Katie's 1st Year in Colorado

So Katie is in San Antonio this week staying with my mom and getting totally spoiled ;) She wanted to go to her old school and say hi to her friends and tell them what she's been doing this past year. I was just going to send some pictures with her but then I got the idea to make her a little photo book highlighting what she has been doing this past year. If you want to see it, click on the picture below:
Not having Katie here this past week has been really hard! I never really realized how much she helps out with her brothers. Kobe has been lost without her because he has never had to play by himself before, she has always been there to play with him. I think it's going to be really hard on him when she starts school in the fall. Poor little buddy, hopefully Kaleb will fill her shoes as his playmate soon.

I am really missing her a lot, it's just so weird having only the boys, I miss my little girl!! She has such a special energy that she brings to our home, it just feels empty without her. Her and my mom will be flying in on Friday and then the following day is my birthday so I think we are going to spend the whole weekend in Denver. I can't wait!

I'm thinking of taking Kaleb to a chiropractor. He had a really hard delivery and came out posterior with his head facing up and I think it might have put a lot of strain on his neck and spine. He gets really fussy sometimes and it seems like something is hurting him by the way he cries. I've noticed that he cries EVERY time I pick him up and lift him up with my hands under his armpits. He only seems comfortable in a few positions so all of this is leading me to think he might be having back pain. I've never taken a child this young to a chiropractor so I'm a little nervous. Kevin, Katie and I all went to one after the accident and he did wonders for all of our backs so I do have faith in chiro, I just don't know any here in Colorado so I'm nervous to go to someone we don't know.

The one thing I can say is that whatever is bothering Kaleb, it sure isn't affecting his growth. He has already grown out of the 3-6 month clothes that I JUST bought him from the Children's Place! Arhhhh, I keep thinking I will be able to put him in Kobe's clothes but it still hasn't warmed up enough here for him to wear short sleeve onsies and shorts (which is all Kobe's clothes are) so I guess I'm off to go buy even more clothes for this amazon baby! I'm taking him in to get weighed and measured tomorrow (we missed our last appt.) so I'll update with his stats tomorrow.

Britax Frontier - Initial Impression

It took some serious gummy bear bribery to get him to sit in the seat and smile like that, you'd never know he was whining and complaining the moment before and after the picture was taken. LOL I just buckled him quickly to get the pic so don't be too critical of the harness buckle height and all that!

Well we finally got the Frontiers in today which is a good thing because we've been getting tons of pre-orders for them. Upon looking at the seat and putting Kobe in it (Katie is in SA at Grandma's house this week so I'll have to wait to see how she fits in it but I can tell it will be way too small in 5-point harness mode) - I'm a little unsure where it's place is in the car seat line up.

First of all it is a forward facing only seat (the sticker says not use before age 2 and 25lbs), so it's obviously not a seat a child could move out of their infant seat into....so you'd still have to purchase an infant seat AND a convertible seat before you could use this seat. I took a tape measure and measured from the seat bottom to the highest harness height and it was only 17 inches...smaller than the Recaro which IS a convertible seat and MUCH smaller than the Regent. It sort of seems like a slightly bigger Boulevard without a base that converts to a booster seat. My fear is that this seat will encourage earlier booster use because it is likely most children will outgrow the harness around the same time they would most other convertible seats and instead of moving into a Regent at that point, the parents will just use the seat as a booster instead.

From birth to age 8 or 9 all you need from the Britax line up is the Companion (infant seat) till it is outgrown, then the Marathon or Boulevard and once that is outgrown around age 4, the Regent until age 8 or 9. So where does the Frontier fit in?? As a $280 booster seat?? Is it supposed to replace the Regent? If that is the case, the only thing that is accomplished is that the child will be in 5-point harness for considerably less time.

Another thing that concerns me is that the seat is really heavy, probably at least 20-25 pounds - it feels much heavier than a Marathon. So when this thing is used as a booster seat, I sincerely hope the parents tether it in because that would be a LOT of weight behind a child in an accident pushing them into the seat belt if it's not tethered. I didn't read the manual but it doesn't say anywhere on the stickers on the seat to use the tether in booster mode - that scares me. So I feel like this seat will encourage earlier booster use and the booster itself might be dangerous because it is so heavy. :(

It's been such a big seller and I had high hopes for it but now I'm not sure what to think or if I should continue to offer it on Hip Monkey. Oh another thing that sucks is that you have to adjust the harness height on the BACK of the seat which means you will have to uninstall the seat to adjust the harness. Honestly, it seems like a smaller, crappier version of the Safeguard Child Seat that pushes kids into a booster much to soon. Sigh.

Newest Xtreme Sport

So now that snow boarding season is over, Kevin wanted to find another outdoor activity he and Katie could do together. Of course something as simple as riding bicycles just couldn't cut ;) He came home with a little dirt bike for her and much to my surprise, she loves it! She is insanely good on it and of course scares the crap out of me when she's on it. We got her a helmet and full body pads to wear (she doesn't have the pads on in the pics because we were about to leave and she had taken them all off before I remembered I wanted to take pics so I made her get on the bike and drive around slowly so I could take some pics) We've just been taking her to the elementary school baseball field to drive around but now that she is getting really confident, we'll start taking her to the actual track. I think her daddy is helping to shape her into one pretty cool chick when she grows up...She's beautiful and can put on her cheerleading uniform and be all girl but she can also snow board, rock climb, dirt bike and fish (they go fishing several times a month) and in a burping contest she can put any boy to shame! LOL

Now we just need to get Kevin his own bike, LOL!

Kobe quickly became obsessed w/ Katie's bike and always wanted Kevin to drive him around on it so we went ahead and got him a mini 4-wheeler. He thinks it's a bike though and calls it his "motorcycle bike". ALL day long all I hear is "I wanna ride my motorcycle bike". He actually cruises around on his quad pretty well. That boy is completely obsessed with anything on wheels.

Happiness is...

Gummy grins in the morning

Sleeping babies

Kissing these sweet cheeks 100 times a day

More new pics: kcmillerfamily.shutterfly.com/action/?a=2KaNGLRkxZI8

A dry night and a fall down the stairs

Well first of all I am so happy to report that Kobe spent his first night in undies last night and woke up dry and crawled up in my bed and told me he needed to pee (I was groggy and forgot he was even wearing undies) so we went to the potty and he peed more than I've ever seen him pee at one time! Oh and the reason I decided to put him to bed in undies is because previously that evening we had gone out to eat at 3 Margaritas which just opened up (yay another restaurant up the mountains!) and since he had been wearing undies all day with no accidents I decided to go ahead and take him out in his undies. He did awesome and even went in the urinal at the restaurant which he was very excited about, lol. So he went out of the house in his undies and kept them dry and also wore them overnight and stayed dry - 2 big accomplishments in the same night! We're going on 36 hours now with not a single accident and HIM telling me when he needs to go (instead of me asking him 10 times an hour, lol) He also insists on only peeing standing up now, he can just barely reach over the rim of the toilet bowl, it looks so funny. He is a gentleman though and always puts the seat back down when he's done. :) Soooo I think we are done with the diapers all together, even for trips out and night time - well for Kobe anyway, we'll be dealing with diapers for Kaleb for quite some time still! I've really been debating on weather to cloth diaper Kaleb, I have all Kobe's old cloth diapers but I am SO insanely busy these days I'm just not sure if washing MORE laundry each day is something I should take on.

Ok onto the "fall down the stairs" part of the title. Yesterday I was carrying Kaleb and coming down the stairs in our house which are carpeted and I was wearing socks which makes for a slick combination. My foot went completely out from under me and I fell straight back. I normally could have put my hands out behind myself or grabbed the handrail to stop the fall but I had Kaleb and a plate of food in my hands. I dropped the plate of food (Picadillo w/ tomato sauce went flying ALL over the carpet) and pulled Kaleb close to my chest so he wouldn't get hurt. So while the good news is Kaleb didn't get hurt, I ended up taking a stair in the middle of my back, one in between my shoulder blades and one on the back of my head. It hurt a LOT. Of course Kevin wasn't home so I was on my own to pick myself up and clean up all the mess. I've now got an insane back ache, I can't turn my head from side to side and I still have a headache from the blow to the back of my head. Just what I needed! I think I definitely need to take a trip to the Chiropractor now.

Oh one more piece of happy news...for the past 4 days in a row Kobe has been taking a NAP!!! He's asleep right now (which is why I actually have time to type this) He had completely stopped napping for the past several months so this has come a huge and very welcome surprise! Crossing my fingers that he keeps it up.

So I'm in suspense to find out who is going home tonight on American Idol. I have been totally addicted to that show for the past 2 seasons now. I think it's going to be Brooke, I think last night really showcased that she has the weakest voice. Katie is in L.O.V.E. with David Archuletta and votes for him every week, he is really good and will probably win the show or at least be in the top 2. I thought Syesha and Carly both did really well last night but the judges were way too critical of them (which seems to be running theme lately). I think my top 3 favorites right now are David A., David C. and Syesha....with Carly running a close 4th. Brooke and Christy Lee really need to go home as they just don't have the voices to compete with them. I'm just not sure what to think of Jason, I can't get over the funky faces he makes when he sings. He looks like Elvis (the lip curl thing) w/ dreadlocks having a seizure. His voice is OK but nothing exceptional. Did you know he goes to A&M? (Where Kevin went to school) I totally would have guess he'd be a UT type, he'd fit right in in Austin - but not so much in ultra-conservative College Station - it's the "bubba" capitol of the world. LOL

Katie has AWANA tonight so I'm going to have to record it and watch it when I get home, ah the suspense! Well I'm off to take some more tylenol, my neck is killing me!

Missing my "Bubby"

As Kobe is getting older he is reminding me more and more of Kyle. This year with Kobe from age 2 to 3 is the last year I had with Kyle. I was looking through pictures of Kyle when he was the same age Kobe is now (which I posted just a few of above) and just remembering what our life was like then and how completely unaware we were that it could ever change. The thought that it was our last year with him never ever crossed my mind. It's terrifying how things can change in the blink of an eye. How someone you love and can't imagine living without can be taken away forever. How one split second can radically change the rest of your life.

I just miss him so much. I miss him the way I knew him at age 3 and I grieve for not knowing him at age 6. I have a 6 year old son, he should be here running around with the rest of the crew and a part of our everyday life. Instead he is a memory, a picture on the shelf, in my heart forever but no longer in my arms. His voice and laughter don't fill our home and while at one time I could never imagine life without him, now I am left trying to imagine life with him. I wish Kobe could be growing up with his big brother in his life. I wish Katie had her best friend back. I wish there were 4 car seats in my backseat instead of 3. I wish I could kiss 4 sweet little faces goodnight instead of kissing 3 and whispering goodnight to the one I can't be with. I wish I could have all my children in my arms and know what that feels like even for a moment. I wish I had my sweet, beautiful son back.

No, seriously....

Who took my milk?

Kaleb makes the funniest faces when he lifts his head up while on his tummy, here are a few more of my future blackmail pics ;)



And a few more recent cute pics:

$200 Crabs??!

So we decided to go to the mall the other day to pick up some new clothes for Kaleb since he is growing so darn fast and has outgrown all his 0-3 month stuff. We have all Kobe's old clothes but all his 3-6 month stuff are summer clothes and seeing as how we are currently getting 8 inches of snow here today, summer clothes just aren't going to work. Anyway while we were walking around at the mall we passed a kiosk selling those Hermit Crabs that have their shells painted with all different kinds of designs. I needed to change Kaleb's diaper so I took him to the bathroom and left the kids with Kevin looking at the Hermit Crabs. I got back from changing him and they were still totally entertained with the Hermit Crabs so I decided to sit down on a nearby bench and nurse Kaleb. I started thinking about how much fun it is to have pets when you are a little kid and how I had so many pets growing up, cats, hamsters, dogs, etc. and how we don't let the kids have pets (besides our dog) because we prefer not to have animals in the house. Anyway, I decided we should let them get the Hermit Crabs because they are pretty low maintenance, won't stink up the house or shed or tear anything up like most other pets would. Kevin agreed and the kids were so surprised and excited when we told them they could take some home so we went ahead and spent $50 on 2 Hermit Crabs - the kids picked out one painted like Spongebob and one like Patrick (of course), a little plastic cage for them and some food. Huge rip off, I know, but what the heck the kids are thrilled. So we take SpongeBob and Patrick home and Katie says she wants to research Hermit Crabs online so I find a website all about Hermies and print out everything they have. We start reading it and realize that our Hermies are probably going to die because they need a warm, humid environment which is the exact opposite of where we live. So Kevin decided to take Katie and Kobe to the pet store to get a few things to help our Hermies survive. A few things turned into a new bigger tank, an under-tank heater, calcium sand, some kind of mulch bedding, a new water dish, rocks and drift wood for them to crawl on and some other crap I can't remember. Anyway, the total bill came out to $150! So in addition to the $50 we already paid, we spent a total of $200 for some crabs! I think I would have rather spent that on a couple nice crab dinners at Red Lobster! Oh well, the kids are happy and apparently so are SpongeBob and Patrick because they crawl all over the place in their new tank where as they just sat there and didn't do anything in the old one. I have to admit, they are pretty amusing to watch. So anyway, to make a really long story short - we now have a couple new, very expensive crustaceans living in our home. :)

Updates....

Katie...
We did the school tour at Evergreen Academy on Monday and all absolutely loved it. It is a really beautiful campus and everyone there was incredibly nice. It is a really small school, there probably won't be more than 10 kids in her class which makes me really happy. She will get a lot of one-on-one time with the teacher and a small class means the teacher can really get to know and care about each student. I really think it will be a great environment for her and am excited for her because I think she's really going to be happy there. Oh and how cool is this? Part of their P.E. program is swimming lessons during the 1st and 4th quarter and skiing lessons in the 2nd and 3rd quarter! LOL - I wish I could have gone to a school like that! They also do a ton of really cool field trips and have 3 recesses per day. I'm really impressed with this school because not only do they have incredible test scores and great academics, they also seem to put a lot of importance on letting the kids just be kids and have fun.

I think we have decided to let her go to her first sleep-away camp this summer, it's only a few miles from our house and a bunch of her friends are going so she will already know kids there. I can't believe she is turning 8 this summer, I'm excited and terrified at the same time about her growing up.

Kobe...
It looks like Kobe has finally turned the corner on the potty training thing. After Kaleb was born he started regressing big time and it really freaked me out, I'd never had a kid do that before. Now he is back to where he was before and is pretty much keeping his undies dry all day. He'll have an accident once in a while but it's always just a tiny bit and then he grabs himself to stop it and finishes on the potty. His favorite thing to do now is pee outside, he LOVES to go outside and pee! Kevin's thought on the matter is "Who doesn't like to pee outside?" - Men!

Kobe had been complaining about his shoes a lot so we took him to Striderite while we were at the mall to get sized for new shoes and he is a size 9!! I think he is part big-foot or something!

He is so funny and makes me laugh so much, he is all boy - rough and tumble, but also so loving and sweet and silly. He's going to be lost without Katie here when she goes to camp and especially once she starts school, he adores her and they play together all day. Hopefully Kaleb can fill that playmate role soon.

Kaleb...
It blows me away how fast my babies grow in their first 6 months. I missed our appt, so I won't be getting him measured till Monday but I will be suprised if he hasn't doubled his weight. He is getting so chunky and really long. We bought him size 2 diapers yesterday because the 1's had gotten way too small. He fills out 3-6 month clothes and will probably be out of them in a matter of weeks. He's also awake most of the day now and is super alert and responsive. He is sleeping great at night so I'm crossing my fingers that he will stay a good sleeper!

Well I've got a ton of work piled up that I've been avoiding all morning but I guess I better get done. The business is really starting to pick up which is good but keeps me super busy!~

Kobe's 2nd Birthday

We had Kobe's 2nd Birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese since that is his all time favorite place - which is funny because Kyle was TERRIFIED of Chuck E. Cheese, he'd go ballistic if we even tried to pull in the parking lot. It's funny how different brothers can be. Anyhow, we had a fun time and he was so excited, he couldn't stop talking about going to Chuck E. Cheese and opening presents for his "Happy Birthday" for days before his party. His favorite present by far is the H2 Hummer my mom got him, it is one of those battery operated ride-on ones and he loves to cruise around in it. I need to get some pics of him crusin' his Hummer and post them soon. I still can't believe he is already 2 years old. He is really talking a lot now and the cutest thing he is doing right now is calling everyone by their first and middle names...Katie is "Dadie Rose" and Kaleb is "Bayub Bames" - it is SO stinkin cute! Oh and he is convinced his middle name is "Kins" since we always call him Kobe-kins, so he says his name (when you ask him) is "Bobe-kins". I love the age he is at right now, he is too cute for words. He is also the best big brother and LOVES Kaleb so much, he gives him kisses all the time and is so gentle with him. The biggest problem we have is that he wants to hold "Bayub" all the time and gets upset when I won't let him.

Kaleb is now 5 weeks old and growing fast. He's getting pudgy and on his way to becoming a full fledged butterball very soon. He's awake a LOT and is starting to really respond when you talk to him with little smiles and coos. I'm taking him next week to get weighed and measured, he has grown out of all his 0-3 month stuff already so it will be interesting to see how much he weighs and how long he is now. I can't believe how in love I am with him, it's amazing how fast that love grows. I already can't imagine our lives without him. I am so happy that he and Kobe will have each other to grow up with, I can already picture them running around together. Katie and Kyle had SO much fun together when they were little and I'm so happy Kobe & Kaleb will have that as well. I'm so much looking forward to watching them grow up and just pray that I will be lucky enough to watch them grow into the beautiful men I know they will be, just like Kyle would have been. Watching them gives me back a little bit of their brother and brings so much joy and happiness to my life. I can't even think about what life would have been like if we hadn't had any more children after losing Kyle. They will never replace him, but they make my world a much happier and brighter place. Ok, enough with the sappyness!

So I think we have officially decided to send Katie to school next year. I love homeschooling but I just don't have the time I need to put into it with both boys to take care of and running a business full time. I feel like she is getting the short end of the deal and isn't getting the time or education she deserves. She did wonderful when we had her at Castle Hills First Baptist for 1st grade and I think she will have a lot more fun being with kids her own age during the day instead of hanging out here with me and the babies. It would be much easier for me to keep her home, she is a huge help to me and I'm not looking forward to the early mornings that come with getting to school on time but I really think that the best thing for HER is to be in a classroom setting with other kids. I think she'll get a better education than I could give her (simply because of the other demands on my time - if I had nothing else to do but focus on homeschooling then I would feel totally different) and I think she will have a lot more fun with friends her own age. Soooo, we are going to do a tour of the best private school in the area on Monday, it is called Evergreen Academy and so far I have heard really great things about it. Their test scores are phenomenal and all the parents I have talked to who send their kids there say it is a really nurturing, loving environment. It is important to me that she gets a Christian-based education so that she is growing spiritually and learning about being a good person while she is in school. I just hope it's as good as Castle Hills was, that school was awesome and she had such a great teacher, it will be hard to settle for anything less now. We are meeting the 3rd grade teacher and headmaster on Monday as well so we'll see what impression we come away with.

Anyway if you want to see all the pics from Kobe's party and more of Kaleb, go to: kcmillerfamily.shutterfly.com/action/?a=2KaNGLRkxZHA