Grandpa's Lil' Princess & Music to Our Ears

Hello Everyone! So I present to you our Little Princess "Aurora". At least that's what she called herself for 2 days. She's always going to be my Kolb's, but for the moment, she's "Aurora". :) I came home from work on Tuesday, to see my little princess whisping around the house like a little butterfly. I didn't mind and was quite shocked she decided to stay dressed at all that day. She tends to change her outfits often, (this is a major understatement), and ends up prancing around in her little underwear or diaper and nothing else. She loved wearing this so much, I had to pry them off of her to get her into her pajamas. We had to compromise of course and the clothes had to sleep right next to her bed, so that first thing in the morning she could put them back on. And that is what she did.

Mama and Princess

Wow, she can't be my child at all, she looks nothing like me. :) JK!

She reminded me more of fancy nancy, the whimsical character in the childrens books. But she did not like being called that. This is one of her many poses; as you can see, I don't know who she would have gotten that from :)!

Love you dad! Such a character....she loves you bunches too!

I would have attached Thanksgiving pictures, but my finger got a little trigger happy deleting photos off my camera and I ended up deleting all but 4.....GRRRR! Thanks to Becky, we still have great photos of the family on their blog. :)

Kai wanted a partner to sing with this time, so I volunteered.....next time I should probably look a little more prepared, but it was for the lil' man.

Here was my one chance to get Sadiyah on camera with Kolbie. Kolbie really wanted me to record her with Diyah singing, so she tentively sat down and performed. I think she knew it would hit the blog, but we love it D, so be proud. And by the way - we love the hair cut and bangs girl, you rock them well :) !





So this is what we've been up to the past week or two, more to come later.

Love you all,
Steph

Hi peeps,

So it's been a couple weeks since I last posted, and I fell a little behind on my recordings of the kiddos singing. The memorization is going great and they're having a blast waiting for each verse to show up on the chalk board wall every Sunday night. We've been really busy lately, with the installation of a new Senior Pastor at our church, play dates, and delivering goodies to friends that are far away and some that were under the weather.

So with out further adoo (sp?): Here is Kai singing I John 4:12.

Followed by Psalm 28:7 and to finish the concert off.......

The dynamic duo of Kai and Kolbie singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star!

Hope you enjoyed the concert to it's fullest! Oh yes, this also features Kolbie right after having her first haircut! That's right, I trimmed it up and being it's so curly, it just shrunk up. It is now right above her shoulders. I saved the hair, after all it's a first in her life, but the second may be a while - like 2-3 years. I don't know if I can go through cutting off her curls again.

Much love,

Steph

Cast Removals !

So the big day came! Kai finally got his casts off! He got the first one off on October 13th and this one was by far the most uncomfortable. It went up his arm, past his elbow and made his arm stay in the L shape for 2 weeks. The second one was a short cast, which only held his wrist in place. He wore this one for 3 weeks. November 3, grandpa's birthday, Kai got the second one cut off for good. Now for the next two weeks he has to just wear a brace whenever he is playing outside, at recess or p.e.. He is super excited. His wrist is still a little sore, but it's just from non-movement for so long. We had an X-Ray done and the bone is healing great and has more bone formed around it! I was thinking, he should, the kid lives on all calcium based products in his diet. :)

He likes wearing the ear muffs and then he can hear himself humming to the sound of the saw.

I would have gotten pictures of his arm after the removal, but we had to wash his arm and pat it gently. I was scaley, sore and dirty, so you didn't miss much. :)

This was cast one, he wanted to keep it for whatever....who knows. But not long after it lost all of its "glory" and he didn't care if we through it away! Thank God, cause it was really grose and just "hung" out in various places around the house.

So, when you see Kai, you should check our his ambedextrious(sp?) self. He still picks and chooses which hand he will write with. Oh well, I don't see it hurting anything, as long as it is legible and he is excelling.

Thank you for all your prayers, love and support for Kai throught this process. He was bummed for a while, but now is a very happy little boy.

Love,

Steph

Last Week Verse Sang by Kolbie & Kai

So last week the kids sang the memory verse so well together. Kolbie has a hard time standing still though. :) Enjoy!

Harvest Party Fun & Pumpkin Carving

Happy Harvest Time! I would say Halloween - except we don't celebrate that and that's what we have taught the kids. Kai especially would have a hernia if I said we went to a Halloween Party, so we went to the RLC Harvest Party. The kids had so much fun last year, that we came back for one more year. They love seeing grandpa, grandma, uncle Marty, Auntie Juju and their cousins.

We almost didn't get to go this year, due to the flu creeping in to our house two weeks prior. I had the flu for one week, then it was Kai's turn. Happily no one else got it. Kai's fever broke Friday morning and never came back, so with rest and fluids, he was able to go to the party.

Kolbie was extatic to see her Papa Phil. She almost would've rather stayed in the parking lot helping to direct traffic, but we advised her of where the fun and candy was. This year we had 3 pirates. Kolbie and Sadiyah joined Kai in pirating all the candy this year. He was a pirate last year too, but because of his cast, he had to be some thing where the costume would fit over the cast. :) The girls were happy to join in on the fun though, in fact it was there idea. I guess I can try to get my baby to be a princess next year.

Kolbie was trying to take her picture with one eye shut, like the solution???

Cousin Alex helped in the black light show and afterwards got to see his cousins. They were very excited.

Here are the puppets who sang, danced and made us laugh. (well at least the kiddos)

Kolbie was in awe of everything and at times got very excited, standing on the chairs jumping up and down. She did know one of the songs and got to sing along, which she thought was the coolest. "I can be your friend, la la la, I can be your friend....."

Kai was a little more chill, but still thought the whole thing was pretty cool, especially the black light show.

Kolbie wanted to hug the life size puppet so bad. She had to tell him "You did a good job singing the songs." She was so impressed with him and Elmer. I think she may have started petting them had we stood there any longer. :)

Kolbie's favorite game down stairs was bobbing for duckies. She learned it well and fast and revisited this spot many times. Kai's favorite spot was fishing, and shooting the target. I was bummed I didn't get any pictures of him, but we had alot of ground to cover. So we parents split up, one with each kid, so they could maximize their fun and we would get even more sleep.

Here's Kolb's standing on the chairs at RLC. She couldn't get enough of the puppet show.

Sadiyah hung out with Gabby most of the night, and this would include eating massive amounts of candy and cotton candy. The girls got a sweet tooth, what can I say.

The Saturday before the Harvest party we were finally able to carve pumpkins. I was just getting over the flu and Kai hadn't gotten it yet. The kids had alot of fun deciding what to carve. Kai's was the batman symbol, Sadiyah's was a dog and Kolbie's was a butterfly.

Kai carefully picking out the seeds. He could not use the cast arm, that could've been grose.

Kolbie was kind of confused as to what the process was. I think next year she may have the full understanding of what to do. She was happy to get dirty though.

Sadiyah was a rock star at it though. She is a pro, so she was helping and showing the kids exactly what to do and how to save every seed. She knew later on I would bake them up for a delicious snack.

Here is the black light show at the RLC Harvest Party. Hope you enjoy! More pics to come soon, Kai has a great surprise for you all!





Thanks for checking out the blog.

Love ya,

The McKelvey's

Memorization to Music

So the past couple of weeks we have been trying to focus on scripture memorization at home with the kids. In order for it to not be frustrating and to overwhelming, Sahaan put the verses to jingles/music that would just come into his head while I was writing them down on the chalkboard wall. So here is Kai singing those the first two verses, so we hope you enjoy. (Sorry they are side ways, I filmed them this way, not thinking about the uploading process)

Mark 10:45 (2nd verse)

Mark 10:31 (1st verse)

Stay tuned for more in the future.... :)

Love,

US

Pumpkin Patch Play Date

Happy Harvest time everyone...last week the kids in Portland Public Schools didn't have school. So for Robert and Martay's adoption day birthday we went to the pumpkin patch and walked the gigantic Portland Trail Blazer maze. They did this in honor of the team being here for 40years. It was alot of fun, and boy did we ever get lost. You take clue card and at each number you get to, you have to read a clue...sounds easy right. WRONG - you then turn and twist and take rights and lefts and often times end up at the same number or at a number way off the sequence. It was fun, at least Stacey and I thought so after an hour....the kids I think thought it was getting old and wanted the pleasure and satisfaction of just completing the maze.

This is all of us when we finally reached the half way point in the center of the maze.
The kids did it...they made it to the finish line. Just up those stairs and over a bridge was the end. Being on top of the bridge was really cool, because we got to see the whole field and pumpkin patch around us.


At the end was a huge tent with pumpkin carving inside and painted posters to poke your head through. The kids loved seeing all the different carvings of pumpkins....especially the batman pumpkin.

Here is my handsome sun flower....doesn't he just make you smile and happy!

We then headed over to the hay pyramid where the kids climbed and climbed. Kolbie however, began to not care about her hay pyramid, she just wanted to eat ritz crackers.

Kai on the other hand wanted to be king of the pyramid all day...he climbed and jumped off over and over. If you're wondering, yes he still has the huge cast on his arm and the climbing and jumping did make me nervous, but he was careful and had alot of fun.

He is getting so big now, and really doing well being limited on his activities right now. He was really glad to get outdoors and run around.

We then headed over to the pumpkin patch and picked our pumpkins. The kids always have to pick a pumpkin they can lift and carry, so this year was got 5 litte pumpkins because Kai could only carry his with his one good arm. This weekend we are going to be opening them, digging out the seeds and baking them. This is a traditional treat the kids look forward to and oh so healthy.

You can't help but agree with the sign. I did get two perfect pumpkins. :) To end up our pumpkin patch adventure we went and saw all the barn animals, went shopping in the store and got some delicious kettle corn for the ride home.

A few days later, Kai got his short cast on. This was a great push forward to get him to concentrate on the end. His arm really needed to get out of the other one anyway because it had gotten some good wear to it and was falling apart in places. :) It also was good for his arm to breathe, even if only for the few minutes he had the one off. He is beginning to re-work his arm into moving the right way, since it was stuck in the L shape for 2 1/2 weeks. He has been writing with his left arm and doing amazing. I don't think at this time he has any intention on switching back to his right hand. So, grandpa Greg, Safta, Great grandma, Marty and Scott, you may have our first lefty in a long while joining you.

Kolbie and I got to have a play date with my good friend Becca and her baby girl Aubrey. We had a blast. We pulled tomato plants out, Becca made pesto sauce, we got to go on a nice long walk and most importantly the girls got to go to the park to play.

They both were a bit small for this teeter totter, but they thought it was great.

They also had a ton of fun swinging side by side and kicking away. :)

Becca and Aubrey, October 15, 2009.

Aubrey Joy and Kolbie Taite having a blast sliding together.

Aubrey thought for a short second she might try this head down first, but they quickly decided this would be a bad idea. So she sat up instead and happily went down again to greet me at the bottom.

So this concludes our pumpkin patch play date week, but stay tuned for more. Fall is here and winter is soon to come. Not to mention the annual harvest party/Sahaan's birthday October 31st.

We also would like you to notice our scripture verse at the top of our blog. This will be changing weekly, but our family has taken on a new tradition. We have assigned one scripture a week for our family to memorize together, kids as well. We are having alot of fun putting jingles to our verses, and hopefully soon I can show you video of the kids singing it. It is important to have God's word tucked into our hearts and mind and to experience the full glory of God.

Love you all,

Steph

This summer we spent the majority of our vacations at the beach. We did a different activity each time to introduce our kids and eachother to different things every time. Here's a bit what we did.

I went away on a little retreat of my own. It was amazing.

The second week into school, Kai decided to fly off the zip line at a park and break his wrist in two spots....4 weeks to go until cast removal. He also thought he hadn't seen the doctor enough in a weeks time and got bit by a stray dog, while getting off the school bus. No stitches could be administered, so butterfly tape, a little antibiotics and time will heal this wound.

We did a ton of swimming as well this summer. All the kids had a blast. Kai also learned how to swim on his own this summer. 6 years old! I am so proud of him and his determination and will to not give up.

We stopped by in Newport to see the sea lions. We also had to get some taffy and sea foam candy!

This is us with the Newport Bay behind us. It was gorgeous every time we went to the coast. It must have been a record.

Little Valerie was so adorable and the kids loved having her around. At times we had to limit the arguments as to who would hold her first, play with her and to limit the smothering.

We hit the sunlight just right this morning and got a great picture of our shadows. Sahaan, Sadiyah, Kolbie, Micah, Kai, me and Becky (with Val in pouch).

Micah thought it would be a blast to bury the kids in the sand dunes. They loved it and boy did it make for a fun load of laundry!

Kai holding sweet baby Valerie before leaving for the beach trip.

We went on our beach trip the first week of school, so here is Kai on his first day of school. Ms. Webb's class. He is already learning so much and is now probably going to be ambedextris (sp?) because his writing hand is broken, and his left hand writing and drawing is actually amazing.

We also went to the zoo with the cousins this summer. Who knew they had a farm at the zoo too.

My two little eagles in their nest.

How do you measure up?

Sauvie Island was our beach at home, when we didn't want to travel all the way to the coast. It made for some fun water time in the hot weather.

Sahaan and I got to get away on a little vacation of our own. It was the coolest trip we've taken in a while together.

You never thought you would see anyone walk on water again...right? Look again. JK! Luck with the camera. :)

We went crabbing for the first time and while catching the crab we also caught a starfish. The kids were very excited.

Sahaan and I watching the kids play together in the sand.

My good friend Becca and I got to go away with no children. This was her first time with out her baby girl (1yr old) and it was so fun to shop, scrapbook and talk with out interuption or distraction. Thanks Becca for going with me.

Sahaan, the biggest family member, holding Valerie, the smallest family member.

So sorry folks, didn't rotate the picture before downloading it, but just tilt your head and you can see me and my little man.

Here's are cheeze head, baby girl, lil' mama.

Kai and Kolbie enjoying Jamison park in downtown Portland. It was crazy hot that day!

Us at Council Crest park, above OHSU hospital. It is an amazing view up there, and the kids loved hearing their echo in the center of the park.

After having 9 days over 100 degrees we decided to go swimming alot at grandpa and grandma's house. So the whole family and friends got together and stayed cool in the pool.

Taliyah, cousin and niece.

Taliyah and Kolbie, 2 months apart in age.

The cousins, Taliyah, Kai, Daylen, & Kolbie.

Daylen, too cute, I know.

Kolbie and I.

The kids and I in Lincoln city at the beach.

Our gorgeous pre-teen, Sadiyah. They grow up too fast.

Lincoln city beach.

My 3 little sailors.

Newport Bay.

Japanese Spider crab engulfing my children.

Sahaan and baby girl.

I love staring into this fish bowl....:)

Kai was amazed by this octopus. It's like "DOC OC". Only he could compare it to something out of Spiderman.

The shark ate my family...........AAAHHHH!

I got them back though! So this is us almost up to date. More pictures to be coming soon. Off to see my best friend, her new baby and then the pumpkin patch....Stay tuned.