Sometimes I just Keel myself

Just a Random Spattering

2011-04-20T20:22:00.015-06:00

So I understand that it's bad form to include more than one topic in a blog entry, but you guys are just happy when I post something right? Right. Okay then, just understand this is a hodgepodge of silly pictures and not my best creative work.

This is what our last Saturday night looked like. Rockin' it out!

This is Charlie's latest silly face. He is a total goofball.

Just him lookin' dang cute.

Charlie is sooooo attached to these creatures - Bear and Doggie. He has to have them when he sleeps and as soon as he wakes up he gathers them up in the crooks of his arms before he does anything else. Does Bear look familiar? He was also Joshy's bear. Speaking of attached, I thought I had lost it one day at a bowling alley. When I went back to see if he was still there, I started crying. The 15 year old employee probably thought I was crazy - and I probably am.

His shirt says "I do all my own stunts" and he's not kidding. Charlie will climb anything, jump off of anything, and pretty much do anything that his big brother will. He's insane; by far the toughest 20 monther in the neighborhood.

Charlie loves to sit by Josh and work. He knows a couple letters and has mastered drawing the "O" and "I". Josh loves to work on projects all day too. He makes valentines, collages and pictures of superheroes. He sounds out words and writes them all by himself. Like just the other day he wrote "BAD GI" and "SUPRMAN".

Fake smiles. Hee hee.

Playing Play-doh together. These moments make me melt every time. I love their stinkin' guts.

Ha ha. I tricked you into looking at my tulips.

Nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh ... BATMAN!

2011-03-05T20:31:00.011-07:00

So, my little Josh-bean is four. He said he wanted a batman party, so I did my best. Every kid that came got an official batman cape and tool belt. We decorated bat planes and had a bat plane throwing contest. We also bowled for bad guys (pictures of villains taped to 20 oz. soda bottles).

I was hoping that cupcakes would kill some time, but four-year-olds can down a cupcake in about 30 seconds it turns out. Note to self for the next birthday party.

Joshy got to open a few small gifts.

Then they flew out the door for a bat hunt. This was my favorite part, because they were running around so fast, their capes were billowing. They seemed to think it was fun as well.

Jake helped me create this tunnel into our "bat cave" out of butcher paper and our kitchen table. Upon entering the party, each kid had to become batman before crawling through our secret entrance. It seemed like a good idea at the time and Josh loved it, but I swear every kid bumped his head on the table going through and entered the party crying. Another note to self.

I'm not a master cake baker like some of you (Hill/Jolynn), but I hope to acquire the talent someday. In fact, this was my first round birthday cake ever. I had to go buy new round cake pans. And I thought I was pretty cool for free handing the batman symbol with a frosting tip. All in all I would consider the party a success. Josh was sooo happy and that made me really happy. However, I can't believe he's four ... that makes me just a little bit sad.

A Day in the Life

2011-01-22T20:59:00.020-07:00

Hi everybody! It's Liz. I know, don't freak out. Have you seen this painting by Norman Rockwell before? I love it. If I were rich, I'd buy it for the boys' room. I just thought I'd borrow the idea and give you a glimpse into my boys' world rather than a REALLY long catch-up post. Here goes.......

A day in the life of Josh:

Wake up and head outside. Help Dad shovel the driveway and sidewalk if there's been snow. Lately, it's been dumping.

All work and no play makes Josh a dull boy.

Head to preschool at Miss Kristi's and make some ridiculously cute craft that you'll demand to keep in your room for the requisite 3 months before finally forgetting you have it and not noticing that your Mom snuck it to the garbage. What?

Eat nothing off your lunch plate and make yourself a cozy bed somewhere in the house (under the crib, in a beanbag, on two kitchen chairs pushed together) just in time to fall asleep.

Wake up and play with friends - usually best friend Jonah. This box is a transformer. When asked what it transforms into, you reply "a box". duh.

Eat dinner. Your favorite being anything with sticky rice. Seriously, did it have to be sticky rice?

Have a bath. Make something to show Daddy. This is an x-ray. Run laps with Charlie around the house for about 20 minutes and then...

Fall fast asleep surrounded by your "creatures".

A day in the life of Charlie:

Wake up happy and eat twice the breakfast that your big brother eats.

Where does all that food go? Your hair?

Head outside to play with your brother. There's a rule in my house; nobody gets real snow clothes until they're at least 2 feet tall.

Play in Joshy's room and read books while he's in preschool. Yes...that is a jet pack 3000.

Play everywhere else and make big messes until Daddy gets home.

Eat dinner with the family (and again eat twice what Josh does) being very careful to use your best table manners.

No it doesn't matter how many times you ask. I'm not going to tell you what's on that finger.

Have a bath. Have a story. Run laps with Josh until you collapse in exhaustion at the very late hour of 7:00.

So there you go. I hope your homes are as dirty and happy as mine. Now I'm going to go collapse in my own bed.

Trip to Overton

2010-03-29T21:52:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago I was able to take a Friday off of work and we made a 3 day weekend trip to Overton. The major activity we did was make a trip into Vegas and see some of the things on the strip that Liz hadn't ever been able to see. We also hit up a Barffet, but we steered clear of the one at the Luxor ( Yemenyade and a Roosta Bee-ah). It was right around the time of Joshy's birthday, so Grammy Jo and Bampa took him to build-a-bear, where we did our best to keep him from picking something hideous. Apart from Vegas, it was mostly just a nice, relaxing trip where we could watch a movie, get in the hot tub, and just take it easy. So, on to the pictures...

Josh was very excited to get to build his own bear.

The initial bear selection was the crucial moment that needed lots of input from us. The Saint Patrick's day bear and the Kitty Cat were very enticing to Joshy.

Choosing an outfit was less dangerous, as you can see, but he changed his mind about 15 times.

In the end it was Batman. When it was time to give the bear a name, Josh said "Batman!".

Charlie was getting bored, but still being good, even though he wasn't the center of attention.

Grammy and Bampa did their best to entertain as we walked through the many casinos.

The last thing we did was visit a fun garden at the Bellagio with giant ants and yard things.

He showed us what those ants were doing. Everyone around laughed out loud.

He loves his Bampa.

And this is how the day ended.

Playing Ketchup

2010-01-31T20:29:00.000-07:00

We know we haven't updated in a very long time. Lizzy has started up teaching ballet again, Josh has been steadily gaining in Potty Power, and I've been sick since the trip to Overton ( I got better this week ). Charles is mastering the Exersaucer and coughing for attention. We'll have to do a better job of posting the little things we go through week to week in the future, but for now here's a bunch of pictures we've taken over the past couple of months.

Two happy boys.

Joshy on snow day.

He wanted to give him a hug.

Charlie studying.

Josh loves my old Legos.

Playing "big chess". Josh knows all the pieces including the "Ping Pawns" and the "Rooktangles".

Charlie can only look and wish.

Josh and his tinfoil football helmet. The Heisman pose just isn't the same when you have a grin like that on your face.

And now for a game. What is this a picture of? Scroll down to see the answer.

Made you look!

And just a few of Charlie...

2009-10-31T21:36:00.000-06:00

We didn't have any pics of Charlie on Halloween, so here's some we took recently...

Charlie on blessing day.

OK, we had to include this one. That's mom's boot thingy on his head.

All Hallows' Eve

2009-10-31T21:06:00.000-06:00

Well, everybody is going to be posting their Halloween stuff, so we thought we'd get a jump on it. Friday we went to the Omniture party and had a blast. Charlie fell asleep and Josh went from area to area loving every minute of it (except for the pirates in the Peter Pan scene and any witch we happened to run into). We went straight from there to Lizzy's extended family party. Liz's costume was a huge hit. When we walked in people started gathering around, laughing in amazement/disgust. There was good food and lots of games for the kids.

Today we took turns taking Josh around the neighborhood. At first he was very excited and was saying "Happy Halloween, Kid!" to everybody we ran into. He liked looking around at all the other costumes he recognized. After a while, though, he kind of pooped out, and we ended up sitting on the porch with him the rest of the night handing out candy. All in all it was a fun weekend. Here's some pics:

Junice from the SNL Lawrence Welk show spoof.

Stuart from Mad TV.

Lizzy's major award.

Sinead O'Connor

Liz made this entire costume, minus the inflatable wings.

Josh will be eating candy for a long time coming (as if he needs any more energy).

Latest on the boys

2009-10-11T08:10:00.000-06:00

Well, Charlie is now 2 months along and is doing better. We thought he was lactose intolerant so Liz removed all dairy from her diet for 3 weeks. It turns out that it really wasn't doing much - he was just naturally growing out of his tummy troubles. Then we spent a solid week of being sick. At one time all 4 of us were miserable. But I guess it's better that we got it all out of the way at the same time! Anyway, we've still been able to get out and enjoy the fall. Here are some of the latest pictures, some from our pumpkin patch outing yesterday. Some of the pictures of Charlie are a few weeks old:

This was a few weeks ago. He's started smiling a lot after he eats.

A friend brought us a giant zucchini and Josh turned it into his "Kini Baby". It's sad to say it but we even allowed him to sleep with it at night. We couldn't bring ourselves to tell him where he went when we had to eat it.

It's this grin that reminds me of Hill.

Our sand castle project. It took many sand pile days to make it.

This is his usual contemplative look.

We've started to get occasional laughs from him.

Clinging to his momma.

Josh likes the pumpkins and the wagons.

"You talkin' to me?"

Macaulay Culkin sighting!

2009-08-28T22:06:00.000-06:00

Me and Josh went into a Panda Express to pick up dinner tonight. When we walked up to order, the two workers there looked at us, looked at each other kind of funny like, then asked "Has anyone ever told you your son looks like that kid on Home Alone?" I said "In fact, yes." ( Naughty Cass used to say "Kevin, you're such a disease!" ) One of the workers kept trying to get Josh to do the famous aftershave scream, but Josh was acting shy. She even bribed him with a handful of fortune cookies but he still wouldn't do it. Once I got him strapped in to go home then he did it, but it was too late for the fortune cookie jackpot!

Joshie Time

2009-08-27T20:23:00.000-06:00

With my paternity leave I've also been able to spend a lot of time with Josh, who's been adjusting to a new brother very well. He's very concerned about him when he cries, and always wants to say hi in the morning when he wakes up. Anyway, here's a sample of what we've been up to:

Getting ready for a day of fun.

Josh plays in his sand pile at least once a day.

Coloring with his mom.

Tummy time.

As Joshie would say "Wee hoo ride em' cowboy!"

3 Weeks Old

2009-08-27T20:08:00.000-06:00

Well, Charlie is 3 weeks old tomorrow. He still is trying to get his days and nights figured out, but other than that he's been a good little boy. He eats a lot. In fact, at his two week checkup the doctor had expected him to gain enough weight to get back to birth weight. Well, he passed that by a pound and 3 ounces, so now he tips the scales at 8 pounds 4 ounces. That's about it for now, so on to the pics:

Notice the big bloated belly.

He's starting to get a round little head like Josh had.

You can't see it good, but he's workin' on his second chin. If I'm not mistaken, I had quite a double chin as a baby.

Sometimes we call him 'The Hotdog'. I don't know, he just looks like a little tube steak.

Charlie's Here!

2009-08-09T20:32:00.000-06:00

Well, looks like we'll have to come up with a new name for the blog. Charlie Merrick Keel was born at 3:23 pm on August 7th, 2009. He weighed 7 pounds 1 ounce, and was 18.5 inches long. Everything was as good as you could hope in a birth, and him and his mom are both doing very well.

So before I get to the pictures I guess I'll mention some interesting things about him. First off, his nickname is officially "Squeaker", since when he whimpers and cries it just sounds like squeaking. The pediatrician that checked him out said that when he does the normal checkups, sometimes something in particular stands out. He said that he was very surprised by how strong Charlie was! He likes to turn his head and look at whoever is doing the talking. He actually like to move his head around a lot, and he's strong enough to hold it up for a few seconds. He eats really good when we can keep him from falling asleep. And that's all I can think about for now, so on to the pictures:

Right after he was born. He was pretty angry.

Opening his eyes for the first time.

Waiting for his checkup and bath.

He passes the time by sucking on his fingers.

Josh meets his baby brother for the first time.

He pointed out his eyes, nose, and mouth then proceeded to say "It's a baby dinosaur!"

Who do you think he looks like?

Birthday pics coming soon...

2009-03-03T10:49:00.000-07:00

Joshie had his 2nd birthday party last Sunday. We took a few pictures that I can put up, but for now you'll have to settle for this:

Dramatic Chipmunk

2009-01-21T23:12:00.000-07:00

Apparently this video has been around for quite a while now, but I only just found it. It's called "Dramatic Chipmunk" and it's only 5 seconds long, but me and Liz were laughing out loud. Be sure you have the sound up, cause that's half the fun.

The Keels visit

2009-01-21T22:39:00.000-07:00

Grammy Jo, Bampa, and Doozie all came and stayed with us over the 3 day weekend. They got to see the new house for the first time and also got to see Joshie in his element. We had lots of fun going out on the town during the day then coming home and watching movies at night. Every morning Josh would wake up before everyone else. When we'd go in to get him he'd ask "Where Bapa? Where Yetzi?" Here are a few pictures.

We went to the mall and had lots of fun. Bampa kind of spoiled Joshie. Sorry the picture's blurry.

Josh loved the escalators. I think we all took a turn going up and down with him.

Later we went to the park since Bampa wasn't allowed to go sledding. So we pulled Joshie around.

...and Grammy Jo

The Utahns. This is a view of the back of our house from the park.

Are you ready for some football!!!

Catch-Up Pictures

2009-01-21T22:27:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures we've taken over the past couple months. Unfortunately, our camera is looking like it's going to stop working any day now. It's becoming more and more fussy, and the pictures more and more crappy. If we have to replace it we might not be able to afford to for a few months.

Joshie's favorite spot for watching his "shows"

He's a happy boy

We fell asleep right before his bed time

Feeding his new dinosaur Christmas morning

Lizzie and Josh at the park during our Christmas visit.

Jedi Bean

2008-12-02T20:47:00.000-07:00

Joshie has been watching a lot of Star Wars recently. He's seen all but Episode 3. He likes to get his baseball bat and swing it around while saying "Wha-pshhh, wha-pshhh". I'm betting that by next Halloween we'll have to make a Luke Skywalker costume.

Here's some content...

2008-12-02T20:13:00.000-07:00

This post isn't really about anything - just to get some pictures up that we've taken in the past few months. Hopefully I can get in the habit of posting a few pictures of things when they happen.

Joshie with Grandpa Keel

With Grandpa Willoughby

Playing guitar with dada

With Lizzie on the new lot during construction

Playing in his new house

Fine! We surrender!

2008-10-29T09:40:00.000-06:00

Due to the pressures of our families we have finally caved and created a blog. The goal of this blog will simply be to keep people more up to date about the big stuff going on in our lives, especially those people we don't get to see very often. If we CAN see you often but just don't, we'd much rather have you come visit and play games than look at our blog. So only look at our blog if you can't come see us in person. :)