New Niece

My sister and brother in law had their first baby on Dec. 4th. I am SO excited for them, I have to share pictures of my new niece.

Tilly Sue McClyman

Bath time Fun

Kepler LOVES the bathroom and taking baths. Anytime you walk in there, you hear the pitter patter of little hands following you in there. Right now - he's not afraid of a scale!

Joe likes to come in when Kepler is getting a bath and just waits for Kepler to hand him a toy. Kepler just wants him to jump in and play. Some day I know he will and there will be one big watery mess!

Kepler's First Christmas

So while Jeremie was at church this morning, Kepler decided that all of a sudden he was very interested in opening presents. Even if the present wasn't his. I guess it was the biggest one there so that's what he went for! He got a lot of books, and every toy he got make noise.

Trying to get him interested in presents instead of playing with the coasters on the table.

My dad gave him a present to open (wasn't even for him) and he decided it would be more fun to try to open it with his mouth.

He would take a tiny bite out of the paper and then hand it off to someone. After we finally took the paper off, he tried eating the box too. I've heard that kids like playing with the boxes toys come in - haven't heard of them preferring to eat them.

Super cute bear my parents gave Kepler that plays peek-a-boo. Half of the time Kepler get really excited and gets a huge smile on his face, and the other half he seems a little scared of it. We kept making it play just so we could see what his reaction would be the next time.

Thanksgiving Trip to Utah

We went to Utah for Thanksgiving and Kepler had a great time exploring Jeremie's parent's house.

Found the doggie door (which is actually used for cats - not dogs)

I forgot that the toys I had packed were driving up with Jeremie a few days after I arrived in Utah, so we had to find other things to play with.

He found the mirror really fast, and loved crawling up to it and touching his reflection. I guess he knows he's a cutie!

First Flight

Kepler took his first flight to Utah for Thanksgiving. He did awesome - even with his ear infection! I was super nervous for the descent and his ears popping, but he was asleep the whole last half of the flight. Slept through the landing and all the announcements. AWESOME first experience, especially for me flying alone with him.

Waiting for the flight

Checking out all the seats around us

The flight was empty enough that we had a whole row to ourselves so I was able to put him in the seat when he got too squirmy. There was a guy a couple rows back that kept smiling and making faces at him, and he absolutely loved it!

Joe & Kep

When I film Kepler, I think Joe feels a little left out, so this time he made sure that I was video taping him too. I love how he whizzes by Kepler and it looks like he knocked him over by going by so fast. It seems that most of the videos of Kepler end up with him trying to eat the camera - and in this case he crawled up my lap to get to it. There is no stopping that boy!

Look At Me Crawl

Kepler's been doing his army crawl now for a while, and would have his brief moments of "big boy crawling" - and he's finally deciding this is much more fun that being totally on the ground. It's fun to watch him slap his hands down when he crawls. It's like they're all very deliberate movements and he's on a mission. (In this case, to come get mom's camera. That boy loves his electronics)

Loving Brother Joe

Kepler LOVES his brother Joe! He likes to pet him, pull his hair, eat his toys - a true sibling! Joe has been so patient with him and tolerates a LOT from his little brother!

Inch Worm

I love his green towel a friend gave us - I wrap him up after a bath and call him my little green burrito. Well as I was looking for a diaper, my little green burrito turned into a little green inch worm.

*Warning - naked bootie showing*

Kepler and his first costume

I actually think he was trying to get away so he wouldn't have to put his costume on for pictures.

I found Kepler a ketchup packet costume online (bonus that it was on sale) that I thought was too cute to pass up!

People kept thinking he was a ketchup bottle, but you can kind of see the "tear here" in the right corner of the picture.

I thought it would be funny that because Kepler was a ketchup packet - the dog needed to be a hot dog. I don't know how Joe felt about this, but he was a good sport and let me take some pictures.

Trunk or Treat at Jeremie's church - I think he had fallen asleep in the car on the way there. We didn't take him around to get candy, but certainly next year he will collect a lot for mommy and daddy to make sure it is "all safe" to eat.

Carving the Pumpkin

So I have made an executive decision that now that we have Kepler, we must celebrate all of the "holidays" even when he isn't old enough to enjoy them. We - and I mean Jeremie - carved the pumpkin during Kepler's nap time so he wouldn't get in the way. I would have done it while he was at school, but seriously, who would trust me to cut open the top of the pumpkin with a huge knife? And I honestly hate pulling out the seeds and pumpkin intestines, so Jeremie gets all the credit. But in making the jack-o-lantern, Jeremie was able to try out his grandpa's pumpkin seed recipe, so it all worked out.

Jeremie was trying to decide what to do with the mouth, and he decided that it would be fun to do Kepler's teeth for the mouth. Four on top, two on bottom (and three of the four on top thought it would be fun to come in all at once - I guess that's better than having to deal with three separate times) Next year maybe we'll do a "fancy" pumpkin like everyone seems to be having.

Kepler's First Jack-o-lantern

Kepler woke up from his nap and I had the pumpkin and a cute card sitting in the room and he darted (as fast as his little army crawl can take him) to see what was on his floor!

Of course the way he explores new objects is to stick it in his mouth. It's a shame I didn't get the confused face after this wondering exactly what that was he just put in his mouth.

Key Lime Pie

My family really enjoys key lime pie, and when my parents came over to watch game one of the world series (GO RANGERS!), we thought it would be fun to give Kepler his first taste of this yummy, tart treat.

Family Pics

Just a few of our newest family pictures. Absolutely LOVE them!

Workout

Kepler was fussing a lot this afternoon, didn't want to nap and didn't want to play on the ground. I stuck him in his Jumperoo and he bounced around for a good 10 minutes talking and giggling. I'm hoping it was a good enough workout he'll completely crash tonight.

My camera!

I was filming Kepler because he was starting to learn to commando crawl and I wanted him to come toward me. Well, he did and tried to take my camera!

Funny Funny

Kepler was learning to crawl and would do the whole laying on his belly and extend his arms and legs like he's flying. He was doing this and was too cute and then....

Chilling with Daddy

Jeremie doesn't get to spend a lot of time with Kepler, so when he does I have to take pictures of the two of them.

Killer blue eyes!

Jeremie was getting both Joe and Kepler's attention and asking Joe if he loved Kepler. You can tell he's barking. Of COURSE he loves Kepler!

Dirty Shoes

Kepler has learned to Army crawl now, and he used to only do it when you tried to make him. The other night I wasn't paying attention to him and as soon as he spotted Jeremie's extremely dirty shoes he tore after them. I had tried to get him to crawl all day with no luck. The second he spotted something that definitely did not belong in his mouth, there was no stopping him. Jeremie kept moving his feet and Kepler would go wherever he could get the shoe. Then I found him later that night working his way into the kitchen to go find the shoes I had put in there so he wouldn't get to them. A barricade into the kitchen isn't helpful if you don't put it up!

Go Pack Go!

Now my brother and sister are huge Packer fans, and it never really mattered to me when it came to football. However, since Kepler wanted to make his entrance into the world super bowl Sunday (when the Packers won), I figured he better be a Packer fan too!

Start of the game

Touch down Packers!

Chillin with dad watching the game.