Weenie Roast

We had a back yard dinner tonight. It was a lot of fun. Roasted hot dogs over the fire and smores after. Keegan had a blast he even wanted to dance with grandma. It was a great family dinner. Something every dad loves to see. Campfire dinners!

Mr. Cool

Oh my gosh! Where did my baby go. Who is this big boy. If you ask him he says "I'm Keegan"

Today I finally gave in and decided to pay for him to have a haircut. Can you believe that it costs $10 plus tip to cut a childs hair. I watched her very closely so that I can do it myself next time. Assuming that I buy some scissors. Anyway, this is a picture of Keegan today coming out of the salon. He cried the entire time. They even tried to calm him down with a sucker but that didn't work. Daddy had to hold Keegan on his lap. I had to laugh because the stylist was Russian and in her accent as she cut his hair she would say "there now you look like a boy, now you look like a cute boy" . I know his hair was long, but he in no way looked like a girl so it made me laugh.

Keegan doesn't like to have his picture taken. I am not sure why, but he refuses to look at the camera and if you can manage to trick him into looking at the camera by saying "there's grandma" then he is never smiling. Or if you can convince him to sit and smile for a minute he always looks away from the camera right as you go to take it. Uggh!

Keegan speaks very well and has a large vocabulary. He surprises us all the time with words and phrases that he knows, and it makes us giggle everytime. Today we told him we were taking him to the museum and he clasped his hand over his mouth with excited and yelled out "Oh my Goodness"

We love you Keegan. Now stop growing so fast. We aren't ready for you to be all grown up.

6 months and growing

My baby Myles is 6 months old today. I can't hardly believe it. It just seems like yesterday that we brought our beautiful baby boy home. Myles is such a joy. He is a very happy baby and he is pretty content. His favorite thing to do is bounce in his bouncy chair. He loves to watch Keegan and giggles and giggles. Myles smiles all the time. He is a really good sleeper. He has slept through the night since he was 8 weeks old. He is usually ready for bed by 8:30pm each night. He loves sleeping in his crib. He has mastered rolling from his belly to his back and his back to his belly. He started eating rice cereal when he was 5 months old because momma just couldn't keep up. Now that he is 6 months old we have started to feed him baby food. So far he has had banana, peaches, and apricots. Now that he has had a taste of the good stuff he is not happy with just rice cereal anymore and boy does he let you know it. The only time he gets really fussy is when he is hungry and then he cries, really LOUD! He is definately a momma's boy and mommy doesn't mind it at all. His eyes will follow me around the room just waiting for me to kiss on his cheeks. I don't have his weight yet. We still need to make his check up appointment but if I am guessing he is somewhere around 20 pounds. He is heavy and has worn out my left arm.
The last 6 months have been such a blessing and such a struggle with Matt losing his job, unemployment being denied, searching for work and trying to pass tests.
I am glad that the kids are young and hopefully won't remember this struggle. I hope that we will always show them how much we love them and will provide them with a sense of safety and security.
We love having Myles in our home. He is such a blessing and his smile can brighten any day.
Happy 6 months my little buggy, my little tiny tiger. We love you.

Cooking with Mommy

Cooking brownies with mom

Keegan's 1st Catch

Grasshopper

(he calls it a Catipillar)

Cure JM Champion

Damon,
 
I wish I would have thought ahead of time to make you a certificate.  But it didn't cross my mind until last night and that was too late.  And as we drove home from Coyotes I thought, well maybe I should have stood up and said a few words about you, but again it didn't cross my mind until it was too late.  And I am much better at writing than I am at speaking so I decided the least I could do is send out an email to applaud you.
 
Now I have known Damon all of my life.  I have been blessed to have him as my older brother.  Someone that I can look up to, lean on and go to whenever I have a serious real life question or circumstance for which I need advise.  And Damon is honest with me and up front with me.  He isn't afraid to speak his mind. I have seen Damon fight before (usually using his fists on the side of my arms ) jk, but I have never seen Damon fight with such heart, and passion for something that he truely wanted and believed in.
From the day the idea of a benefit concert came to mind, Damon stepped forward and took the bull by the horns.  He dedicated hours and hours, and had many restless nights organizing and planning and leading such an event.  He put himself out there.  He and his family made sacrifices.  He told Mason's story which sometimes might be a hard thing to do, but it was so heartfelt.  He worked as a full time employee, as a full time father and care giver and as a full time event planner.   I saw Damon on a few occassions where I would say, "How are you, you look exhausted" and he always said "I do?, Well I'm doing good"  He pushed through and he persevered. 
 
Damon gave us praise last night for our contributions to the concert and the donations.  But I just wanted to make note that Damon brought in a lot of the donations.  Through his work and story he was able to meet with the Stewart and Lucille Foundation and they were a major contributor to this event.  Through his work and story he was able to reach out to Savannah and her family from a letter that he left on the doorstep.  And Savannah was a major part of the success. 
 
I know last night Damon said that some may have gotten tired of all the meetings, but I know for Matt and I we always looked forward to them.  For me personally I looked forward to them because it gave me a little bit of time to see Damon, with all that was going on we didn't have time to see each other much over the last 8 months.  So I always looked forward to that and I always looked forward to the meetings because I came away inspired and re-energized to go and do and find more stuff that would help with the success of the concert.  It was exactly what we needed.
 
None of us knew how successful this concert was going to be.  I'm sure there were many times when we all stressed about the outccome and the tickets sales and I remember getting an email from Damon and he said well I don't know if we are going to have any people there, but it will put a big smile on Mason's face, and for that it is all worth it.
 
That is one thing about Damon.  He LOVES his family.  He tries to make things special for them and to spend special time with all of them.  I have not in my lifetime witnessed a greater love from a Father to his Son and a Son to his Father than I have witnessed now from Damon and Mason and the Cure JM Benefit Concert.  Your smile at the end of the event told it all.
 
Thank you Damon for all of your time, hard work and bringing the Concert to life. Thank you for letting us be a part of it and thank you Damon for letting us be a small part of your "Miracle".

You applauded all of us last night as you told your stories about each of us and gave us praise as a team.  But every good team must have a good Leader.  And for that I am so proud of you and I stand and applaud you.  Job well done brother.  Job well done.
 
I love you,
Heather

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Potty Training Complete

Well I am happy to say that Keegan has graduated from potty training.  He has gone to bed without diapers for four nights now.  His first night was August 19, 2009.  We crossed our fingers as we layed him to sleep in his big boy underwear and it worked. He wears his big boy underwear all day.  He has gotten really good at telling us when he needs to go potty.  We are so proud of Keegan.  He is such an amazing little boy who brings us so much joy, (and a little bit of grief).  Potty training was not an easy task and really not a very pleasant task.  We are happy to be through it.  And we couldn't be prouder.  Way to go Keegan!!!