Happy Halloween!! & October Re-Cap

October has been a busy month for us. I really think there are more Halloween activities than Christmas but Andrew assured me that it's just because Christmas is more spread out...not sure I agree. :)

I may forget all we did but here goes:

-We visited the Kroger Ice Cream & Beverage Factory and enjoyed many samples!

-Toured the Hebron Fire Station twice (once for their open house for the community and once with our MOMS club group)

-Climbed on tractors at a John Deere tractor supply store (Keegan did the climbing, not me) with our MOMS club group.

-Visited the zoo for Hallzooween with Aubrey's (Andrew's sister's) husband Brent and their son Colton while Aubrey attended Time Out for Women. I attended Friday night with Aubrey but not Saturday...not quite ready to leave Tanner that long just yet.

-Did a quasi pumpkin patch where Keegan selected a pie pumpkin. Apparently he wanted to be able to hold his own pumpkin so he wasn't interested in the big ones I wanted to pick for him.

-Attended a Halloween party with our MOMS club group

-Of course we attended the annual Ward Chili Cookoff & Trunk or Treat

-We also went to a trunk or treat at our neighbor's church and it definitely put ours to shame. Don't get me wrong, ours was great but almost every participant at their trunk or treat had creative costumes and decorated trunks to match. We did neither at our trunk or treat so I have no room to talk! :)

-We slipped in a non-Halloween activity and went to Disney on Ice: Mickey & Minnie's Magical Adventure. Keegan loved it and asked if we could watch it again after his nap. Haha!

-We also got our family pictures taken this month (yes for our Christmas cards. Just one extra child in our lives has caused me to plan ridiculously in advance to avoid self-induced stress).

-Visited a local kids place called Totter Otterville (twice) and rode the train but did not pay $2 to get off and get a pumpkin. The only way I consoled Keegan was by telling him we had to wait for Daddy to get a pumpkin.

-Keegan took his first non-parent swimming lessons which after the first two lesson turned out to be one of his favorite things (he cried the first couple of times).

-Keegan also participated in a parent/child sports development program which teaches the fundamentals of various different sports.

-Keegan and I began a program called HIPPY which is a free curriculum designed to prepare 3 & 4 year olds for school. Keegan loves it and looks forward to each activity everyday.

-And of course, last but not least, we trick or treated on Halloween night. Andrew had class this year on Halloween so I had to handle both the door to door stuff and handing out of candy. It went surprisingly smoothly and Tanner cooperated perfectly, as usual. :) Keegan loved handing out candy, especially since his favorite neighbor friend, Chloe came over to help him hand it out.

That's our October in review--I'm ready for things to settle down around here but I'm afraid that won't be the case with the approaching holiday season!!Keegan & Daddy at the Fire Station Open House

Keegan & his best buddy, Bryce, on a tractor at the John Deere store (apparently nursery workers are excited for them to be separated in January when Keegan moves on to Sunbeams and Bryce is still in nursery :) )

Keegan, Tanner & Daddy at McGlasson Farms Pumpkin Stand

I had to post this picture because Keegan looks so grown-up I can hardly stand it!

Whose idea was it to try and get Keegan & Tanner in a picture with pumpkins? Probably the weirdo trying to hold Tanner up...

Our little cowboy--since we've gone trick-or-treating sooo many times, Keegan thinks it's an ongoing daily event...he'll be sad once he realizes it's going to be a whole nother year!

Our little hotdog--I'm realizing most of the pictures with Tanner are going to be blurry because 1. he moves a lot and 2. our shutter speed isn't fast enough. Sorry, Tanner. :)

Keegan wanted to enjoy some tummy time with Tanner

We got this toy for Keegan because it was the only thing he could do at 3 months and sure enough, Tanner loves it just as much!

Keegan in the balls at Totter Otterville. His favorite activity is the outdoor fishing with magnetic fishing poles but this picture was way cuter.


Swimming lessons!

Somehow amidst all this activity we still manage to eat, sleep, and wear clean clothes...even if they all come straight out of the dryer and not our dressers! :)

Keegan - 3 yrs, Tanner - 2 months

Keegan and Tanner were able to be seen at the doctor on the same day last week for Keegan's 3 year check-up and Tanner's 2 month check-up. Keegan still wants to lie down for the doctor since Tanner does. And Keegan was pretty excited about getting a shot until he saw Tanner crying after his. In the end, Keegan did pee in a cup despite his lack of complete potty training. (Speaking of which, I don't know how anyone survives potty training. I think it is far worse on the parents than the child, of course. We are about 80% there but we're still going through two or three soaking wet outfits a day. Does it ever end?? Needless to say, my favorite times of day are naptime & bedtime in which the special (pull-up) underwear comes out--and he actually keeps them dry! Wish he would do the same when he's awake!)

Anyway, here are the stats on the boys:

Keegan --
Height: 37 1/2 inches (although he's been measured at 39 inches other places so who knows)
Weight: 32.2 lbs

Tanner --
Height: 23 inches (49th percentile)
Weight: 12 lbs 8 oz (70th pertcentile)
Head: 16 inches (62nd percentile)

Tanner is the same length Keegan was at 2 months but he is about a pound heavier. The doctor said they'll be about the same size. He is almost wearing 3-6 month size clothes now. It's crazy how quickly he has grown! Tanner is still jauniced a little bit so I had to take him to have his liver tested. Luckily, we got the results back and his liver function is completely fine. It's just his bilirubin level and apparently something that will go away on it's own.

Despite our potty training adventures, things are going well for us and Andrew is back in school. We can see the end in sight though--this is his last year and he'll be done next June!!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Keegan!!

For several months Keegan has been telling me that his birthday is coming up. So on Friday, I walked into his room and said, "Happy Birthday, Keegan!" And he replied, "My birthday came up? Let's go see it!!". It was pretty darn cute.

Since Mommy is still adjusting to life with a second little person in the house, I thought I'd keep the celebration simple. I planned to have friends meet us at the park for cupcakes in the morning. That's not too much to ask is it? Except for when the weather decides to rain instead of shine. However, since I decided to make his cupcakes in ice cream cones, I realized the rain was a blessing. Transporting these little top heavy treats would've been slightly nightmarish. :) And so the celebration took place at our house despite my best efforts to make it easy for myself.



Why would I make cupcakes in an ice cream cone? Well I'm pretty sure that for years to come Keegan and his friends will be talking about the time, "My mom made those cupcakes in an ice cream cone. Wasn't that awesome?" Ok, that'll probably never happen. I just like to cause myself stress. Next year I'll buy some cupcakes from Kroger (yeah right! that'll also probably never happen). I actually thought these would be easier than some cute little decorated cake or cupcakes I've made in the past. I was wrong.

And why two varieties of cupcakes, you ask? Turns out I forgot that one of the kids I invited has an egg & dairy allergy. Whoops! So the top cupcakes are good ol' Betty Crocker Rainbow Chip and the bottom are homemade chocolate egg & dairy free cupcakes. Not only do the homemade ones look better, they were the obvious favorite of all the kids.

Keegan wore about 5 outfits on his birthday. Every time he opened clothes (jammies or not) he had to put them on. So here is outfit one...

Outfit two... (and I highly recommend individual cupcakes for any child attempting to blow out candles that uses the spit method. At least they are the only ones who have to eat the spit. :))

When Andrew got home from work we took Keegan to the horse track to see some races. Andrew & I have been before but had never taken Keegan. Since he loves animals it was the perfect little event for him (although the play set they had held his interest in between races pretty good). And note Keegan's 3rd outfit for the day. We've decided now that as long as we are looking at the camera, it doesn't matter if our kids are. We don't intend to have any pictures with all of us looking ever again. :)

Keegan loved opening his presents and got pretty good at smiling while holding them up. You can see the remains of his gifts on the floor.

After all of Keegan's friends left (did I mention we ended up having over 20 people over?!) He was singing Happy Birthday to every person he could think of. I had to record it but of course the video is slightly too large to upload. All in all, it was a great birthday for Keegan!

Picture Day = Murphy's Law Fulfilled

I truly believe that if you schedule a day for professional pictures to be taken then you are asking for trouble. If every other day of your life is smooth sailing--Tanner never cries, Keegan smiles on command--it won't happen that day. And today was that day for us. Nonetheless we got some cute pictures of Keegan and Tanner. Keegan of course for his 3 years and Tanner at almost 2 months.



You can see the full album of our pics here.

When we got to the portrait studio--we were 1 minute early. But the photographer was the only employee there and severely behind. We started our session 30 minutes late. Tanner thought he was starving and unable to sleep, so very uncharacteristically cranky. No smiles coming from that kid. To get Keegan to let us brush his teeth we say "cheese" and "aaah". So unfortunately saying cheese has led him to think we also want an "aaah" from him. Needless to say he didn't want to close his mouth.

I realized only after we left the portrait studio that Tanner had a blowout before we left. I thought it was all contained in his diaper that I changed just before leaving the house only to find baby poo crusted on the back of his pants after. Whoops! And then, poor little Keegan is either suffering from allergies or has a cold. Either way, he is coughing and with him that means throwing up. So he threw up all over himself in his car seat on the way home. Luckily, this was after the photos had been taken and I did have an extra change of clothes with us just in case this happened before photo time. So he did not have to go home soiled. The entire time while cleaning this up I longed to be in the day long meetings that Andrew has been complaining about all week. I'd love to sit in a meeting all day or enjoy an hour commute (each way) without a child asking (or screaming) for something. In the end, I know there is no where else I'd rather be than with my cute little kiddos. :) I love these little guys (and it's a good thing too!! :) ).

Brotherly Love

Keegan adores his little brother. He loves telling people that he is a big brother and that he has little brother named Tanner. It's pretty sweet until he starts pinching Tanner's hair (yes that's a weird concept, but he does it very carefully) and poking Tanner's sweet little eyes. If I ever lay Tanner on the floor, Keegan thinks it's a fun game to jump back and forth over him like a frog. It usually scares me. Keegan gives Tanner lots of kisses though and loves to rub his hair (usually with fingers covered in some sticky substance which gives Tanner a nice greasy 'do). I think Keegan must have a great respect for sleep though because if Tanner is in his room sleeping, Keegan won't even think about going in. However, the second he hears Tanner's voice, he jumps up and declares, "Tanner's awake, Mommy!! Let's go get him!". It's pretty cute how much he loves his baby brother but sometimes a little nerve racking all at the same time. :)

I have been terrible about taking pictures (sorry Tanner!) but we did take these cute little pics of the boys on Sunday after church. Keegan was pretty proud to be in a picture with Tanner.



We love these little guys! Somedays are more stressful than others, but for the most part it's fun to watch our little boys grow!

Tanner's Blessing

This weekend we were able to have some of both my family and Andrew's family in town for Tanner's blessing. Andrew's mom, Leslie, was nice enough to buy a blessing outfit for Tanner and luckily also able to alter it. They do not make blessing outfits for 3 week olds--that is for sure!

He looked so handsome in his little blessing outfit!

The whole gang-Ken, Leslie, Colton, Brent, Aubrey, Keegan, Melissa, Erika holding Tanner, Andrew, Betty Kay, and Chet.

Aw, this is officially our first family photo! How sweet! :)

Colton & Keegan

And of course no weekend with family would be complete without a little fun with the cousins. At one point, Keegan actually said that he had two brothers, Tanner & Colton. Keegan got to spend a lot of time with his cousin, Colton, this summer and he's going to miss him so much!

It was really nice to have some of both sides of our family in town for the blessing and I am so grateful to Aubrey for taking all these pictures. I really don't know what I'll do without her picture taking skills! :)

Baby Tanner!

We welcomed Tanner Cole Young to our family on Friday, July 29 at 8:32am. He weighed 7lbs 6oz and is 21 inches long. Since it was another c-section like Keegan was, I was scheduled and had expected this would be his birthday since we made the appointment back in March. He is a very sweet little boy and believe it or not we don't think he looks anything like his big brother, Keegan! Naming Tanner was tough and we didn't decide on the first name until a few days before. His middle name wasn't even decided on until after he was born. Andrew's grandpa passed away just a few weeks ago and his middle name was Cole. It seemed very fitting to share his name with our Tanner. We were happy to come home with a baby with a name! Oh and good health too! :)

Keegan was very excited to meet his baby brother and is still enamored of him. He wants to hold him all the time and always wants to be close to him. For some reason we haven't gotten a picture with all four of us together yet but Daddy was there too! :)



Day we left the hospital--the nurse warned us that she was not a good photographer...guess we should have listened since I had to do some editing just to make this one viewable!

Here is a link to pictures of Tanner taken at the hospital. We really like how they turned out and for now they are the closest thing to professional pics of our little man.
Things are going pretty good. It's still a little surreal that we have two little boys now! The real test will be after my parents are gone and it's just us (which means just me with two little guys during the day). Keegan has been enjoying undivided attention from his grandparents for the past three weeks and has a few more to go since they of course are staying while I recover from Tanner's delivery.
All in all, things are going great and we love our new little addition so much!

Life Update

We are still alive even though our lack of blog updates may indicate otherwise. :) I meant to post these pictures of Keegan's first adventures to the ER at the beginning of last month...but I didn't. Keegan and I were outside playing one night when I decided we'd better go inside and start the bedtime routine. Things were going fine until just before he was getting out of the bathtub. Somehow he slipped and started crying--a lot. I thought it was his usual over reaction to any situation but turns out, he bit into his lip (both inside & out) but luckily not completely through. There was quite a bit of blood and I wasn't sure whether or not he needed stitches. I imagined putting him to sleep just then and having his sheets covered in blood throughout the night and some other terrible thing that my imagination is good at creating. So I decided to take him to see Daddy (for a second opinion) who was the church for our ward's youth night. Luckily there was a lady from our ward there who is a nurse and she agreed he needed stitches. My first thought was to go to Urgent Care but the nurse advised me that they usually send away children this young and tell them to go to the ER. So off we were at Keegan's bedtime to the ER. The good news is that we were seen rather quickly but that doesn't mean the whole experience was quick. Two & a half hours later Daddy decided he better head home to do some homework and then shortly thereafter Keegan and I did get to leave the ER too. The thing that really got Keegan through was knowing they'd give him a "popsick" (popsicle) after he got the stitches.

This is Keegan the next morning, complete with antibiotic & blood on his PJs. He did so well at the ER and slept like a champ that night. He woke up happy as could be.

It was tough to get a close-up of the stitches since I couldn't figure out the settings on our camera but you get the idea.

In the end he got two stitches and by the next morning had healed so much I couldn't believe I thought he needed them the night before. He took one of the stitches out himself the second day of having them and then had the other removed by the pediatrician on the fifth day. It's amazing how fast kids heal because you almost couldn't tell there was anything there by the time the stitches came out. For a while he would proudly tell anyone who would listen that he had fallen in the tub and hurt his mouth. In fact, Keegan has a remarkable memory and can also tell you about the scar above his eyebrow when he hit his head on the corner of an open car door. Nothing gets past this guy.

And for the curious...here I am at 31 weeks (today). I know I always want to see what people look like preggo so I thought I'd share just in case someone is dying to see my massive abdomen. :)

I haven't really taken a single picture of me being pregnant this time. Sorry baby boy #2, we do love you and are excited for your arrival. But what girl really wants to chronicle the largest times in her life more than once?? :)

Anyway, the heat has arrived in Cincinnati and it's been 90+ degrees for the past 4 days and my body is responding by swelling. Anywho...8 weeks to go (I am scheduled for a c-section at 39 weeks on July 29) and I know I have a lot of swelling to look forward to since it's not going to get much cooler than this. We have spent the last three days at the pool and will probably continue out the next 8 weeks the same way. Lucky for Keegan my parents will be here to entertain him for the entire month of August so he won't miss out on the last month of summer too much!


Last but certainly not least...last month Andrew's sister, Aubrey, and her husband Brent moved here with their son, Colton. Brent is doing an internship in the Cincinnati area for the summer so we've enjoyed spending the last few weeks with them. Mostly Aubrey & I get together with the kids to hang out but it's been fun having them so close! Photo credit goes to Aubrey...whose blog I stole this pic from. I am so bad about taking pictures of Keegan lately. Thankfully, Aubrey is an awesome photographer and always has her camera on hand! :)

Trip to Georgia

Last week we had the opportunity to visit Andrew's family in Georgia. The Atlanta temple has been undergoing renovation and it just happened that we were there during the re-open house for this temple.

We got to go through with Andrew's family and even Keegan got to come! It was the first time I had ever been to an open house and I thought it was really well done. It would be a great missionary tool.

Grandma and Keegan

Ken & Leslie

And of course the main purpose of our visit was to see Andrew's mom get married! This cake was absolutely the best cake I've ever tasted, and I'm not a cake person so this is saying a lot. It was amazing!

Aubrey & Melissa

We got to hang out with Andrew's sisters

And played mini golf with Andrew's dad. It was Keegan's first time that he actually got to participate. I think he enjoyed it but wanted a putter like ours instead of the cute foam one he was given.

Daddy & Keegan at Pirates Cove mini golf

I just thought this picture was so darn cute of Keegan! He's a natural golfer...

We had a really fun visit and are so glad we got to spend time with Andrew's fam!

Peeps!

I saw this cute little wreath posted on my favorite food blog Our Best Bites. Ok so I don't love peeps but I know a cute little boy that loves marshmallows so why wouldn't he also love the sugar coated variety, right? Well it turns out I was right and this was a lot of fun to make with Keegan. It only took us about 10-15 minutes from start to finish and now we have a cute little easter decoration (the only one in the house--ha!) that is also edible.

Happy Easter!

P.S. We also have lots and lots of pictures from our trip to visit Andrew's family in Georgia last week that I will post as soon as I get ahold of Andrew's computer where we put all of the pictures to clear off our memory card.

Latest Pics

I got Keegan's pictures taken--not for any special reason. I like to do it at least every 6 months since the place we go to does a good job for a low price and it takes 20 minutes for them to print the pics. So here are Keegan's latest.


Some people think the spring backgrounds and little argyle sweaters are cheesy but I guess you can just call me cheesy cause I think they're so cute! I think he did pretty well considering that by the end he wanted to tackle the giant teddy bear and radio flyer that the photographer was trying to use as props. :)

Snakes and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails...

We had our gender determining ultrasound today and it turns out we have a lot of snakes and snails and puppy dog tails going on at our house. :) We are really happy to be welcoming another little boy into our house on July 29!

I was already pretty outnumbered with Andrew & Keegan (I figured with the girl dog that we were still even) but I am for sure going to be outnumbered now with the arrival of this new little boy. We are so excited for Keegan to have a little brother to play with!!


He does have a cute little face, hands, feet, arms, and legs too! Everything looked normal and healthy and that is definitely the most important!

Visit to Utah

Andrew, Keegan, and I took a trip to Utah this past week to visit our family and friends. Most of my friends have moved from Utah but Andrew's entire extended family plus many old roommates still live there.

Our visit started with a stay at the Brown's (Andrew's grandparents). Although the dogs may not have enjoyed it as much as he did, Keegan loved playing with their 3 dogs.

We were happy to enjoy In-N-Out Burger twice--I've only had this in California or Las Vegas so I was so happy to see that they had moved into Utah (even if it was after we moved away).

Keegan and Andrew at BYU in front of the "Y" (kinda hard to see in the background on the mountain).

Keegan had to see the "Cougar Cat" as he keeps calling it. He keeps asking to see it everyday! :)

Of course, Andrew had to introduce him to BYU football. :)

Andrew's Grandpa Young was nice enough to let us visit him a couple of times as well with our crazy little 2 year old. :)

Our visit also included a stay with Andrew's Uncle Dave & Aunt Ruthanne (thank you so much!). Andrew made it to a Jazz game that they actually won, got to hit the slopes for some skiing, and went trap shooting with his cousins. We watched some BYU basketball games with Andrew's old roommates, visited the Jordan River Temple, had two family parties, saw my old roommate Suzanne & her husband Rand and their kiddos, and got to visit my grandma in Bountiful. Of course no visit to Utah would be complete with a stop at Cafe Rio, which we did twice! :) I just can't live without those salads...please come to Kentucky Cafe Rio!!

We had a wonderful visit and enjoyed seeing family and friends and eating great food. Of course traveling isn't quite the same with a 2 year old, so we are also very happy to be home in our own beds in our own time zone. (Keegan woke up one day at 3:30am in Utah--ouch!).