Camping with the Harris's.....the other ones!

So, here's a funny little story. I used to be Krista Kieft and Adrienne used to be Adrienne Jenkins. Then we both married guys with the last name "Harris"....now we're both Harris's.....weird huh? It gets even more ironic. Adrienne and her husband Seth have three children. Ethan is about a year younger than Gavin. Emi is a couple of months younger than Alayna and Evan is a few months younger than Cade. Everyone has a buddy! So, what could be more fun than a camping trip? We drove out to the Columbia Gorge (a nice halfway spot as Adrienne and family travel from Walla Walla) and found a park with a beautiful view of the river. It was gorgeous! It was also incredibly hot the weekend we happened to go (100 degrees.....yikes!). Here's a few pics to document out weekend. Gavin wearing my glasses.....what a goofball!

Alayna and Emi picking blackberries.....those two were TOO FUNNY!

Keeping Cade out of the dirt was pretty much impossible....this is what he looked like most of the time!

Birthdays!

Yay! I found my USB cord so that I can upload pictures from my camera to the blog again. Of course, it took me finally giving up after looking for over a month and going to Best Buy to get another one. And as it always happens, once you buy a new one, inevitably you'll find the old one.....which is exactly what happened. Thankfully, I haven't opened the new one yet so I'll have to make a trip back to Best Buy to return it now. Its definitely been a busy couple of months. Summer is birthday season for us.....everyone but Chad gets to celebrate theirs during the summer months. Cade went first in May, then Alayna in June, then Gavin in mid-July and I get my special day at the end of July. Funny how the order goes from youngest to oldest....that wasn't planned by the way. Gavin wanted to spend his birthday with friends from school and he really wanted to go bowling. Here he is with Maddox (left) and Logan (right).

This was such a nice picture of Mom and Cade that we took before she left and I wanted to share it with the birthday pics as well.

Cade *loves* his ball pit that Grandma bought him for his birthday!

And he had a great time making a huge mess with his cake!

Alayna on her first "big girl" bike!

Gavin is very proud of his new bike!

One Yr Checkup at 14 Months

Ok, so I'm a little bit behind the checkup schedule, but better late than never, I say! It was a very positive, rather uneventful appointment. Cade weighed in at 21 lb, 3.5 oz. We chatted a bit with Dr. Hartman. She deemed him a happy and healthy little boy; he got a little poke for his 2nd DTaP (which he made a face during, but didn't really get all that upset about) and we stopped by the pot of stickers for rewards before heading out the door. The only thing that gave me pause was as I was heading out with the sheet in-hand that they give you with the weight, height and random information about development and such. Under the hand-written weight it read "12%". I actually squinted and read it again, thinking the number might change. What? My Cade who has been at least in the 50th percentile at every appt. is now only in the 12th? I almost ran out of the room to question Dr. Hartman about it (is this normal? is he ok?) and then I stopped myself, smiled, and realized I have an amazing pediatrician! She saw those numbers. If she had been concerned with them she would have brought them up. She did ask how he was eating and I openly talked about how he is still primarily breastfed, but we experiment with table foods and she said it all sounded good....she brought up no concerns. I am so thankful that I have a pediatrician who is supportive of my parenting decisions, even if I am in the minority of the mainstream. She didn't even bat an eyelash as I checked "decline" on about 8 different vaccines. She's always been very supportive of my decision to nurse my children past the AAP's standard of one year. I know so many moms who battle these issues with their provider and it is so relaxing to know I don't have to prepare to fight at each appointment.

Funny part is we're headed back on Friday for Alayna's 3 yr. appt. When I tried to get two consecutive appts, I was told I'd have to wait until August and since I was already a bit late with Cade, I just decided to make two trips in one week.

Introducing a New Blog!

I have decided to write yet another blog titled Christ Centered Mama that will have more of a focus on mothering and childbirth. This is something I've wanted to do for awhile, yet knowing it is a LOT of work, I've put it off until I had it very clearly in my head what exactly I wanted it to be like. I've felt for awhile that I'd like to encourage women who are in the childbearing stage of life to have the best birth experience that they can possibly have and a great start to being a mother. Also, I've been very passionate about helping women who are trying to VBAC....most have to overcome many obstacles and I especially love encouraging those women and helping them with any advice I can offer. So, I have moved some links around on my blog list and all of my "earthy birthy links" have been moved over to that blog. Also, I've added my mom's blog called "Kieft Kapers" and am going to focus this blog as a "family" blog full of pictures of the kids and the events of our lives.

Climbing Boy

Cade has decided he is going to turn into his sister and climb into and onto EVERYTHING! Chairs are just the beginning. I can not keep him off the kitchen table and yesterday he actually tried to climb into the sink (he hasn't been successful yet, luckily!).

Field Day at Arthur Academy

Gavin had field day at school yesterday and I guess it was quite the carnival experience complete with face painting and colored hairspray for goofy hair. I was pretty surprised when I picked him up and saw the kids parading out in all their painted glory!

We Survived Our First Teeball Season!

Gavin first teeball team

Gavin and Logan
Who's the bigger goofball?

Gavin in the outfield

Busy Weekend

I'm sorry that I haven't been posting as much as I used to. Facebook has hijacked my attention over the last couple of months and I've been spending more time over there. However, for those of you who haven't gotten in on the FB craze, I thought I'd at least update over here. We had a wonderful weekend in Puyallup celebrating the May and June birthdays. There were five to celebrate, including Cade and Alayna. We had a beautiful warm day for the party, which was at Tammy's house (Chad's sister). I forgot to take my camera, so unfortunately I don't have any great pics to post, but my MIL took some great ones, so if you are on FB, you can view some of the pics of us from my profile page.

So, details: Alayna got fun art supplies and lots of Dora the Explorer gear including a bathing suit, dinnerware set, a Dora doll and "Backpack" (the character, not an actual backpack). Cade got some cute clothes and toys, his favorite being a set of keys that has all kinds of buttons to push on the keyless entry part. He held it the entire way home. Alayna played with Backpack the entire way home.....I practically had to pry her little hands off to get ready for bed! ;o)

It was a great weekend, although I've completely lost my voice due to the sickness that has gone through our family, forcing me to lose precious sleep. Hopefully I'll rebound soon and takes lots of new pics to post!

Crashed Out

Some days when Alayna is cranky and I know she just needs a nap, I'll just throw the kids in the car and go for a little drive. Here's a pic of what I saw upon arriving home after one such excursion!

I Can Make Messes Too!

Just like his big sister.....Mama's so proud!

Stickers!

Yup, the title says it all....Stickers! That is exactly what Alayna exclaimed when I found her in the bathroom! Look at how proud she is!

Cool Kids!

Its fun to wear Daddy's glasses!

Spring is Here!

So glad to be able to get out of the house on these nice warm days!

Diaper Love

Cade got some new diapers for Christmas and I decided to have a Diaper Fashion Show! Above we have the Fuzzi Bunz Under the Sea print.

Next is the Fuzzi Bunz Trains print.

Finally, Thirsties in "Melon" ~ Kind of hard to actually see the diaper in this pic, but is that a happy baby or what?

January Pics

Here are some random pics from the last couple of weeks. This was soon after we arrived home from Michigan....can you say "Jet Lag?"
He's moving......and he's into everything!

Big Brother, Little Brother

Alayna loves the cat, but I'm not sure how she feels about Alayna.

Vacationing in Michigan

Well, it took me *way* too long to post these pictures, but better late than never. These were snapped during our vacation to Michigan in early January.
Cade & Aunt Karen

Dad, Kelly, Dan & Karen all sporting their new hats that Chad and I got them for Christmas! (Actually, Karen's hat was a present from Dan....I guess I should clarify!)

Playing Cards...gotta teach 'em young!

Let's see, Is this a good hand?

Karen and Dan took the kids to Build-A-Bear Workshop. Getting a pictures without a silly face proved impossible!

For some reason, the ducks decided to stick around this winter!

My kiddos crack me up!

New Year's Day in Michigan

The kids and I are spending two weeks in Michigan over New Years! It has been a fun time spending time with Grammy & Grandpa, Aunt Karen, Uncle Dan, Aunt Kelly as well as seeing extended relatives. Every day has been packed with activities and I know this wonderful time will be over with before I know it. I will definitely enjoy every minute that I am able to be here.

The Snow Just Keeps Coming!

Believe it or not, its STILL snowing! This most recent picture was just taken (about 3 hours after I took the previous pics) and shows the massive amount of snow that is piling up! Gavin started asking if it would snow so much that it would cover the house! I laughed and said, "I don't think so, honey".....now I'm starting to wonder. No, according to the news, it looks like we're right on the edge of the snow....it will probably stop accumulating soon as this storm blows through.

Portland Blizzard

We have snow! And lots of it too! I took these pics this morning....this shows the "drifts" that have been created as the snow has been blown up against the fence. There is another drift on our back porch that is probably about waist deep!


Why did I snap a pic of our recycling bin? Just to show how much snow has actually fallen....it looks like about 4 or 5 inches to me.

This is NOT what I meant when I said I wanted a winter garden!

Preparing for Christmas

Alayna checking the lights in the star....just to make sure they all work, of course!

Gavin and Alayna were a BIG help getting the lights onto the tree!

Gavin singing for his school Christmas concert. It was a very neat concert. The theme was "Around the World at Christmas Time". Gavin's class sang "What You Gonna Call Your Pretty Little Baby?" (African American Spiritual) and "O Tannenbaum!" (Germany). Select other songs included "Here We Come A Wassailing" (England), "Para Pedir Posada" (Guatemala...Yes, the 4th graders sang in Spanish) and "Gong xi fa cai" (China...And yes, the 3rd graders actually sang in Chinese!!!) The whole thing was highly impressive!


This is the church where the concert was held...just beautiful!

I wanted to get a picture of Gavin's music teacher because he looks completely different from what I would have expected. You know, the sterotypical male elementary teacher in his 40s and wears a sweater vest....this guy looks like he should be in a rock band or something. (Sorry if I've offended any teachers out there.) I took several pictures, but this was the only one that was somewhat not blurry. Oh, and this picture is actually taken of the 5th graders who learned to play these instruments....I can't remember what they are called, but think of a bell choir, but with these sticks that you hit on your hand and the different colors produce different sounds. It was highly cool!