December 2010 & January 2011

Welcome Back! Well obviously my goal of getting up at least 2 blogs a month didn't happen from November - but here's to trying again. :)

Our family had an awesome Christmas & New Years. We were very busy, but didn't have any less fun because of it. We had 4 Christmas' this year between different families houses so many of the pictures are from those celebrations. A special treat we don't always get on Christmas was SNOW in Seattle! So to start off the parade of pictures, we begin with the SNOW fun in Seattle.

Kolbie loved making foot prints in the fresh snow in Aunt Becky & Uncle Micah's grass. :)

Kai was determined to roll the biggest snowball along with the neighbor boy Patrick. They were out there for at least an hour and the balls got so big they couldn't move them out of the street! LOL

Uncle Sir thought it best to stay warm in the house with baby Kate...

While Auntie Becky, Valerie, Sadiyah, Malakai and myself ventured out into the snow to have a snowball fight. However, I got the lucky privelege of not getting hit since I had the camera :).

Kai held his own in this snowball fight, which to be honest I was shocked. You all know my boy, he hates being cold, so I thought he would be inside in no time. He wasn't though, he stayed out the longest of anyone. Way to go Kai!

Valerie was too cute in the snow and every time she tried to throw the snowball, it just stuck to her gloves. She was cute trying though.

Because our Diyah is so tall and grown up now, she fits into Auntie Becky's clothes and shoes! So she got to borrow some snow wear and she looked gorgeous while "playing". Kolbie was able to borrow a pair of gloves and hat from Valerie and luckily we had brought her big snow coat and alot of extra clothes.

Kai had alot of fun in his couple of layers as well. He didn't sport a hat at all - probably a big error on the parental side (oops) but he never got sick.

Baby Kate was too cute and loved having us stand over her and talk to her. She is so smiley and such a happy baby.

Valerie and Kai had a good time coloring and drawing. I am glad we were able to give her the color wonder markers so she could have fun and not get messy.

Kolbie and Valerie both do NOT take binky's, however they thought this game of tug-o-war with the binky in their mouth would be fun. It was cute to watch and so amazing to see how they both are growing so much.

Kate was having more fun getting tickled on daddy's lap! Big smiles!

Sadiyah happy to receive the almighty Starbucks card! Teenagers love caffeine.

Val getting her color wonder set!

Uncle Micah with baby Kate. How adorable.

Aunt Becky with Kate. Gorgeous girls.

Here's our silly, adorable and VERY cute little Val sporting the new hat she got from friends this holiday season.

Kolbie wanted 3 things for Christmas...twin babies, a BLUE princess dress and a double doll stroller. Here she is with two of the 3 new items that graced our house! I thought it was picture perfect that she play mommy in a princess dress. You know she doesn't see that at home LOL - I only own like 4 dresses total!

Princess Kolbie and her "baby sister" as she calls her.

Malakai getting more of the coveted Club Penguin sets. He LOVES them!

Kolbie after she got her baby twins. She also got new princess jammies from Grandma Connie, which she desperately needed. She loves them and they are now in the rotation of the 4 pairs of jammies she will wear! LOL

Kai, Kolbie and their cousin Aurora at grandma and grandpa McKelvey's on Christmas Eve. We have such a wonderful celebration there and I was so happy the WHOLE family could make it.

The kids have so much fun!

Sadiyah has a blast eating all the sweets. Red velvet cake anyone?

Sadiyah and her little cousin Daelyn have quite the bond. Though you can't tell by his face here, he LOVES him some Diyah and the two are literaly together the whole time when we get to see each other. That is both a blessing for his parents, but also for Sahaan and I to see the cousins really being close despite their huge age difference. Sadiyah (13) is the oldest of all the grandchildren and Daelyn (2) is the second to youngest out of 8 grandchildren.

This picture is to show what I did 1/2 - 3/4 of the day on New Years. I was only going to make 7 layer dip and well I kept going. I made brocolli cheese caserole, deviled eggs, sweet potatoes, lil' smokies wrapped with bacon and maple drizzle and lil' smokies in a cranberry/bbq sauce and brownies and a sweet potatoe pie. YUM! To say the least I didn't have to cook for a few days, which was a great strategy. :)

For Christmas - well more like a New Year's present for the kids, we got them a computer to replace the one Sahaan and I "lost". Because of my boss re-structuring and upgrading the whole office, she had 3 extra computers, so we had one cleaned off and now the kids have it for their own games. This being dance praise! It is so funny to watch and play. Sadiyah and Sahaan are really good at it, then there is Kai and I who are about on the same level and then Kolbie and Abbie. Yes Abbie, she walks all over them and lays on them while you are trying to play and eventually gets kicked out of the room during play time. However, she isn't too far off from what Kolbie does on the mats.

Kai's new basketball league started! Hurray! He is on the Titans in the Upwards Basketball league. It is a Christian basketball organization, teaching great principles, scriptures and team spirit.

Oh yah, and Sahaan is the coach. It was so funny to see him crawl out of the tunnel the first game. Each kid & coach are announced and have to come out of the blow up tunnel, however Sahaan - as you can imagine, didn't fit very well.

Kai playing defense! I think they matched them up a little wrong...each kids wears a wristband color to help them to see who on the other team they are guarding. Kai is only like a head and a half taller then his match up. That got switched fairly fast :).

Kolbie thought her time would be best spent making floor angels on the gym floor. Whatever, at this point she was getting a cold and I was willing to let her do whatever made her happy that didn't cause a melt down or bother anyone else. Great Grandma and Grandpa Kaufman came as well. Grandma really enjoyed watching Kai play and to experience the "circus" of players as I call it. It was a really fun time and we are all so happy that they make it fun for the kids to play and they are SUPER organized - which I LOVE. All of Kai's games are at Portland Christian Center in Portland - Uncle Ray and Auntie Stacey's church, and the church Sahaan and I got married in. :)

Coach/Daddy Sahaan, Malakai and miss Kolbie after Malakai's first game. January 22, 2011.

Hope to get to blog soon, so stay in touch.

With love,

All the McKelvey 5

October & November Flew By

Wow, how time flies...October & November came and went so fast. We went to the pumpkin patch, had a birthday, had a wonderful Thanksgiving and the kids got to meet the new niece for the first time.

Kai and Kolbie loved the hay ride out to the pumpkin patch. It was really fun and a gorgeous day.


Sadiyah and I on the hay ride to get her pumpkin.

There was a tractor for the kids to climb on and pretend driving. Kai loved it and while he was on the seat, Kolbie was inside the wheel.

The two posers waiting for the tractor/hayride to come pick us up and take us back to the haystack and barn. Notice the baby Kolbie had to bring to pick a pumpkin.

After many pumpkins that were all too large for Kolbie, or half her size that she was actually managing to get off the ground, she chose this nice petite one. Very adequate for her size I thought, and much more easy to carry.

Kai also picked a pumpkin and as usual it turned into a competition and race to pick the perfect one. He seemed to find it though, it was the first one I mentioned to him, that he said was all wrong and after 20 minutes of looking I put it on the ground (after carrying it around) and said "Kai I think I found it! Come hurry and look!" and of course "It's perfect mom! Yep that's my pumpkin. " LOL

Sadiyah on the other hand, picked hers in like 30 seconds.

I too, picked mine out quickly, after all it's just a pumpkin.

The kids tearing the guts out of the pumpkins.

Kai and Kolbie went trick or treating at the JDH building where Sahaan works. The people really love them there and they had alot of fun.

Kai started a basketball league and he had practice on Tuesday nights. Sahaan had to coach them through one practice.

Kolbie was a bit mad at me for taking this pic. But I'm her mom and I can, so I did. It was a very important day for dress up and picking the right outfit for her baby. Can you tell?

Kai meeting his niece Kate and holding her for the first time.

Kolbie meeting Kate as well and holding her. She's a real baby you know. (Kolbie stated while holding her)

The girls together. Kolbie was a bit into dress up and Valerie wasn't too sure about it yet. I heard a couple weeks later, Val figured out what dress up was and loves it. :)

Sisters!

We have had a great few months, and now hopefully I can stay caught up in the month of December. Hope you enjoyed. :)

~The McKelvey's

Visit in Seattle

We were able to end our summer with a fun little vacation up to Seattle to see Micah, Becky and little Val before the kids had to head off to school. We had a wonderful time and the kids had alot of fun.

Kai, Kolbie, Valerie & Sadiyah

Kolbie had her hair braided the week before the trip, so I thought I would share with you all, Kolbie's first corn rows. :)


Uncle Micah recruited Kai to help in the cleaning of the hot tub, so we could all take a dip the next day. Here is Micah tossing foam on Kai and making a complete mess of the yard. Kai had a blast.


Kai's little scooper got Uncle Micah a few times as well. Which just meant that things got "nastier" from then on. Alot of foam was flying around the air that night.

Kai getting more foam thrown on him! After a while the clothes had to come off.

Here's the little tan boy now. Oh so handsome for such a little man. :)

Here's the girls having a little snack at the table.

Kai came in from outside to have that snack as well. Cheetoh Puffs - who can deny those.

Becky took us to this little shopping village, where we could feed the chickens and ducks, and then go play at a playground and ride a train.

It was really cool to have the roosters come right up to you. Of course they wouldn't let you touch them, although the kids tried a few times.

So on went the feeding of the ducks. At times I thought the kids would fall in because of how close they would get on the rocks and how concentrated they were. But no accidents - WHEW!

They really liked feeding the ducks, however they were so hungry that day, they ate a whole loaf of bread in under 10 minutes.

So off to the playground we went.

Kolbie has mastered the rope swing quite well.

And Kai had to climb the pirate ship playground that was there. So to the top of the look out tower.

Diyah played along with them as well, she was such a good big sister and cousin, to play at a playground all morning. :)

Valerie had fun digging in the sand pit boat. She was such a little happy camper.

Sadiyah and Kai at the top of the look out tower.

ALL Aboard! Time to get ready to head out on the train.

There's Val, being a cheesy happy little bug! So cute you could squeeze her :)

Becky and Valerie.

Sadiyah and Me (Steph)

Kolbie hanging out her barrell.

Valerie looking at the bunnies that were hopping by in the field as we went past.

And the funniest thing on the side of the road. That doesn't catch your attention at all now, does it? LOL

It was a great way to end the summer. To be with family, hang out and enjoy one another was a real treat. The next time we see them they will have two little ones. Becky welcomed little Kate on September 18th. Thank you Micah and Becky for having us up, it was a real treat.

Love you all,

Steph