Swimming at Patty's

So last Saturday the kids and I packed up and headed to one of my co-worker's home while Eric saw a few clients. Patty lives in a beautiful home in Moline complete with an indoor pool and an elevator!!  We met 2 of my other co-workers and their kids and boy did we have a GRAND time.  What preschooler doesn't love to swim and ride in elevators!  Kennon was the youngest with the oldest being Ava who is about 5. Patty was gracious enough to hang onto Maddox while I managed Kennon in one of Patty's little baby floaties.  Kennon LOVED the water especially after we took him out of the floaty. He didn't mind the floaty and actually stayed in there for quite a while but then really went to town splashing after Patty took him out.  Maddox couldn't touch but was happy to splash around with a life jacket on. We definitely need to get her back into swim lessons. It has been almost 2 years since she was in lessons and it shows.  Patty's husband Scott was even kind enough to get in the pool too!  Always nice to have an extra set of hands and eyes when you are dealing with small kids in the water.  Patty and Scott have tons of pool toys including squirt guns, noodles, and balls and their pool even has a waterfall!!  It was super fun. After the swimming we had yummy snacks. Patty had made the kids fruit kabobs and had individual Sunny D juice bottles.  What a fun snack.  Kennon even got in on the action and enjoyed his puffs and zippy cup up at the bar with the big kids. I didn't get a lot of great pictures ( too many hands needed to man the kids in the water) but got a few to mark some memories. Maddox and Kennon both took MEGA naps when we got home.  Maddox slept until 4:30 after arriving home about 12:30 and Kennon slept until 5!! I almost had to wake him up to get going to church. Maddox woke up from her nap saying 'I wanna go back to the pool again'! And even now she will randomly ask to go to the pool again.  THANKS to Patty and Scott for hosting us all. We had a great time. Quick potty update-we have had a significant regression in the last 48 hours. For some weird reason Maddox is going in her undies.  Not even enough to go through to her pants but enough to get a NEW pair of undies.   In fact she is almost excited to get a new pair.  I am so devastated. It has literally been WEEKS since she had an accident.  I emailed our potty training lady to get her suggestions but in the meantime we have resurrected the potty charts on the bathroom door and are being very rewarding with mm's again. We had sort of let the charts go and were only given her mm's when she was dry in the AM. But, it is back to the more formal training again. I have no idea why she made this switch literally overnight. Interestingly she was completely dry at school yesterday. Hmmmmm. Friday night Eric and I had a date night while our great babysitter Jennifer watched the kids. Maddox loves Jennifer and we hope Kennon will grow up to love her too.  Maddox always ask for her to come back when she wakes up the next morning.  Work has been significantly slower which has allowed me to get back to the Y regularly during the week and plan date nights with Eric!! It is nice to finally schedule in some much needed adult and solo time. Just makes life more pleasant for us all, especially after a nice glass of wine :) The kids have been napping and sleeping fairly well although Kennon had some EARLY mornings the last week but he seems to be back on a better streak the last 2 nights. I shot the video of Kennon last night. He was so enamored with Eric stacking up the cups.  Super cute.  Maddox decided to share her sunglasses with Kennon on Monday while we were out getting some sunshine and burning off some energy.  I really have to get him a boy pair!! But, then again I'm not sure that would really help. She loves to put hers on him. I think there are going to be more and more pictures of Kennon dressed up in girly stuff. I can see it now....bows and lipstick!! We'll have to make sure he gets plenty of dirt, truck, and tractor time!! He loves to be up on his feet and almost tries to stand up from a crawling position. I think he'll be walking soon.  I found him today sitting right in front of the outlet I normally use for the vaccuum. He had managed to get the little safety plug in thing OUT and was waving it in front of himself like a toy. He gave me a big sneaky grin when I grabbed it from him and stuck it back in the outlet!!  Sure that won't be the last time that I find him near the outlet.  He is such a boy.  I am so surprised by the differences in Maddox and Kennon. Maddox never even hardly touched the outlets.  Maddox hates for her hands to be dirty and the teachers in Kennon's room say he goes over to the sensory table looking for things to get his hands dirty with!!  Really amazing.  We are so blessed to have been lucky enough to have a boy and a girl.  We realize it doesn't always happen that way!!  Take care for now!!

St. Louis

Hmmmm since I last posted a lot has happened at the Kies house. Most significantly we did some traveling which proved to be very pleasant despite the addition of a moving, active, AGGRESSIVE 10 month old. Last Friday we headed down to St. Louis for the much anticipated 1/2 marathon. We stopped half way at Wendys for dinner. Maddox has been doing soooo well with her pottying. NO accidents during the day for weeks! But, she has ( had) a fear of public toilets. I didn't get a picture but I"m sure it would have been priceless....seeing Maddox doing her business on her little potty right in the middle of the Wendy's parking lot. Little did I know that by the end of the weekend the FEAR would be gone. Saturday morning we met up with Aunt Diane, Uncle Brian and cousin Hannah. We had planned to go to the famous St. Louis zoo but the weather apparently did not get the memo so we headed to the mall instead. It was there that Maddox miraculously learned how to go to on the public potty. I finally learned Aunt Diane's trick!! She was secretively telling the potty to 'be quiet'. Who would have thought something that simple would calm Maddox's flush fears and allow her to do her business on the public potty. It has literally worked every since. Thank you Aunt Diane!!! We celebrated Uncle Brian's birthday Saturday night with a carb filled dinner and strawberry cupcakes with bright pink icing whisked up by Maddox and Aunt Diane. Maddox got to SIT on the counter AND help Aunt Diane break the eggs into the batter. What a special treat. Sunday morning Brian picked Eric and I up to head to the race while Hannah and Diane got the kids ready to go down and be spectators. I must admit I had some reservations with Diane attempting to get the kids dressed, fed, and loaded up in the car seats to head down to the big city but she did it with flying colors. Maddox and Kennon got to see us 'buzz' by them at mile 12 just before the finish. I use the word buzz in italics....because I wasn't really buzzing by that point. I didn't have the best run but finished nonetheless. Eric did super as did Brian for his first 1/2 marathon. Way to go boys!! I am hoping to redeem myself at the Distance Classic half marathon on Mother's Day in the Quad Cities. We packed up back at the hotel after the race, grabbed some Taco Bell ( nothing like a good burrito post 13 miles) and headed to Keokuk to do some visiting with Grandma Doris and the Kies clan. The kids were SO ready to get out of the car when we arrived Sunday afternoon. They got their energy out by crawling/running around Grandma Doris' house like crazy. We had a yummy dinner and then hit the hay. Monday morning we hopped in the car one last time and headed home. It was a great weekend and so nice to be away. Thanks to the Gillaspies and the Kies for the great food and hospitality. The kids did GREAT in the car. Kennon slept the majority of all the car rides and Maddox was entertained by the DVD player and various videos ( I think I can pretty much site 'Horton Hears a Who' from memory now). Unfortunately Kennon did not sleep much at all at night while we were gone. Maddox did fairly well sleeping, did not have any accidents, and woke up dry every morning. Both the kids were happy to be home and back in their own beds Monday evening. Kennon is getting really efficient at crawling and has been trying his hand at walking the last couple of days. His new best buddy is the beloved giraffe that you all are familiar with from Maddox. He is already able to grab onto the handles, much like Maddox did, and walk behind it. He is still a little unsteady and needs to be on the carpet but it is not going to be long before he is motorin'. I really think he'll be walking by his 1st birthday if not very soon. Maddox is NOT so keen on him using her favorite toy. Mind you, she hasn't touched the giraffe in the last 6 months but now that he is interested in it she is too! He is really into all of her stuff and actually thinks it is really funny when she tries to push him away and gain her stuff back. He is really aggressive and this crazy fun hour after dinner. He is so happy and just plays about with lots of smiles. I just love Kennon's smile in some of these pictures. He is a happy little boy and has the cutest darn expressions lately. Maddox is going through the terrible 2's and is not always the most pleasant child but when she is rested and happy she is really cute and does love her brother. She even shared her free HyVee cookie with him today, slightly prompted by me, but she does get a kick of feeding him little bits. Today I caught her giving him a HOP. They are these little rabbit shaped cookies and are MUCH bigger than anything he has had so far. He looked at me with wide eyes as it was too late to snag it back out of his mouth. I think he LOVED it and definintely would have devoursed the 3 others Maddox left on the carpet for him if I had left them. He is going to figure out real quick to keep his eye on her as she is going to be a great source of treats in the coming months! We plopped them in the bathtub tonight TOGETHER for the first time. They did pretty well and most of the water stayed IN the tub. I managed to get a few good shots. So I am just now posting this ( saturday afternoon) even though I started writing it on Wednesday night.  The picture of Eric, Marty, and Maddox is at Eric's office.  It is Maddox's first official 'financial planning' meeting. I'm sure they are discussing The Planning Center's awesome budgeting software/theory called First Step ( for those of you who are familiar with the tool!!) So cute! Honestly I'm not sure what they are discussing but I think the picture is adorable. I love how Eric and Marty got down on HER level. The aim to please  at The Planning Center :0

Happy Easter

So we have had a great Easter weekend. We started the weekend at Hannah and Charlie's house on Friday evening. They are our neighbors that live up the street and are moving away in the coming weeks. They had a fire and we roasted smores. It was nice. Hannah and Maddox played on the swing set in between coming over to the fire for marshmallows. I think they both liked just the plain marshmallows more than the whole s'mores!! We had Charlie and Hannah over Wednesday night for dinner. The girls ate dinner together and the boys explored all Kennon's toys. Charlie was born on Maddox's birthday 9.16.11...!! But, you'd think he was older by his size. He is a big boy but full of smiles. Saturday morning we met Grandpa Jim and Grandma Jean out at our church property for an Easter egg hunt. It was more like a JUNGLE egg hunt as the alfalfa on our property was pretty high. I had planned to put Kennon down to crawl around and grab his own eggs but we would have lost him in the weeds it was so thick. But, we had a GRAND time. Maddox even got to sit on the big lawn mower out at the property. Right up Grandpa Jim's alley. Then we headed home for lunch and egg coloring time. Maddox's attention span was MUCH greater than it was last Easter egg coloring act and she hung around for a fair amount of time during the process. But, by the end it was just Dad and I!! :) Sunday morning we had another Easter egg hunt after the kids 'opened' their Easter baskets. Maddox was WWAAAYYY more interested in the candy in the eggs this year than she was last year. She passed the nickels, quarters, and dimes over quickly to find eggs with candy in them instead. Hmmmm I bet that will change over the next 10 years. Then we LOADED up the kids and headed to Aurora for another Easter gathering in addition to celebrating Grammy's 65th birthday. Maddox and Kennon got to have another egg hunt, fly kites in the field around Grammy's house, and play on the neighbors swing set. We had a great time!! Kennon is looking so old in these pictures. He was sort of ho hum at the church egg hunt, as you can see from the pictures, but he piped up when we got home to color eggs and spend one on one time with Grandma Jean! He is getting more and more efficient with his crawling and loves to get into Maddox's stuff. You can see him getting into her Easter basket at times despite having his own. Maddox is doing SO WELL with her potty business. I can honestly say I don't remember the last time she had an accident, including the nighttime. She is doing really well. Actually she is good about holding it too while she is playing or while we are out running errands. She is still a bit fearful of going in the public potty not because of the potty per se but because she is afraid of the FLUSH noise, but I'm sure she'll get over that pretty soon. She is even doing really well at night this past week or so too. We are waking her up when we go to bed to have her go. Well there are TONS O' pictures. So enjoy!Hope everyone had a great Easter. We were lucky to be able to spend time with the Grandparents all weekend!!