Bye Bye

Keegan has learned bye bye. It is so cute when he learns something new.

Better not pout!

This should really say santa's naughty list today. Keegan is still teething & it makes him fussy. He has a new trantrum scream now. If he doesn't get his way he lets you know.

Unexpected Expenses

Unexpected expenses seem to come around at the worst times.  Right in the middle of Christmas when our budget is already maxed.  Last night I heard Keegan fussing and I lay there for awhile thinking that he will just go back to sleep.  This went on for a while maybe even an hour until he finally really started to cry.  So I got up to go and comfort him and when I walked into his room it was an ice box.  When I picked him up he just wanted to be held and cuddle and he stuffed his cold hand down my chest.  I covered him with a blanket and rocked him to sleep but then I took him into our bed.  We have one of those clocks that shines on the ceiling and it also tells what the temp is in Keegan's room.  I was surprised when it said 61 degrees.  What the heck.  So I laid in bed and got him to sleep.  Made sure he was warm and then I went down to check the heater.  The fan was running but there was not heat.  Oh great.  By this time it was about 4:30 in the morning and I wanted to wake Matt but it is a work day.  So I thought well I can just lay here until he wakes up.  But then as I lay there the thought of the electricty bill going up and up and up kept running through my head.  So by 5am I decided to wake Matt and have him take a look.  He got right up and checked the heater and yep it wasn't working.  Soooo... we finally decided to go back to bed and deal with it a little later in the morning.  I got up and called the heater guy and they told me they could be out round 11:30am.  In the mean time Keegan's hands were little ice cubes so I put more clothes on him and tried to keep him under a blanket but he just wanted to play.  When the heater guy came he was only here for about 20 minutes.  The good news is that we have heat again today and the bad news is that he charged $129 for labor.  Who gets paid $129 for 20 minutes of work.  Well I guess it was his day off.  The total bill ended up being $214.  At Christmas time.... ughhh!  I did learn from this experience that I am grateful for the blessings that I have.  I was only cold for 1 night and I know there are others out there that are cold every night.  I am grateful for my family and the home that we live in.  It may not be the biggest or the best or have the fancy furniture but it is ours and it protects us from the cold. 

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Traditions

Holidays are a time in our family for traditions.  It seems that my mother figured out a way to make each holiday special for us as we were growing up.  It is fun to remember those little things we used to do and now as an adult it is fun to share those traditons with my own family.  Christmas time is always a special time for ourfamily traditions.  I remember when we were little always looking forward to the family Christmas party with our grandparents and my Uncle Ivan and his family.  Each year one of the families would host the party and there would be lots of food and lots of laughter.  Each year we would have a program and everyone was expected to participate.  I remember reading a poem year after year that I had written about Jesus.  I remember one year I decided to play the clarinet and it was awful but I still got applause.  I think Damon played his trumptet and Todd always sang Silver Bells.  I don't remember what Devanie did.  And I remember every year my grandpa would play Silent Night on his harmonica and it was so peaceful and so special and almost brings me to tears as I think back on it now.  And my grandma would always read out of the bible.  Then we would all sing Christmas Carols as my uncle played the guitar.  Oh how I wish we could do that all again.  But life changes. We grow up and move on and hopefully we find a way to keep the traditions going. 
 
Now Matt and I are finding things to make our own family traditions.  We don't sit around and sing Carols but we have found things that we enjoy when the holidays roll around.  Thanksgiving hasn't been a big holiday for us in our years together.  Matt is usually working but we always look forward to the first weekend after Thanksgiving because that is when we go and pick out and cut down our Christmas tree, which is so much more fun than picking one out of Smith's Grocery parking lot. Our friends, The Shaws, have a christmas tree farm full of gorgeous nobel trees and we walk and walk until we find one that we love and we cut it down.  Our tradition is to cut our tree and then on our way home stop at the Helvetia Tavern for a good burger and fries.  The only time that we go to the tavern is on this day and so we have made that our tradition.  We have been fortunate in the last few years to bring along our friends Chris and Angela and this year the Shaws and we all think this is fun and plan to do it for many more years.  As Keegan grows bigger I hope he learns to enjoy this time of fun and good friends and will look forward to it each year and when he is grown be able to look back and remember the good times and carry this on with his own family.  Once the tree is cut and our tummies are full it is home to decorate the house in all the christmas decor.  And boy do we have a lot of it.
 
Another Christmas tradition was helping a family who needed it during Christmas with gifts and food.  Grandpa made this tradition so special for us.  Now as I am older we help by donating gifts to a childrens outreach program locally.  I found the organization through work and so each year we receive tags with donation requests.  I look forward to that warm fuzzy I get after giving.
 
So here is just a few of our family traditons.  I am wondering if any of you have traditions that you would like to share.  If so, I would love to hear them.
 
We wish you all a happy and loving Holiday Season.

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Is Blogging really this easy

Hello all,
I am actually just trying to figure out this blog thing.  Matt is alway a pro at stuff like this but it takes me a little longer.  I finally read an email he sent me more than a month ago on how to do it and it just seemed so easy that I thought I would give it a try to see if it really is.  And if it proves to be as easy as sending this email then I will put forth the effort to keep this thing updated on our busy lives.

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Who Do You Love...

Keegan is starting to talk more and more. I finally got some video of him saying mama. It just amazes me how fast he grows and how much he changes. His little brain is a sponge and he learns things so fast. We are so proud of our little guy and we are so thankful for every day we have him.

Keegan vs. the Box

Here is a picture of Keegan first battle wounds. He got clobbered in the eye with a plastic box. I guess the box wins this round.

Keegan loves this place

Here is a short video of our lunch time at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Lunch Time

Watch out Buffalo Bill there is a new Buffalo Kid in town. We decided to try out a new resturant called Buffalo Wild Wings. Turns out it is a sports place surrounded with tv's playing football. It was super loud but Keegan seemed to enjoy it & he proudly wore his horns.

Keegan's 1st Halloween

Keegan's 1st Halloween. We just couldn't resist dressing him up and taking him out trick or treating. He looks so cute as a little cowboy. We went from door to door and he charmed all the neighbors with his big grin. It actually gave us a chance to finally introduce ourselves to the neighbors. Keegan came home with a bucket full of candy but since he is still too small to eat it we have taken it upon ourselves to make sure none of the candy goes uneaten. Although it was a little chilly out, there wasn't any rain this year. We had a really great time and I'm sure he did too. By the time we got home he was all tuckered out.

Happy Halloween - Damon's Party - Oct 20th 2007

Hope everybody is having a Happy & Safe Halloween. We had a first-class time last Saturday night at Heathers Brothers annual bash. Keegan is not a little Devil because you are expected to wear a costume on Halloween J, so we dressed him up as a Cowboy. Isn’t he So Cute?

What you wear on a nice day in Oregon

Well, it was a charming day here in Hillsboro, OR yesterday and we wanted to get a few things completed. The sun was shining and we didn't need our jackets on because of the grand weather conditions. We decided to go to Target to get Keegan some diapers. Daddy determined that the sun was too intense for his son. (No pun intended, J well I guess it was) Keegan sported them so proudly all throughout the store.

What a Cool Dude!

Who does Keegan Look like?

Well, this settles it. Keegan looks more like Mommy than Daddy.

FOR NOW!

LOL

I found this on someone else's Blog

(Thanks for sharing)

Pumpkin Farm Picture

Well, last week the family went to good friends of ours for dinner and to visit. We don't get a lot of chances to visit them and this was to be a really nice weekend. We packed up the Dogs and headed out to their farm. The Shaw's have a little boy not to much older than Keegan, Daniel, that could play some together. It was really fun. We went out to look at the Horses and the Shaw's had just bought 3 new cows. Kee loved the whole day. After that we went to their garden and picked some pumpkins. Little boys in dirt. They had a blast. I have more pictures I will have to add at a later time. This is all I have right now. It was a really FUN day. We love to hang out with the Shaw Family. They are GREAT Friends.

Keegan on the Move

Video Explains it all

Taken 9 days ago and now he's mastered it and we are beat. lol

Wow... It's hard typing with a baby on your lap smacking the key board. LOL

Beautiful Oregon at Fall

We went out on this awesome fall day to take some pictures at this park.

Fall yard work with mommy

Here is Keegan on a nice fall day helping mommy work on the yard. Isn't he so cute? We sure did get alot of work done. Later today we are going to take some more pictures.

This was takein in July

You will just love this video. Heather was singing to Keegan and he wanted Nothing to do with it. It was soooo funny. You could sing another song and he would be ok with it but when she sang this song he was not Happy.

Testing blog sent through cell

If this works then I can send blogs through my cell and update what's going on from anywhere. I'm adding a picture of Keegan and our dogs (Silver and Zoee)

Testing Email Blog

Here I am testing the email blog. this might be very easy to do. Hope the picture shows too. It's a picture of the Smedley Family. Heather's Brother, Damon, and his family, Kristin, Brock (12), Alec (9), Mason (5) and Abby (3)

1st Blog

This is our 1st Blog. I will train Heather how to fill this out and you will see many more Blogs. Keep checking back to see what's new. Our life is getting exciting more now with our new addition, Keegan Maroy Dallmann, and we will have MANY stories to follow.

Thanks