Birthday Boy!

That's right, folks, our little boy is officially One! I can't believe how quickly time has flown by. Keegan is definately a character and is ALL boy. Most of the gifts he received are for pounding, throwing, kicking, bouncing... and the like. Although, I must admit, he did do pretty well with his cake, trying out the fork rather than making a huge mess. He got to have two birthday parties and greatly enjoyed both : ). Here he is having a "ball" with his toys and eating some cake!

It's a jungle in here!

Keegan is now walking and getting into things more and more. He's found our dining room table works well as a jungle-gym and was giggling like crazy while crawling through the chairs. Here he is caught on film : ).

Mommy's cupcake

Again we've taken on an adventure in baking. This time we made cupcakes and Mikayla's favorite part was obviously taste-testing the pink frosting. Here's a picture of her "enjoying the spoils" of her hard work : ).

What to do at the zoo...

On the first of July, we went to John Ball Park Zoo with my sister and her nephew(yes, nearly 3 weeks ago now). We had a good time, despite the gloomy weather. Thankfully there were enough exhibits inside that we could dodge most of the rain drops. Pointing, swinging, running, feeling, smelling, jumping - there's a lot to do at the zoo!

Keegan was more happy with the toy car than most of the animals, but he did like the drums that were by the new lion area.

Mikayla enjoyed everything about the place, running from one exhibit to the next, touching some of the animals (that she was allowed to), and seeing so many other kids. Petting the goats was a highlight.

"How high can you fly?" - Caught on film!

The fact that she was there with her buddy, Isaiah, was frosting on the cake!

Tiny Twister

The rainy weather over the weekend and having hubby gone drove me to getting creative to fill the day with activities for the kids. So, we dug out Twister for a game to try since I'm working on colors with Mikayla. Unfortunately, the intent in teaching colors and the concept of the game was completely lost on my cranky toddler. Keegan was much more open to giving it a "whirl" - obviously! He read through the directions carefully then took on the game itself! Too cute : ).

A Fish Tale

Mikayla received her first fishing pole from her Poppa at Easter - no surprise, it has princesses on it! She was able to use it with him for the first time tonight. She proved to be quite the little fisher, catching five fish in about seven casts! Of course, Poppa took care of all the messing work - finding worms, baiting the hook, casting the line, and removing seaweed and fish, etc. Having someone available to take care of that part of it would make fishing fun for anyone! Regardless, she really seemed to enjoy fishing and had to show her catch to the dogs before releasing them back into the lake.
I'm glad that her first experience went so well, but I have a feeling she's might be disappointed to learn that not all fishing expeditions are so "fruitful"!

KissiN' Make-up

Mikayla, Mikayla... she's had an interest in make-up for some time and I got her some chapstick for Christmas as a stocking stuffer. She'd been doing pretty well with it - keeping it on her lips, for the most part when using it. However, the other day she grabbed it while I was getting ready in the bathroom and left. The amount of time that went by without making a noise gave away the fact that she was doing something she shouldn't have been. Yeah, she was digging out the chapstick with her finger and putting it all over her face. Thankfully she avoided smearing it all over my white pillows that were being used as a pamper platform for her.

A-door-able

Our dear little Keegan is now pulling himself up on furniture and steps - constantly. He's loving standing up and getting into things. One of his new favorite toys is the "house" with a swinging door, brightly-colored parts, and noises. Every home should have one taking up space in their living rooms ; ).

Easter Egg-spressions

Ah, Easter. We had a nice start to the day with church and then dinner with my family. You can see that Keegan was all ears listening to the discussion. Mikayla had her first Easter egg hunt thanks to Uncle Tim and Auntie Mandy. She enjoyed running all over the yard finding the eggs, but was THRILLED to discover that there was more to it than just plastic eggs. There was candy inside! We could hardly make her wait to get inside to open them all : ). We went home after that hoping for a restful afternoon, but Chris ended up making a trip to the Dentist for a tooth-emergency. He was in a lot of pain and after numbing his mouth, the dentist discovered his bone is infected above a root canal. So... after getting some pain medication and the bad news, we went to Roosien's for a laid back evening. Of course, Mikayla enjoyed the "spoils" there too, so she was oblivious to situation. Guess we all had our own form of Easter treats! Hope all of you had a Blessed Easter!

Jeepers Creepers

Hello All! Spring is in the air! We've been outside playing a bit and Mikayla's thrilled to be able to drive her jeep. Especially now that she's officially tall enough to reach the "gas" pedal herself! Unfortunately she still has a bit to learn about the whole driving experience; like stopping, watching where she's going, and turning - minor things, really : ). Thankfully there's a slow speed option and she seems content with that - for now!
Keegan is also happy to be more mobile. That's right, our little guy is now creeping and "crawling"! He loves to go after things and when he's got his mind set, he goes for it. So cute to watch him get up on his toes, rock back and forth, then scoot across the floor in various forms : ). We're enjoying the change, but might be regretting the early start when we're chasing him around too!

Laptoppers

Mikayla is big into mimicking these days. So when Daddy was surfin' the net on his laptop, she felt like she should too! She grabbed her laptop from the toybox and snuggled up on the couch. Away they went, busy at it! Just goes to show that it's never too early to teach your daughter how to shop on-line!

(Obviously Keegan wasn't quite as thrilled with the computer as he was watching Mommy.)

Two-fer Toofers!

That's right folks, our little guy got his first tooth - or, um, teeth! He seems to be pretty happy about the whole situation though and is drooling all over everything! He didn't get a fever and never lost his sense of humor : ). Such a blessing!

Baking Adventures with Mikayla

Monday afternoon Mikayla and I decided to do some baking. It's a constructive project that we enjoy doing together... we even have cute aprons to bake in! So, we're adding the dry ingredients into the bowl and Mikayla licks her hand... off to the sink we go because we have to have clean hands when we're baking. After our hands are dry again, she climbs back up on her step stool and I add more flour to the bowl. She turns on the mixer for me, but accidently flips it to full-blast! POOF! We have a cloud of white flour that goes EVERYWHERE! All I can do is laugh... I'm standing behind Mikayla and look down at her. I say, "You're covered in flour!"... she looks up at me and answers "Yeth"... serious as can be. That sends me into another bout of laughter... Meanwhile she's still standing on her stool perfectly still not sure what to do (that was quite something in itself, if you know my Mikayla, sitting still is NOT what she does typically!). So, I cleaned her off and gave her some chocolate chips to munch on. Life was good for her again... Thankfully Keegan was a safe distance away and was just contently watching all the excitement from his bouncy seat. I just smiled as all those popular country songs like "you're going to miss this", "my little girl", and "life's a dance" floated through my head as I cleaned the mixer and the counter and the floor and the cupboards and....

Christmas Pictures - Finally!

Well, it's exactly one month since Christmas - can you believe it!?! On that note, we've finally got a selection of our Christmas Pictures in a slideshow for family and friends to enjoy. We had a very blessed Holiday Season and hope that all of you did too!

Christmas Slideshow

Back at the ranch...

Keegan prefers to be inside and cozy warm instead of playing outside.

He likes his new hooded blankie!

Sunshine & Snow

Mikayla and I took on the cold weather Monday to enjoy the sunshine and snow. I think she ate more snow than anything else, but she had lots of fun taste-testing! The sunshine and fresh air were wonderful for me.

Christmas Season - Come & Gone

Hello, All... Well, the Christmas Season has flown by again and I've been a bad "Blog Mom" and not done any updates! I'm hoping to make up for that soon! Watch for a slideshow of some of the highlights! Among them we enjoyed the Zeeland Christmas Parade, played in the snow, and fought the kids for Christmas pictures together (they prefer taking them separately). We also visited the Critter Barn to see the Live Nativity, enjoyed seeing family (and pets) at Christmas parties, and opened lots of presents!
Hope you all had a safe and blessed Christmas season too!

Christmas Parade

We started the Christmas Season off with the Zeeland Christmas Parade on December 1st. We had the whole Roosien family out in the snow and cold. Mikayla and her cousin, Addison, loved the lights and bands best. Keegan, however, cried most of the time. He wore himself out and was asleep by the time we left the parking lot going home.