February 2013

February 2013, a set on Flickr.

January 2013

Happy New Year!

Things have been fun and busy at our house.  So while the blog and photos have been ready for a while, we're posting a little late this time!  :)  Enjoy!

January was a fun and busy month!

It took a few days to get back into our school and work routine, but we had a great time playing with our friends at school this month! And we continue to enjoy playing with friends at church and at playgroup (we got to go on Martin Luther King holiday!) We’ve enjoyed a mostly healthy month, too, which makes things all the better!

Our family went on some great outings!  We went to the final night of Zoo Lights. We had so much fun seeing all the lights, and got a great indoor look at the gorillas eating their dinner!   We also got to enjoy the last night of the Walk Of Lights at Meadowlark Gardens, including a beautiful performance by the Vienna Choral Society.  What a wonderful way to round out our holiday season!  We also bid farewell to the season by helping out at home taking down the tree and lights – although we were still fairly melancholy about that for a couple of weeks afterward! So…we decided to leave our snowflakes on the windows, along with the new hearts we put up, to keep things festive.

We took a family trip to see the fish at the aquarium over a chilly weekend, and we loved seeing the dolphins jump! On Sunday after church, we had lots of yummy fun playing with cars during brunch at Silver Diner – and we even go to use real plates and grownup silverware! 

We’ve had lots of fun at home too, building towers, playing a little basketball, sliding on our indoor slide (because it’s been “BRRRR, cold outside”), playing “ring-around-the-rosy” together and trying out the fun new toys we got for Christmas.  We’ve even gotten a little crafty, using our new art easel and paints to make some pretty creations. 

And at the end of the month, we got a little SNOW at our house – enough to at least take the sled in the backyard, although no one wanted to ride it this time.  And we made our very first Keller family snowman!  Mommy and Daddy made sure to snap some quick pictures before we were able to demolish it with our snow tools. We decided to leave him up, but the sudden turn to almost 70 degree temperatures brought a quick end to our snowman just a few days later.

We continue to surprise Mommy and Daddy with the things we know how to say.  Our favorite new phrase with Daddy at bedtime is “peace out dude”. Much to Mommy’s chagrin, this one has currently replaced the “I love you’s” that are often heard through the monitor after we go to bed.  But we continue to entertain by singing fun songs when we wake in the morning, as well as throughout the day.  Some of our favorites are Jingle Bells, the ABC’s, Twinkle Twinkle, Happy Birthday, No More Monkeys Jumping On The Bed, and “Who Built The Ark – Noah, Noah”… Mommy taught us this one so we could help her out at Sunday school!

While we had a pretty active month, we didn’t spend as much time capturing photos of our fun.  We do have a few cute pictures to share below, and we hope you enjoy them!

We hope you had a wonderful beginning to 2013!

 Love,

Christopher and Katharine

January 2013

January 2013, a set on Flickr.

December 2012

What a wonderful December we had!

We enjoyed lots of fun this month, amidst all the holiday preparations, colds, and busyness. We got to visit with our friends Zack, Anthony, and Robert at a holiday party early in the month. We had fun exploring at the mall while Mommy and Daddy worked on the holiday “to-do’s”.  On a warm evening, we headed back to see the lights again at Meadowlark, and had even more fun on the second trip!  And we enjoyed our very first “Angel Breakfast” at church, complete with star pancakes, stickers, and activities.

We enjoyed resting and playing at home between errands and to-do’s on busy weekends.  We learned all about elves and reindeer, Santa and snowmen; and angels and Baby Jesus.  We had fun helping mommy make cookies and gingerbread and decorate our first tree; we watched with glee as Daddy put our first outdoor lights up; we played with our nativity set, decorated the windows, and then had even more fun rearranging the candles in the windows and the decorations on the tree! We also did lots of holiday-themed foam sticker crafts – decorating ornaments and snowflakes, gingerbread men, snowmen, and trees.  And sometimes we just ran around silly!  

At school, we made lots of holiday crafts with construction paper, from candy canes and wreaths to stockings and trees.  And at our holiday party, we made fun reindeer and wreath hats, and had fun playing with our friends.

At the end of the month, we traveled to Ohio to visit with our families.  We had fun in Kenton at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, playing with our cousins, Uncle Mike, and Aunt Robyn, and our friends, Miss Ann and Chloe.  We explored, made tinker toy creations, and watched the doggies and kitties  (Upon arriving back home, Katharine announced at bath time that “Christopher loves dogs every day, all day” and “I love cats”!)  And we played in the snow for the very first time! It was such an adventure for us all to get bundled up and take our first steps and sled rides in the snow!  And sometimes we just ran around silly!  

On Christmas morning, we took great pride in helping deliver presents to the hearth as Katie and Sam lowered them from the loft (the tree was upstairs this year, to keep things safe for little hands and for the new puppy, Cupcake)!  We had a lovely brunch and lots of fun playing with our cousins! 

After nap, we headed for Wadsworth on Christmas evening, arriving just in time for the big snowfall the next day.  We had a fun adventure picking out our first “twin” sled in the morning, before heading back to the house to watch the snow fall.  What a beautiful first Christmas in their new house!  We explored, stopping by the windows to watch the snow; played with Grandma and Grandpa, and also just ran around silly!  

We had lots of fun visiting with our cousins, Clara and Joseph, and Uncle Matt and Aunt Linda!  We opened gifts, and got to play in the snow together before lunch.  Again, we had quite an adventure getting all bundled up, but this time, we were a little hesitant about the snow, as it was much higher, and we got frustrated when we fell down – brrrrr!  So we hung out on the sidewalk for a bit, while Uncle Matt and Clara helped us make our first little snowmen, and Joseph showed us how it’s done on the sled.  Eventually, Christopher ventured out to check out the lit tree in the snowy yard, while digging with his shovel.  And Katharine ventured out on the sled with Mommy, saying “again, again”!   After lunch and nap, we had wonderful fun playing with our new toys and trying out our new art smocks and paints.

We returned to Virginia in between snowfalls and found that there was no real snow left anywhere at home.  But we enjoyed several days off at home together, getting caught up with things and each other!  And we got to see the train display at the National Botanic Gardens in DC, and had great fun eating dinner out on New Year’s Eve as a family, seeing all the festive excitement, eating our very own bowls of ice cream, and seeing the ice skaters and the pretty tree!

What wonderful memories we’ll have from our third Christmas, our first real snow, and our trip to visit families in Ohio this year!

And goodness, we’re growing!  As we look back on the year, we have grown so much. We’re 31 and 25 pounds, and we’re great climbers and runners.  We love to roll and throw balls, make towers with duplo blocks, walk in Mommy and Daddy’s shoes, and figure out how things work. Christopher can even jump, and do some steps without holding on (although Mommy would prefer that he did).  And Katharine is very adept with fine motor, loving to draw, make crafts, get shoes, jackets, and other clothes on and off, and playing with stickers.  We love to laugh and be silly, and are developing a great sense of independence and creativity. We have long ago lost count of the number of words we know and the number of words we can put together in a sentence.  We’re starting to surprise Mommy and Daddy more and more with the things we say and do, and are thinking about.  We are getting really good with saying “please” and “thank you”, and even occasionally, “no thank you” and “you’re welcome”.  And we LOVE to give kisses and hugs, and say I love you!

We can’t wait to see what 2013 will bring!  Until then, we hope you enjoy our photos and videos from this month.

Wishing all a New Year filled with Blessing!

Love, 

Christopher and Katharine

December 2012

December 2012, a set on Flickr.