The Kies Family: Happy Birthday....again?

Kennon 15 1/2 months in Grammy and Papa Dick's rocking chair...he climbed up to get in!!..surprised right?? hah

Family picture taken by my neighbor Kim at the balloon festival

I ordered a 'Maddox' hat for Maddox a couple of weekends ago!!

Still just 2 teeth on the bottom but 4 good ones on the top and some more coming in on the top on the sides. BLUE EYES STILL!!

Despite having a fever Maddox was still ready to dress up for Halloween

kennon gathering the crayons...!! Maddox is getting her share too.

Kennon PROUD he got as many as he did!!

Making grape jello jigglers!! from Aunt Diane

Kennon managed to get himself up ONTO the kitchen table via the bench in a split second while I was busy in the laundry room. 'hmmmm I think this is how ya open it'

'now I've seen them tilt it over this way and I think I'll get production'

'wait they were supposed to go in the bowl!!'

So we celebrated Maddox's 3rd birthday one last time yesterday in Aurora with Grammy, Papa Dick, Great Grandma Berg AND Aunt Diane!! We had a great day and Grammy even got to hang out with us despite being very tired. It was SOOO nice to see Grammy and hear her read books to Maddox. We are sending lots of love and hugs your way. Hang in there Grammy! We know it is rough right now but it will get better. Maddox was, once again, showered with gifts. Thank you for all the fabulous things. She has a new wardrobe of clothes to wear to school and we made Halloween grape Jello Jigglers today compliments of Aunt Diane. Maddox LLLOOOOVVEEED them. Kennon thought we were crazy for eating the weird rubbery purple stuff. Instead he just flung it across the kitchen from his high chair. If it isn't a cracker, cereal, or a fruit or veggie don't try to get it down Kennon's gullet. He is my little vegetarian, CLIMBING boy and could care less about meat. Anyhow she also got markers from Aunt Diane that SMELL like different foods and a huge notepad to color to her little heart's content!! How cool is that. Kennon loves to color too as you can see from the pictures. He really just likes to gather up as many of the crayons/markers as possible ( IE keeping them from Maddox) and then occasionally he'll make a mark or two on the paper. We are calling him our climbing boy as you can see from the pictures. He climbs up on stuff faster than I can say 'NO'!! Which by the way he has learned that word in the last like 24 hours and even shakes his head back and forth in just the right way. He is saying MOO BAA DOWN UP ( of course) HOTDOG ALL DONE MAMA DADA PLEASE MILK and he has a little mind of his own and squeals in disgust if he doesn't want to do something. Maddox has been a bit of a terror in the last few days waking up in a whiny/crying mode and staying that way until she goes back to bed. I"m convinced it is a little of the terrible 3's and a bit of being overtired. She is not sleeping well at night and is not napping well. Today she took a 2 hour nap and literally woke up as happy as a lark!! She has been getting up in the AM at 5:30 whining/crying throwing a tantrum in the hallway and in the end waking up Kennon who normally sleeps till at least 8 if not later. We really relish the times when she is happy because when she isn't it takes everything to not brow beat her with a wet noodle!! ( and I'm saying that nicely) Kennon is LOVING his new class at Kindercare. They are working through a HOME unit, hence the reason I threw on the picture of our house. He has to bring in a picture of his house for their board. Eric, despite how busy our schedules have been, has really been working on the house outside the last several weeks doing little jobs that have been on our 'to do' list for several months...staining the deck, staining the swing set, painting the front door and sidelights, sealing up windows and drafty joints etc. The house looks great and is all ready for winter. You can't see them but we already have out milk jug ghosts our for Halloween. Maddox is going to be a witch and Kennon the monkey that Maddox wore last year...gotta recycle. Maddox is literally LOVING Church School. In fact I'm pretty convinced that she likes it better than Kindercare. Probably due to the smaller class size and she is really liking one of her teachers Mrs. Doyle ( who happens to be the one from Orion...good things are grown in Orion :) She is really sweet and seems to just LOVE the kids. Maddox literally ran down 50 feet into her arms today when we walked into the hallway. She has never done that at Kindercare, at least to my knowledge. I'm certain she gets excellent education and care at Kindercare, the class size is just so much bigger it is easier to get lost in the sea. There are only 12 kids in her class at Church School. Well I have a few more random pics from my iphone to upload and then off to bed. Thanks to Grandma Jean for all the great 'go to freezer' food and to Grandpa Jim for stepping in last Thursday to come over and watch Maddox since she couldn't go to Kindercare with a fever. Eric and I both appreciate the convenient meals and NOT using our sacred vacation days.