Things we are Thankful For!

Enjoying his applesauce with vigor on Thanksgiving day!

We had a great holiday weekend here.  Our first thanksgiving was a wonderfully warm day that was extremely relaxing.  It was in the 60s here so we started out by taking a family hike with Hannah.  We have a new method of transportation for Keagan the heavier he becomes.  The back pack is very secure and is much nicer to my lower back. 

Then our dinner was excellent as we our neighbor John smoked the turkey and did the mashed potatoes, rolls, green beans and gravy.  We brought salad, cranberries, fruit salad and the pies.  So our part of the dinner was very easy.  Keagan was absolutely wonderful and didn't say a word the whole entire evening.  Granted we did take him for a car ride a few hours before the dinner so he had an extra special good nap in place.  John's son - Donovan was also there and has offered his services as baby whisperer in the future as Keagan seemed espeicially entralled with Donovan.  It seemed like he wanted to show off what a good baby he can be! 

Enjoying the Thanksgiving Turkey with John

Mom, Dad, John and Donovan in the back

Oveall the best thing about Thanksgiving was all that we have to be thankful for...

• being parents and loving every minute (yes even the bad ones!)
• living in such a wonderful place where we have our horses with us
• having fantastic friends like John that make every day special
• loving our parents that took the time to raise us well
• all of our 4-legged kids whom are all healthy as I write this :)
• of course last but not least... the most wonderful non-adopted Chinese child ( i have had 3 people in the last week tell me how wonderful I was to have adopted a child from China) 

Rocky Mountain Poopie!

Yesterday we drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park to see the amazing wildlife.  We have taken Keagan to Yellowstone but we hadn't been up to RMNP since he was born.  I figured we wouldn't get skunked.  Usually we see hundreds of elk.  Sometimes we see other creatures like the mule deer, black squirrels and even once we saw the Big Horn Sheep.  It was just the mommies and a few older babies last year.  Jeff and I have been trying to see the daddy sheep for over 10 years and although Jeff has been successful a few times, the only place I have seen the big horns is at the zoo. That all changed yesterday after Keagan had a massive poopie.  It was running down the front of his pants so we knew that we needed to find a visitor center so we could try and wipe his bottom down.  It was a massive poopie and it changed our plans.  Once we were finished with the visitor center/gift shop there were about 25 big horn sheep in the parking lot!  Including at least 3 daddies with the huge horns.  They were eating the salt on the parking lot used to help melt the ice.  So we finally reached our goal of seeing big horn sheep and even got our picture of this momentous occasion.  I guess the reason we never saw them before is that we didn't have a child who changed the course of our lives!

Look at the sheep mommy!

Yeah we saw the big horm sheep!

Dancing Shoes

Last weekend we went to probably one of our last garage sales of the year.  I love going to garage sales to find awesome baby clothes.  As I well know, they grow so quickly and at times they don't wear clothes all that many times before they are too tight.  Keagan really didn't wear much if any of his 3-6 month clothing.  This summer was very hot and so he ran around in his diaper and birthday suit most of the time.  When it was time to put clothes on, they were too tight and I had to break out the 6 month clothing.  But, I digress....at this last garage sale where I was looking for winter 9 month clothing when I stumbled upon some size 2M stride rite little leather shoes.  We got them for a dollar and they retail for about $40.  I wasn't really sure he needed shoes, but the moment I put them on his little feet he started dancing.  He loves to have his shoes on as they are a toy attached to his body.  When he tries to crawl he has traction and when he goes in the jumper he can jump even higher than before.  I for one am in love with the tiny shoes and just looking at them makes me happy.  Here's to all the things about babies that bring a smile to your face!

I like to play with my shoes at any time.  It helps to have a built in toy!

OK - so maybe the shoes don't always capture his attention.
The huge fish at Bass Pro Shop with "honorary grandpa" John (our neighbot and part time babysitter of all the Yu kids) sometimes keeps his attention away from those shoes!

Happy half birthday!

It was Keagan's half birthday and his daddy's 33rd birthday yesterday. We celebrated by visiting dad at work in between emergencies and spending some time with the camera.  I love taking pictures of my little guy and thank goodness that we have a digital camera.  I think I would go broke if I printed all the pictures I took.  Yesterday I think I took over 150 pictures so if there seems like a lot posted today, you should see our picture archives. 

I still can't believe how fast he is growing up and how things change so suddenly.  I mean all the sudden he is sitting up playing with his toys.  He reaches out and falls over which brings many dragon tears (dragon tears because this is the chinese year of the dragon).  He is getting so independent but at the same time we are struggling with seperation anxiety - with mommy only.  It is the worst at night so if anyone has suggestions I am open to try anything:) 

The stats:
17lbs 14oz
25.75 inches
6-9 month clothing
Size 2 Stride rite dancing shoes
Loys of giggles and laughs
Stevie Wonder Dance moves
Pear baby food is his favorite so far - NOT banana!



And now it's time to stop taking pictures mom!  But when he makes faces like this it is hard to stop!

Brother and Sisters

Although Keagan is our only human child, we already had a full family when he entered the picture.  4 cats - Princess, JC, Delilah and Eden; One dog - Hannah; 2 horses - Daphne (Keagan's pony) and Regen (mom's horse); and 1 turtle: boxy. It is funny to watch the family dynamics here in the house.  Delilah - Jeff's kitten - won't let him touch her.  They are still learning how to cope with each other.  Eden - my kitten- loves me and anything associated with me.  Now her and Keagan have gotten into boxing matches but if he is part of the picture, she will grudging go along.   Keagan unfortunately only has 1 brother and he just loves JC the most.  Any time JC comes around, Keagan just lights up and loves to "pet" the kitty.  Now JC is an older gentleman and lets Keagan pretty much grab as much fur, ears and/or tail as he can get into one fist.  JC thinks the little one just loves him every time he gets attention.  So it is a match made in heaven and I hope that JC doesn't leave us for a long time.

Unfortunately we have lost our last kitty Princess on Wednesday this week.  She had been slowly going downhill since before Keagan was born. But, it was still hard to say good-bye to our oldest "kid." 



Now for the last set of "kids". Hannah is Keagan's protector. He doesn't try to pet her very often and she really doesn't appreciate giving Keagan horseback rides. I mean there are horses for that activity - but mom has no interest in teaching Keagan how to ride a horse just yet. Our horse Regen nuzzles up next to him, while the pony just snorts her nose and runs away. I think she knows she will have a job to do at some part of her life. But Hannah is the protector from all things and has done so before he was born. She takes her job very seriously and we know that she will be there for him. It is funny how everything changed once Keagan arrived. He just makes everything better!

August 2011

Getting ready for winter weather
Keagan in his smow suit, Hannah in her snow boots!
Neither one of them happy with mom :)

Is Christmas here already?

I am amazed that the christmas decorations are already up in the stores.  We just got done with Haloween, Thanksgiving is just around the corner and Christmas seems so far away.  I for one am not prepared for christmas and I am just going to take my time.  In fact I have a few more Haloween pictures to post before I am ready to move onto Thanksgiving.  Time seems to be going so fast now days.  I can't believe my little man is almost 6 months old.  He is growing so fast and the scale doesn't lie.  We weighed him last weekend and he was 17lbs 12 oz.  He is going through his clothes so fast and we are already moving on to the 6-9 and even 9 month clothing.  Some of which I got at the baby showers and thought he would never get big enough for those winter clothes this season.  And now I think that we will go through the majority of his stash of winter clothes before the end of this year!  I completely love this ride of rasing a baby and can't wait to do it again!

Shark it!

My little man has been drooling for at least the last 6 weeks and therefore thinking about teeth.  No such luck yet for the little man, although I don't mind since we are still nursing.  In addition to drooling, he LOVES to put everything in his mouth.  He just attacks fingers, books, papers and well honestly anything he can get his mouth on.  So we have nick named this Keagan move - sharking.  To shark means to attack something and put it in your mouth while shaking his head back and forth.  So this picture is appropriate in his shark outfit.  I found it at Goodwill and just had to buy it for him.  It just barely fit and it is no longer shorts weather - in fact we just got a foot of snow last night.  But, it gets the point across for this baby and hopefully we can use it again!