Thankfulness

Another month. Here are some things I am thankful for:

- A 13th month old! Today is keegan's 13 month birthday! I'm thankful we're out of the "baby" stage but I'm not ready for him to grow up. But somethings never change (i dunno how to flip this picture sorry.)

- No more toys in the living room. well mostly. we have a play room now! We turned our library into the play room. thats right, we're "real" parents now.

- A creative husband. Brent built a train table for Keegan! we still need to paint it but Keegs loves it

-Keegan's love for his "hat." He says it all day and pats his head. adorableness

- Spring. The vine on the outside of the house has beautiful purple fragrant flowers. I love it

- I noticed friday that the trees have leaves. Isn't weird how you don't notice and then one day you look up and all the trees are green? SURPISE!

- New friends.

-The poop face

- Parks with swings. Keegan could swing all day and almost did just that today!

- Hippie corvallis and the saturday market. It opened today and the whole community was there, mostly.

-Graduated students that are friends.

- OshKosh striped overalls

- A rough and tough baby boy that eats sand, loves cars and has little cuts on his face.

- For airplanes and dogs and the sounds keegan makes to tell me they exist.

- For bedtime. I'm so tired these days!

-Weddings! Katie looked beautiful and so was her wedding! and for being a bridesmaid! I loved being there to support my friend.

- Baby showers. fancy drinks, fancy food and Pregnant ladies!

- Newborn baby girls! and giant flowers on their heads.

- Photgraphy and artsy-ness

- Old friends visiting

- Learning how to be more "green"

- Family. and Love.

- For not having answers and having to look to God for them.

- That God says He will never leave me or forsake me and will be with me always. (Deuteronomy 31:8 and Matthew 28:20)

Well thats just a few. I'm sure there are more I can't think of at the moment.

The Birthday Party.

THE CAKE!
My sister, Brent, Kathy, Mick, Tom and I slaaaved... not really it was a lot of fun. We had some creative genius advise for details. look at that amazing rice cracker coal smoke!



Me and my Bro Bryan.


The Cousins.

I wish this picture was closer up. Or that we got a picture of everyone in their party hats. which most wore the whole time! Who knew party hats were so much fun!?

Look at the pile of toys! and the balloon overshadows the presents. good thing he had the help of the cousins and jackson for opening the great presents.

I told you he hates the hats. I left it on for a little bit and he forgot it was even there.

The happy FAMILY! I'm so thankful for these two men in my life! Well Keegan is a boy but you know what i mean.

Keegs and his friends. :o)

Post train cake eating play with grandma O and Keegs new wooden train!

I just love this photo. each cousin in their own world. with their own toy. Haley found lady bugs in our backyard and got to take some home. I was so glad i saved some glass containers. I knew they would come in handy someday! now they are a home to some very loved lady bugs. (who are probably dead now...sorry ladies)

We had a great party! Good food, fun cake, great friends. Thanks for all who came to celebrate our milestone of Keegan's first birthday. It felt it was more a celebration for me than for him. I can't believe its been a year. CAN NOT BELIEVE it and it seems over night he's a TODDLER. talking walking almost weaned and throwing fits. *sigh* what happened?

Sometimes if wonder if a was able to breath enough to enjoy his infant hood. There have been many many wonderful incredibly joyful times but I wonder if I missed some of those moments in my feelings of being overwhelmed and in over my head. Maybe next baby I will know more of what to expect and get to relax a bit more? I hope so.

I'm excited for this next year though, this is when we get to really know Keegan. His personality comes out from here on out and I can't wait to meet and understand my baby boy. I can't wait to find out how God created him and to enjoy the gifts God has given him.

So far the things that I notice I'm not sure if they are Keegan or just a growing toddler. Maybe I'll blog about things i notice later. I'm blogged out.

I feel accomplished.

In the last week I:

Hosted a bridal shower for my good friend Katie!

Went to a Benefit Concert for my friend Noel who is going to Australia with WYAM.


Made homemade Chai Tea thanks to Julie Cooley for the recipie! It's wonderfully spicy.


Made organic All-Purpose and Window cleaners. Which I used today and they smell lovely!

Started using my cloth wipes again hopefully this home-made wipe solution will not give my baby diaper rash

Made home-made hummus for the first time ever! I love hummus but the hubby always complains because I supposedly "smell like garlic for daays" which I guess makes me less kissable. psh.
So in order to enjoy the hummus and the husband to enjoy me. I made my own from a recipie that a long lost relative gave us from his book "Good Food Great Medicine."
The hummus is very zesty... and hopefully not too garlic-y. I can't wait to eat it like crazy! Yay for good healthy foods.
Oh and Celebrated Keegan's big number 1 of course!

Lasagna, St. Patty's and birthday.

The other night we had lasagna for dinner. I had made something different for Keegan, partly because I wasn't sure if the sause would be too spicy and partly because I thought it would be too messy. Keegan won us over though. He must have known how good it was and how fun it is to eat! He got suuuper messy. I'm so glad bath time comes after dinner!

Look what Gi-Gi Skans made me for St. Patricks day!! Stylin'

Last time my mom was in town we decided "Gi-Gi" is her grandma name. We like it. Cute huh?


A year ago today, Charlie had no idea of how much his life would change. Happy Birthday to a life change, Charlie. He's not too happy about it if you can't tell from this picture.

Keegan and Charlie have recently been able to play together, that has been fun. Keegan can throw Charlie's toys to play fetch and of course climb all over Charlie. Actually Charlie has come in handy. Today Keegan almost fell over and used Charlie as a prop. Nice job. Things are turning up Charlie!

"It's my birthday and I can cry if I want to" actually I think I might have slightly snapped the hat string on accident. He doesn't really like the party hats now. Sad day because they are so cute.

We started off Keegan's birthday by hanging a balloon in his room last night from the ceiling light. A friend told me about that idea a couple of years ago . She looked forward to waking up on her birthday to a ceiling full of birthday balloons. Keegan LOVES balloons so we thought that would be a fun tradition. One balloon per year. This morning he woke up to his balloon and we woke up to the words "Ba-tr!!" Ba-ooon!!" over and over and over, louder and louder. It was really cute. It's nice to wake up with a smile. (He is still calling everything bottle aka "ba-tr") Then we had some nice Choco Chip waffles that Brent made special. Keegan really liked the candle.

Then.... Presents!!! We got Keegan a really cool "hammer ball" toy from Plan Toys. I like that brand of toy a lot. Look at the excitment on Charlie's face. He couldn't wait for his turn.

Charlie loves licking Keegan's running nose, but Keegan is starting to get too smart for Charlie and moving out of the way too fast. haha charlie!
Keegs is getting his top teeth in! I spotted the tooth poking through a couple of days ago. Actually today I could have sworn Keegan was grinding his tiny bit of top tooth with his bottom teeth. That is the worst sound! I think worse than nails on a chalkboard. I'll have to get him a night gaurd. Start the protection early.

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!! We are sooo glad you joined our family. So thankful God chose you for us. What would we do without you?! You melt my heart and have brought us so much joy.

It's a big week!

This last week Keegan finished his second class with flying colors. We have been taking a mommy and me class at the community college the last two terms. The classes are more like a giant playdate. It's been so fun to meet moms in the community and watch each of the babies grow.
A couple weeks ago a few of the moms and i went to the pottery place downtown to paint our childs hands on pottery. Here is a picture of Keegan with is friends!

This week he also started saying words clearly!! Here is sampling.

although i'm beginning to think that maybe he just likes the word bottle because he was calling everything bottle today. it was confusing for me, i thought it was starving. turns out he just likes saying it over and over and over.

AND...

He's been working on walking for a looong time but this week he has been letting go of things and venturing it out. Today in particular he was zooming all over the place. walking with his arms in the air like a zombie. haha

I can't figure out why those videos in my last post aren't working. They are cute though!

Last week Brent went out of town for a friends wedding so my mom came down to help out with Keegs and keep us company. It was a lot of fun. Keegan just loves hanging out with my mom. She's very entertaining and funny.
Here's a few pictures from our week:
Tin man? maybe next halloween buddy.



Yup, that is cheese in his nose. i thought it was hilarious.


Last night keegan played with his diapers for a good 30 minutes. His favorite toys right now are little easter eggs, anything he can "bang" against something to make a cool noise and any kind of ball. He's not that big into real toys, they dont keep his attention for very long. figures.
He also loves going outside. Lately he'll point and point out the window waiting to go for a walk or play outside. He loves watching the birds and airplanes and looking at the trees and dogs. He can even say a few of them!

So far his vocabulary is

"ba" = ball

"Batur" = bottle

"bazoon" = balloon

"Brr" = bird

"haaaa" = hot -he just picked that one up this morning!

He signs:

Car, tree and light! I was hoping to do more signing but from the way he's picking up words maybe we won't need it!

Still not walking yet, but he is sooooo close! I'm okay with is i suppose. With the exception of when he wants to play outside. I know dirtiness in inevitable but i'm thinking that he can play in the dirt when he starts walking. :o)



We have been using disposible diapers this week because he's had a crazy diaper rash and interesting poop. I think it might be because i started using cloth wipes to go with the cloth diapers, maybe my wipe solution is too strong? I'm not sure what the cause is but it's been easier to do disposible for this time until we figure out the culprit. sorry cloth i love you so!

A Couple fun videos

Keegan really likes lights. Lately he has become more vocal about it, he used to point at them and grunt but now he says "OoOooo" and "ba" when he sees them. "ba" means a lot of things these days and light is one of them. So I took him to home depot a couple weeks ago and forgot about that HUUGE light section there and when i passed by there were lots of OOOooo's and Ba's i tried telling brent about it but he needed to experience the greatness of it too so we went back. I wish i would have video-ed the initial viewing of the lights for you because it was a lot more exciting but i think you get the jist! so cute.

Keegan has been crawling to and playing with the guitar for a while now. It makes me wonder if he will be a musical little guy. Last week he discovered he could use a stick to hit the strings and it made a cooler noise. He's a little snap shot!

His birthday is less than a month away! I can't beleive it has been nearly a year. I've asked some students to help me make a cool cake. I'm not sure what it is going to be but we make a pretty sweet cake for Steph's birthday. It was steph sitting under a tree on an island in the sea. there was so much more to that cake though but describing it could not even come close to telling you the greatness and how much pride i got from that cake. so I'm guessing keegan's will also be very cool.