Hello Handsome

You'll have to forgive me for posting so many photos of Kean.

But I just couldn't pick only one.

My mom got him this tie for Christmas

and he looked so darn cute.....

Enough already.  How much cuteness can a boy be expected to ooze?



Christmas Day Highlights

Christmas morn found the plate of cookies and carrots

left for Santa and his reindeer clearly gobbled up. 

And bonus:  a note from the big guy telling them to be good!

 Last year, we had our good friends, Mike and Shannon Angus

join us for the early  morning mayhem.  We must not have

scarred them too badly, because they came back for more.

 Santa came through again.  Phew!  Holland got her much

requested camera.  And Greer and Reese hit the Barbie doll bonanza with this wooden mansion.

Look closely on the right, it actually has an elevator.  Tiny Reese needs a stool to see the top floor!

 As for Kean, he got into unwrapping about 1/2 of one present and then he was bored.

But he did like his new race car set and the shape sorter Aunt Rachel and Uncle Marc got him.

 And then there was Byron.  He got sent on a scavenger hunt that led him to Grammy and Grandpa Leavitt's garage.  Hiding inside? A new snow mobile sled-- yiiippppeeee!

Hope everyone had as merry a Christmas as we did.

Christmas Eve

As requested, here's a picture of the ol' girl on her two feet again.  She looks great at a distance.

 And I couldn't resist showing a picture of what the girls helped me make.  The critics say they were as yummy as they were cute.

 On Christmas Eve, we had our traditional gathering with in place of dinner-- all appetizers and desserts-- one of my favorite meals of the year.  We also attempted (and it always turns out really irreverent) our version of the Christmas Story.  Aunt Dana read from the Bible, while Holland-- acting as a donkey carried in Reese/Mary, with Morgan/Joseph at her side.  That's Ken and Nedra (Dana's parents) on the couch.

 Baby Kean was a somewhat cooperative Baby Jesus.

 Greer and Katie were our Angels again.  With Derek our lone Shepherd and Lindsey as the single Wise Lady.

 The Moomey's served as part one of the audience.

 With the Bodily's acting as part 2.

 When the stage production was over, the kids opened up their traditional Christmas Eve pajamas from Grammy (my mom).  This year she brought them all shirts from Guatemala and made them pants.  Pretty cute, eh?  The pajamas and the kids.

Merry Christmas Everyone

 When I went to the funeral for my cousin, something had to give and that something was getting Christmas cards out this year. 

So the best I can do is drag out an "oldie but a goldie" from 3 years ago.

Have a wonderful day with your family or loved ones.  Merry Christmas!

Creativity gone amok

After the great Christmas Tree Crash of 2010, we are back on track with our holidays.  We picked up on our yearly tradition of decorating a gingerbread house (while trying to leave enough candy uneaten to actually put on the house)!

 Kean supervised from the floor.  He has taken to rolling and rolling and rolling.. well you get the idea.  (His therapist thinks he'll be crawling within a few weeks, so stay tuned).

 Voila!  The finished piece of art with some very sticky hands to show for the hard work!

 And finally, a little more art for you to stare at.  The girls showed off their handiwork with this hairstyle on Kean.  He actually had two more pony tails in the back.  Nice........

Party Central

Today was the last day of school for the girls until 2011.  And I don't think there was much learning going on.  Greer came home and said her day was "AWESOME"...  between hot cocoa, a party, watching a movie and on and on... I'd have said the same thing.
Elly picked Reese up this afternoon.  On her birthday back in July, she had promised she'd take Reese out for a movie-- and finally, one came out that was just perfect for her.  They went to see Tangled, the new Disney flick about Rapunzel.  Reese loved it!  And I got lots of presents wrapped-- so I loved it too!

 I attempted to get a picture of Kean's front tooth making its debut.  Sorry it's so bad.  Greer says it looks like I'm picking his nose.  I'm not.

 And finally, we'd like to introduce you to our newest family members-- Greer and Reese named this one Comet-- because it's Christmas time.

And Holland named this lil' boy Skid Steer, Skid  for short.  I, personally, was hoping they'd go for Sir Loin and Sir Ribeye.

So if you are counting, let's see, that brings us to a mom and a dad, three girls, one boy, one dog, one rabbit, two cows and 20 thousand bees.

We Love Our Boy!

Maureen, one of Kean's therapists brought a new toy this week-- a bin full of fake snow.  It was the coolest stuff, cold but not freezing and soft.  I guess she ordered it off the Internet and just had to add water.  I think the pictures will show you how much Kean liked this new type of therapy.

Clearly, he had a grand time.  After sensory playtime, it was work time.  We are getting closer and closer to getting him into a sitting position on his own.  And he's also getting closer to crawling.  We just keep practicing both over and over again, knowing one of these days it will all click.
I took him to the Pediatric Ear, Nose and Throat doc.  Looks like Kean has an earache in both ears.  Crazy, I'd never had known.  He doesn't complain.  He's still our happy boy most of the time!