Kiefer is 7 Months Old

Our jolly little boy is officially 7 months old (5 months adjusted) today. Kiefer is such a pleasure to have around. He is so happy all of the time and loves it when people talk and sing to him. He laughs outloud when he gets tickled about something, and is heartbroken if he gets his feelings hurt. He has sat up by himself a couple of times for about 15 seconds and looks like he is getting close to crawling if you place him on his stomach. Kiefer loves to look at himself in the mirror and kisses and talks to himself for long periods of time. It is so much fun to see Krue and Kiefer interact! Krue just cracks up at the different noises and faces that Kiefer makes, and Kiefer loves to have Krue play with him. Our not-so-little preemie is now wearing 12 month clothes and is 19 1/2 lbs. We have started him on cereal, but he isn't too sure what to think about that yet :) Kiefer wants to be heard now and will cough on purpose to get us to look at him (and will laugh when we do!) He has started to babble sounds like "ma ma ma" and "ba ba ba", and even started to say something that sounds like "hi" when he sees us (not sure if we should consider this his first word or not? Krue's first word was "hi".)

We love you so much, Kiefer!

Lee's 29th Birthday

Sunday we celebrated Lee's 29th birthday at my parent's house. We also celebrated Mamaw's and Uncle David's birthdays. My mom made the birthday celebrants wear "Happy Birthday" sashes (Uncle David and Lee were just thrilled...but good sports about it).

Lee's birthday is really September 6th, so we will be have another mini-celebration at the lake with his family.

One more year and Lee will be 30!

(He is looking pretty good, if I do say so myself.)

Hayley's Last Night Out

Last Saturday I traveled up to Chicago (with Schlaura) to attend a shower and bachelorette party for one of my really good friends from high school, Hayley Adams. She is getting married in three weeks and I am excited to have been asked to be a bridesmaid.

Cheers to Hayley on her last night out as a single woman! I had so much fun meeting all of her friends from IU, optometry school, and Chicago.
While we were in Chicago we met up with a great friend from IU, Aaron Hoof. Talk about long time no see. It was so wonderful to see you, Hoof!

A picture with the bachelorette. Doesn't she look beautiful?

We had so much fun!

Give Me a Shout!

I love it that people are reading my blog. I find out each day that different people have been reading it. I am curious to see who has been checking in with us. If you have a little time, please leave a comment on this blog entry. To do this, just click on where it says comments at the bottom of this entry and follow what it says to do.

Getting a comment is very exciting! It is kind of like getting the mail and finding a letter or invitation from somebody :) Feel free to leave a comment anytime!

Conquered First Triathlon!

I did it! Yesterday I competed in my first triathlon down in Indianapolis. What a great feeling of accomplishment! It was such a rush and I had so much fun. My overall time was 1 hour 19 minutes.

I was so happy that my best friend, Schlaura Linderwell, decided to attempt the triathlon with me. It was great having her there. We both said that we couldn't imagine doing this alone. It was too much fun being there together!

There were close to 600 people competing in this triathlon! This picture is of us getting ready to start with the swim.

Schlaura and I are right in the middle of this picture. We are getting our bikes set up and ready to go.

After the race.

Can't wait to do it again, Schlaura!

Goodbye Courtney

Today we had to say farewell to the best baby-sitter in the world, Courtney. She is heading off to school at Huntington College and is going to play basketball there. Courtney has been a wonderful help this summer watching the boys. We hope that she will come back and visit often. The boys and I wrote her a little message on our driveway to say goodbye.

Thanks, Courtney!

Reunion Weekend

Last weekend we had a reunion with all of Lee's chiropractic buddies at Hamilton Lake (Lee's dad's lake house). It was so great to see everyone! It has been 5 years since Lee graduated from Palmer so the reunion was much needed. We had terrific weather all weekend and enjoyed ourselves on the water during the days and hanging out around a fire at night.

Everyone enjoyed seeing Krue and Kiefer. Our friends Scott and Stacie brought their two little girls, Keira and Riley. In this picture our friend Ferris is holding Kiefer and our friend Jody is holding Riley.

I was so excited to see my closest friend in Davenport, Shannon Fisher. We had a blast hanging out. It felt like old times again.

We spent all day at the sandbar on Saturday. Lots of fun in the sun!

We had our babysitter, Courtney, come up to the lake and watch the kids on Friday evening and Saturday so we could go out on the boat with everyone. That was so nice for Lee and I! On Sunday the kids got to go out on the boat and have some fun tubing. Pictured above is Keira, Krue, and our friend Scott.

This was such a fun weekend. We hope to do it again next year and hopefully people who couldn't make it this year will be able to come!

What great friends we made at Palmer!!

We Love Grandma Phyllis and Grandpa Joe

Last Monday my Dad brought up my Grandma and Grandpa Elkins and Uncle Fred for a visit to see the boys, our house, and Lee's office. We really look forward to seeing my Dad's side of the family because they live in Ohio and we usually only see them two or three times a year. Everyone held Kiefer and commented on his size and his remarkable catch-up. They loved watching Krue play basketball.

My grandparents are amazing people. I could listen to their interesting stories all day long. They put a smile on all of our faces and make us proud. Can't wait to see you again, Grandma P and Grandpa J!



We love you, too, Uncle Fred!

Sweet Corn for a Sweet Boy

Our neighbor friends, Neal and Melanie Blythe, brought us over some fresh sweet corn the other night. Krue has never tried sweet corn on the cobb (how sad is that?), so we let him try it. He had so much fun eating it and thought it was yummy! Thanks, Neal and Mel, for the delicious (and fun) meal.

Night Out

Lee and I always look forward to getting dressed up and going out for the night by ourselves. Last Saturday night we had a chance to do just that. We went to Tyler & Missy (Quackenbush) Romine's wedding/reception and had a great time! Our neighbor, Courtney, took the boys to her grandma's birthday party across town for a while (she's going to be a freshman at Huntington college this fall). Courtney said that Kiefer got so much attention and was held the entire time by her mom and other family members, and Krue enjoyed swimming in the pool with her. It is nice to have such a responsible babysitter that we can trust and who enjoys the boys so much. Thanks, Courtney, for helping us out this summer. We will miss you when you go to school.

Fun at the Fair

Last night Lee, Krue, Kiefer and I went to the Waterloo Sesquicentennial Fair. We weren't sure what to expect because this was an "every 50 years" celebration and we heard the "Waterloo Kitchen Band" would be playing :) It ended up being really fun. There were several rides for Krue and best of all, we discovered the coolest playground EVER...only 5 minutes away from our house!

This was Kiefer for most of the night. He enjoyed himself, too!

Krue had a blast on the rides. He didn't want to get off.

By far, Krue's favorite ride of all times. The carousel!

The coolest playground EVER! This picture only shows 1/3 of the actual playground. There is a toddler section, swings section, tunnel section, and fun moving platform section. We can't believe we never knew about this playground before. One of Waterloo's hidden secrets :)

Krue's REALLY long naps

I have a sleeper on my hands. Either that or he has been growing like crazy for the past couple of months. Krue takes a 3 1/2 or 4 hour nap each day! It's not like we are keeping him up late or anything. He goes to bed around 8:30pm and wakes up at 7:30am. Even after sleeping 11 hours at night he is able to pull of this gargantuan nap each day. At first I was a little concerned because he was needing all of this sleep. After talking to some of my mom friends I have come to the conclusion that he must need the sleep...or if he is not sleeping the entire time, a little quiet time to himself. I'll admit, I have been enjoying these long naps and take full advantage of the times both Krue and Kiefer are sleeping in the afternoon. It feels good to have some "me" time. I know these long naps wont last forever...but I'll cherish every moment while I can.

Kiefer is 6 Months Old

Kiefer is officially 6 months old (4 months adjusted). He is doing great! Lately, I have been putting together a photo album with pictures of Kiefer when he was in the NICU. It is hard to believe Kiefer was that same baby, and at one point weighed only 2 lbs. 11 oz.! You look at him now and he is this chubby & happy little boy. We are so blessed to have things turn out the way they have with him. We love you, Kiefer!

Krue's First Water Sport

While we were at the lake last weekend Krue try tubing for the first time. He loved it! Speed doesn't seem to phase him. Hmmm...who does that sound like? Pretty scary.