A Dads and Kids Gameday

Today K-State was playing KU in football, which is a game I always want to watch. One, because I love K-State football, and two, because I despise KU (being that they are our bitter rivals and all, even if it's mostly a one-way street since Mizzou is the primary target of KU's rivalry rage). Also KU has been utterly and stupendously terrible at football for the past few years, meaning there's almost no chance they will beat us, so I know the game will be enjoyable. Anyway, this year Fox Sports 1 is a new network which hopes to rival ESPN, and some of K-State's games have been on that channel, which we don't have.  Fortunately, my friend Tony does have it, so today I took our three kids over to his house.  Christa was working, and Tony had Hunter there, so it was just the two of us with our four combined kids.

We watched a little of the game when we first got there, but it was then lunchtime, so we enjoyed some Hot-N-Ready pizza that Tony picked up from Little Caesar's supplemented by some delicious deer sausage.

They had some large plastic bugs as toys.  The kids thought it was hilarious to pretend to eat them while Tony and I feigned intense disgust, much to their amusement.  Tony, as usual, was loved by the kids, and they tended to flock to him.

Getting four kids to all look at the camera is nearly impossible, but we somehow achieved it in two different locations.

Later the kids migrated to the short hallway between the kitchen and the living room and played with construction equipment and tractors.

K-State won, of course, and it was great for Tony and I to get to hang out, and it was a really fun time for the kids as well.

Braving Black Friday

I'm not a big shopper, but I do occasionally need some new clothes.  And like anyone, I would prefer to pay as little as possible for them.  A few years ago I decided the best way to achieve this would be to go shopping on Black Friday.  It went really well, and for the last few years I've had a planned shopping day on Black Friday to Oak Park Mall.  It's not quite like the typical Black Friday shopping experience, as I don't try to get there at 4am or 6am, and I'm not busting down any doors.  I usually shoot for late morning.  I'm also not looking for big screen TVs or toasters or whatever.  I'm mostly just trying to get some clothes, as it's pretty much the only time I shop for clothes each year.  Crowds don't bother me or stress me out, so it's not really much different than what I'd expect on a random Saturday.  Parking is tough, and the check-out lines are kinda long, but it's not bad.  It's actually sort of peaceful for me, as I go to the various stores I have in mind for my primary destinations.  This year, like in year's past, I got some ridiculously good deals on some clothes, mostly at Dillard's and Macy's.  My other goal for this year was to get a watch, as my previous nice watch had broken.  I had some money saved up from my birthday gifts, and I used that to get a watch I really like.  So it was yet another successful Black Friday for me: easy, care-free, and productive.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 Today we had a really nice Thanksgiving. We watched the parade and had appetizers in the morning.

 Then we ate dinner in the later afternoon. The kids were really amazed by the electric knife. This is the only time of year we get out the knife (or that roasting pan for that matter)  and so they didn't remember it from last year.

 Then we ate a nice dinner. Hannah thought this was the best holiday ever and ate seconds of everything except cranberries, with sweet potatoes being a big favorite. Clara even ate a few things.

 Joshua enjoyed sharing a drumstick with Daddy. What is it about boys and meat on a stick? Who knows. But he was pretty excited about it. After dinner, the kids had their naps.

Later in the evening, we had pie. Which made Joshua very very happy. He prefers cake, but he also loves pie. The girls really enjoyed it as well, though Clara took three bites and said, "Mmmmm, Yummy!" after each one. And then after the third she said, "All done".  Very Clara-like. After pie, we finished the evening with a movie. We had a super great Thanksgiving and feel so thankful for all the blessings we have in our life.

Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the last thing I want to do is cook dinner. I typically do the bulk of my food preparation on this day which means I spend a lot of time on my feet cooking and don't really want the additional work of trying to figure out something for an evening meal. We have often done pizza, but we just had pizza for Clara's birthday and it's so heavy and Thanksgiving is also quite heavy so it didn't sound good. When I was at Hen House today, I noticed that on Wednesdays their sushi is $5 a package, so I decided that would be a great dinner. I got California rolls for the kids and a combination for Jason and I and, though it's not as good as you would get at most sushi restaurants, it was pretty good and a nice light dinner. The only disappointment was that they only had rolls made with brown rice when I was there and I definitely prefer white rice, but it wasn't that big of a deal.

Not Hannah

This is not Hannah.  But it is a dog who appreciates a comfortable place to rest.

Way Back Monday: Thanksgiving is the Best

This year we are staying here for Thanksgiving so I have my menu planned and will start doing food prep tomorrow and then Wednesday will be my big day of pre-cooking. I really love Thanksgiving and we have hosted it many times over the years and we have spent it at the home of other people at times as well. I enjoy hosting the most, though it is a lot of work. This is the first year that I can remember that it will just be us, though of course now that we are a family of five, we are pretty much a party all by ourselves. These pictures are from 2004, which is the second Thanksgiving we hosted.  We also hosted in our first year in our house in 2003 but somehow didn't get any pictures of ourselves.

Happy Birthday Clara!

Today Clara turned two. It seems much longer than two years that Clara has been a part of our lives, but it also has passed in a blink of an eye. Clara is growing and learning all the time. She speaks very well and has a lot to say. She has strong likes and dislikes and is very strong-willed. She likes picking out which hair bows she will wear each day and has a keen fashion sense and is overall very girly and likes pretty things, babies, and purses a lot, though she also really likes cars and trucks. She still does not really like food that much, though she is doing really well weight-wise and recently hit twenty pounds, finally. She is in the third percentile in both height and weight, which is a big improvement for her and is the first time she has been above the first percentile in quite some time.

We don't do really big parties after one (well until they are old enough to ask for them. Then we will probably start them again), but we still do have a party so this afternoon our family as well as Julie, Andrew, and Benjamin and Grandma Peg and Grandpa Ron came over.

I try to have each kid's favorite foods on their birthday. With Clara that's pretty hard because her favorite food is probably ice chips. But she does like carbs a lot so we had rolls and mandarin oranges for lunch and then pizza for dinner. Because she is lactose intolerant, to her pizza means breaksticks, which she likes but doesn't love. But we also let her have some pop with ice chips and eat her beverage with a spoon and she really loves all those things, so even though she doesn't exactly have a favorite food, she liked her dinner a lot.

After dinner, we did presents, which made her very happy. She really seemed excited about most of what she got (possible exception is the blanket I made her, because blankets are a step up from clothes when it comes to gifts, but I think she'll enjoy it when she uses it) and kept saying "Oh Wow". Joshua was totally happy to help her out with the gifts. After we opened gifts, we took a brief break in festivities for Clara to talk to Aunt Josie on the phone. She isn't quite able to have a real conversation on the phone yet, but I think she's getting closer.

After phone time, it was time for cake. Clara likes cake, but Joshua loves cake so Joshua had spent all day talking how good the cake was so Clara was pretty psyched for it since she trusts Joshua on stuff like that. But she was a little confused. I made cupcakes for everyone, but she had a special purse cake that Jason made for her. But she didn't realize it was a cake so she was a little confused.

But she figured it out and gave herself a round of applause when people sang happy birthday to her. She enjoyed her cake, though being Clara she is very self-regulating and told me she was done with it after several bites. She was happy to share with Joshua, though, who thought this whole "one cupcake" thing we have going on in our family is for the birds.

She had a really happy birthday and I was a little sad to say goodbye to her baby years, but we were all happy to celebrate with our sweet big girl who we all love so much.

A Tight Fit

Clara and Joshua don't really fit in the cozy coupe together like they used to. It is, after all, only made to seat one. Hannah and Clara just barely fit together. I have to lock the door of the car to make sure it doesn't pop open, but they had a lot of fun in the car while Joshua was at soccer today. It works out well because Joshua and Clara both want to "steer" and beep the horn and all that stuff. But Hannah is pretty content to just ride so there is no competition.

Our Last Visit

Today we graduated from the Parents as Teacher program. We have really enjoyed our home visits and we have gotten a lot of value from Elizabeth's experience and suggestions. The program lasts for three years so today was our last visit, though the activities they put on are open to all children under three. Today Elizabeth evaluated the kids' hearing and did Clara's two-year evaluation and everything is on track. I feel like I have gained so much knowledge from this program and also not worried about things people always make you want to worry about by their questions ("Oh, he's not talking yet? Hmm, that's so weird. I am sure he's not autistic or anything" --those kind of questions). I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

Leaves of Thanks

It is natural to think about all we have to be thankful for with Thanksgiving approaching. It's very important to us for our kids to realize that not everyone has what we have and that we should be thankful for what we do have. It's pretty hard to get too profound with toddlers, though. You can't really get too deep with a guy who is still working on being able to respond to the question "What is your favorite color?" One thing we are doing this year is putting some of the people and things we are thankful for on our Thanksgiving tree and thanking God for them. A lot of people do this type of thing for 30 days, but we are doing 27 total leaves, so 9 days. We are about half way through now. Joshua and Clara are really enjoying it and I am glad we are doing it. I hope one day it will evolve to the kids coming up with things on their own that they are thankful for, but for this age, I think this is working for us.

The Future of Vending Machines

I love technology, especially when it shows up in everyday life.  For example, I really liked the Coke Freestyle machine the first time I saw it.  Today in the Minneapolis airport, I saw something I'd never seen before: completely digital vending machines.  They had one for pop in which images of all the different options would slowly move down a three-dimensional spiral, occasionally doing a little dance to help attract passers-by.  The nearby snack machine was similar.  This would seem to be a great idea, as it's likely to attract more attention due to the bright and animated display.  Also, it allows them to have more options, as they don't need to have a physical button on the front for each one.  I suspect this is something I'll see more and more in the future.

Not Just Calling, But Also Conversing

Joshua has become more and more aware of phones and how they work and also has really grown in the past month or so in his ability to have a conversation. Not only did he want to call Daddy today, but he had a real conversation with him that involved answering questions relevantly (not always truthfully. He doesn't always know whether you are asking if he has done something in the past vs today or if he wants to do something vs did he actually do it). It was exciting to see how much progress he has made verbally and cute that he wanted to talk to Jason.

Enjoying the Weather

Today was a nice day outside so we went out and played. We started out with bikes. Joshua really wanted to ride the trike that we are borrowing from our friends, the Hansons. I really discourage trike use because they are so tippy that it makes me very nervous. He was pretty determined, though, so I allowed it. Luckily he doesn't totally get steering so didn't really make any sharp turns that would cause him to capsize. He has been doing really well with pedaling, so he was able to go across the cul-de-sac and back (well he had to get off the bike to turn it around to come back due to the lack of steering). The other kids also played on bikes since everyone in our family loves them, but they weren't quite as mobile.

After bike time, we went to the back yard and played on the swingset. I often think we should upgrade our swingset so we can have something where all the kids can swing. However, they are very expensive and the one I want is metal, which is not officially allowed by our HOA so we would have to seek approval. I also don't think our current swingset is outgrown except for number of swings. It is still a great size for our kids. I was really glad to see all three kids enjoying it today since they often argue over the swing. Joshua was loving pushing the girls in their swings. We were so glad the opportunity to head outside and play.

The Final House Frontier

We've been in this house for two years, and by now we've mostly redone the areas/rooms that we've wanted to make changes to how it was when we moved in.  The garage is one of the last areas that needs work.  This is probably because Meghan was in charge of most of the rest, and the garage is under my purview.  Regardless, it's been a goal of mine to work on it this fall, so the past couple weekends I've spent time going through the various sections of the garage reorganizing what needed to be organized, and throwing away what needed to be thrown away.  It's not completely done, but I've made great progress. Today I re-assembled a shelving unit that we had in the HVAC closet of our old house but that had gone unused thus far in this house.  Joshua really wanted to help with this process and also just to generally be in the garage to play with all the cool stuff, so he and I spent the afternoon on it.  By dinner time, we had an assembled shelf with many items already stored on it.  This reminded me of a previous time when he was with me while I worked on an extensive garage project.  This time, he was a little more helpful, but not a ton.  He was certainly more fun this time though.  He mostly walked around the garage finding things and saying, "Whoa!  What is this, Dad?"  Here I am with my little garage helper/explorer.

Waffles, Wind, and Wandering

Today was a date day for me and Clara.  We started off by going to Waffle House for brunch.  Clara doesn't eat many things, which is partially why she's so tiny, but she does like waffles.  She ended up eating about half of her really big waffle.


Clara usually doesn't like to be strapped in the car seat, especially in my car, for whatever reason.  To make it easier for her, I let her bring her baby doll (which is actually Hannah's) and a couple balls.  We then went to Home Depot where she mostly did a good job of walking around with me without trying to run away.  She especially enjoyed the open lawn and garden area.


We stopped by CVS to pick up some photos we'd ordered, and there's a weird gazebo and open area next to the parking lot, so I decided we should go explore it.  It's a super windy day today, and most of the leaves have fallen from the trees, so Clara enjoyed running in the open grassy area through the leaves.  We then went to the park by our house, where they have playground equipment recommended for kids 5 and up.  Little 1-year-old Clara thought that limit was stupid, and she climbed right up the tall slide and excitedly went down, and then repeated the process many times.  We then walked down the path, stopping to be amazed as we rolled a ball downhill, only to watch the wind catch it, and roll it uphill right back to us.  Among the balls I had brought was a beach ball, but I intentionally left that one in the car, as it would have blown into the next neighborhood.  Clara wandered around the grassy area for awhile before deciding the playground was better, so we went back over to there for the rest of our time.  We were wearing our K-State stuff because today is game day.  Later in the afternoon we beat TCU in a thrilling game.  So it's been an all-around great day for me, and hopefully for Clara too.

Double Date Night

Once a month Meghan and I get to go on a date night, thanks to Mom and Ron watching the kids.  We also periodically try to see our friends the Hansons.  Usually we all have our kids, which is fine, but we rarely get to meet with them without any of all of our kids.  Tonight they had that opportunity, and Meghan and I decided our date night would be a double date.  We met Jason and Callie at Outback Steakhouse, where we all had the Victoria Filet, which was great.  They seemed to be closing down, so we then went to Old Chicago for dessert and a couple drinks.  We have fun with them when the kids are there, but sometimes it's nice to hang out just as adults.

Meeting Baby Hudson

My friend Jason and his wife Kelli recently had their second child, a boy named Hudson.  We hadn't had a chance to meet him yet, so we arranged a time for their family to come over to our house.  As we did the last time we met a new Keeler baby, we ate buffalo wings.  After we were done eating, the kids played together, and Jason offered his services as a horsey.  I also got some time to hold little baby Hudson, who was a cute little guy.