He took a piece of my heart with him...

Charles W. "Bill" Fromhold

August 11, 1942 - September 30, 2010

12 month stats

I forgot to post Kenleigh's 12 month stats. This is really more for my memory than for anyone else...but if you are comparing, yes...she's a big girl!

Weight: 24lb 8.5oz -- 90th

Height: 30.5 inches -- 90th

Head: 17 3/4 inches -- 50th

Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Tall, chunky and ... I won't say it! Love my girl!!

Has anyone seen my baby?

Still playing catch up here...so, Miss K is now 1! I look at this precious little girl and realize she is no longer a baby. I am baby-less! She is walking, talking (says Mama, Dada, Bye Bye, Uh Oh, Ball) and chug-a-lugs her milk like such a big girl. It's gone too fast!

Celebrations started on her big day, September 8th. We took her to the standard Blubaum birthday location...Red Robin! Obviously her brother got to pick her birthday place. Sis enjoyed an ice cream sundae in celebration of turning 1. Here she is wanting more sundae!We came home and opened presents, correction, Cole opened her presents. She enjoyed watching him open them and then played with the paper. She got a pink vacuum, a baby doll and stroller and a bunch of other fun, fun toys! Here she is looking down checking on her baby.

Oh, and trying to get mommy's carpet clean (it's a lost cause, Kenleigh!)!

That Saturday was her party...ladybug themed! We even dressed up the birthday girl in theme with her party. Here she is with Renee. The wings lasted about 40 minutes, I was impressed!

I have raved before about my girlfriend Rachel and the amazing job she does with cakes and cupcakes. She went above and beyond again this party with these cupcakes. Adorable and delicious! Thank you Rachel for sharing your talents with us!

Mommy and the birthday girl...who was apparently reaching for a balloon, or something better than me!

Kiss this!

We always start celebrating holidays too soon. Halloween is no different. The Halloween jammies have been brought out! I love Cole in these...they are just so Cole!

Happy College Football Season...Go Cougs! Wait, who dressed these children?

So far behind...

Not even sure at this point how far to go back, I am so behind in blogging!

I was in Seattle in early August spending some time with Dad...this is what Cole wore while I was gone. WTH?

Miss K turned 11 months on August 8th...I think this is her funniest monthly photo yet. She is cracking up and if you look closely you can see her 2 little bottom teeth!

On August 9th we packed up the family and headed to Sunriver, OR for a week long vacation with my sisters family and our friend Catherine's family. The 3 of us spent our childhood vacationing together in Sunriver so it was so wonderful to come full circle and take our families together. We rented a house and had 6 adults and 7 kids...ages 6 months - 4 years old. Holy cow! It went a lot better than we thought it would. We committed to going again in 2011 while we were still there in 2010. Such a great trip!

Here is Sis trying on her new Abby helmet before we left. Don't mind the giant pacifier.

We rode bikes, went to the park, the bounce house, the pool and just had a great fun week. We also made 2 special trips to Goody's for ice cream. You can just tell how much Cole hated it.

One night we went to go see Michael John perform his great live music. We grew up going to see him on vacation in Sunriver, so seeing him brought back so many fun memories for my sister and I. Speaking of sisters...here we are. Sorry Kris, didn't crop out the ice cream. :)

Here are Ryan and Catherine and one of their three little ones. Miss Addie, so cute! Addison is 3 months younger than Cole.

Somehow I cannot figure out how to get videos from my cell phone onto my computer and post them on my blog (techies out there, please assist). Because I don't have the video as proof...you will just have to believe me that Miss K is walking! She started right when we got back from vacation and she is mastering it fast! She beat her deadline of walking by 1 year...but only by about 3 weeks. Good job Sis!

Look at this sweet baby!
Okay, I think that is it for August. Onto September...

Goodbye my friend...

I am out of date on this post, but wanted to share the very sad news that our friend Fletcher is now in heaven. He left us on Friday, August 6th. His kidney's were failing and he just wasn't getting better. Shawn was with him the whole time to hold his paw and say goodbye. He was one loved kitty, even his pet sitter Melinda made a trip to the vet to say her goodbye's. Fletcher has always been the profile picture on her Facebook account for her business.

What a cat! The stories go on forever as does our love for the little guy. We always said he had 19 not 9 lives. He lived them all to the fullest. From when Shawn found him in his backyard in November 2002 until the day he left us those 2 were the best of friends. Shawn saved Fletch, but I really think it went both ways. We aren't sure what to do with ourselves at 6am and 6pm (normal blood sugar/insulin time). If you ever end up with a diabetic animal...give us a call. We are experts after 7 years with one.

Here are some pictures with Fletch on August 6th.

We just returned from a week in Sunriver, OR (the reason this posting is late) and Shawn, the kids and I were on a bike ride one morning. We were riding for quite awhile when out of no where an all black cat, same size/frame as Fletcher ran across the bike path in front of us. We were both silent for a moment and then both said out loud that we just knew that was Fletch, letting us know he is okay and at peace.

Will post pictures (what few we took!) from our vacation this week.

Not just another Saturday!

A Saturday in July that has cloud cover is reason to get out of the house and enjoy the weather here in Arizona. It was cloudy this morning, muggy, but only 78 degrees at 7am! This might sound odd if you don't live here, but it was 98 degrees when I was driving to work on Thursday. Seriously?

Anyways...we decided to take advantage of the more comfortable weather and take the kids to the park bright and early. We hit up Starbucks for a wake up bevvie and actually went to a new park that is by our house. Not "new" just new to us. We barreled in with our crazy crew only to realize we were disrupting an intense Boot Camp class. Deciding chasing our 2 kids was workout enough for us, we just blazed on through and headed to the play equipment.

For the first time Miss K got to go in the swings. She was too little before and then it got so hot that we haven't been going to the park as much. She loved it and laughed the whole time.
Cole still loves to swing as well. We were having such a good time and didn't want to leave, so I went home quickly and got Sis her breakfast and came back to feed her in her stroller. She certainly didn't seem to mind!

Although the next 2 pics aren't from this morning's adventures, I wanted to post.

Seriously, are these 2 related or what? Sis without her smile, WHAT? A rare occurance I am almost glad we captured on film. :)

Shawn taught Cole how to play Xbox. Well, he taught him green button means go and red button means stop. He has Toy Story and Lightning McQueen trial games that he sits and "plays." Starting him a little young aren't you Shawn? Although I am hopeful this will be helpful in my quest for us to get a Wii. We pretty much are the last one's on earth to not have one!
Enjoy the weekend...only 3 more weeks until our vacation. Sunriver here we come!!

Where's Woody?

Cole and I had a first this past weekend. I decided, after talking it up for weeks, that I would take Cole to his first movie. He wanted to see Toy Story 3. He wanted to "sit in the dark and eat popcorn" and see Buzz & Woody. Let's be honest, he's never even watched all of the first Toy Story in his own house. So...I had no illusions that he would sit through a 2 hour movie in the theater. But...in the spirit of making memories, off we went to a matinee on Monday. Here he is, sitting in his seat, eating popcorn!

The previews took forever and after each one he'd say, "Mommy, where's Woody?" After going in and out of the theater 3 times, I decided it was time to call it a day. He did really well at first and lasted almost an hour in the theater. At the end he was walking up the aisle saying loudly, "Mommy, I want gummy bears." This was code for we are done here. It was fun and I look forward to the day when he can sit through an entire movie...at home or in the theater. So far we are 0 for 2.

We also went to the Phoenix Children's Museum with Cole's friend Haley and her mom Rachel. Here are the kids playing in the Grocery Store, weighing peas! This is what we call Cole's "pirate smile."

I thought this photo was cute...somehow the kids ended up in Shawn's laundry basket. I think they are both mesmerized by Elmo on the tv...