My two love bugs

Kaia and Kristian are so sweet together. I really am so very lucky! Kristian still stares at her non-stop but is now much better at following her with his eyes. She is the best entertainment for him as he bounces up and down laughing at everything she does (which of course she loves). He has become quite squirmy as he tries to get out of your arms. I really think he wants down to get to Kaia. I have a feeling he is going to be on the go very early just trying to keep up with her.
Kaia is constantly hugging him and kissing him. She rubs his belly and says, "shhh Kristian, it's okay" in the car if he gets fussy while I am driving (my heart just melts at these little moments). She likes to cover him up with a blanket and she is very helpful at retrieving binky when he spits it out. She loves helping me wash him in the tub and she always says "love my baby brother". She is such a good little mommy and helper!! I think this has really sparked her interest in her baby dolls because now we play dollies everyday. We change their diapers, feed them, burp them and rock them. She is so cute!!

Mia's Birthday

Kaia's girlfriend Mia turned two on Thursday so to celebrate we took the girl to the Children's museum and to the Rainforest Cafe (always a hit!!). We all had so much fun!!! Happy Birthday Mia!!!

KAIA DO IT

I feel like our life completely changes from week to week when it comes to Kaia and this past week definitely brought newness into our home :) Kaia has started to become Miss independent for quite sometime but NOW she is adamant about it. We hear "KAIA DO IT" constantly. She is unbelievably good at the potty situation. In fact, she actually really likes the whole process so about 15 times a day she gets this funny look on her face, announces that "Kaia potty now", DROPS TROW where ever she is in the house (which we remind her everyday that she can't do that once school starts), sprints to the potty, does her thing (usually in the dark because she can't reach the switches), wipes, stands on her step stool, turns on the water, washes her hands (while singing her ABCs), dries them, opens the drawer, picks out a sticker, puts one on her chart and one on her hand, and comes back into the room announces she is "all done", puts her big girl panties back on, and goes about her business. If you try to help her in any way during this whole ordeal you get a VERY dirty look and a loud "NO!! KAIA DO IT". I look back at three weeks ago and can't even believe she refused to go on the potty. She even tells herself on the potty, "You can do it Kaia" and "Good job, way to go Kaia". We laugh as we hear all this down the hall from the bathroom. It is so funny that we just want to have these memories documented somewhere so we can totally embarrass her one day :)

She is also obsessed with playing "dress up". She has her tutu on 10 of the 12 hours she is awake (that includes all trips to the grocery store, music class, play group, etc.). She also carries around her guitar and wears Kristian's old rugby hat (obviously her fashion sense has not fully developed yet). She says "Kaia's a rock star" as she strums away on her guitar. Of course Kristian has taught her some of his favorite air guitar moves that she has perfected :) See below!!!

The Potty Queen finally has her day

We have been promising Kaia a trip to Toys R Us for doing soooo well on the potty. Saturday was two weeks since we started potty training and she has done AMAZINGLY well. Only two accidents and every morning she is waking up dry. She even takes her big girl panties off by herself and goes in the bathroom to use the potty by herself. This morning she crawled in bed with us and I asked her if she needed to go and she said she already went. Not believing her we went into her bathroom and sure enough she had! WOW!!!! She is also wearing her big girl panties everywhere and tells me, "no more diapers, Kaia is a BIG GIRL"!!
So on Saturday she had her day!! Not really knowing what Toys R Us is she wasn't that excited getting in the car to go. Once we got there, OMG! It was more overwhelming for Kristian and I following her around as she ran up and down the aisles squealing in delight. She was dead set on the Tinkerbell doll until she saw it...THE TRAIN SET. After that, her mind was made up! We thought that train sets would come later in our future, like when Kristian gets older, but we were mistaken. Kaia is now the proud owner of Thomas the Train Engine and a wooden track. Of course she wanted all 1000 accessories that came with it but we told her she would have to wait for Santa :) We are so proud of you Kaia!!!

Here is her sticker chart! The past two weeks is filled up!!!











Here is our Toys R Us KID!!!

Kristian 14 weeks and Kaia 2 1/2

Just some fun shots :-)



Headed to the pool

We are going to miss you...

Kaia and I had to say good bye to Melissa and Reese last week as it is their time to PCS. Kaia and Reese became fast friends and shared many play dates, lunch dates, and cup cake dates :-) They always played so well together and enjoyed Baby Dance together too!! Kaia talks about "her BFF" Reese, everyday and it brings tears to my eyes.
I am not sure how I am going to survive without Melissa. She is such a great friend and helped me out so much when I was pregnant and even after Kristian was born. I enjoyed our phone conversations and lunches out with the girls!!! I hope that our paths will cross again soon!

Busy Boy

Kristian has been so busy this past week. He has discovered that those dangly things on all his contraptions are a lot of fun when his hands get hold of them and WOW does he have a grip (especially when he gets hold of my hair - OUCH!!). He is a strong little dude as I discovered while trying to PRY things out of his hands!!! He is also sitting up well and holding his head nice and steady so we got the exersaucer out too. He enjoys looking at all the toys on it and grabbing at them for several minutes and then he is ready to get out!!! I have been calling him Mr. Grabby and conincidentally enough as I was looking back at the blog at Kaia at this age she was doing exactly the same thing (check her out here).

Smarty pants and little flirt

Kaia still enjoys signing so much but MOMMY hasn't had a ton of time to teach her new ones. She has been watching her Signing Time videos and now she is teaching me new signs! Here she is thinking my little oral quiz is quite the bore as she watches TV and answers my questions!!!



Kristian is my little flirt! He is constantly passing out adorable smiles, giggles, and coos!!! Beware...this video contains lots of "swinging" so it is a little difficult to watch (yes, I know how that sounds but it is totally G rated :-) ).

Our new nephew

Jackson Kane Whitbeck born June 16th. Six pounds twelve ounces!
Wish we could be there to meet you Jackson!
Congrats Gabbie, Pepper and big sister Alex!!

Water fun

My mom and I took the kids to the outdoor mall in Vegas on Monday and Kaia was so good that we decided to let her play on the playground before we left. It has a water feature but I wasn't too worried since last summer she really wasn't that into the water features at the various parks around town. She saw the water and wanted to "touch it" so she hesitantly walked up to it with her hand out. The next thing she knew, the fountain behind her shot up her dress. She looked mortified, like she didn't know whether to laugh or cry so she decided to LAUGH and loudly! She than began running around screaming with delight trying to catch all the fountains as they would go off. After playing for 20 minutes it took me 10 more minutes to get her out of there. Thank goodness we had done some shopping and bought her several new outfits. We stripped her down and put some dry clothes on her for the ride home. She was so excited she ran in the house to "tell daddy" all about it!!!



Not sure if you can hear or not but Kaia is the one screaming in the background as she runs towards the water!!! So funny!

Random cuteness

The kids had so much fun this week with Mimi! Here are some fun shots of all of them. Kristian wasn't a big fan of his new bath tub so we will try again in a month or two when he is older. Kaia, of course, enjoyed playing with Mimi and followed her around every where. She also enjoyed having Reese over so much. They had a pj party and got cup cakes too!!!

Graduation weekend June 09

Another graduation weekend has come and gone! Thank goodness my mom came in town to keep the kids because it was BUSY BUSY BUSY! Thursday was Patch Night and soooooo fun! Saturday night we stayed downtown at the Venetian and had a wonderful dinner at Tao with GREAT friends who we unfortunately have to say goodbye to this week :( Sunday was a farewell to squadron commander and his family and Monday was a celebration dinner for our new commander! We are all still recovering (Mimi too I am sure) but it was so worth it! Thanks Mom for helping me out SO MUCH!!!

So Much Excitement This Week!!!

I NEVER thought I would be so excited about bodily functions as I have been the past 3 days. Where to begin? Well it started back in September when we bought Kaia her first potty. She thought it was great...a great place to read and tell stories and she actually even pooped on it one time waaaaay back then (which happened to be a complete coincidence in timing as she had to go while reading a book). That was the last we saw of any type of desire to go potty, sit on the potty or even be near the potty. So we took a hiatus....a long hiatus. With me being very pregnant I decided potty training would be way to much work, especially after Kristian arrived. Well, here we are, JUNE! Kaia starts school in August and she HAS TO BE POTTY TRAINED so I started stressing out. So we slowly introduced the potty again. She was VERY resistant so some days I would push her to try and others I wouldn't. After chatting with my good friend Carrie on Saturday and hearing all the success her daughter was having I decided, IT WAS TIME TO GET SERIOUS!!!! So Saturday morning, we began! I set a timer for every 20 minutes to take her to the potty, and every 20 minutes she would yell and scream and cry that she didn't want to go. She would sit for 20 minutes and NOTHING. Then the second I put her big girl panties or pull-up on her, SHE WOULD GO! I was going totally nuts. Chasing her around making sure there was a towel underneath her, begging, pleading...ugh!!! She hated me that whole day and I was frustrated with her too, it was awful. I started cursing the "potty train in one day books", YEAH RIGHT! At that point I thought she was going to be 12 before she would go.
Then, a break through! 8 pm that night, it happened...PEE PEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! She cried the whole time and through her tears she began to laugh as I jumped up and down and did the craziest dance EVER!!! We stuck stickers all over our arms and face and put one on her potty sticker chart too!! Her first words after laughing, "show daddy". She kept running to her sticker chart to admire it!! She went to bed and magically woke up Sunday morning DRY! I would ask her all day, "Kaia are you dry?" She would grab herself and then smile and say, "Yes, I AM"!! She peed on the potty 4 times on Sunday and then POOPED! We were so proud. She also wanted to "show daddy" but this time she also wanted to "call Mimi, call Mormor" (she already knows who her biggest fans are). After all the congratulatory phone calls, she went to bed and again woke up DRY!! Monday was a success and so far today has been successfull too (with another #2)! We have had no accidents and the big girl panties are a hit, SHE IS SO PROUD OF HER BIG GIRL PANTIES! She tells herself,"Kaia, I am so proud of you", and "You are such a big girl". She also says, "Yaaah, I get to go to school now".
I know we will probably have set-backs and we have yet to venture out of the house in big girl panties (I am too scared just yet) but so far, we are so proud of our BIG girl and WOW, I guess you can potty train in 3 days (stay tuned to the blog, hopefully I won't be cursing those books again in a week or two)!!!!

Kaia's first day with the potty (look how short her hair was!) 20 months






















Now...A POTTY CHAMPION (not quite without bink yet...one thing at a time for mommy!)















In the baby boy news....KRISTIAN FOUND HIS TOES YESTERDAY!!! He loves grabbing them and he even laughs at them (he thinks almost everything is funny these days!!). Also, he totally surprised me today while taking some pics of him and Kaia when HE ROLLED OVER. He was on his belly and I saw him start to roll so I kept taking pictures and sure enough he rolled right over onto his back! He did it 4 more times before he got really tired and fell asleep :-) Kaia was so sweet kissing all over him so of course I snapped some of those photos! My kids are so fun!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

THE BINKY PROFESSIONAL
Kaia was so funny today. I asked her to give Kristian his bink for me and she gently places it in his mouth and then she began "tapping" on it. I asked her what she was doing and she said, "Tap it so it stays in his mouth". She obviously sees me doing that and I definitely did it with her too but I thought it was so funny that she sees me doing that and then copies me....


















Daddy/Son Time

Happy Birthday Sadie

Sadie Sue is TEN YEARS OLD TODAY (official name is Sadie Sue Hanna Banana Moo Cow Cow Poop burger breath Thiele)!!!! She is still as loving and sweet as she always has been. She is so good with Kaia and Kristian and loves loves loves her daddy (although she won't let mommy out of her sight). The joke between my friends is Sadie has more stamps in her passport than they do and it is probably true as she has lived in more countries and racked up more frequent flyer miles than most people. She is starting to get a bit white in the face and bark at random things more often but other than that she is as spry as a puppy! Happy Birthday and we love you Sade!!!

Last week sunbathing in the backyard


In her younger years

Kristian is 3 Months Old

Unbelievable how fast the past 3 months have gone. Kristian is doing all kinds of exciting things that we want to make sure we remember! Those of you who have followed this blog for a while know that I am very detailed oriented when it comes to blogging my kiddos so excuse all the details, not to be rude, but they aren't really for you (no offense). I use this blog as my daily journal or scrapbook if you will, so when I finally get around to updating a baby book or whatever, I have all the fun memories right here....not to mention, the grandmas never get tired of the daily ins and outs of their little cuties!!! So skip all the text if you want and scroll on down to the pics!!!

Kristian is a healthy little guy to say the least. He weighed almost 15 pounds at his 8 week appointment and he is now 13 weeks...I can only guess that he is around 16 1/2 pounds now. I do know that my biceps get quite the workout every time I pick him up :) He is WONDERFUL! He is such a cuddly little thing and will let anyone hold and love on him but nothing brightens up his world like his momma :) My heart melts when he sees me because the sweetest smile lights up his little face and yes, he reserves that one special smile just for me (and since I get up with him in the middle of the night I feel like it is well deserved!). He is sleeping 8-10 hours most nights with the exception of maybe one or two a week. He is napping 3 times a day and he needs it because when he is awake, it is a tough job trying to follow Kaia around with his eyes. He smiles and laughs at her all the time and tries really hard to keep her in his sight. He "talks" a lot to daddy and they have their little man conversations in the mornings. He knows his father's LOUD laughs and burps and perks up to find him whenever one SHAKES the roof off the house.
He POOPS like nothing I have ever seen. I have washed, spot treated, and thrown out more clothes than I ever have in Kaia's 2 year and 6 month life. Kristian definitely makes a mess!!! He is grabbing onto things now, rattles, his baby gym, and his binky. He isn't so sure what to do with them once in his hands but he thinks it is pretty neat that his hands are actually functional (besides being something to suck on, which he now enjoys more than his bink).
He has a sweet spot for sure. After about an hour after eating he starts to grunt a bit and that is his que. I lay him on his side in my arms with his face in my chest and instantly his eyes close. It is amazing! It's like he is telling me, I am ready to sleep now just get me in position. Kaia and Kristian are now enjoying bath time together once again. After the first trial run (which was a disaster) we decided he was too little. Now he is big enough and can control his bodily functions a little better so bath time is chaotic and fun too. He loves watching Kaia play in the tub and she makes sure to help me wash him. He splashes her, she laughs, he laughs, and then he does it again. One of these days, I will get the camera in there to video this precious time!!
We are totally in love with our little man and he seems to think we are pretty great too!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Some comparison pics (both at 3 months)

Bikini Babe

We got Kaia a new pool to help with the Vegas heat. She is loving it.



We have also been enjoying our neighborhood pool several times a week. The water is cold initially so we thought Kristian may not take to it well but he didn't seem to mind (his "whatever" personality still exists I guess). Kaia loves the water but has developed a slight fear of getting in without a death grip hold onto mom and dad but each day she is getting more brave and we are working with her on water safety and swimming fundamentals. Hopefully by the end of the summer we will have a little fish :)