Happy 1st Halloween

Though Keelyn was a bit too young to go trick-or-treating tonight (plus, it was way too windy for her to be out, anyway), she still had to have her very first costume.

Introducing......

Cute As a Bug Keelyn :)

Mom... what am I doing in this thing?

Cutest lil' bug in the whole.wide.world :)

This is one ladybug I won't try to get out of my house :)

Unfortunately, Keelyn was pretty tired from her daycare party when I took these pics, so we don't have too many smiles. Maybe I'll dress her up tomorrow again.

Wordless Wednesday--World Series Edition

Let's

go

Yankees!!!

Daddy/Daughter

Is there anything

more precious

than a daughter

dressed up for her Daddy?

I don't think so.

Love in its purest form.

3 Months and More...

Ahhh, it's 9pm on Monday night and I'm just now getting a chance to have some me time. What better to do than to update the ol' blog. Especially since I have once again been a blogging slacker.

Saturday Keelyn turned 3 months. Did I post this adorable picture of her then?

Nope. I waited until she was 3 months and 2 days to do it :). Better late than never, right? Right. Just keep telling yourself that, Heather.

What else did Saturday bring? The departure of our best neighbors & friends, Josh, Heidi, Augusta & Grant. Now we're neighborless on both sides of the fence. Some people would like this. Me? I'm pretty sad. Josh & Heidi were great neighbors and were always there to lend a helping hand when needed, as well as lend a car to lean on during our late night spring & summer talks.

Anyhoosers, Sean helped them move all day which meant, you guessed it! Keelyn and I had another Mommy/Daughter Saturday. I love those days. What did we do? We did laundry, cleaned the house, and shopped of course!!

Keelyn got new bottles, more formula, more wipes, 3 new pairs of tights and 3 new pairs of pajamas. Check these out.

Too stinkin' cute. That's what I say.

Saturday, of course, also brought the Hawkeye game. Like a good Mommy & wife, I dressed Keelyn in her gold Hawkeye onesie and like the past 7 Saturday's, the Hawks won. You're welcome Hawkeye fans, you're welcome. :)

We also had some visitors on Saturday night... Aunt Mandy, Uncle Josh & Marshall came to visit. Mandy hung out with Keelyn while I got to have some of my favorite time... Aunt Heather time :). I don't get to do that too often, so I sure do enjoy it while I can.

Kisses from cousin to cousin.

Wow. Now that I type all of that, no WONDER I'm so tired tonight! Saturday was one busy day!

Now onto Sunday.




Sunday brought the wedding reception for our best friend Beth Ann and Phil. Beth Ann* holds a very, very special spot in my heart.

Won't you come with me on a trip down memory lane? You won't regret it.

Beth Ann worked at the daycare where Sean and I both worked. Beth and Sean were GREAT friends prior to my joining the CUCCC team. Beth and I then became the best of friends over a love of {this} and {this}. Ahh, memories. Ahem. Back to the topic at hand. Well, I of course told Beth that I thought Sean was cute, to which Beth told Sean. Sean was a bit too scared nervous to ask me out, so good ol' Beth convinced him to do it and that he wouldn't regret it. OBVIOUSLY Beth's match making skills were a success! Don't you agree????

Here's what Beth had to say on our wedding reception guest"book"/pic:

Thank you just doesn't cut it.

Soooooooo... we packed up the minivan and headed out to beautiful Jester Park to celebrate Beth & Phil's marriage. Mom & Dad were also invited, so Keelyn got to see Grandma Sally & Grandpa Dale. We had lots of fun taking pictures before the reception started. See?

Hmmm... you don't think they like being Grandparents, do you?

Our first family picture since the dreaded hospital bed pictures.

Just me and my Mommy :)

Just me and my Daddy... dancing for the first time :)

Grandpa Sally & Grandpa Dale. Christmas card quality right there folks.

Mrs. & Mrs. Phil McCarl :) :) :)

I'm tellin' ya... it was BEAUTIFUL out there! And how fun to have a Sunday late morning/early afternoon reception. It was PERFECT!!! Congrats to Beth & Phil. Hopefully Keelyn will have a little friend to play with soon :).

Sunday was also when the Yankees made it to the World Series. I think it was almost too much for poor Sean to handle. The Hawks win then the Yanks win. Could have been a pretty bad weekend if they would have lost. Eeewwww.... glad that didn't happen :).

As for today? Well today was a plain ol' boring Monday, except I dressed Keelyn in an oh-so-cute Halloween onesie and a matching hairbow.

It also brought one scrumptious meal... roast, cooked carrots, mashed potatoes & gravy. And me being the nice wife I am, I made my hubby a tasty dish of leftovers.

And now, I am off to bed.

Fa la la la la

Can it really be Thursday already?!???! Wow!! The minutes, hours, days, and weeks are fuh-LYING by! Are they for you, too? I seriously can't believe it's already October 22nd.

Today while at school, Holly sent Sean and I this picture of Keelyn with the message:

"If you are having a bad day, do not look, this picture will make you feel worse when you see how big Keelyn is getting!!!! I am thinking Keelyn is going to "love" the Jumperoo. She will have the strongest legs in town."

Dear Santa Claus, I would like a jumperoo for Christmas.

Love, Keelyn

Tonight when I got home, I whipped up one of Sean's favorites... goulash and crescent rolls. He has enough for leftovers...twice :). Then I did a load of dishes, gave Keelyn a bath, did three loads of laundry, and my favorite, a load of these...

Ummm...focus on the bottles, not the empty pop cans to the left :^)

And...speaking of Santa Claus, remember when I blogged about {this}? Well... take a look at what else I did tonight!!!

Half the Nellis clan and Marshall, check!

I know. It's insane, right!??!!? But MAN!! I sure feel good about getting this done! Pretty soon I'll be whippin' out the decorations and teaching Keelyn to fa la la la la all day long :). Of course, that would mean that the rainy cruddy weather of today will soon be the white, fluffy crud. Shoot. Oh well. It's a small sacrafice to pay for my fav.o.rite holiday season of all. :)

To top it off, I'm getting ready to watch the rest of the Yankees game with Sean. World Series bound??? We're sure hopin' so!!!

So, stalkers followers and lurkers*, what productive thing did you do today?

*lurkers would be you family & friends who read this all the time but never.post.comments :)

A Good Thing

You know it's a good thing when you get a picture like this from daycare...

gorgeous. just like my mommy.

That's what her shirt says. I'm not gonna argue with a good thing :)

Happy Birthday Aunt Mandy

Happy Birthday Aunt Mandy!

Love, Keelyn

2 Week Wrap-Up

Ahem. Stalkers Followers, forgive me for the fact I have been, once again, a blogging slacker. Here's a short yet, ahem, semi-long recap of the past 2 weeks here in lovely Lynamland.

Wednesday, October 7
--day after Keelyn's well-check and she was a-ok! No fever, no fussies, just one perfect child. One perfect child who helped her Mommy grocery shop and begin making tailgating food for what was supposed to be one heck of a fun weekend. More to come...

Thursday, October 8
--packing, packing, and more packing. I was packing Keelyn's things for spending the weekend with Grandma Pam & Grandpa Larry as well as packing Sean and I for the tailgate weekend in good ol' IA City.

Friday, October 9
--I rushed home from work to pack the van with my trusty little helper (who felt she needed a rest in the middle of it all)...
Sean got home and we were ready to go... until we got a call from Matt & Cheri that their poor lil' peanut Haylee had a big ol' yucky fever :(. Two hours later, the wives sent their hubbies on their way to IA City for the weekend and we stayed home with our baby* girls.

*The term "baby" used loosely... Haylee is like 7, or 8. I'm a bad friend... I can't remember for certain.

Saturday, October 10
--Keelyn and I got up and ready for the day (dressed in our black & gold, of course) hoping that maybe, just maybe we would be able to drive to IA City to spend the rest of the weekend, but Haylee was still sick so Keelyn helped me do some oh-so-much-fun laundry and we found any.way.possible to stay warm. We then began to watch the Hawks defeat whoever it was they played that weekend (see... this is what happens when you don't blog regularly... you aren't able to give specific details). Oh, and this is what Keelyn and I woke up to that day. Drat. I hate this stuff!!!

Sunday, October 11
--Sean came home, I did more laundry, more cleaning, and got ready for another great week.

Monday, October 12
--not much happened. At least not that I can remember. Good thing I took these pics to remind me that Keelyn was the cutest.girl.ever today in her new shirt :). Oh... and did I mention that Keelyn learned how to hold things? Yep. Oh... and that she likes to bat at things now? Yep. Oh... and that is seeming to prefer her left hand than her right? Yep. That's making for one happy Daddy (baseball coach thinks left-hand pitcher, left-handed pitcher). Yep.

Tuesday, October 13
--Got bad news from Holly, Keelyn's most favoritest daycare provider {Sean's and mine, too :)}. Her son, Trevor, had not been feeling well so off to the doc they went to find out they were 90% sure he had... dunnn dunnn dunnnnnnnnnn... H1N1. Sooo I called Keelyn's doc and he said we should not expose her to it and stay away. What did I do? FUH-REAKED OUT! That's what I did. Why?? Well, because of a few reasons. 1). Missy had shared {this} news with me earlier in the day, and 2). the following 2 days were conferences and Holly was going to keep Keelyn all day and night for us on Wed. So what does a new Mommy do in this instance? Call her Mommy & Daddy crying, of course. The day was saved when Grandma Sally took an emergency day and drove down to help us out.

Wednesday, October 14
--Grandma Sally and Keelyn spent the day together smiling, reading, smiling, singing songs, smiling, playing with toys, and not sleeping. Oh, and did I mention smiling? As Grandma put it, Keelyn knew her Grandma was here therefore she didn't want to waste the day sleeping. Such a Grandma thing to say, don't ya think? When I got home at 8:15pm, Grandma said see ya soon and was on her way back home.

Thursday, October 15
--Grandpa Dale's birthday.
--My principal was nice enough to work with me and let me switch today and Friday around, so I had this day off. Keelyn and I hung around all.day.long doing you guessed it, laundry and cleaning. Deep cleaning, to be exact. I scrubbed all the door handles, bathrooms, dusted, and Lysoled darn near everything in the house. Oh, and I made the most scrumptious chowder in the whole.entire.world. I'd love to take credit, but I can't do that to my friend. Wanna know the recipe? Click {here} to see it (go to Monday October 12 post). Make it. You won't be sorry.

Friday, October 16
--Sean had today off, but had scheduled some appointments, so Keelyn started her morning by coming with me to work. Lots of fun had by all. Sean came and got her, then they had Daddy/Daughter afternoon. I finished up work, worked my part-time job, then headed home to see Grandma Sally & Grandpa Dale who came down to celebrate Grandpa's birthday.

--Keelyn turned 12 weeks!!!!

Saturday, October 17

--Mom and I did some serious Christmas shopping (Owen, done. Ann, done. Dad, done.) in the morning then Mom, Dad, and I went to see Wicked. OMG! It was the BEST musical ever!!! I'm not much of a Wizard of Oz fan (frankly, the movie scares the livin' CRAP out of me), but this musical was awesome. A nice meal at our favorite, Okoboji, rounded out the night.

Today, Sunday, October 18

--Play time with Grandma Sally before the boys woke up :).

--More shopping! This time, Mom, Dad, Keelyn and I all went. We hit up Younkers (again), then headed to Scheel's and Costco. We were going to go to a pumpkin patch, but decided not to with the wind. Can't let Keelyn the Queen get sick now can we? Mom and Dad left and we wound down and are beginning to gear up for the upcoming week.

--I realized that I didn't snag any pics of Keelyn with Grandma & Grandpa this weekend. Ouch. Not gonna win Mom of the Year Award with that one, am I? Drat. So, I took pictures of Keelyn wearing her spankin' new outfit that I bought yesterday on that serious shopping spree to make up for it.

Precious. Love her.

Ahhh... you made it!!!! I puh-ROMISE! No more 2 week wrap-ups. It's too much to type, and frankly, I'm sure it was too much to read.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Dale!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Dale!! I can't wait to see you this weekend :) :) :)

Love, Keelyn

2 month well-check

Today was Keelyn's 2 month well check. The appointment started off GREAT! She had a TON of fun kicking the paper on the bench... and kept getting it stuck between her legs. As my kids at school would say, "Goofball!"

Then the nurse took all her measurements. Here are her stats:

* Height--23" and in the 75th percentile**

* Weight--12 lb. 8 oz and in the 90th percentile {what can I say, she takes after her Mama on liking food :)}

* Head Circumference--15.75" and in the 50th percentile

**Side note: Our nurse lays Keelyn on the paper, stretches her foot out and makes a mark with her pen at the end of it, then makes a mark on the paper around her head. This is her way of measuring. At the end of the appointment I tore the paper off the bench. Am I weird? No. Sentimental? Yes.

We had LOTS of fun taking pictures, playing, and talking when the nurse left.

and Love is all I have for her.

The doc came in then and said he was VERY impressed with her head control. That's right Keelyn, kiss your brain :). We go back on December 8th for her 4 month well-check where he said we'd start talking cereal and baby food. Holy cow! She's growing so fast!!!

Next came the dreaded shots :(. 3 in all... 2 in the left leg and one in the right, plus the not-so-tasty rotavirus vaccine that she got to drink.

To help calm her down, I gave her a bottle and she went to sleep as soon as we got in the van. Luckily, she is still *knock on wood* sleeping.

Notice... her face is still red from her screaming and crying. Poor peanut :*(

Pretty sure that watching my daughter cry in pain is more painful that labor. Ugh... and to think I have to watch her go through that again, and again, and again?