Snow!!!!!!!

Two days ago we got some more fresh snow. Here is "the boss" getting down to work.

She even pointed out to us what to do!

Caitlyn learned a new word to go with winter weather in the last few weeks. She learned what a snowplow is, and that when it snow's her daddy is at work in his. She likes it when she gets to see him in the "big truck".

A Keller Christmas.

This past weekend we also celebrated Christmas with my family. My Aunt Sharon, and Uncle Phillip are kind enough to have all of the Keller's and Paglia's over for a meal. After dinner we all exchange gifts. It's great to be able to get everyone together.

Caitlyn had a great time "playing with" her great-uncle Steve.

Caitlyn and her cousin Abbigail love to see each other. They have a fun time when they are around each other.

Making christmas cookies!

This past weekend our friend Amy and her son James came over and baked an enormous amount of cookies with Bridgit and Caitlyn.

The kids had fun, they even helped to clean up.

After awhile Caitlyn had herself pretty worn out.

The kids took a break to play with the toys in the toy box, literally in the toy box.

Visiting with Santa.

We took Caitlyn to the mall to see Santa last week. She was excited until it was actually her turn, then she was not very fond of sitting with him at first.

After she saw Santa, Chris and Caitlyn rode together on the little Christmas train.

Merry Christmas to all!

This past week we finally attempted to get our holiday picture done, her are some of the pictures. Here is Caitlyn and her friend Stacia posing together with the bear.

Here's Caitlyn and our Christmas bear.

At last the Keller family.

We hope you all have a safe, warm, and happy holiday season!

Chirstmas with the Staves

Over Thanksgiving my family decided to have Christmas also since Lacey was able to make it home. We all had a great time and the kids really enjoyed playing together. Caitlyn and Ebanie really got along and poor Nathaniel was trying hard to play with them but they kept locking him out of the room. Those girls.. I don't know what we will do with them.

Here are some random pictures. We had hoped to get a good group picture of the kids but someone always seemed to be sleeping at the time we could take a picture. Next time we will learn to take it right away in the morning rather then waiting for the meal or gifts. Caitlyn didn't even get to open gifts with everyone she was so tired. She pulled me upstairs, sat on the couch with me and was asleep in two minutes. Slept from 6:00pm to pretty much the next morning at 7:30 with the exception of 30 minutes she woke up when Grandma left.




Yes, we have manners most of the time but the roof looked so good!




Aidden and her barbie..



Uncle Josh and Aunt Lindsay



Lindsay took a picture of us before the fun began....



Caitlyn and Ebanie loved bouncing on the bed together.

Fun was had by all!

Chris's Adventures

As many are aware now, Chris took at the adventure of joining Farrell's Extreme Bodyshaping. Let me tell you, he did take it to the extreme but it paid off for him 100%. Most people don't recognize him at first anymore and he looks great.

Here is a link to the website if you want to check out the winning pictures.

http://www.extremebodyshaping.com/winners.php

Then change the All Locations drop down to be Waukee and the All Sessions to be Fall. Pretty darn impressive.

As part of the new Chris, he has been running also and the weekend before Thanksgiving ran an Extreme Cross Country race with our neighbor Shane. Here are some pics that Ann took since I couldn't make it to the race.

The guys before the race....

After the race.. if you look closely you can see some of the mud on their clothes.


This is a huge accomplishment for Chris and I can't express how proud I am of him and for being able to keep it up. Mr Universe better watch out cause Chris is on a mission...

Autumn days

Hopefully everyone is enjoying the awesome weather like we have been getting. On Sunday the temperatures were prefect and we spent most of the day outside. I decided to rake some of the leaves up in the front yard and of course I had a little helper.

Chris decided it would be a good day to work on the Christmas lights. He put them up but we won't be turning them on until after Thanksgiving!

If you can't tell, someone isn't to fond of heights but he got the job done!

Halloween

Caitlyn loved the thought of going trick or treating, especially the candy part of it! She had two different costumes to pick from and for Beggar's Night she went with the Poodle. It was a perfect night for going out. Chris took Caitlyn around the block and she came home with a bucket full of candy, thank goodness she didn't want to go to more houses in the neighborhood!



Of course we had to get pictures with Grace and Faith!



Caitlyn loves her blow up pumpkins! Every night when they were out, she had to say goodnight to them before heading to bed. It was pretty cute!

Caitlyn with Lexie and Stacia (two of her favorite babysitters) on the afternoon of the neighborhood parade.

As you can see from the video, Caitlyn had a blast in the parade and Chris said she ran almost the entire route. At one point, she even tried to pass the cop car that was leading the group. Maybe we have another runner on our hands!

The Dentist!!!

Bridgit took Caitlyn for her first visit to the dentist last month. It went alright until they tried to actually clean her teeth. That part did not go so well!

New furniture.

Early this spring we decided to order a new set of bedroom furniture. We found a really nice Amish man in Wisconsin who had some pieces that we liked. We thought there will never be a better time, so we ordered them. We were looking forward to having a full set that matched. Well, flash forward 5 months and it was finished. We borrowed a trailer headed for Chippewa to see the family, and brought the furniture home with us.

As you can see Caitlyn approved of our new bed.

The furniture turned out really nice. It was so much bigger than our old used stuff. Plus it was all the same color. Chris even got a chiffarobe so all his work clothes could finally fit in something, instead of on top of something.

Mia and Logans birthday party.

This past weekend we got together with some of our friends to celebrate Logan and Mia's birthdays, in Glenwood. Here we all are at the pumpkin patch.

Mia, Caitlyn, and Kenna on a hay rack ride.

Caitlyn found her own pumpkin with "grandma" Webber.

Kenna's was a little bit bigger.

Progress on the Shed!

As many of you know we have been building a shed on our acreage to store our camper, and other things in. Their was some turnover in the company doing the work, so we got delayed again. However, we are finally seeing some real progress. It might be done before Christmas after all.

Famous Caitlyn Sayings

A friend at work gave me an idea to capture some of the funny phrases that Caitlyn has started to bring into our lives.

1. "You wait right there, I be right back" I couldn't believe it when this came out of her mouth and gaurenteed I did not keep a straight face
2. "Don't worry, I fine" Of course this was said to her dad as he was trying to help her do something his way.
3. "I'm not going to bed, I don't like it" Of course you can guess when this comes up
4. "I want to go home" Of course this is said about 20 minutes into any trip we take and as most of you know, our trips are usually several hours long. Then when we finally do get home, I all we hear is "I want to go to Aunt Wacey's (Lacey translated)" That was the last place we went so she is always wanting to go back.
5. "What Happen" If she sees a scratch or you look upset, you can count on this coming at you.

As I think of more I will need to add to this and make a top 10 listing or something like that.

2nd Birthday

I can't believe that my baby girl is already 2 years old. Realistically, she has been in the terrible two's for quite some time but I really think they got worse after Saturday! Is that possible?!?!? We celebrated on Saturday with a group of our friends and then on Sunday with Chris's family. I believe fun was had by all. You will see from the pictures, that her dad has spoiled her and gotten her a bounce house. The limit on it says 250 pounds so of course he had to try it out, didn't go so hot and of course I didn't have the camera to see the house closing in on him. When he jumped in, the connection to the air blower came off and down came the house. Good thing Caitlyn wasn't there to see that happen.







I will put a few pictures of the party in here so everyone can enjoy them.


The bounce house






My Mom had gotten Caitlyn this trampoline for her b-day and some of the other kids were trying it out also. I am a bad neighbor and can't tell for sure which twin this is. My guess is Jenny so I am sorry if I got it wrong! :)






Every gift got the same gasp of air as she opened it. It was pretty funny but hard to capture on camera.






The cake eating.. you can see that things were going to good but then....




Someone (Johanna) gave her the idea that her Care Bear could so swimming in the ice cream after it melted. Thanks! :)







You can almost see it in Jayden's eyes "Man your going to be getting into some big trouble". But don't let you be fooled by that innocent look on his face....




James just wanted to get involved in it also. His mom thought it was all funny while Caitlyn was getting dirty, but as soon as the red headed boys started to join in, it wasn't as funny any more. Right Amy!!!


I didn't get any pictures of it, but by the time the Flugge-Smith's left our house. The three kids (Jayden, Caitlyn and James) had so much sand on them that I think we might need to put some more in the sand box. But they had a blast and the parents learned to just let it go and let them have fun!