Katelynn's Wheels

Katelynn can officially pedal her bike all by herself!! She has been able to pedal a few times here and there with a push, but she is now getting herself started and pedaling all over the driveway. As she told her daddy yesterday, "Riding my bike is soo fun!" She has been riding in the driveway with the "big kids". Our neighbors, ages 6 and 8, have been playing with Katelynn all weekend, and she thinks she's quite the big girl riding bikes with the big kids!

Another month goes by

Justin is officially two months old! He had his check-up yesterday and weighed 11 pounds, 7 ounces and was 23.25 inches long. He has been doing so much better now that he is on reflux medications and is a happy boy! Justin has been cooing a lot lately, smiling more, and been very interested in his surroundings. He is also staying awake a lot more. Here are comparison pictures from today and one month ago!

(Notice the picture above from today he is trying so hard to sit up and keep his head up. He doesn't want to lay down anymore since he's such a big boy!)

Daddy is HOME!!

And it's for more than a weekend!!! We're not sure how long, but Daddy should be home for at least a few weeks, and we are all VERY, VERY excited. Katelynn was so happy to see her daddy today when he pulled in. She was jumping up and down saying "YAY! YAY! Daddy!!"

Sibling Storytime

It amazes me how much Justin has started taking an interest in what his big sister is doing. Tonight as I was reading the kids bedtime stories, I noticed that he couldn't stop watching her sitting in her little pink chair. He was much more interested in her reactions to the stories than the story itself so I plopped him in the chair with her so he could join her in what he seemed to think looked like such fun. As an added bonus, Katelynn asked if she could read him a story!

Sleep is overrated.

At least that's what my 2-year old believes. She has never been a good sleeper and has never consistantly slept through the night. At this point, I am attempting to bribe her to get her to stay asleep all night, but even that so far is not working out for me. Add in a newborn waking every three hours and mommy doesn't get much sleep between the two of them. Here's a rare moment when they were both sleeping at the same time:

Not sure if you can tell by the photo, but Katelynn had crashed in our bed after waking up in her bed twice. I went downstairs to finish cleaning before going to bed and found her laying the across the bed below all the pillows. So much for a king size bed being big enough for two! :-)

(Disclosure: I can't post this picture without mentioning that I spent over two years sitting awake time after time, night after night in Katelynn's room to avoid her ever getting in the habit of sleeping in our bed only to have it all be worthless once I had Justin. There are just too many times when I'm trying to get him back to sleep or feeding him where she wakes and I can't go in her room so this is what we have resorted to!)

And here's Justin sleeping peacefully in the bassinett. I wish I could tell you he stays here all night long, but that's not the case either. He tends to end up in bed with me.. and most of the time Katelynn before morning.

The things they think of!

What I am about to write has nothing to do with the picture above, but I just had to share. Katelynn told me today that Daddy pushes garbage cans at his job. I almost died laughing. We have no idea why she would think that is what he does, but that's what she came up with when we were discussing (for the 10th time I might add) that Daddy was at work in Virginia and not coming home today. So, Daddy is a traveling garbage man.. what a great job, right? :-)

It never gets any easier...

...... to say goodbye every week to these two cuties, but that's what Jonathan has to do.


For as long as I have been dating him (eight years actually), he has traveled for work, but it never gets any easier to see him go, and it defintely just seems to be getting harder and harder for him with the kids now in the picture. Justin is changing so quickly that even being gone a week, he is different than when Jonathan left.. and Katelynn, well, she knows exactly what is going on now, and that makes it hard. She misses her daddy and wants him home. Last night before Jonathan left and we were "preparing" her yet again for him departure in the morning, we had a conversation that went like this:

Mommy: "Daddy has to go back to Virginia tomorrow to work. He will be gone for five days."
Katelynn: "Where Ryan go?"
Mommy: "Ryan will be going with Daddy to Virginia."
Katelynn: "Where Virginia, Mommy?"
Mommy: "Virginia is far way. It takes three hours, a long, long time to get there. That's why Daddy has to stay in a hotel at night instead of come home."
Katelynn: "But he can drive real fast and come home."
Mommy: "No, honey. It's too far away, but Daddy will be home in five days, okay?"
Katelynn: "But he drive fast to come home."
Mommy: "He will drive fast to come home and see you after he is done working for the week."

...and on and on the conversation goes day after day. She asks for her daddy several times a day, and I have to remind her where he is. She knows he is "on a job", but she sometimes forgets how long it will be until he gets home. The ONLY benefit of Jonathan traveling is when he gets home- it is sooo much fun to see how excited Katelynn gets to see her daddy.

The first day Jonathan leaves is always the hardest, and I'm really feeling it today. He has been traveling every week for six straight weeks now with only two days each week for us to spend with him, it starts to wear on us. It's two days filled with trying to spend time as a family, get things done around the house, and spend time with others. We are lucky if we get even one thing done on our list each weekend, and it just goes by way too fast. I know we are lucky in this economy for Jonathan to still have his job, and I feel very, very lucky to be able to be a stay-at-home mom with everything, but it's hard to remember it when we are missing him, but day one is coming to an end and the weekend will hopefully be here soon!

All Aboard......

.......... the Lawnmower!!! Katelynn is afraid to ride on the lawnmower... and she's afraid when daddy's on the lawnmower and she's standing on the ground.... but somehow the lawnmower is fun and not so scary when it is pulling her in the wagon!! She could ride around for hours this way if Daddy would pull her for that long!!

Bathtime for Two

After playing outside today, the kids needed baths! This was their first time taking a bath together.. and since they are opposite sexes, I won't get away with it for too long, but for now I think this is our new routine for baths! It was so great having Katelynn hold Justin while I washed him up. I thought it would be harder, but it was much easier and he LOVED it. He hasn't been too excited about baths lately, but he thought his big sister was so much fun that he didn't mind it at all!

I don't want her to grow up!

Today I realized just how hard it is going to be for me to let my baby girl grow up. Up until now everything she has done has been exciting to me- learning to walk, talk, etc. I even got excited when she started interacting with kids that she didn't know at places like the mall and Monkey Joe's, but today was different. We went to the park, and there were several kids all playing together probably between the ages of 4 and 8 years old. They invited her to join them, and I really wanted to say she couldn't. Really, I did. Don't worry- I shut my mouth and let my little girl play with the big kids, but it killed me every step of the way. She was playing with big kids and doing everything they were doing, and I was paranoid the entire time, but she did great! It's going to be so hard to let go and let her do things on her own!!


Here's one of the things the big kids taught her today- to swing on the bar and then let go and fly down the slide. She thought it was such fun!

This is Katelynn walking her baby in the stroller to the park. We live on a greenway (walking trail through wooded areas that connect a bunch of neighborhoods), and our new favorite thing to do is walk to the playground that is a few neighborhoods away. It's quite a hike, but it gives mommy some exercise (much needed to lose the baby weight), Justin time to nap, and Katelynn gets to play when we get there. I have no idea how many miles it is, but Katelynn would rather walk than ride in the stroller. I did get her to ride in it on the way home after playing for hours and walking there though!

Our "Green" Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!! We're not really Irish that I know of, but I still make sure we support everyone who is! I love getting the kids dressed up for any occassion. Justin even had two St. Pat's Day shirts/outfits and it's a good thing he did because he leaked through his first one and had to be changed half way through the day!

Although most of day wasn't really any different than any other day, I did get LUCKY and get a smile from Justin on camera- not his biggest smile but it's a smile and it's pretty darn cute (not that I'm biased or anything!)


We started off our day trying to make it to a playgroup St. Pat's Day party... which we were an hour and a half late to. I can't seem to get things moving fast enough in the morning, and it seems like every time I have everyone ready, then Justin needs to eat or a diaper change, and then I have a toddler gettting into more things while I'm doing those things and it's just never ending. One day I WILL get out the door on time again.. I'm determined! We also went to the mall to play today and then decided to enjoy the rest of the day outdoors!

Our Love for Riding

So even though this blog is really more about keeping you all up to date on what is going on with our family currently and mostly for sharing pictures of our kids each day, I decided to share some pictures from "back in the day". I'm not sure why, but I've been thinking a lot about Jonathan and my riding days lately. Once Katelynn was born, we sold our four wheelers and bought the boat. I miss riding, but to be honest, I don't know if I'll ever get full force back into it. It is super fun, but it also holds so much risk. I had a great time riding, but I fear I just may be too chicken to attempt the rocky frontier we rode on now that I have kids waiting at home for me. We shall see as they get older. I do miss riding so maybe I'll get back out there one day.

Some of you may not realize this, but Jonathan and I have known each other since we were about 8 and 10 years old. One of the things that we loved to do together as kids was ride dirtbikes. These first two pictures are us in probably 1993 or 1994?? We would ride together in the woods across the street from my house. Now even though I'm the one driving in these pictures, I'm pretty sure he was the one driving more times than not.

In 2004, we decided it was time to get back into riding. We bought four wheelers and started riding on the weekends in North Carolina. We would travel about an hour away from home each weekend and ride. At first it was just the two of us, but then another couple that we are friends with bought four wheelers and it became even more fun with the two guys being wild and crazy while us two girls followed behind being slightly more cautious. The boys often would have to dig us out of ruts and things we got ourselves stuck in and they rode our bikes up the steeper cliffs that we were a bit too chicken to ride up, but all in all, we all rode together and had a blast. They were some good times that I will always cherish.
Here are a bunch of pictures I dug up from our riding days. I couldn't decide what to post so there's a ton here for you all! And tomorrow I'll get back to posting about our current wild and crazy life with two kids! :-)

The Miller "Blue Team" (A joke we all had since Jonathan and I always had blue four wheelers and gear.)

My husband doing some wild and crazy jumps.. I only did things like this on accident (ha,ha).This was more my style- me cruising through a river.The Millers and The RappsHere I am again going through mud- yes, we always came home a mess!And my husband showing me up in mud riding as well.Here's something you don't see everyday! We took a trip in October 2004 to WV for the Octoberfest they host there at Hatfield-McCoy trails. It was the best riding out there we have ever done! We stayed in a little cabin and would ride everywhere we went. It is legal to ride your four wheelers on the road there! You can't beat that! We would get up each day, fill up at the gas station, and hit the trails via the main highway. We rode to the next town, had lunch somewhere in town, and then rode back in time for dinner. It was days full of riding and fun.

1 Big Sis & 1 Lil Bro

Some of you may remember from our old family site the photos of Katelynn and Justin on Justin's second day of life wearing their "Big Sis" and "Lil Bro" shirts. The best shots I got of them were of Katelynn smiling and Justin screaming and in none of them could you see the words on their shirts. Katelynn often requests to wear her big sister shirts.. she has four of them total and today when she asked the only one clean was her "Big Sis". I thought why not try one last time to get some good shots of them??? Poor Justin, who has started growing to be my chunky little monkey, couldn't quite fit in his onsie. It wouldn't button around his bum, but we still snapped some quick pictures!!

Our Growing Little Boy!

Our sweet little boy is now six weeks old. Really, I know I said it before but time can just slow down a little bit! Justin is growing like a weed! Yesterday I took him to the pediatrician's office again. He had become very fussy and spitting up a lot over the past week or so. At his one month appointment, the pediatrician had questioned whether he may have reflux as that could have been the cause of his "infant startle" that had him hospitalized at three weeks old. Well, although he had some of the symptoms, I shrugged the idea off. I figured his fussiness was just normal, but it progressively got worse and I noticed he started only calming down after spitting up and/or having pressure put on his tummy. I finally took him in yesterday and they prescribed him Zantac. I was a little apprehensive starting my itty bitty baby on medication, but we started last night and during the day today seemed a bit improved. It sounds like we need to give it around a week to see if it is effective so I'll keep watching him, but I think we're on the right track with medication to help. What else is my little guy up to? Well, he is a pretty strong little guy. His head control is pretty good (as you can see by the picture) and he does not sit still for anything. He always has his arms, legs, head moving all over so he doesn't miss a thing. He pushes with his legs a lot and stands on our lap when we let him. Even the nurse yesterday mentioned how strong he was kicking and pushing against her hand. I think he's going to be a wild one .. maybe worse than his sister I fear!! He's still up about every three hours at night and sleep is all over the place but hopefully we'll get him on a routine in a few months. His smiles are increasing (yet still unable to be captured on film) and he loves cooing and trying to speak his mind. His little voice melts my heart to pieces. Here are a few more pictures from the photo shoot mommy made him endure this evening!

Please don't leave Mr. Sunshine!

Yet another beautiful day in Charlotte. It has been in the 70's to 80's all week and now they are talking about rain and cold weather again tomorrow. NOOO!! We are loving going outside to play. Today we walked on our greenway behind our house to the park two neighborhoods away. As an extra bonus, we ran into one of Katelynn's playgroup friends so she had a blast playing chase with her friend.. and mommy got to get some walking in to help lose some of this baby weight I still have! :-) And Justin, well, Justin got to get in a nice nap with some fresh air. Soon he'll be playing hard at the park too.. but for now I just want him to stay my little baby (even though he's already growing so much.. today he is 6 weeks old!)

My little girl LOVES to climb. These things scare me a bit to see her climbing up, but she does it without a bit of hesitation.. and mommy stands behind praying she doesn't fall but pretending that I have no fear with what she is attempting. I have to say that I am shocked at how much more she can do this year than she could last year. She still attempted these climbs last year, but she required quite a bit of assistance and now she doesn't really need any. I refuse to believe that means my little girl is growing up though!

A game of chase- one of her favorite things to play!

Sunshine and Smiles!

It was so nice out today- 84 degrees! I took the kids out for some much needed time in the sun. Of course, Justin was in the bjorn the whole time so no pics of him, but here are some of Katelynn!

And here are a few of our little guy from today! I have been trying for three days to get a picture of his smile on camera, but no luck yet. He started smiling on occassion three days ago, and it's one of those huge open mouth smiles, but it's a smile and it melts my heart!

End of a smile!This is Justin talking to mommy!
My Sweet Boy!Silly Face!