Yay Brittany's here, show some luuuuv

Brittany is in town for a visit and spent the day with us. we hadnt seen her in a couple months, so Kellen was shy towards her at first but it didnt take long and he was back to laughing at her goofiness and mocking her funny noises and facial expressions. It was a gorgeous day to do a little shopping, chilis and why pictures ofcourse!

------

Baby quirks, baby quirks.. can i even say 'baby' anymore ? This little tyke is ONE. He is officially a toddler, oh my... He is loving cars and trucks and sports balls and books. He mimics LOTS of words. every family member is like, 'listen to this, he just said....' He will say what you just said really quickly after you say it.. so technically hes said lots of things, just really quick and only ONCE! ha   He says down when he wants down from eating. Door, down,ba(bath),dee(drink) have all been added to his vocabulary. Oh and how could I forget, 'wow' and 'whoa' ... and he knows when to say them to, its awesome! My sister got him a 4wheeler for his birthday and when he saw it he got excited and said WOW.. and then while playing with it he just kept saying 'wow' and 'whoa'.. sooo sweet. He did the same for all his birthday gifts at his  party. let me tell ya, it sure makes giving a gift extra sweet when the recipient says 'whoa' in the tiniest little voice :)

and the walking thing is old hat by now.. he is already trying to run! Tonight I got out some books we hadnt read in a while and brought them in the living room and said lets read, and started one of the books.. and he gets up and goes over to the basket that has his books in it and stands there and points.. He saw the Elmo colors book and wanted to read that one instead.. So I got it down for him and he sat down and read it over and over.. also into everything.. no drawers or cabinets are safe, look out!

-------

In the spirit of St. Valentine's Day, since you brought it up...

Last year we had a five day old baby home from the hospital on V day.. This year was low key as well, but when I woke up I had chocolates and a card by the coffee pot.. and the card was my favorite HOMEMADE!

This is one of my favorites ever...

I love my husband.

'Heeeey, its Jaxson, coming over to plaaaay'

There is a cartoon that we have randomly watched with Jax with a theme song that says "hey its Franklin, comin over to plaaay.'.. and for years now Jon randomly sings this when Jax is here. (if you havent heard this little tune you might have snoozed through that part of this post. sorry, the tune gets stuck in my head, crazy cartoon turtle!)

Jon was able to pick Jax up a few hours early this past visit, so we still had some playing hours left when they got home.. We quickly collected some gear, of which the sand toys from Florida were involved.. He loved our trip to the beach and is always looking for any excuse to get the sand toy bag out of his closet!  And if you hadnt guessed by now, I'm always looking for an excuse to break out my 25lb camera, and on this particular day I decided to use my 55lb honkin lens.

 It's not much of a snow day unless you lay smack dab in the snow and make some angels!

And we built a fort.. well, I built a fort.. Jaxson gave strong suggestions of how it should be done and then decided he'd use his shovel to gouge holes and call them 'windows'. KIDZ.. its like they dont even get that forts are serious business and there is NO time for playing around...     lol

I love the Davis boys.. They all three have a smile that will knock your socks off

 ...and the miniest of the Davis crew, he concluded the 4th try was NOT a charm for him to acknowledge and accept the snow. he still wanted nothing to do with the cold or the whiteness.

 He preferred setting inside the door watching us play and eating cheddar bunnies.

A nerf gun war broke out at 1900 on the dot at our casa.. at one point jon yelled 'put your hands up where I can see them'.. and our one year old raised his hands. too cute.. then Jon  yells 'a little monster is attacking, a little monster is attacking'.. and the 5 year old Jax leans over and whispers, 'It's just Kellen.'... haha Kids are priceless. We also enjoyed some competitive games of indoor baseball. Momma Jen can throw the HEAT!

:)

1st birthday with a bang..or in Kellen's case blizzard!

First Birthday was spent at home with his mom and dad... Oh mainly because there was over 20 INCHES of SNOW on the ground! Reports were anywhere from 18-22 inches of snow hit our area on the day of  our sons first birthday. Supposedly the most snow recorded here since the early 1900's... Nothing like ringing in birthdays with a bang, or should we say blizzard!

So the three of us amigos watched some tv, played toys, wrestled, read books... the usual. 

                       We managed to improvise some indoor shots for his 1st birthday

Happy First birthday sweet boy! 



Truck motor, socks in the house shoes, and silly business..

After watching a few videos posted by others of their kiddos I'm realizing its a parent thing to think that every move our child makes is something everyone would want to see... However, i'm not going to let that stop me. ha.  We are all in awe of our own children. enjoy :)

in this one he is running his truck motor.

                                                        Its adorable how a childs mind works.. he knows that socks and shoes go together, cracks me up.

 Here he is showcasing his fake laugh.



snow snow but most importantly CAKE

cake cake, give me allll the cake!

MMMM, these look so yummy and delicious dont they... and they would have been, except the stupid things
stuck to the pans :(  Apparently my version of greasing pans is not quite right.. go figure. Fortunately there was a box of yellow cake mix hangin out in the pantry to save the day. Now I know its probably uncool to make your child's cake yourself rather than have it made somewhere, but as you can see I opted to make them myself. This decision was made based on two things...1.) I am staying home with Kellen and the budget is smaller for a while. and 2.) quite honestly fondant makes a really attractive cake to look at but its GROSS.
\

What in the world are they doing now.. why are they singing and what is on fire on top of the cake??

what am i supposed to do with this ? Maybe I'll stick my face in it!

Production birthdays are not my style at all, so Kellen had family only for his first birthday celebration. His actual birthday isnt until Wednesday the 9th, but a Saturday party made more sense so everyone could make it... To be family only he sure did rake in the gifts! Mimi and Pops got him a huge new toy box (awesome), Gramma hooked him up with lots of clothes, Uncle Frankie and Aunt Angie got him another wonderful toy he loves and Uncle Chris and Aunt Dana hooked him up with some great toys and some fabulous toddler bibs personalized with his name on them (love)...It was a great first birthday for a very special little boy.

I'm guessing a February birthday is going to mean lots of parties with snow on the ground... and thats ok, we will just bundle up and go play and make the most of it... and thats exactly what we did !

Gramma kept making snowmen and Lily would come along and give them all cat ears and noses.

Pops brought his 4wheeler and him and Papaw made sure the kids (um, myself included) had a blast sledding and playing in the snow.

Mimi took over the camera outside for a while so I could rip and roar with Kellen.

Kellen with his Uncle Bub... 2 extremely cool dudes, look out

Kellen with his Aunt Angie

One cool driver!

What's with all the white stuff?

 Well, he still wont touch the snow in any shape form or fashion. He will point at it and give it dirty looks, laughs, smiles, and some ranting, but standing or setting in it is not an option. Setting on moms lap while Pops pulled him around on the sled was acceptable though. He loves the 4wheeler and he sat in my lap making his motor noise the entire time while giving one of his total concentration stares. My mom snapped some goods while we played on the sled.

and my dad is cracking me up in this picture... in mid move. lol

 BRRRRRRRR

Feverishly homebound!

So we didnt even make it to one year old before visiting the ER!

He had been batting at his ears for several weeks but because he hadnt been fussy about it I just assumed it was allergies or another one of his many baby quirks.. well, this past week along with what seems to be like over half the population, he got sick.. his temp was soaring well into the 100's.. it reached 104.4 and Gramma came over with meds in hand and we took him to the doctor.. They clocked it at 104.9 and immediately started draping him in ice cold wash cloths and fluids. They concluded that he has an ear infection in both ears, but as for his congestion, high fever and other symptoms they didnt know what was wrong. After the strep,flu, and rsv tests came back negative and we had been there long enough for the meds to kick in, they checked his temp again and it had gone back up. The doc said we had to take him to the ER.. So off we went. It seems a little wild that we bundle ourselves and our children up during the winter months from head to toe and make a stink over it anytime we see someone with their kid out in the cold without a coat and hat, yet the doctor sent me straight out the door with my child wearing nothing but a diaper and some wet rags. The ER got us in right away.. After a few more hours and the same tests ran they couldnt tell us anymore then the original doc. So $1,000+ doctor bill later we learned no new information from the ER.. grr. He did get an antibiotic for the ear infections and as a new mom I learned a LOT about fevers.. I now know what to do if he ever gets one. Motrin....3 hours later Tylenol...3 hours later Motrin...3 hours later tylenol... until the fever is gone. Mimi stayed the night to make sure both kellen and I were ok. As my mom she knows that I need reassurance when things like this happen. And Jon knowing me also came straight in from his trip to get Jax and immediately asked how I was handling all of this.. He told me I 'earned my first stripe' as a mom..  See him and I both know we have quite the journey ahead of us with Kellen. Jon was in the hospital numerous times and I cant even count how many times my parents had to take me to the ER for stitches... and every time I remember my mom being so calm and collected and put my mind at ease, and i'm thinking to myself HOW ON EARTH am I going to be able to pull that off for Kellen.. He wimpers and I want to pick him up or he bumps his head and I'm so angry at the piece of furniture i'm ready to throw it out the window! I feel blessed to have my child home and getting over this crap. It is better to be on the safe side even if your out some bucks.. However, I was hoping to put off the first ER trip for a loooot later in his life.... LIKE NEVER! 

11.5 months old!

--------------------

So for the entire week we've been layin low. Even sick he is still a fun happy baby just a little more clingy and still at times.. he begs to look out the window at the snow or for me to open the door and he'll set there and point at it and laugh.. so i decided to bundle him up and go outside today.... he was not having any part of me trying to set down in the snow.. and holding a baby in one arm and a rather large camera in the other can be tricky!

awwwwwww, sunshine!