chocolate with white icing...

And Broden got a baseball cake white with white icing....

The cakes went to daycare with them to celebrate with their daycare friends. I brought home cupcakes to have with the famil. Broden took a big bite out of the number 2 wax candle... he didn't seem to notice a difference.

Not a very happy birthday girl here. They were both in a cranky mood in the evening - I think a little too much cake during the day.

The only one happy in a party hat is Kyrah!

Saturday morning on Mommy's day to sleep in this is what happened.

Kyrah and Mommy had to make a quick Wal-Mart shopping trip for groceries... turned into 2 hours and $200!!

Every morning on the way to daycare the kids sing songs to me. Kryah's favorite is "Mr. Turkey, Mr. Turkey are you getting very fat? People eat you on Thanksgiving, what do you think of that?" And Raya and Broden chime in on the words they know.

February Pics

2011-02-28T18:53:00.004-06:00

A little silly time this weekend. Kyrah got this new set of PJ's and she has worn this shirt all weekend. All day Saturday she told me it was her new swimsuit, even though I told her it looked more like jammies. Finally about mid day Sunday she comes out from her room holding it and lays it out on the floor and I said are you going to put that on. She said - no it is just jammies. She looked so dissapointed.

The kids had a lot of naked time this weekend. Kyrah is the cause of this. Now that she is into putting her own clothes on she likes to go in her room and change her clothes to her swimsuits. So to the twins that is practically naked which they love!

Broden in his diaper with his pigskin. A ball in the shape of a football made to look like a pig and when it bounces it oinks. He was shooting baskets with it.

We also made cookies this weekend - an huge hit for all the kids. The favorite thing is licking the bowl.

Raya really enjoyed her beater and spoon of cookie dough.

YUMMMMMM

Last weekend I took Kyrah to my cousin's baby shower. This was the cake for Baby Christopher - super cute!

Kyrah got a new outfit for the party. There were a bunch of other girls there that were around her age. She was pretty shy yet. She really wouldn't talk with them. Then when she did get off my lap to play, she played by herself with some paper on the floor. It wasn't until the other girls started playing with her that she interacted with them. She seems to be on the shy side around new people. A good thing I guess.

Look Mom at my pretty dress!

Silly Kids!

2011-02-07T09:44:00.005-06:00

We had a mini SuperBowl party on Sunday, with a few of the family and some good friends over. Kyrah wanted to wear her cheerleading outfit and do cheers for the teams. In fact she liked it so much she insisted on wearing it again to daycare today.
We are also doggie-sitting Lexi for a few days. Here Broden is making sure she is eating her food.

This is Broden's new basketball hoop. He really likes it and always wants to play "back-it ball".

Sunday morning waiting for the party Kyrah took a pink plastic tablesheet and wrapped Raya up like a present.

They were also trying to take rides on the sheet. The twins would sit on it and Kyrah would try to pull them.

Saturday after the 3 inches of surprise snow in the morning and after a nice long afternoon nap. The weather was not too cold so we went out to build our first official Kreitler Kid snowman. Luckily the snow was the perfect packing snow, so we were able to build it very quickly. This is the end result.

Here are the "snowman construction" pictures in reverse order.

Saturday morning we dropped the girls off with Aunt Tina and took Broden for a much needed haircut and a Wal-mart trip.He is looking like a miltary boy right now, but with it shorter now I won't have to take him back for awhile. He did great this time - sat very still and didn't mind the lady cutting his hair at all.
Broden's new thing is orange juice - he wants this all the time. So for lunch at Hardies he got his favorite drink.

Snow Days

2011-02-04T14:27:00.006-06:00

Well we got about 2 inches of ice on tuesday so the kids were home with us. This was taken when the ice stopped coming. We still got a little snow on top of this.

The day before I went to Wal-Mart to try to find things to keep them busy in case we lost power for days. Broden got a huge basket ball net - the Little Tykes kind which he loves. He runs to me and says "back-it ball". He doesn't understand how to throw a ball up and just does an over the head throw like you would a baseball so we had to get him a little step stool he could use to make a basket. Kyrah really likes it too. Raya has not been too interested in it. I also got them some paint and craft type projects which Kyrah was really into. Finally, I bought one of those medium size balls - sort of like a kickball. Raya likes that and she sits on it and bounces. And with all of this they were still whiney and needed something else to do. So we make cupcakes. They like to lick the bowl and then when they cupcakes are made they just want to lick the icing off the top. They get that from Mommy.

Raya's First Haircut

2011-02-04T14:09:00.003-06:00

On January 29, 2011 we took Raya for her first haircut at Ensigna. She did very well but had to sit on my lap. She got sweeping bangs too which is super cute on her and a sucker at the end for sitting still.

Kyrah also got a trim. Her hair is just long and straight so there is not much to her haircut, although she likes getting them. When she see someone after a haircut she sweeps her hair off her shoulder and says "I got a hair cut." all proud of herself.

Random January 2011 moments

2011-01-28T09:23:00.005-06:00

Last weekend Daddy was having a Bro-Party (having some of his friends over) to watch the two football playoff games. So the kids and I made brownies for the Bro-Party. Needless to say they LOVED licking the bowl.

Ky looks like she has a gottee!

Raya got the messiest.

One Friday night when Daddy went to play cards with Christy. I took the kids to the community center to run around in the gym and expell some energy. In the center there are a bunch of cubes set in the wall for people to store their bags/clothing. Well Ky and Raya got it in their heads that the cubes would be a perfect hiding spot. I am sure Lydia had something to do with that idea. Kyrah is showing off her "funny" face. Also, I just want to point out that Daddy dressed Ky today in the blue striped shirt and pink poka-dots pants...

Not sure why Raya thinks she needs to raise her shirt when the camera comes out. I hope this is not a glimpse into her future.

Broden is very into his boots right now and wants to wear his froggy boots all the time.

So Daddy wanted a Sunday where he just got to watch football without the kids jumping on him... and what do I catch him doing during the game???

After we took the kids for their professional photos we went to Chick-Fil-A to eat in Arnold. It has a good play area and the kids liked running around in it. What was nice is that there are no tables in the play area so you can sit right outside the room and watch the kids but not have to be in there with all the noise and smells.

What are the kids up to?

2011-01-16T13:13:00.005-06:00

It has been awhile since I have talked about what the kids are up to. Broc is working out a lot. He only has a few more months until he turns 16 then it is watch out on the road. He has been really committed to working out and should be in great shape for baseball. In November he and Dennis went on a boys weekend to Ohio state football game. They had a great weekend and the buckeyes won. That was pretty much his Christmas present though.

All the pictures in this post were taken 1/15/11 at Sears studio. Not overly impressed with that place plus the kids were not cooperative but there were a few good shots.

This is as close to a photo with all three in it at the same time that I could get.

I do like this "sister" photo.

Broden still appears to be pretty athletic. He loves to throw balls and play with balloons. He runs and jumps with cooridination. He has not shown a huge interest in cars and tractors. Maybe once in awhile he will pick them up. I feel like that is my fault because we certainly have more girly things around then boy things, so this Christmas I made sure he got a lot more boy focused toys. And he has stated playing with them more. Just this weekend I had the twins while Ky and DK went to Broden Raya and I played with match box cars on the kitchen floor. They were both into crashing and rolling the cars. Broden does like to dress up in princess clothes when Raya and Kyrah are doing it, so I need to get him some boy dress up clothes. He still likes to sweep and clean with a wipe - not a bad thing - oh and when I vaccum he has to push it as well. He seems to have janitor type tendencies. All three love to color and play with makers, stickers things like that. They use the bounce house almost everynight. Not for a long time but 15-20 minutes - it gets a good amount of energy out. He is a good eater and will pretty well eat a variety of foods on his plate. Although he likes someone to be sitting by him and will come over to me and pull me over the the table and pull me and say "down - help". He doesn't necessarily want me to help but just to watch him or do the same thing as him - whether it is color or a puzzle. His new thing now is to look at me and say "watch" and I am supposed to watch his super trick he is about to perform. He still has the crazy hair which makes him soo freaking cute. The bad thing with Bo-Bo is that he wakes up in the middle of the night and cries for me. We have let it go one for an hour and he just won't stop until I go in and pick him up and bring him to bed or hold him. We had this issue before and had to let him cry it out for a few nights. This is hard to do because we don't get sleep and we are scared he will end up waking up Ky or Raya. He can sing his ABC's as well but not as good as Raya - he misses a few letters here and there, or doesn't seem as interested in singing them as Raya and Ky are.

Raya is an angel or devil. The majority of the time she is quiet and plays by herself and loves her baby dolls. She has this set of 4 monkeys that she carries around all the time. It all started when she stayed at Grandma's one day and for some reason she found this baby monkey doll that was mine when I was a kid. This poor monkey had lost its hair on its head and was looking pretty worn - afterall it was 30 years old (ugh I can't believe I am that old). Anyway, Grandma found Raya the same monkeys and gave them to her for Christmas. Now she has an entire family of monkeys with Mom, Dad and twins boy/girl baby monkeys. She liks puzzles and can sing the ABC song, but it is more she knows the melody, but she does get all the letters right. She has a very quiet voice. She still takes a binky at night so as she is approaching 2 we are going to have to start getting rid of that. She also has these two lambs she has to sleep with every night. She rubs the tag on them and the tag is getting pretty thin. Raya's favorite thing in the world though is milk. She drinks so much milk in the evening. We make 3 separate cups of milk for each kid and next thing you know- little devil Raya is coming around and drinking all 3 cups. She is not a great eater - again probably because she is drinking so much milk, but it is hit or miss on the eats - some nights she eats well, others not so much. She also loves fruit. That is always the first thing to go when she eats. The devil Raya comes out when she is super quiet. When you don't hear her for awhile I can guanartee that she is off somewhere making a mess. We will find her with a huge pile of toys spilled, or her food everywhere, or she is writing on the walls with crayons - we know when she is too quiet to plan on cleaning something up. She is still not a cuddler unless she is super tired or upset. She is still a champion sleeper and rarely wakes up in the middle of the night. In the past few months she has started running and chasing Ky and Broden more then she did before. She is still pretty clumsly and falls or trips a lot. And she is soo stingy with her kisses. She just will not give hugs or kisses that often so if you catch her at a rare time and she is in the kissing mood, you better take advantage. No Broden on the other had - he is a lover. Gives squeezes and kisses all the time, of course he is usually on someone's lap so it is easy to do.

Kyrah is 3 and 2 months. She is at a good stage. She listens pretty good and goes in time out when she does not listen which is a few minutes in the corner. When the twins see her go in the corner the follow her and stick their nose in the corner too like it is a game. She still loves to bake. She loves the Disney princesses and Barbie movies. In the last few months she will actually sit and watch a full movie now. I don't like them to watch too much tv and they only do in the evening before bed. Kyrah gets about an hour to an hour and a half of a movie while the twins watch about 30 to 40 minutes. They do not have the attention span for a movie yet. Ky has been potty trained since October which is great. She loves to do crafts, painting, coloring anything that is like a project. She can identify all her letters and sings the alphabet song all the time. Actually she sings lots of songs. She has a good memory. The daycare workers say she is a peace keeper meaning she is always trying make the other kids happy. She is very helpful and actually does help when we ask. She gets bossy sometimes but that is getting better. She is on a noodle kick and and wants them every night so that makes mealtime hard. Every night she has to have a story and it still has to include a mean witch, a mean grinch and a mean ghost. She just won't let go of the mean witch. Her bed time is 8 pm and she wakes up around 6 and she take an hour and a half nap. I love the one on one time with Ky once the twins go down. She is so sweet at the time and loves to sit on my lap.

When Kyrah wants to tell me something and I am busy or not quick enough to respond she says "Mom I need to talk to you!!"

Now the weekened of 1/7 was a bad weekend. Ky was bossy and whinny and yelled and cried all the time. She was doing well listening now she is having a relapse, so I hate to tell her this, but she is about to have a bad week, because it is discipline time! Broden was good although he woke up in the nights again. Raya was good except she was hurting Sunday night because she needed to poo and it was not coming. So that was bad because I know it was hurting her a lot. Luckily she had success at the end of the night. Me, Ky, Ray, Grandma, Lydia, and Tina when shopping at Cape Sunday and Raya was good but Ky not so much. They each got a new swimsuit and Ky's has the disney princesses on it while Raya has a pink two piece with a monkey on it. Dennis, Broc and Broden went shopping in St. Louis to get Broc's baseball stuff. Dennis said he did great - walked around all the stores stayed close to them. Kids one on one are much easier, but then again, Friday night I was on the couch and we were watching the "animals" aka Madagacar 2 and I had Broden on my left, Raya on my lap and Ky on my right and it was heaven.

First Sleigh Ride

2010-12-22T13:28:00.002-06:00

The ice/sleet on December 16th gave us the opportunity for the kids first sleigh ride. This is the twins first sleigh ride of their lives. The loved it. Kyrah liked it too but they went so fast that they ended up in the trees at the bottom of the hill and she did not like that part.

Sitting back and enjoying the ride.

Look at that smile on Raya's face!

Waiting their turn... or maybe it was so slick they couldn't stand up ...

Worst part - treking back up the hil.

Community Christmas Party

2010-12-22T13:23:00.002-06:00

On Saturday Dec. 11th we went to the local community center for their Christmas party. They had pictures with Santa but the twins scream when he is around so we just played the games and did the face painting (or hand in my kids case).

Raya and Broden got blue stars.

Kyrah got a snowman. And it was our cousing Brian and Holly Parmer that did the painting.

Broden loved the throw a ball in the snowman's basket game. He actually got one in all by himself.

Waiting in line - not a good combination for small kids, but there was a lot of activity to look at.

Kyrah's 3rd Birthday Party

2010-12-22T13:01:00.006-06:00

Out of order, but here are pictures from Kyrah's birthday party from early November. It was a great party and had a Disney princess theme. Dennis' class all colored princess prictures for Kyrah and we taped them up around the basement. She had a hay slide that the older kids played on and she also got a bounce house for her birthday - that was (and still is) a big hit.

So much fun on the bounce house. We are hoping it will keep them entertained during the cold winter months.

Cousin Sophia enjoying the bounce house/

These were pictures from her actual birthday - Nov. 12th . Broden and Kyrah enjoying some breakfast donuts.

I can't believe she has been a part of my life for three years and nine months. She brightens my day. I love her so much it is scary.

Christmas Photos 2010

2010-12-22T12:46:00.004-06:00

The kids Christmas shirts finally came in the mail yesterday so I tried to get them to pose for me. This was 7 pm last night and the twins bedtime is 7:20 so I was coming up on cranky time. Was able to pull off a few good shots. I decided to skip the foo-foo dresses this year and let them be comfortable. The dresses will come soon enough.

All three of them LOVE candy canes but man do they get sticky.

Kyrah loves her shirt and said it is "pretty pretty".

When I pulled Broden shirt out of the box, Kyrah said "ohh Broden is going to be a farmer."

Gingerbread House Day 2010

2010-12-06T09:10:00.008-06:00

For the past 4-5 years my girlfriends and I have gotten together to build gingerbread houses. It started with Diana wanting to build a gingerbread house one year and found a class at the Kitchen Conservatory. We all signed up and they had all the items and gingerbread made and we had 2 hours to put our house together. We decided that was not enough time and that we could do it ourselves just as well and make a day of it, and thus the tradition began. The houses have really improved over the years and Judy's husband Rob has even made us boards to put our houses on - like counter top type of boards - very nice! We were lucky to have Diana come all the way from CT to make the tradition and she brought 4th most beautiful baby in the world along for us all to meet. Baby Joseph was such a good baby and was so happy. Three of our group could not make it and they were greatly missed.

Here are a few pictures of the building stages...

And now for the final works of ART!

Lisa's house entitiled "A Hanukkah Ice Castle"

Diana's House entitled "The Nipple House"

Judy's House entitled "The Unibommers Log Cabin"

Mary Kay's House entitled "Prepperidge Farms Thatch House"

Trina's House entitled "A very Beachy Christmas"

Feel free to vote on your favorite!!

Raking Leaves

2010-12-01T12:59:00.002-06:00

The weekend before Thanksgiving we went up to Aunt Connies' house to help her rake leaves while Daddy went hunting. The girls loved it Broden was only so so about it.

Now it is too cold to stay outside very long which is sad for my kids. They get antsy inside, but we are trying to keep their interest with lots of different toys. I am sure Christmas will give them lots to play with.

Birthday and Dentist

2010-11-19T11:31:00.003-06:00

Kyrah went to the dentist for the first time on Tuesday 11/16. She has been complaining about her teeth hurting and always points to the same spot, so I thought we better make sure there are no cavities. I was so proud of her, she did awsome!! She let the dentist clean her teeth with the polish and even did the suction thing. It was amazing how good she did. And happy to report no cavities, just some iritated gums - not much to do about it except orajel. She got two prizes for being so good!

On Kyrah's actual birthday the 12th, I brought her bounce house out to daycare and we had a mini party. The kids LOVED it and were very sad to see it go.

They also played with bubbles when they were waiting for their turn to bounce.

Look at that hair!

Jonah #3

2010-11-11T13:52:00.003-06:00

At a recent outdoor city festival (maybe 2-3 weeks ago) a local pet store was giving away "free" fish. So of course they see me walking with my 3 kids and pounce on us. Needless to say we went home with a "free" goldfish, a $7 bowl, $2.00 bag of rocks, $1.00 plastic vine and $4.00 fish food. We get home and put the fish in his new home. Four hour later he is dead, floating at the top of the bowl. Luckily Kyrah did not get attached to the fish and in fact never even remembered she had one because I flushed him and removed the bowl before she could look at it again.

This past weekend, 11/6 we went to the Fall Festival at the local school where they have games for kids to play. One of the games was to throw a ping pong ball into a small fish bowl. If you did you won a fish. Well $5 in tickets later, Kyrah ends up winning another goldfish. This one she is very proud of and carries it out to the car in its little bag. We set up the bowl and feed it then off to bed we go. The next morning Jonah #2 was not quite dead, but you knew it wasn't going to be long.... which it wasn't.

So yesterday I stopped at the pet store and told them the tragedies we have experienced. They sent me home with a Beta and some chemicals to purify the water. As a result we have Jonah #3 and a happy Kyrah.

So this all started out with a free fish that now has a cost of $21.00. Well it is less work then a puppy.

First Gymnastics Class

2010-11-11T13:37:00.002-06:00

Now that Kyrah is officially potty trained (going on 3 weeks - only 1 accident) and she is 3 (or close enough), she is able to start gymnastics class. She calls it "nym-nast-iks". She went for her first class on 11/4 to see how she does and if she would listen to the instructor. She got a new Disney Princess leotard and pink tights for her first class which she loves!.

Here she is all ready to go.

Kyrah in action. She did great in class. She would run up to me a few times and tell me something but then would run back right away and get in line.

She is still a little stiff in some of the moves and backbends, but it will come with time and practice.

My future Olympian!

Happy Halloween - 2010

2010-11-03T08:53:00.003-05:00

From the wicked witch and Hansel and Gretel.

Kyrah loved this holiday. She was very upset with me when she came home from daycare on Tuesday and all the halloween decorations were gone. She even makes Daddy tell her a wicked witch story every night before bed. She did great going around to all the houses and would say trick or treat at every house.

Raya liked dressing up. She did not mind putting on her Gretel dress and scarf. Although neither of them cared much about going to people's houses. They rode in the stroller for about 2 blocks then were trying to get out of their seats so Daddy took them home for bath and bed while Kyrah and I finished the subdivision. All in all a great Halloween.

Hansel would not leave his little green hat on, but he was still cute.

Happy Fall, 2010

2010-10-25T12:31:00.007-05:00

On Oct. 23rd we took a family trip to Milstadt, IL to Eckhardt's Farm for pumpkin picking. It was a wonderful day and the kids LOVED the trip...well I am not sure how excited Broc was about it, but the 3 little ones loved it.
A little family pose - this picture was taken by Nick - an 8 year old! Not to bad Nick.
Daddy and Ky waiting for the pumpkin wagon.

Broden watching the goats.

Ky and Broden would feed/pet the goats. Raya kept her distance. She would put her hand near the fence then when one came by she would back up really quick and laugh. We were a sad little family. To feed the goats, you needed a quarter to get the feed out of the bubble gum machine. We didn't have any quarters so we were picking up the tiny little pellets off the gound below the machine. It was welfare goat feeding.

Kyrah and the goat just looking at each other.

Kyrah got to take a pony ride of course for a nominal fee...

Also at the farm is a fun area where this are small put put golf spots.

We also did the corn maze. Raya is coping Kyrah in this picture. Kyrah bent down for a picture and Raya copied her.

LOVE LOVE LOVE Raya's pumpkin hat. So worth the $15!

They did good during the picture time, although it is tough to get a smile out of Raya when it is a posed picture.

Look at this boy ham'n it up.

Ky had quite a few good pictures.

Then off to the pumpkin field after a hay ride. They cried when they had to get off the wagon. Broden found a big pumpkin and was determined to pick it up. He had to settle for pushing it over.

All three in a row with their prized pumpkins, although we ended up only taking 2 home. They are too little to carve the pumpkins at this point so we just needed a few to put on the front steps.

A few other updates. Kyrah is now 99% potty trained during the day. She does not tell us all the time, but she has been in her Disney Princess underwear all week and has only had 2 accidents which is outstanding.

All three have been to the doctor recently for wellness checkups or minor illness. Raya is 26.8 pounds, Broden is 26.6 pounds and Kyrah is 27 pounds. We were not able to get very accurate height measurements because they would not stand, but all three seem to be on the short side. Espicially Ky. She is very small for her age. She is about to turn 3 and still wears 24 mth clothes and now with no diaper on her pants really fall off her tiny bum.

Raya and Brodens vocab has taken off. They love to repeat words back to us. I am working on trick treat and Raya says someting that sounds similar. Her favorite book is Lamma Lamma Red Pajama which was Ky's favorite book as well. Broden is becoming such a boy. He loves to tackle people. After bath when we are reading in the living room he will tackle Kyrah all the time and pull her down. She loves it and laughs, then they get riled up and we have to work to calm them down again.

Kyrah has to have a story before bed time which is in her toddler bed, the crib is officially down. Lately her stories have to include a bad witch and Daddy has to kick the bad witch to the moon. Must be a halloween theme, I am sure there will be many Santa stories to come. She also wakes up and says "Mommy I had good sleep." and gets all excited about it. Raya and Broden are wonderful to put to sleep. We say lets go night night at about 7:15 and they walk into their room or we carry them, sing them twinkle twinkle, lay them down and that is it. Broden usually falls asleep withing minutes and Raya will lay in her room playing with the ribbons on her lamb and listen to her music, then she falls asleep within 30 minutes. The twins still ask where the other one is. The first thing they say when they wake up is "Ray Ray?" or "Bo Bo?". I will tell them the other one is eating or sleeping or whatever and then that is it, they just want to know where the other one is.

Ray Ray the Clumsy

2010-10-08T09:05:00.002-05:00

About a month ago Dennis and I had taken Raya and Broden to the mall to return a few things and were letting them play in the kid's play area. Raya was jumping off a block that was about 7 inches tall when she landed odd. After that she was not able to walk and would take a step of two and fall. It seemed her left leg would give out. So off to the ER we went. I stayed with her in the ER and Dennis took Broden to my sister's house where Ky was playing.

A few x-rays later and about 3 hours, she was slowly walking better and luckily did not have anything broken. But scary all the same. She has never been very corridinated then to have this set her back as well does not help. Even today she falls/trips quite a bit. Think she got her grace from her Mom.

All smiles right now - that was certainly not the case during the x-rays. In the 20 months she has been here she has had her share of hospital trips. She hates doctors and medicine. It is a huge ordeal when we have to go even for a simple well child visit. I think she was traumatized when was in the nicu as a newborn and still remembers it.

Ohh ohh trying to escape.

The STG Picnic

2010-10-08T08:51:00.002-05:00

This is a random picture of Broden being silly on the ride home from Grandma's

In September the Ste. Gen Church picnic took place. This is a fun one with great food and games. For some reason Raya was not into the bounce house like Broden and Kyrah were, she just hung out with Daddy while the others bounced.

Anna helping Broden in the bounce house with Ky jumping behind her.

Kyrah got a pony ride which she loved.

A few Kyrah commments....

On the way home from Grandma's house last night (Oct. 7), there was a skunk smell and I said "ewww stinky skunk." Kyrah said "That skunk must be pooping in him pants."

When I ask her if she is a big girls she says

K: "When I am a big girl and go poop on the potty I go to school with Daddy and meet teachers."
MK: "So why won't you go poop on the potty?"

K: "Oh Mom, it is just too hard."

Broden's most common phrase recently is "No No Ray Ray" and he shakes his little finger at her. He loves playing with balls and is actaully pretty good at catching and throwing them.

Raya says lots of things but usually it is just an answer to whatever question I ask her - she says no or yes just like anyone would. Her favorite game right now is to play baby dolls. She carries them around alot and likes to take them for stroller rides or give them bottles. It is very cute.

Broden started at Kids N Motion this week. The workers say it is like he has always been there. Which is great and it is awsome to only have one stop in the morning and evening.

Random Pics

2010-09-16T22:37:00.003-05:00

So with Dennis coaching softball that pretty much means I am drop off and pick up for the kids. The problem is that the girls daycare closes at 4:30 and on the days I work in the office I would have to leave at 3:30 - which does not work out at all. So Grandma, Tina or our old neighbor Sarah will get the girls, then I will leave work aournd 4:15 or so and pick up Broden then get the girls from whereever they are. They are usually at Grandma's house at least 2 evenings a week and Grandpa has spoiled Kyrah with 4-wheeler rides. She expects them every night. Broden likes them as well. Raya is scared of it. She will not go near it if it is running.

Broden playing on the John Deere at Grandpa's. Looks like it will be awhile before he reaches the peddles.

This is the only way Raya would go near the 4-wheeler. Look at mommy in her work clothes on a 4-wheeler!

A few weeks ago was the fall twins sale. This is the first time I have sold items in the sale. The following are two pictures of all the stuff I had to sale. It has to be kids items only. I had 10 tubs of clothes, blankets, shoes, etc. and a bunch of the baby toys. I made $663.75! That is going to there birthday/christmas money so really it is just going to replace the toys I sold with new ones, but isn't that the way it always is.

The CrossRoads Picnic

2010-09-16T22:14:00.002-05:00

Another church picnic- the second weekend of August. This one is down near Perryville, MO. This is where my Dad grew up and my grandparents are buried at this Church's cementary. I believe it is a methodist church. The best thing about this picnic is that there are a bunch of old ladies that make homemade chicken and dumplings for the meal - oh yum-yum!

A extremely RARE photo of my Dad on the right and his brother/my Uncle Carol on the left. There was also a sister - Mildred, but we lost her this spring.

Carol, his wife Judy and Dad or rather Grandpa.

Kyrah sitting on the picnic table chewing gum. She loves to chew gum and we finally are getting her to spit it out rather then eat it, now if only she would not spit it out anywhere and actually throw it away we would be in great shape.

Kyrah and Grandma - such beautiful ladies.

Dennis and I thought we would do best by dividing again, plus it is an evening picnic and the twins go to bed at 7 while Kyrah stays up until 8. So I took Ky and Dennis stayed back with the twins. We hate that we have to split stuff up like that but it just works out much better.

Sarah's Visit

2010-09-16T21:45:00.002-05:00

A few silly pictures from the visit of my friend from college - Sarah. She lives in DC.

Church Picnic Season

2010-09-07T13:03:00.002-05:00

So while Daddy and Broc were on their wonderful baseball stadium tour this summer late July, I had to find ways to entertain the 3 kids left behind. Dennis and Broc when to 6 ballgames in 7 days - Cinciniati, Cleaveland, Detroit, White Sox, Cubs, Milwalkee... and I think I am missing one, but while they were gone, we started the church picnic series. About mid-July the church picinics get going and we always try to go to them and support the local churches. The pictures below are from the Weingarten Picnic. Here we are on a hay ride which Kyrah really liked and Raya would not sit still for. She walked around the wagon the whole time. Broden just sat in Anna's lap.

Something that really surprised me was the little car ride. Broden whom I thought would love it would not go near it and Raya who I thought would hate it would not get off. She loved it and screamed when we had to take her off.

Ky of course loved it - she loves doing anything.

Fishing

2010-09-07T12:53:00.002-05:00

Kyrah's first fishing trip. Grandpa bought her a new Barbie fishing pole, hooks, sinkers, bobbers, and worms - total cost about $80. All so Grandpa could take her to Aunt Connie's pond and fish.

Mommy and Ky trying out the new pole.

We did not have any luck, so Grandpa helped her catch her first fish.

Here it comes...

Wow - what a big fish! She was not so sure about it when it actually came out of the water. But it was a catch and release day so no fish were harmed in taking this photo... at least not too bad. She liked fishing so much that we went to the cabin the next day and Grandpa took her out on the boat on the new pond. He feeds his fish there, so needless to say, we could have dropped an empty hook and caught a fish. Kyrah thought it was great fun, to catch so many fish. The twins, just liked throwing their chips over the side of the boat and feeding the fish. They have a little to learn yet as it comes to fishing.

4th of July 2010

2010-08-30T11:08:00.010-05:00

Even though it is a month and a half late - here are the pictures from July 4th this year.

Kyrah loves flags and put little flags out along the sidewalk

Here is Raya following her picking them all out.

The twins "made" their shirts at daycare.

I think he is singing the Star Spangled Banner - such a patriot...

Hey whats this interesting thing in the grass?

Ohh - got it

Hmmm - well this is nothing special - just trash...

Moving from the front yard to the back yard and playing on the club house and trampoline.

So upset his pink 4-wheeler ran into the slide

Going the wrong way up the slide. I don't think she ever uses the ladder - always walks up the slide.

Daddy giving Broden a little boost.

Sisterly love

Ready set go...

Kyrah stole Daddy's hat.

After nap time it is off to Lydia's house to celebrate her 10th birthday. The kids would not get out of the pool.

Much Needed Catch Up 1

2010-08-17T17:03:00.007-05:00

Sorry all my blogg followers. I have really slacked lately - my only excuse is that work has been crazy and home has been crazy as well.

So much to talk about. The immediate thing is that all three of them are having stomach issues. Kyrah spent Saturday night and Sunday vomitting, Broden threw up once on Sunday - actually threw up all over Broc in the Wal-Mart parking lot, but what a champ of a big brother - just cleaned off and didn't make a big deal of it. All three have had very messy diapers. I am so ready for this bug to get out of our house.

Kyrah is not doing well on potty training. She is still in pull up and only goes if we ask her - she doesn't tell us so that has been disappointing. On August 9th she officially moved to a big girl bed. She got a special princess toddler bed. She did great in it for a week, then by the following weekend she would not stay in it, so back to the crib she went. Her speech and vocabulary is outstanding. I love the way she says "You color him shirt" when we are coloring together - she gets her pronouns mixed up a bit, but that will come in time. She still puts an "ie" on words - milkie, beddie, stuff like that. She is starting to recoginze written letters which I think is outstanding. We have her daycare to thank for that.

She is pretty bossy and we are trying to correct her when she gets whiney or bossy, but that is so often it is hard to do consistently. I told her in the car ride "Kyrah you are making me sad becuase you are yelling at me." She stopped and thought about that for a bit, then later that day she told me "mommy you make me mad" so I guess it is coming back on me. At the doctor today she weighed 26 lbs and was 36 inches tall - a full yard stick. The next set of pictures was from one of our more messy meals so I had to snap a pic of all the little piggies.

Yes that is a maccaroni in Raya's hair.

Many funny faces of Broden...

He has a little road rash on his forehead here where he fell in the pea gravel.

Raya had a big event as well recently. On August 16th she started at her new daycare - Kids N Motion - the same place Kyrah goes. The teachers at Wee World were very sad to see her go and were worried how the twins would do split up. They ask for each other all the time espically Raya - she is always asking for "Bo Bo". But she has been doing wonderful at Lori's daycare. She has taken to the new routine very well. Now when she sees Broden for the first time in the evenign she gets so excited and yells his name. Raya is still the angel baby - such a great toddler - doesn't require a lot of attention, plays well by herself, is calm, eats well, goes to sleep easy - STAYS asleep in her own crib - she is the angel. Also recently - in the past month or so she has become more lovey dovey to people - me mostly, but Grandma as well. She will hug and lay her head on us more then she ever did before - which is wonderful. Raya has quite a few teeth and is a hitter. She likes to hit people if she doesn't get something - so maybe not a perfect angel, but compared to the others...

One Saturday when we didn't have anything to do we went to the Perryville park. The kids love playing in the park and Nick and Lydia came along this time.

LOVE this picture of Raya

Broden is about the same. He still wants to be held all the time. We took him to the doctor for his red cheeks and the doctor said it is excema, so not much to do but put creme on it. I was worried it is a food allergy to strawberries, it seems to come after he has them. He is really in to cars and trucks now and will push them around the house. At his doctor's appointment he was 25 lbs and not sure how tall. He has been having some trouble sleeping through the night. He will go in spurts of waking up in the night for 3-4 days then sleeping all night for a week or more, then back to waking up. I think it is teeth related, but not sure. Raya has more teeth then he does - oh and I am happy to say he has pretty much stopped biting people which is a good thing.

Happy 4th of July 2010

2010-07-02T08:27:00.002-05:00

Wishing everyone a Happy 4th of July 2010! Look at all those happy faces - this picture was taken at 6:30 AM before going to daycare....take'm when you can is what I say...

A few cuties of Ray Ray...

The Royal Family

2010-06-24T12:00:00.006-05:00

Just hanging around the play room (aka what should be a formal dinning room) and the girls were playing with the crown, so I had to snap some pictures of the Royal Family...

Princess Kyrah

Queen Raya

and Prince Charming on his steed...

I had been putting Raya's hair in the single pony on top of her head which made her look like she had a Pebbles looks, but it is long enough now to do the double pony - so cute. She is learning new words - she can say no - but it is more like a quick sharp "na" sound, hello, bye bye, momma, dadda, baby - all her usual words. She is still content to play by herself most of the time and when it is time for "school work" she sits at her chair and colors for a long while without bothering anyone else or needing anythign. Right now she has the makings of a great student - my future doctor! She only has 4 teeth - two bottom in the front middle and two top molars in the back. She loves hiding in the play tent and loves it when someone plays peek-a-boo with her.

Kyrah is reaching a big milestone in her life. She has started potty training. Last week she went on the toliet a few times and now she seems to be going pee almost all the time on the toliet, although she will not poo on it yet and she still has wet diapers in the morning and sometimes through out the day. But we are heading in the right direction. She LOVEs her Elmo underwear and has to put them on herself. She has started swimming lessons at daycare and goes 3 times a week for 20 minutes. She would live in the water if she could (so would Raya). This weekend for Father's Day we went to the Cabin and she called it the Cabinet the entire time.

She is still very tiny for her age, she doesn't eat much. She likes to hop and jump. Ky is just starting to get the concept of pedeling on her tricycle. She is very into bandaides and has to put them on every ouchie she gets and a lot of ouchies that aren't even there. Her memory is very good right now and if I bribe her by saying do this and we will go to the park tomorrow - she will wake up the next day and the first thing she says is "I go to park today." That has gotten me in trouble quite a bit.

She is hot or cold to her brother and sister (and she calls them that - my brother Broden and my sister Raya). One minute she will be sweet to them, the next she is pushing them down and taking things from them. She is more mean to them then sweet.

Broden is a little ham. Still cries to be held all the time. I think he is going to be left handed. He seems to eat and throw a ball left handed. His first official word is Hello which comes out "hell-wow" and he says it into the phone. He can say momma and dadda but doesn't call us that. He loves to run and be chased and wrestle with Daddy on the floor. He is going through some bad hair days right now. I am letting his hair grow back out long - I just didn't like the buzz cut on him, so it is pretty crazy hair right now. Just recently he has started biting people. He bit Ky yesterday - hard enough to leave teeth bruises but not break the skin. He has 4 teeth - 2 top 2 bottom in the middle and is working on 2 more on the bottom on either side. He sleeps on a cot now at daycare and seems to be doing well with it. He takes about a 2 hour nap during the day and sleeps from 7 pm to 5:45 am.

He is just getting over a rash on his cheeks. I think it is a food allergy and my best guess is to blueberries, but I am not certain yet, so his cheeks are a bit reddish and raw looking.

Too Hot for Outdoors

2010-06-14T13:06:00.002-05:00

What to do when it is 95 degrees outside....take the kids to the mall and let them play in the Kid Zone. Saturday Broc had a double header, so me and the kids just hung out all day. Sunday no baseball, but we did not feel like sitting inside again all day. We packed up and headed to the mall to find a storage shed and let the kids play in the designated area. They all liked climbing around on the differnt things.

A very rare picture of all three close by each other and everyone looking at me.
Kyrah liked climbing the "mountain" the best.

Raya is too cute in this picture!

Typical Broden - something didn't make him happy so the crying started up.

Raya was content to play in the little row boat the entire time, but she did get out and walk around a bit.

After the mall we headed to Lydia and Nick's house for dinner and swimming. This was the first time Broden actually seemed to like the water. He didn't cry when we got in the pool and he even played with the sprinkler. Raya of course sat in a bucket of water the entire time. Ky mixed it up with the pool and sprinkler.

The First Swimming Day

2010-06-04T14:24:00.006-05:00

I think this was a week and a half ago when the weather was hot enough to hook up the sprinkler. Raya and Kyrah are fish - they LOVE the water. Raya cannot get enough of it. Broden on the other hand...not so much. He walked up to the sprinkler then started crying when the water actually hit him.

After the first 5 minutes, Broden stayed away from the water and played on the swing set, or on a ride on car. Ky ran back and forth through the sprinkler - Raya camped out directly infront of a water spray. She would put her hand in the water then put her hand in her mouth to drink the water I guess.

Once we saw the mud get bad we pulled out the blow up pool. The girls loved it. Broden again - put one foot in then started crying. Oh and Ky decided she didn't need her swimmer on anymore so she went naked the rest of the time.

And finally - for a little update. Broden has 4 teeth - two on top and two on bottom and their are two more popping through on top. Raya had 4 teeth as well, two on bottom and two top molars way in the back - I don't see any new ones, but who knows which one will pop out on her next.

We think Broden will be left handed as he seems to do everything with his left hand, whereas Raya and Ky appear to be right handed.

The kids are playing together more and more now. They like to hold on to a jump rope or anything similar to that and run around the house "pulling" the other one.

Broden walks around with the phone saying "hell-whoo". I actually think that is his first word. He can say the sounds Mamma and Dadda but doesn't really use the terms with us, whereas Raya can say many words.

The house is going well. We basically have almost all our stuff in, just not sure where to put some of the stuff (like the extra lawn mower) and need to find a toy storage area for sure. Plus nothing is on the walls yet and it would be nice to have some baseboards painted. I cannot keep up with the weeds in the landscaping - there is just so much and very little free time to do that.

Broc is doing very well in baseball. They have only lost 1 game so far and he has had at least one to two hits a game.

1 year Professional Photos

2010-06-04T11:59:00.004-05:00

Way behind, considering the twins are 15 months old, but here are photos of their 1 year old photos :-)

Raya was a huge smiler -Broden - not so much.

Best Comment Ever

2010-05-19T11:18:00.002-05:00

I have to write this down so my niece Lydia will know about this years from now. She is 9 years old (soon to be 10 on July 4th) and is in the 4th grade. Last week in school, the 4th grade girls were shown the puberty movie and had a discussion with the nurse. Last night she was talking with her Mom and her brother lost a tooth, somehow Lydia asked her Mom if there was a toothfairy. Tina decided to tell the truth and said no there is not a tooth fairy, me and your Dad put the money under your pillow. Lydia's next comment was...

" Well great, I have eggs and there is no tooth fairy!" Somehow the thing that stuck with her from the puberty movie was that she has eggs and her whole world crashed down on her when the last of the make believe character was proven false. It was a tough lesson for Lydia last night. But has provided me with hours of laughter over her comment.

Sunday Swing Project

2010-05-18T09:33:00.005-05:00

A new addition to the house is a big swing set. This was a part of the kids birthday and christmas presents and a much needed distraction for them. So we bought the set a few months ago, but have not had a chance to put it up. Luckily my sisters and brother-in-law were not busy on Sunday (5-16-10) and it looked like the rain was going to stay away, so at 10:30am Dennis and Jimmy started the project. At 11am, Dennis said I better start calling in for more help. So Tina pitched in and read directions and my sister Connie came over as well to help. My job was to keep the kids busy. I took them to McDonalds to play and eat and luckily they fell asleep after that. Here is what the play set looked like by 3:00pm when the kids woke up.

All the worker bees hard at work ...

Work in progress - just the monkey bars and swing area to go...

Kyrah seems to like sitting up in her clubhouse...

Broden seems a little unsure at the moment...

At 5:30 after only 7 hours and 4 workers, we have a great swingset/clubhouse - actualy name is called the Ridgeway Swing Set. Look at all the fun they are having.

The final result after a hard days work and just in time before the rain started.

Oh and only a few washers and one nut left over...not too bad! Thanks Dad for working so hard!

Broden's New Do

2010-05-13T09:59:00.003-05:00

I took Broden to get his hair cut this week. He got a buzz cut, which he didn't really like the sound of the clilppers, but we struggled through. He looks so much older now, but it just doesn't seem like him... I think I will go back the the wild crazy foo-foo hair he usually has.

Much Needed Update

2010-05-04T09:18:00.013-05:00

So much to update. First, we have successfully moved to our new house. We have been in the Stonybrook house for a little over two weeks now. Kyrah still calls it the new house, but she has not asked about about the old house or she has not asked to go home, so that is good. The house is great. The kids love to play in the front yard and of course the walk straight out to the street, but at the end of a cul-de-sac with only one other house traffic is very low. We also have great neighbors, one of which has a 4th grader and 6th grader and a 2 year old grandaughter that lives there, so the girls are always out and playing. Kyrah likes to watch them and she is slowing getting to where she will play with them. Broden has adjusted well to having his own room and Kyrah and Raya share a room. One morning we heard Kyrah say "Raya - you awake? Raya, Raya wake up" so that is sort of an issue we are hoping will stop. The extra room is great and the kids run all over the house. Broc even likes the house and his room. He selected the room off the kitchen which is great except when it is 5:30 am and the kids are awake in the kitchen yelling for breakfast and Broc can hear them, we told him to get ear plugs.

Broc

Hello officer, no I was not speeding....yep Missouri has given Broc permission to drive on its roads. Broc got his permit about a week ago. He is also on the varsity baseball team, which is great for a freshman. He is doing well at baseball, getting some good hits, some ground rule doubles, so we are hoping a home run is in the near future.

Kyrah

Ky is 2 and a half now. She is extremely active and very smart. She speaks exceptionally well, knows her colors, shapes, numbers to 30 and ABCs. She even sings songs (favorite is Twinkle Twinkle). She is not a big eater - actually she eats small amounts all day - basically grazing - which is bad, we are trying to push her off to an actual meal time. Her bed time is now closer to 8 pm and she gets up about 6 am with one 1.5 -2 hour nap in the afternoon. She is playing much better with the twins, but gets very mad when one of the twins takes a toy from her. She is still very much an only child in her mind and right now she yells the loudest, so she usually gets what she wants first. We need to work on this. She is also very defiant right now. We tell her no, or don't do something and she will look straight at us and do whatever it is anyway then look at us and smile....needless to say she has gotten quite a few time outs. She has been pretty healthy lately, went to the doc for a cold within the last month and was about 24 lbs 32 or 33 inches - basically very small for her age - in the 20% for height and weight. She is still in 18 month clothes mainly with some 24 month shirts. She no longer yells "mommy do it", which was nice to feel needed, but not ALL THE TIME!

Broden

Little Buddy is 14 months old, 22lbs and 29inches. Everyone still calls him Buddy - I blame Dennis for this. He started it when Broden was born becuase he was so small. I am trying to get people to call him Broden or Brody. The Brody is not taking off very well. Anyway, he is a climbing monster. He climbs on everything. He is very good at walking and even does a fast walk/attempt at running. He has 3 teeth with a 4th top tooth just now trying to come through. He can drink out of a straw (which I just discovered last night). Eats very well and eats just about anything - LOVES almost all fruit except for cantalope and watermelon. He sleeps all night from 7 to 6 and takes 1 to 2 naps a day. He is actually a pretty good sleeper -he has come a long way from where he used to be. He goes to sleep on his own with just a little crying - only 30 seconds or so. No words yet, and for whatever reason he loves to carry a broom around. He will go straight for a broom anytime he sees one. So he has 2 or 3 small ones around the house for him, but at anyone's house or in the garage he carries around the big ones. Broden is still pretty needy - wants to be held all the time and carried around. Not very good at playing by himself, but he makes the cutest faces.

Raya

Oh my angel Raya is 23 lbs and 29 inches. She is such a content child 99% of the time. She plays by herself, does not cry a lot, is able to keep herself occupied without someone sitting right next to her. But when she gets upset - wow watch out. It happened to me last night, I picked her up and then had to put her down to do something and that made her so mad she went into a crying fit that would split eardrums. It was the kind that you hiccup after and can't catch your breath - oh she was mad. These little fits don't happen often but they are whoppers when they do. Raya sleeps well too. She is down to one afternoon nap a day, and sleeps from 7 to 6 at night with the help of a pacifier. She also has a stuffed lamb she likes to hold at night. She is a good eater, but is more picky then Broden. They both throw food on the floor and like to smash things between their fingers to get the feel of it. She has 2 bottom teeth and maybe one on top starting. She says mama, dadda, hi, bye bye, thank you, peekaboo and apple. She says apple when she sees a book or is looking at a book. I think I have pointed out apple so much as the first picture in the ABC books that she has associated apple with all books, but that is a start. She is very good at mimicing sounds and will repeat the sounds I make. She knows where her belly and nose are. She still walks with that baby frankenstein walk, and is a bit more clumsy then Broden, but she is getting better each day.

Following are pictures from March 8th, -the twins actual birthday. They each had a cupcake and were wearing their party hats that daycare made for them and of course Ky gets a cupcake as well.

Next are Easter pictures. Some are at our neighbor's house and some are at Grandma's house. Ky loved hunting eggs, Broden was not too intersted in it, and was content to walk around with the first egg he found, Raya wanted to clean out her basket all the time.

Missing Jess, Anna, Dale and Broc out of the Propst Grandkids Easter picture.

This past weekend we went to the park near our new house. It had just rained the night before so it was wet, wet, wet -but we only live a half a mile away and needed something to keep them entertained. They love playing in water - all three and like climbing around on the different play sets.

Oh Oh - this doesn't look like it will end well.

So needless to say the clothes were soaked and filthy - and this is how they roade home.

Now that tax season is over - I will try to keep the blog updated better.

Twins 1st Birthday Party

2010-03-30T12:38:00.004-05:00

Broden's new trick.... climbing.... on EVERYTHING!

On Sunday the 28th we had Broden and Raya's 1st Birthday party at the new house. It worked out great that the house was basically empty so people could roam about and we had lots of room.

The theme was two peas in a pod.

A little play time.

Yeah Cake. We sang Happy Birthday twice of course. They each had their own cake. Broden's was yellow and Raya had chocolate. So $60 in cakes ....all for a yummy handful to rub in my face!

And Kyrah even thought she need to take her shirt off since the twins got to. She was a bit under the weather so she did not eat any cake, but had a great time playing with everyone. Her cousin Sophia was a pink princess.

The party was a huge success, I think everyone had a good time. Many thanks to everyone that helped and all the presents.

Happy Birthday Raya & Broden

2010-03-11T13:13:00.004-06:00

A few things to catch up on. Raya and Broden officially turned 1 on March 8th. We sang happy birthday to each of them and they each got to have a cupcake. Raya's was a red velvet with white icing and Broden's was a yellow with chocolate icing.

Broden loves to play with brooms.

Broden had his tubes put in Tuesday morning the 9th. All went very well. He was away from me probably 10-15 minutes tops. He was so cute before the surgery. He would walk out to the hall in his little hospital gown and peek down at the wonderful nurses and smile at them. After the surgery he crying a bit just because he didn't know what was going on, but a bottle calmed him right down. Also, last week Broden got his first tooth. You can not see it yet, but you can feel the ridges. That explains his fever for 3 days and crankiness.

Kyrah woke up this morning telling me she wanted to make "choc-it-chip coopies". Then she found the brownie box and cried to make those! Her and Daddy played hide and seek last night and she always hides under her princess table, but I told her to find behind the chair last night so now she has 2 hiding spots. She is pretty good in that she stays quite, but the Mother in me sees the danger here. I just know one day we will be shopping and she will hide and I will be tearing apart the store looking for her.

This past weekend we were at Grandma's all day Sunday and Grandma bought her a new princess jammies so of course she had to wear them over her clothes. Her she is outside in the nice weather and she would scrape around in the dirt. When I asked her what she was doing she said "look'n for worms".

Broden and Raya at breakfast.

She has a pretty in her hair and it makes her forehead look huge!

End of February Update

2010-03-01T18:08:00.002-06:00

I am sorry I do not have any new pictures. With tax season getting busy, I just have not had a chance to snap pics or blog. But with the big milestone from the weekend, I could not let it pass without at least telling everyone. Broden is officially walking!! This kid has been doing this 4-5 steps from object to object or people to people and yes that is walking, but I consider it official walking when he does it on his own without being coaxed. On Saturday, he would walk around the room on his own. He spent an hour throwing a beach ball, walking over to it, picking it up and throwing it again...repeat....He seems to have gotten his Daddy's athletic ability. I am still waiting for the first tooth to appear for him. It seems crazy that he still doesn't have any teeth, but I do not want to rush the teething pain and bad nights either. Broden is a great eater - actually most days it seems like you can't feed him enough and he hasn't found anything he doesn't like yet. He also likes to make faces. Last month his favorite thing was shaking his entire head similar to when a dog shakes water off it fur. This month he likes to scrunch his lips up as if he were saying "eewwwww" - not sure that description gives it justice, but it is the best I can come up with. Sometimes I call it his Elvis look, like when Elvis did his lip curl. He loves to climb and be played rough with (thank you Daddy). He is still pretty needy and always cries to be picked up. His sleeping has gotten much better and he pretty much sleeps through the night until 5:30 to 6 in the morning.

Raya is still doing the 4-5 steps inbetween things, although she will also take steps without being coaxed, but she can only do 4-5 max then plop down she goes. Her favorite game is still peek-a-boo and she loves to be tickled. She is a picky eater and a slow eater, but she is much better with a sippy cup. We are down to only one bottle a day and that is in the evening. They are 100% on whole milk, no more formula and WOW do we go through the milk. I wonder if formula would be cheaper sometimes! Raya seems to have a few words already. She has said MaMa and Bye Bye intentionally. And I swear she was trying to repeat me when I said "Thank You". Of course it was not that clear, but the inflection and general sounds made me think "thank you". The hardest thing with Raya is keeping stuff out of her mouth. That girl is a magnet for paper, tissues, and generally anything on the floor.
Kyrah is learning everyday. She is not reading as many books as she used to. Actually, now she likes to read them herself and will sit in her room and look at the books where before we would have to read them to her. She is also getting better at pretend. She "cooks" us food and plays pretend with her baby dolls. One of her favorite things to do is watch herself on videos on our phones or see her picture. She gets in and out of the tub all by herself (which I don't like at all!) She is still a Mommy's girl and if I am around usually I am the only one she wants or only I can do something for her. Which I actually love. She says she is excited for her new room, but of course she doesn't understand what that actually means. She has a fasination with band-aids and puts them on everything but an actual wound. She is also asking tons of questions. She always wants to know who's house that is when we drive by houses. I am running out of names to tell her. She also likes to sing and if she doesn't exactly remember the words, she knows what it should sound like an does a "uh un uh" or something like that.
All in all, everyone is relatively healthy and happy. We are getting very excited for better weather to get here so we can have outside time.

Picture Update for February

2010-02-18T08:56:00.004-06:00

Broden and Raya showing off their new shirts.

This is how Broden sleeps - with his tiny tush up in the air.

A little video or Raya and Broden playing together an d Kyrah licking the spoon on my coconut maccroons - not sure this will be a favorite of hers.

Big News.

2010-02-17T08:56:00.003-06:00

The Kreitler family will no longer be residents of the City of Bloomsdale. A very sad thing because we LOVE our neighborhood and everyone in it, our current house is just too small. We have been looking for a new house for over a year and one came on the market this weekend that we could not pass up. We will soon be residents of the City of Ste. Genevieve! 1502 Stony Brook Trail to be exact. We are moving to Valley Springs Estate. The house is huge and will be perfect for our big family. Hopefully we will have the same luck with our new neighbors that we have had for the past 6 years with our current neighbors. I wish I could take the new house and put it where our current house is. Daddy told Kyrah last night and she said "Bye Bye Kyrah's room." So sad! I will try to get pictures up soon.

Kitchen - love the built in hutch but the border needs to go.

Look at all those cabinets!!!

Living room - not much detail on this angle.

Living room from the other angle. Big debate on how to arrange the furniture. I get that they centered their couch to the fireplace, but not crazy that the TV is offset. Yes the fireplace is great, but from a pratical standpoint, we use the TV 100 % more then the fireplace. Possible solution would be the TV above the fireplace - not sure I want to look slightly up from the couch. Second solution would be to angle or move the couch down. There are outlets on the floor for lamp palcement and that is while the furniture is configured this way, but that doesn't mean I have to do it this way.

This is the unfinished part of the basement. All the games, pool table, lights, bar tables and stools are staying. Yeah! I can see Kyrah riding her tricycle around already.

This is the finished part of the basement. The bar is beautiful. Stools are staying - not crazy about them, but no need to change them either.

Master bedroom. Again with the wall paper border. That will be a summer project.

These owners seem to be scared of color. All the walls except two are white. The den (used as a bedroom) is very pink (this will be painted over) and another bedroom is a very pretty brown. Perfect color for Broc's room.

And for a little sad news. Broden still has ear infections. He saw a specialist on Friday and she recommended tubes. He is scheduled for surgery on Feb 23rd. So for this week we are dealing with a bit of a cranky boy becuae the doctor said not to worry about giving antiboitotics because they are not working. Everyone things Broden will take off walking once he gets his tubes and is able to get his balance.

Raya went to the doctor on Monday and she has a blazing double ear infection and is on antibiotics which are given as shots, plus a steroid. She has an appointment with the ear specialist on March 8th. I am sure she will be getting tubes as well, I am just sorry the appointment can not be sooner.

1st Half of February

2010-02-10T09:21:00.004-06:00

Just a few things going on this first part of February. Raya has her two bottom teeth and I think one on her top may be trying to poke through. She is getting better at standing on her own and will now walk with fingers. Before she would only walk along a couch. She has had an ear infection and is finishing up anitbiotics on that. She still has a cold, so I fear the ear infection will come back (if it has even cleared up). She ways bye bye and will even say it sometimes. She loves to clap and her favorite game is peek-a-boo. She is getting better with her sippy cup. She is a funny eater. When she tries something new, we will give it to her on a fork, she will pull it out look at it, lay it down on the tray, play with it a bit then pick it back up and eat it. She is also a slow eater - Dennis says she is like her cousin Leslie.

Broden has taken 1-2 steps this past month. He will walk very short distances from chair to chair. Daycare claims he took 4-5 steps, but since I didn't see it, I don't count it. He has had a really bad ear infection that will not clear up. He had to get 3 antibiotic shots last week and is going to see an ear specialist on Friday the 12th so he will probably end up with tubes. He is a great eater has not said no to anything and he eats a lot! He has had some sad nights lately -waking up in the middle of the night, but we let him cry it out now that he is no longer sick. I feel awful, but know it is for the best. He will give you kisses which is just his open mouth coming straight at you - so they are pretty sloppy but I love them. I am sure Broden is thinking my Dad is crazy in this picture.

Oh and what to say about Kyrah. She is still as needy as ever - still has to have "Mommy Do It". She likes to bounce, dance, jump - anything that keeps her moving. She does still love to read books which we do every night for 30-40 minutes. She has moved her bedtime back to 7:30 now, the twins go to bed at 7. The odd thing is that even though the bedtimes are always the same someone gets up at 5 every morning and it is always someone different, well it is either Broden or Kyrah, Raya is a good sleeper. So Dennis and I just can't win on the sleeping in front. In this picture, she is doing this thing where we tell her to stand there so we can take her picture she stands for 1/2 a second then runs to me saying "I see Kyrah". So my pictures of Kyrah are always on the go now.

Ohh how they love their night time bottles. We are down to 3 bottles a day. Next week we are going to cut out one more bottle and replace it with a sippy cup. We are widdling down to no more bottles by one year old - woo hoo!!

This is Kyrah having her nighttime snack as a picnic on the floor. She loves having picnics. Just wait until we have one outside this summer.

Finally, Ray, Mommy and Grandma have entered themselves in the 3-generation look-a-like contest at the Ste. Genevieve Memorial Hospital. For anyone kid enough to vote for us, please go to this website and cast your vote.

http://www.stegenevievehospital.org/Pages/womens_health_fair/3Generation_Look_Alike.htm

The Worst Twins Ever!

2010-01-25T10:24:00.008-06:00

Before I get to what has been happening at the end of January here are a few sneak peaks at Broden and Raya's valentine photos. I want to send out a Valentine card and spent this weekend trying to get them to look at the camera in their Valentine shirts. Broden would not look at me, but Raya...What a model she was!!

Kyrah greets me everyday at the door with a wonderful "Mommy's Home - surprise? got surprise?" I gave her a surprise once a few months ago and she has not forgotten it. I do not bring home surprises that often, but had stopped at Wal-Mart this day and found a cowgirl hat on the clearence isle and thought Kyrah had to have it.

She loves her cowgirl hat and that is what she calls it.

Yes, it is the end of January and she is still wearing her Sanata jammies.

A little fun time in the mini trampoline. Kyrah's Christmas present. Kyrah likes it but Raya LOVES it. She laughes and laughs when she gets to sit in there and Kyrah bounces her. You just have to watch out that Kyrah doesn't bounce too much or get too rough. Lately, Kyrah has been huging or playing a little too rough with the babies. They like it up to a point until Kyrah starts laying on them.

Playing peek-a-boo by the door and turing on and off the light. A thing she loves to do.

Raya on a rocking horse. She really likes playing on this, hopefully soon she will be able to hold on by herself.

I took this picture to show Broden in his cool guy jeans and him practicing walking with the help of his little walker. Then low and behold on Jan 21, 2010 he took two steps to me. I would place him an arms length away and try to encourage him to walk to me. 95% of the time he would just fall into my arms, but two times he took a few steps to me. So we are working on that when we can. Raya is in no mood to walk. She won't even walk when holding on to someone's fingers. She will cruise along furniture, but that is it. She will stand by herself not holding on for a few seconds.

Ignore the deer in headlights look - I think the flash was surprising to him.

The second week of January was the illness week. All three where home at some point and into the doctors at some point. Raya was the worst with high fever, all three had coughs and all three were on various medicines. I am very sorry they were sick but thankful it was all in one week rather then stretching it out over a few weeks.

We are working on getting the twins off the bottle and baby food. I am taking away their afternoon formula bottle and switching it to whole milk. I did that this weekend and Broden loved the milk but I had to put it in a bottle. They drink out of a sippy cup, just not that great.

As for Kyrah - her language is more then I could have every hoped for -rarely do I not understand what she wants and she talks in long sentences and even gets her pronouns correct - I, me, you, etc. She is not even close to being potty trained, but we have all the stuff out and available to her. She tells us she has to go potty and we undress her and go through the routine, but so far nothing has actually gone in the potty. She is pretty bossy and has a lot of attitude, I am hoping with patience she will grow out of it. She is of course the worst when I am around but good when she has babysitters. Her favorite books by far are the three Llama Llama books. Another issue we have with her is that she has been getting up at 5 am the past two months. We tried adjusting her bedtime back a bit to 7:30 and that only made it worse. So we are at a lose on how to get her to sleep later in the morning. The majority of the time she is so cute you just want to squeeze her.

So as to my title. This weekend Dennis was feeding Raya and Broden and he said you two are the worst twins ever! And by that he meant - they have been 100% opposite on everything. Even still - Broden will eat pretty much anything that is given to him and eat a lot, while Raya will eat very little and not much variety. Broden is go go go, Raya sits back and observes, Raya has a tooth Broden has none. Broden has better large motor skills like walking, while Raya is better at fine motor skills - pincher grasp with thumb and little finger and ways Bye Bye. And just when you think you have them figured out, they switch. Broden was a bad sleeper and Raya was great, now they have switched. So when Daddy calls them the worst twins ever he just means you would expect with twins for something to be similar, but not in the case of Raya and Broden Kreitler. Even Grandpa once said "they are twins but there not..."

A little more catch up

2010-01-18T11:52:00.004-06:00

My pictures are spread out on 2 different cameras and 2 different phones so it has taken me awhile to put them all on my computer. Below are some more pictures from the holiday time that I wanted to share.

Raya and Broden have just recently discovered how fun it is to look out the window and here they are doing it together.

The Saturday after Christmas Aunt Connie had this grand idea to go to the Magic House. The group included, Connie, Grandma, Tina, Me for the adults and the kids were Kyrah, Raya, Broden, Nick and Lydia - not too bad odds. Except for the moment when I realized I forgot the meticously packed diaper bag at home, the day went well. Luckily I realized I had forgotten it on our way to the Magic House and just had to make a quick stop at Target to restock.

Kryah and Aunt Connie pretending to drive a truck.

Kyrah and Lydia playing in the sand.

Kryah playing in the water room - that was a huge challenge to get her to leave this room.

While Raya was taking a nap in the stroller, Broden enjoyed some free time in the Toddler area. I am sure those balls are clean as a whistle.

Kyrah loves snowmen and foud a few hanging out.

Lydia showing Kyrah the fun things to do.

This is pretty much where Broden and Raya hung out all day.

It was a great time and the new addition to the Magic House was very neat. Kyrah loved it - definitly needs to be on the to do list again.

Picture Update

2010-01-14T09:57:00.005-06:00

I have been slacking on adding the pictures to the blog so here are a bunch of photos of the past month.

A little play time on Daddy's bed.

Making Chocolate Chip Cookies with mommy - Kyrah loves to bake with Mommy. Best thing in a kids life - licking the beaters (and an adults too!).

Twins racing down the hall but stop to look back at the crazy lady yelling their names just so she can snap a picture.

A little present from Grandma - Bert and Ernie ballons.

Raya playing in the kitchen. This was Kyrah's present for her birthday last year and we must have given it to her too late in her age because she did not play with it much, but the twins love it.

Crawling through the tunnel.

His hair is so light compared to the others.

This is the normal bathtime fun. It would be easier and less messy with just two in the tub at once, but it seems like once we start bathtime, everyone wants in and crawls all over you until you put them in the tub, so we just do a three person bath routine.

And finally - happy belated New Year's to Everyone from the New Year's Baby.

First Snow 1-7-10

2010-01-14T09:17:00.002-06:00

Last week on the 7th of January we had the first real snow of the season. We got 4-5 inches and schools were closed both Thursday and Friday. Kyrah was very excited about the snow and watched it from the windows. She calls it "snowing" even if it is not actually falling - meaning if the snow is just on the ground and nothing is falling from the sky she will say "snowing out there" or "snowing on ground". Then she tells me it is white and it is cold - such a smarty!

So we put her in her snow suit and her new scarf, mittens, and hat she got from Christmas from Godfather Scott and out we went. She just wasn't quite sure about it at first. She just looked around, one time she bent over and picked up a little in her mittens. She tried walking in it and made it half way to daycare when she decided she was done and wanted to be picked up.

By Saturday, it warmed up slightly - to 25 degrees. Nick, Lydia and Broc took Kyrah out sleigh riding and Daddy went out with her. This time she liked it more. She liked the part of sledding when they went down the hill but didn't like stopping or crashing. And Daddy or Broc had to carry her back up the hill each time.

On more recent news. All three have been sick this week. Each of them have a bad cough, Kyrah had a sore throat, Broden had a double ear infection and now Raya has had a fever the past two days. She is running 101 to 102 temps. I stayed home with her on Wednesday and Grandma has her today. Waiting to hear from the doctor if she needs to be seen again or if they will just prescribe something over the phone. Kyrah and Broden have been on meds since Monday and seem to be doing better.

Just a note - Daddy stayed home with Kyrah and Broden on Tuesday. When I got home with Raya every single toy we owned was on the floor and every book possible was on the floor - from door to door, pillows thrown about, chairs at different spots.... he said it was the longest day ever. Oh you gotta love men!

First Tooth

2010-01-04T14:56:00.001-06:00

Before I forget the date Raya got her first tooth on January 2, 2010. Bottom, front left side. Raya beat Broden at something, well she clapped first too.

Christmas Day

2010-01-04T12:35:00.010-06:00

Christmas morning started out at 5:30 as usual. This time it was Kyrah and Raya who woke up first. Santa brought all these presents just for the kids. Kyrah's first words were "look mommy presents". I thought she would want to tear into them but she waited a bit. I told her we had to wait for Broden to wake up then we could open them. Luckily, he didn't make her wait too long and by 6 am they were tearing into them.

Raya actually liked crawling on the boxes more then opening the actual present. And of course she liked playing with the paper.

Oh look at that - A new Leap Frog activity table - lots of lights, music and things to push, pull, open and spin.

Her eshe is crawling around on the presents. Nothing was breakable so it was fine.

A view of all three. Broden was a little slow to get in the process, mainly because he was still waking up. But he got into it after a few minutes.

After presents and breakfast, the twins went to their crib to nap. Kyrah wanted to watch her new Barney movie and during the movie, Mommy and Kyrah fell asleep. Ahh a nice little power nap to help us get through the day.

Around 10:30 we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's for Christmas Dinner. Here is the family photo. We are missing Broc, he did not get to come until 1 pm, but I had to get a photo while everyone was still clean.

Propst Grandkids Christmas 2009...(minus Broc).

After a fun day at Grandma's and Broc finally got to come out and enjoy as well, we headed home around 5 that night. Santa brought more presents under the downstairs Christmas tree and this time Broc had presents as well. Kyrah got a brand new table. It has the Disney princesses on it but she calls it her Santa table. I guess because we told her Santa brought it. But it has proven to be her favorite present yet.

Broc and Daddy horsing around.
Broden practicing standing on his own.

Kyrah and Raya playing on the table. It is actually a dry erase table so Kyrah can mark on it, although she marks on herself quite a bit as well.

Raya and Broden enjoying some toy time.

Overall I think Raya and Broden had a great first Christmas. Kyrah really enjoyed her second Christmas and Broc is still enjoying Christmas even after 14 years.