Ky & Becky Take Two

Kyle and Becky got their professional pictures back.  They turned out fabulous, so here's another post dedicated to the big day.  Wish we could go back and do it all again!

 This shot is one of my favorites.  My brothers.  Two rather fabulous dudes.

 My Grandma B is just a bundle of smiles and love.  I wish I knew what she was whispering to Kyle here. 

 My grandparents.  All in good health and sound mind.  3 blessings for sure.

 Look at my pretty Mama.  Love this picture.

 Apparently I was really really excited to see Kyle on my jaunt up the aisle.

 My Tim, getting the little boys ready for their walk down the aisle.  You can see the focus in their eyes.

 By this point, Dude is out of petals and starts to book it toward Uncle Kyle.

 Dude is almost to Kyle, while Dylan is wondering what to do next.

D dumped his bucket before running to Kyle.  Love it.

 The Kwas family, minus our little Rea and Hudson.

 I can't remember the last time the 3 of us posed for a picture.  I kinda love it.

After spending my life with 2 bros, its refreshing to have some female blood in the family.

 Becky had the brilliant idea to buy us all umbrellas for the rainy wedding day forecast.

 The party bus.

 We kinda felt like the Beatles.  Only chicks, with purple dresses and umbrellas and in Grand Rapids, MI.  Close enough. 

 Kyle's friends wrote a rather impressive and endearing song for the happy couple. 

 Sliders and potato chips baby.

 Ahhhh....Ahhhhh....Ahhhh....

 Our little Footloose Dude.  He ruled the dance floor.  And for a white kid, he has some pretty smooth moves.

We have to end with my dear Uncle Bruce, lookin' his very best. 

Backtrack to Fourth of Juuuly

It wouldn't be the 4th in Colorado without our annual trip to the Jansen cabin.  The difference this year was our early arrival in order to catch the parade (which was Dude's highlight of the day) and the heat.  Wheww!  It was a hot one folks.  We normally take a long hike, play badminton, shuffle board, wiffle ball etc etc.  Our Mile High lazy bones didn't partake in these ritualistic cabin experiences this year and did a whole lotta sittin on our duffs.  Which still made for a fun day.  The kids did great and took lots of naps.  For some reason,
Dude adores sleeping in his "cozy cabin bed," so we didn't fight him on it.  By 7:00pm our camp was wiped out and ready for cold baths and bed, so we skipped the late night fireworks and headed for home.  One of these years we'll catch a show. 

Below is our photo book from July 4, 2011.  Our little Squirt was decked out for the day.  We changed her twice just so she could wear the themed outfits we had waiting for the special occasion. 

 Uncle Bradly.  Sorry Brad, couldn't resist posting it.

 The gang, waiting for candy from the parade participants.  It was like Halloween, but without the costumes or walking door to door.

 Our precious babes, chillin together in their matching strollers.

 Brad and Jayne brought a pool, a cabin first.  Dude loved soaking PR & Brady but downright cried when they returned the favor. 

 Lando.

 Brad, Jayne and Cohen.  Beautiful little fam.

 Outfit #2 of the day. 

    This is how we closed out our day.  Love. It.

Our 6 Month Punky Girl

Our punky princess's 6 month highlights...sitting up like a champ (my very favorite phase), rolling in both directions, eating most veggies and starting on fruits, screeching like a pterodactyl, louder than you can imagine coming from her little lungs, her hair is starting to lay flat, her leg chunk is still in full force, cheeks are still oh so squeezable, sleeping from 7:30-7:30 most days with two 2 hour naps during the day, eating and grabbing at anything she can get her hands on and spitting like it's going out of style. 

Happy 6 months baby girl.  You are our little sunshine.  Please stop growing up so fast. 

Video Montage for the Week

Smiles, Courtesy of our Dude

"Hey Mom! What do you get when you do black, white, red, black and white?"  I have no idea bud.  What do you get?  "Silly Mom, you get fuchsia!" 

I bought a $1 fire truck plate for Dude and put it in the dishwasher.  Apparently, he found it because that night as I was tucking him in he randomly says, "Mom, you got dat firetruck plate for me and I wanted to tell you how nice dat was for you to do for me!"  Will he always appreciate me this much???

I'm trying to teach Dude our home address.  Hes almost got it, but our city, Centennial, isn't quite sinking in.  He calls is "Cendakota."   I think it's far too charming to correct him. 

I gave Dude a banana on our way to swim lessons.  From the back seat he exclaims, "Tank you God!  Tank you for dis banana.  It is soooo delicious."  Can you imagine the random smiles God gets from little charmers like my Dude? 

At dinner last night, Dude says, "I can't put my milk on my tortilla!  Dat would be apostorous!"  He meant "preposterous," a word Nana introduced to his little brain. 

Dude is ALWAYS talking to EVERYONE he sees in public.  That's not an exaggeration.  He doesn't always have something ground breaking to tell people about, so he talks "off the cuff" most of the time.  At Starbucks last weekend, he couldn't come up with anything brilliant, so he tells a group of 5 coffee drinkers...."Um, um, um....I have dese legs so I can walk sooo fast!"  That was all.  Out the door he went. 

Loooong Weekend

Hard to believe the loooong weekend is gone already.  We stuck around town and made the most of our fam time.  Friday night we celebrated Cara's bday with dinner out, root beer floats (I know, super tasty right?) and our husbands gambling the rest of the night away in Blackhawk.  Funny how that works out huh?  Saturday we reunited Dude with one of his long lost preschool girlfriends for dinner with her parents.  Aside from "dress up" time which of course involved all princess dresses, we loved watching the two of them play like angels.  Sunday we headed out to our old hood in Aurora for a delish BBQ at the Tebbens.  That was some good cookin friends. 

Puppy typically resides in Dude's shirt.  It's all "cozy and safe in dere."

 Payton made friends with this butterfly.  Pretty cute huh?

 The dynamic duo. 

Can't leave out Squirt in her little fish tank top.

The Fourth will require its own post, as all cabin time does. That's to come. I have today off too, so I took my dude on a special mission to Pirate's Cove Water Park. Just him and me (and Laura and Trevor for extra playmates). Squirt went to daycare, so we took advantage of this rare opportunity for bonding time. I didn't take the camera (I know, weird) but Dude couldn't get enough of all of the aquatic opportunities at his fingertips. He even battled the enormous bucket. 3 times. I was jumping up and down clapping. Literally.

It was a funtastic weekend for all.   Enjoy some kid pics below.  I know, you haven't seen a whole lot lately.  What can I say?  I love pictures of my little pride and joys. 

 Look at me, sittin' so pretty. 

 Look at me, trying to eat my dress so pretty.

 Love, love, love.

 Again, love, love, love.

 No smiles, but just look at this dress.  Only really appropriate for church, where she sleeps in the nursery, but still.  She wore it and that's worth snapping a picture.

Giggle time with Dude. 

Dude Being Dude

Dude and Squirt love nothing more than making each other laugh.  It's a mutual game, which is so endearing to us.  Today, Squirt wasn't paying attention when her older brother wanted her attention and so he replied with...."Hey fat face!  Look at me!"  I informed him that the term "fat face" was probably not the kindest choice of words, although it was quite laughable.

We put Dude to bed at 7:30 one night, given his 5:45am wake up time.  He comes downstairs after 5 minutes and says, "Mom, Dad, did you know it's still sunny outside my window?  Is it night time?"  We said, "Yeah Bud, it'll be dark soon."  He thought for a second...."But I only like to dream in da dark."

As I put Squirt down for her morning nap, I allow Dude to go into his closet and pick out his outfit for the day.  Below was today's choice that came from the "too big" section of his wardrobe.  He opened Squirt's door a crack, poked his head in and said, "Look at me Mom!  I look like a giant marshmallow!  AND I look like Buzz Lightyear!  Can you pllllease button me up?"  We decided (I decided) that a puffy winter coat and the sweatpants he wanted to add was not our best option for a 96 degree summer day.

Dude got a timeout one afternoon after a tired meltdown and went down for a nap immediately following. When he woke up he found me and said, "Mom, did you want to pologize to me now?"  I said, "Why would Mommy apologize to you?"  He said, "Well, you were kinda mean and gave me a big time out."  Little punk  And no, I did not apologize.   

Here are some cute Squirt shots having happy time in her exersaucer to close out this post. 

 Who is she looking at?  Who else...her big brother. 

 Who is she laughing at?  Who else...her big brother.

 I included this one because her two bottom teeth are somewhat visible.