Summer has arrived!

OK, so it is a warm spring here in Boise. Caleb and Ellie are enjoying their new swimming pool and looking adorable in their new swimsuits from Grandma.

Levi is 2 weeks old

Can't get enough of this little guy. He is such a good baby. He is a great sleeper and very mild mannered. We need this since we just found out that we are moving in a few weeks to Reno, Nevada. I especially appreciate having a peaceful third child. Three is a challenge! I count my day as successful if we are all up, fed, and dressed by 11am. If I get a shower by 2pm, that is even better. I then spend the rest of the day taking care of kids and just picking up the messes around the house. That is about it for now. I am super tired by the end of the day. I can't believe I am a mother of three!

Caleb plays for the Wildcats!

Caleb told me last year that he wanted to join a soccer team. We gave it a try this year. His first game consisted of Caleb crying on the sidelines because he didn't want to play. When coach had the kids play "duck, duck, goose" to get warmed up, Caleb wouldn't even budge when he was tagged. So, in an effort to show Caleb how fun it was to participate, I was the goose for Caleb and chased around 4 year olds when I was 9 months pregnant. I am sure I looked ridiculous! The pictures posted show Caleb playing (this is game 3). He had a blast! We sure were proud parents. This was the first and last game he played in. We were happy that he at least gave it a try. I think we will opt out of sports next year.

Caleb is a big brother, twice!

Caleb is such a good helper. He loves Levi so much and enjoys holding him for me. He asked me one morning, "Mom, do you want me to hold Levi so you can fold the laundry?" What more can a mom ask for?

Ellie watching baby Levi

Ellie wasn't so sure she liked the new baby at the hospital, but it didn't take long for her to love him...even love him a little too much. She loves to watch me take care of him. She is my little future mother.

Grandma to the rescue!

Grandma Beckstrand came for a visit with Uncle Matt and Aunt Christine in hopes that we would have a baby any time. Levi just made it! Thanks Grandma for taking care of our little ones while we were in the hospital with the new baby!

Levi Christian Keller

Levi was born on April 21, 2007 after many long hours of labor. He was sweet right from the start and we sure love him. He weighed 6 pounds 9 ounces and was 20 inches long. Our heaviest child yet.

Levi is Born

This was the night before Levi was born. We had to capture a last shot of the big belly before it deflated. Isn't Sarah a gem?

hello everyone

Just thought I would type a quick note to say hi. I am just relaxing after
church. We had a good weekend...another weekend that I didn't necessarily
think would come without a baby...but that is ok. We have just about
finished all of our projects we wanted to have done before the baby came, so
that is great! Chris even helped me wash finger prints and you know things
like strawberry yogurt off the walls as part of our spring cleaning. He has
been a big help. We hung up more pictures and painted spots on the walls
that needed some touch ups. I didn't really sleep on Friday night, so I was
a bump on a log most of the day Saturday. I ran two errands, napped, folded
laundry, picked up the house and napped again.

Caleb had his first soccer game on Saturday. He has been wearing his
uniform around the house all week and asked me everyday how many days it was
until his game on Saturday. Well, the big day arrived. We got some good
pictures. However, none are of him playing. Why, you ask? Well, because
he cried and refused to play and practice with the team. He clung to my leg
like I was going to leave him and never come back. The coach had them
playing duck, duck goose just to get to know eachother and get a little
warm-up in. Well, I had to sit in the circle with him. When someone said
goose to him, he just scowled at her and said that he wouldn't chase her.
So, to set a proper example, I ran after the girl and then had to be the
goose. You can imagine me "running". Well, I did a little fast trot. I am
sure it looked ridiculous. Chris then took Caleb over to an adjacent field
and practiced kicking the ball with him and shooting in the goal. We are
both hoping that by the time his next game comes around that he will want to
play. It wasn't cheap! We decided to just stay positive and have Chris
practice with him this week so he builds his confidence up. I think he was
a little overwhelmed by how formal it all looked. He was also cold and
hungry. That is another story.

Another funny thing that Caleb did...Chris and I went on a date Friday night
and ran one quick errand to Old Navy to see if they had any flip flops for
Caleb. He really wanted some and they were only a few bucks, so I picked up
a pair. When we got home, he tried them on and they were on the verge of
being too small. So, I told him that we would go in the morning to get a
larger pair. He desperately wanted to take the tags off and threw a huge
tantrum. I was tired and not very happy with his "ungratefulness", so I
just put him in bed and left the room. I came in a few minutes later and he
was crying. I went to talk to him and he was doing these funny things with
his hands over his face. I asked him what he was doing. It turned out that
his preschool teacher taught him the "sign" for sad and grumpy. He was
doing sign language to tell me how he was feeling. I was still mad enough
that it wasn't cute at the time, but now it is rather funny.

Ellie is as cute as ever. She is the new little mommy in the house. She
constantly wants to "see" her baby brother. She has to see my belly. I
think she thinks that my belly button (which has grown rather large) is
where the baby is. She is still way into the color pink. If it is pink,
she is facinated with it.

Well, everyone needs to keep writing! I get so bummed out when there are no
emails in my inbox! Tiffany isn't even writing as much! What's up with
that?? :) It must be all of this nice spring weather. I am also getting
so anxious to see Dave. I can't wait till he comes home, but I am sure that
he wants his mission to last longer. Love you all so much. I will let you
know how things go on Tuesday. I go in around 2 pm. This baby seems to
have a mind of his own though...so you never know if he will be ready to
come.

Talk to you all soon.

Sarah

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Sarah Keller's Tough Day Pregnant Still!

I am recovering today from the most boring day of my life yesterday....ok....it probably wasn't the most boring, but I am sure it came in a close second! I have been thinking that this baby is coming at any moment, so I have been working super hard to keep the house cleaned, the laundry up to date and the fridge full of good stuff. Well, I over did it and by Tuesday (my 36 week mark) I realized that this baby might not be coming when I think he is and that I have just exhausted myself thinking...TODAY IS THE DAY, I JUST KNOW IT! So, I was sooo tired and I felt like doing nothing, except for maybe watching movies all day and sleeping. CAn't do that with kids though. so, I dragged my feet all day wiping bums and feeding kids and barely getting them dressed and their hair combed. I went to bed feeling still pretty tired and needing to distance myself from family members so I wouldn't be mean to anyone...yep, I know it is ridiculous! Chris even kept his distance for an hour or so.

Well, I woke up to Caleb screaming from his room..."I need a bowl!". Yep, he threw up. I did feel pretty bad for him...but I was also concerned about delivering a baby any day and having the stomach flu at the same time. Luckily, he threw up once and then was fine an hour later. We had a pretty good day. We did chores together, made sticker charts to earn pjs that they both want. I know I am a scrouge...but they have t-shirts they can wear to bed and such and they wanted character pjs at walmart. So, they did chores with me today and it was rather fun. We watched a movie, played games on the computer and read books. Caleb even took a nap to recover from his early morning vomiting. We then went shopping for summer shoes. That is always fun. My kids seem to surprise me when I say, um, no, that shoe is way too much money. We need one that costs about this much, ok? They seem to understand. Maybe I am doing something right, eh?

They are now getting into bed close to 10:00 due to naps. Ellie fell asleep on the way to Payless. I tried super hard to wake her up...even waving pink shoes in front of her face...but to no avail. I literally tried shoes on her while she was sleeping laying on the floor in the store. It was pretty funny. She even drooled through the whole endevor.

Ellie is quite a funny lady. She is wired when she goes to bed. Tonight she had to show Chris and I how much toe lint she has. She is facinated by it and has to make sure it is all out before she can go to sleep. She is just getting so old and saying so many adult like things that just make you laugh. I told her she could go and play with one of her babies in the playroom tonight while we gave Caleb a chance to go to sleep. She said, "oh, my yellow baby from Target?" She remembers every store where we purchased things and what the bags look like. I used a Target bag in my trash can and she goes..."oh, mom, Target!". I think I might have a dangerous shopper on my hands!

Well, I will stop talking about my kids now. I hope everyone is doing well.
Love you all. Keep me and my mood swings in your prayers!

Cousin Quinn's Baby Blessing

Well, we haven't been super great at updating this blog, but we did take a bundle of super cute pictures at Cousin Quinn's baby blessing and we posted pictures here:

Quinn's Baby Blessing 4/7/07 1:30 PM

We live life rushing rushing rushing

I had to post a text only blog to remember the thoughts - I read a blog from David Pogue, a New York Times Technology Columnist. He discusses his experience attending TED, a symposium with 50 speakers who present over 2 days in 20 minute intervals. These people are big names with very thought provoking ideas.

When you have 10 minutes give his column a read and link over to TED. I watched a discussion from a gentleman who wrote a book on how to fight the Time War and Slow Life Down - a great discussion.

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/enchanting-ted/

Soon, when I get my current honey-do projects done, I'll be back to posting adorable pics of the kids. Until then, we continue silent.

After Thirty Years, My Dream Has Come True

Okay, so 30 years might be exaggerating, but for sure, I've been dreaming of a four wheeler for the last 15 years and on Friday, my dream came true. We got a toy. Here are some pics of the first rides on Saturday




Even Sarah got into the spirit of things a bit.

Halloween Part 2

This first picture is of Caleb and his preschool.


We really don't espouse tattoos but whose an army guy without one, right?? Okay, sure there are plenty without but Caleb sure enjoyed this costume. Can you tell?

She is our little Angel. . . when she is happy like in this picture. Just wait though, ten seconds from now, she could be having a bad day. You never know. ;-)

I am absolutely in love with this picture - Caleb the tough guy and his little Sister the beauty and the way she is looking up at her big strong brother makes them seem 12 years older than they are.

Up close and Angelic

This was Caleb's third costume and second army man costume. I'm not sure what he was showing us here.

Hey you're not old enough to be acting like Mr. Cool.

Halloween Fun

Here are a bunch of pictures of us at the beginning of our Halloween week. We seemed to have 3 or so parties for the kids to dress up and with Caleb's changing taste, he chose 3 different outfits - army guy, batman and superman, or was it just the first two.

So we may be a bit premature at announcing but. . .

I thought this set of pictures was so cute together, I couldn't stop myself from sharing. Who do you think is more prego??



This was actually Caleb's first response to seeing his Mom pose. It definitely reflects the natural him.

Sweet Ellie & Caleb - Can you Tell They Love Each Other?

I couldn't resist but post this picture of our little "school girl" Ellie loves her shoes and her dresses and her dolls and is such a little girl loving make-up and doing her hair and lately is fascinated by her hair clips and rubber bands.



Can you tell they just love each other.

Conference Weekend & Stranger Daddy Stamps

Conference weekend was awesome. We spent a ton of good fun family time hanging out. Caleb was dressed in his usual topless fashion and this time, Ellie had her new pink cowboy boots that she loved. Aren't they cute!



Caleb entertained us all as he imagined being a home teaching family. He was the father and Sarah was the mother and Ellie was the daughter. He and I went on for a good 30 minutes playing parts. It was amazing what this kid understands. He knew to get his children into the room to listen to the teachers and he was so stately the way he spoke and directed the conversation. He truly is a sponge. Here he is taking a stately picture with his "wife and kids". You can see Sarah had a hard time keeping the straight face.





Caleb surprised me again that day. He showed me all the pen markings he had made on his arms. I asked him what they were and he said because he didn't have any stamps he used a pen. I questioned further and he said he had stamps like those stranger daddy's had on their arms. He told me I should get a stamp on my arm. ;-) I told him we don't believe in tattooing our bodies that way, but he didn't believe me. He thought his stamps were so cool he posed for the above picture.



Late, the kids had a bath and Ellie decided to do a little hairdo in the tub.



Caleb had his own tough guy face.



Ellie is such a sweetheart. Look at this reserved, calm face of hers. We don't see that too often. Most of the time, she is a jabbering about some thing she is watching or listening and she is jumping and smiling.

Meridian Speedway Races - Daddy's Night with Caleb

Bless Hubble Homes, Caleb and I enjoyed a fun evening hanging out with Dave and Amber at the local Meridian Speedway watching cars race around a short quarter mile (I think) track. It was crazy the speed those cars reached. We liked almost all of it especially the juice (name Caleb gives to soda) and popcorn.

Seattle

Sarah and I took a wonderful vacation to Seattle from Tuesday to Thursday. I had gone on Monday for work and Sarah met me to have a bit of fun. We went to the Space Needle the first night for dinner



Wow, look at the beautiful girl getting in the way of my sunset shot. ;-)



What an indredible view of this amazingly clean city. We loved our stay and found ourselves Sleepless in Seattle



I taught a good man how to take good pictures and look what turned out.



On Wednesday night, we were ecstatic to go to Wicked, the Broadway show with our great friends, Heber and Chalonn Redd. They made quite the sacrifice to get there - they braved an hour of traffic and their sister-in-law spent considerable time taking the hour long fairy to their house to watch the kids. The show was fabulous detailing the untold story of the good witch so long known as the Wicked Witch of the West. It taught great moral lessons of goodness to others and understanding. All was well except for Sarah's view through all the tall heads.