All The Things I Still Remember

Kylor was fortunate enough to get to attend the Christmas Stroll for the second year in a row with our Nelson family! He has such a good time with them – and Auntie Kristie is so much nicer than mom because she doesn’t ‘make’ Kylor sit on Santa’s lap.

Speaking of Santa…Santa made a surprise stop at the Nelson house. I was thankful that we were invited over for the visit. We had the ‘standard’ Kylor reaction to Santa, but by the end of the short visit, he was relaxing– just a bit. After Santa’s visit, it was nice to sit back, relax, visit and let the kids play!

My dear friend Kylee came home…not only for the holidays but also to prep and get ready for her January 1st wedding. I sure do miss my girl when she is gone!

Kason and I came down with the ‘crud’ mid-December. We both spent a couple of days home, sick and in bed. Thank goodness for good meds to help us mend! Unfortunately, my ‘crud’ got in the way of my dear Kylee’s bachelorette party. I was able to go for a couple of hours, but I was bummed that I wasn’t able to celebrate with her to the full extent and into the wee hours of the morning.

Kylor had round ‘2’ at the dentist. It went as well as round ‘1’ and that can be summed up as ‘terrible’! The dentist suggested that we try and get him into a Pediatric dentist (the closest one is an hour away) and advised that in his case (considering the way he reacts), there is a good chance hat the Pediatric dentist may have to resort to some children’s Valium to get him thru it. Poor Kylor.

Kylee, Kristie & Amber = Jaker’s night! And celebrating Kylee’s birthday!

Kylor is such a pumpkin. He wants everything. He sees an advertisement for a new toy and it gets added to his ‘birthday’ wish list. I finally said, ‘Kylor, Christmas comes before your birthday. What do you want for Christmas?’ Here is where the fear of Santa comes in…Ky’s response was always, ‘I don’t want anything for Christmas. I don’t want Santa to come to my house!’ We aren’t sure how to get him over his fear of Santa.

Kason is a mover and a shaker – pulling himself up…walking along furniture. I know that he has what it takes to walk on his own, but he just doesn’t have enough confidence in himself. He loves to sing and play ‘Pat-a-Cake’. He does the actions and chants ‘Pat-y, Pat-y, Pat-y’ over and over again. Such a cute stinker!

We had a beautiful Christmas filled with love and laughter – kids certainlymake Christmas fun! Their joy and excitement can’t be put into words. Kylor was ‘good to go’ once Christmas morning had come – as he knew he was in the clear from Santa and wouldn’t have to chance seeing him again for another year. The boys were spoiled and mom and dad enjoyed every secondof it!

Happy New Year!

Create The Future

November brought lots of hunting time into Damon’s world! He was able to score his elk and deer this season. He and Kylor sure enjoy their ‘elk treats’.

Kylor and I got to spend an afternoon with friends Kristie, Kyla and Garrett doing Christmas crafts at the C M Russell Museum. This was the first craft ‘fair’ we have attended and Ky had a blast!

November brought some ‘firsts’ for Kas-a-Roo…We celebrated Kason’s first birthday! My baby turned one! The joy he and Kylor have brought into our lives is indescribable. Still can’t figure out where the time goes. Kason got his first haircut – getting all trimmed up certainly took away his ‘baby’ look. He’s not only entered into the‘toddler’ age / stage, but he looks like one too!!!



I enjoyed a nice vacation towards the end of November. I took some time off to celebrate my Roo and spend his first birthday with him. After a lovely Thanksgiving holiday surrounded by wonderful family, my Aunt Sharonand I spent our annual three shopping days – post-Thanksgiving. Sure do enjoy our tradition!

Toodles!

Our World...

Whoosh! And with a quick whip of the wind, October was here and gone.

October brings the What Women Want Expo – a good occasion for a girl’s weekend. Comedy night and browsing with girlfriends. Good times!

FINALLY! We have a fixed home! And as Kylor puts it, mom can ‘chill-ax’.

We had our third annual pictures with our dear friend Cindy Cieluch. We took many photos at a beautiful location. We eagerly anticipate seeing the outcome – Cindy is so incredibly talented. It’s amazing how Cindy can get Damon to relax and take pictures – thank goodness for her!

And they are off – a hunting they will go – Dad and Damon started their annual hunting trips and were able to score a 5-point bull elk quite early in the season.

Halloween rocked our world with loads of cuteness! Kylor was a pumpkin and Kason was a white tiger cub. They were overflowing in cuteness! We didn’t do the whole trick-or-treat skeptical this year – Kylor still doesn’t care about that. A visit to Auntie Sharon’s, Grandpa Don’s, Grandma Julie’s and Papa Jule’s and the evening was as good as gone. Kylor loved reminding ALL of the trick-or-treaters that rang the door bell that, ‘you have to say trick-or-treat to get candy!’

Boo!

To Feel This Way!

We got to go to the pool! Even after 3-weeks of swimming lessons in June, Kylor had absolutely NO interest in swimming in the pool. We couldn't coax or bribe him for anything in the World. Instead, Ky sat on the second step of the pool and splashed with his hands. Kason, on the other hand, LOVED the water - he was a little water bug! The only thing that enabled us to get him out of the water was nap-time...and he was exhausted!

Labor Day weekend we were involved in a VERY unfortunate accident. In the wee hours of September 5th (3:00 am), our home was hit by a drunk, teenage driver. Fortunately, nobody was killed! The accident took out a tree and put a 3X3 hole in the front corner of our home as well as totaled the car owned by the parents' of the young driver. Quite the terrifying thing to wake up to out of a deep sleep. Upon incident, the teenager took off on foot, but was later brought back to the scene by some good samaritans. We spent the month of September in an Insurance disaster (as the other party declined the claim). We are hoping to get things squared away in October and be on the road to healing our home (and our emotions).

On the 6th, Damon and I celebrated 7-years of wedding bliss together! I look back and can't believe it's been 7-years - it sure has flown by! We've been so blessed in our years together - we have a nice home and two beautiful boys. We couldn't be happier! Here's to the next 50-years together!!!

Mid-September we had our very-first-ever trip to the Emergency Room...with our 3-year old. It was a Saturday afternoon, we all went our separate ways to take an afternoon nap. Mom and Kason in Mom's room, Dad on the couch and Kylor in his own room. Kylor, however, decided that he just wasn't tired so instead he used his designated nap-time to jump (or as he puts it- FALL) on his bed. We woke up to a loud 'boom!' (took us back to September 5th - waking up to a 'boom!' will NEVER be the same again). Kylor fell, hit his head on his headboard and the headboard hit the wall upon impact! An Emergency Room visit and 3-hours of our Saturday afternoon later, we walked away with 7-staples in the back of Ky's head. Lesson learned: NO MORE MONKEYS JUMPING ON THE BED!!!

After the house incident and the staples, we were gladly ready for the black cloud hovering over us to move on!

More Kylor news...after 3-years with his ear tubes, we had them removed in August, spent the month of September healing and got the 'green light' to be tube free from here on out! Kylor couldn't be happier to take a bath without the hassle of ear plugs. Kylor, my little man, is just that - a little man. One afternoon he was telling me a story. I couldn't even recall what the story was about because (I'll be honest), I just wasn't paying much attention (he's a talker...and I get 'bad-mom-of-the-year' award for not listening to every single little thing that mutters out of his mouth). I ended up giving him a generic response to his story by saying, 'Oh.' Kylor looked at me, put his hand on his hip and proceeded to let me know that, 'O is a letter! At least say okay!' Well - okay, then! I get the giggles over watching Ky bop around the house singing Sugarland's version of 'stuck like glue. you and me baby, we're stuck like glue'. He bounces his little head in his own cute little way as he walks around signing the chorus over and over and over again.

Kason...Mr. Kason...Smiley John...Kas-a-roo...turned 10-months old!(sniff, sniff) What a little pumpkin he is. He was a whopping 22 lbs and 30 inches - such a big difference considering Kylor was a preemie. Not sure if Kason will be a crawler or not - her prefers to 'scoot' on his butt or inch around like a centipede. The poor guy worked on his two, top, front teeth for a good 6-weeks before they finally cut thru the gums. I felt so sorry for him. They were visible, but just wouldn't break the surface. We went through a lot of Tylenol and Motrin with teething tables or Ora-Gel.

We held a 'second annual' garage sale in late September. It's so muchwork...but once again, we did really, really well - so it totally ended up being worth it. Now we just need to schedule a time for the Salvation Army to come and take away the rest of our JUNK!

Smile!!!

I Just Can't Describe It!

Darius Rucker (aka: ‘just a little guy’), Luke Bryan (aka: ‘kinda a big deal’), Lifehouse (aka: Lights On!), Leanne Rimes (aka: ‘high maintenance Fiji’) and Clay Walker (aka: ‘Clay Walk-on-over-here)…that’s who the wind blew in the beginning of August! Montana State Fair had a wonderful line-up this year. I enjoyed a week of night shows and fattening-fair-food with great friends.

We had a brief, but nice visit with Damon’s Grandma and Grandpa Heck. It’d been a couple of years since we’d seen them and we sure enjoyed our visit. We hope that our next visits aren’t so few and far between. We sure do miss them!

After 3-years, Kylor got his ear tubes taken out. We went in for our annual routine check-up and left without tubes. A few weeks to heal and then we cross our fingers that he can enjoy a bath without ear plugs and that we don’t have any future problems – sure hope he’s grown out of that phase. I can’t believe how grown-up my Ky has become. I fully expected a complete meltdown when Doc decided to remove the tubes, but instead, he sat on my lap and responded with nothing more than a tiny ‘jerk’ as they were removed. I was so proud!

Baby Kason turned 9-months old in August! Where-oh-where have the past nine months gone? In a few short months he will ‘graduate’ from the ‘baby’stage. I don’t know if I’m ready for that. We sure do enjoy him though. He’s our smiley, passive guy – always grinning from ear to ear.

Kylor and Kason – my sunshine boys!