Allie Grace...

Allie Grace is now 5 months old. She's grown so much and we thought we might share some pictures...Lisa and I would like to thank our professional-camera-toting family: thanks Cheryl, Ryan, Kevin, Chad, and the rest of you who make Allie feel like a celebrity. I thought I would just post these pics in the blog instead of in a slideshow...

















Reading at a young age...
















Hanging out in the Jolly Jumper...

















Bring on the food!















Brother and Sister...

Kellonisms

Kellon said a few things over the last couple days that has wowed me, so I thought I would share them with you...

On Thursday night, I had my Winter Choral Concert at the high school. Kellon was excellent through the whole thing and Lisa - who braved into the concert with 2 kids by herself! - brought the little to my room after the concert was done. Everyone had left and it was just us in the room. Kellon walks toward me and says: "Good job teaching the kids Daddy." I looked at Lisa and the look on her face told me that she had not prompted him to say this. A few moments later we were walking hand-in-hand through the auditorium after shutting things off. As we walked he looked up at me and said "Good job on your concert Daddy." I was floored. These were completely unsolicited and unprompted comments that he was coming up with! All I could do is say "Thank You", give him a big hug, and try to gather my jaw from the ground. Now, he is our first child...but is that normal for a 3yr. old to say such things?

On a funnier note, I was shaving on Saturday and Kellon wanted to watch. He was watching everything. After, I put all the shaving cream on, I looked over at Kellon. He declares: "Daddy...you look like Jesus."

Kellonisms...funny, enlightening, and down right cute.

Kellon's "Lightning McQueen" Cake

Lisa made a super-cool "Lightning McQueen" (from the Disney movie "Cars") cake. Here's a video of Kellon discovering that it is a cake of "Lightning McQueen." (just click to play.)

Kellon's Birthday Party

On November 15th, we had a whirlwind day of birthday parties! Several of Kellon's friends arrived at 10am for a birthday bash. Later on that day, all the family came over for a party and the big unveiling of the new drumset. Here are a bunch of pictures from the day! (You can let the slide show play on its own or you can move through the pictures with the arrow keys at your own pace. Enjoy!)



Happy Birthday Kellon! We Love You!

Kellons New Drumset

Kellon's grandparents bought Kellon a new drumset for his birthday. As you might have noticed from previous blog entries, Kellon has taken an interest in the drums since he received his first starter set over a year ago. We thought it might be time to upgrade to an official "real" drumset that is built for youngsters. This is a great little kit. He plays it daily and he can almost reach the kick drum pedal!

Special "Thank You" to the grandparents: Grandma Carol and Rich, Papa Dean and Ruth, Grandma Cindy and John, and Opa and Oma. Kellon will enjoy this drumset for many years to come.

Here's a video of the "unveiling" of his birthday present. I kept Kellon in the living room while everyone waited in the office, and, well...watch what happens! (click picture to play video file)



Happy Birthday Kellon! We all love you!

Halloween and the "Western-ers"...

Lisa's brother (Jay) and sister-in-law (Shannon) were in town for a visit before leaving on their trip to Africa! They will be living and working in the country of Burkina Faso for 6 months. She is a nurse and he is an IT professional and they will be working with a hospital and other agencies. We're all proud of them and we are keeping them in our prayers. This is a great picture of them with Kellon and Allie.

















Here's Jay and Shannon with Allie...
















For Halloween, Kellon dressed up like a fireman. There was a very cool party down at the DOC for little kids. He had a blast going from game to game and snagging lots of candy along the way!
















Here Kellon is standing inside a HUGE bubble! With the right amount of dishsoap and a hula-hoop, you too can have your very own life-size bubble!
















What an arm! Special thanks to Heather Ramsdell and all who put this party on....it was a great night!
















I just had to add at least one picture of our little girl!

Awesome Autumn

It's been a while since we've updated our blog, and this is just the first of several entries we need to make. We've had a lot of exciting things happening lately, but we didn't want to leave out some cool events from the fall. So, here are some pictures from some events...

Here we are at the top of Mt. Azure. We took a hike with Lisa's family in late September and we had a great time! It was a bit of a task with two kids...I carried Kellon in a back carrier up and down and Lisa carried Allie both ways. Interesting!

















Hey...when ya gotta go, ya gotta go!


















Great picture of John Brink. Great man and a great father...

















Of course, we had a lot of leaves from our big trees, and Kellon loved playing in them!























A little picture time before the real work of hauling the leaves to the back "40"....yuck!


















If you know Kellon, you're probably laughing right now...his shirt says "Save Water, Drink Juice"!...