Disney Princesses & Dump Trucks!

January's will be forever known as our month of rest and recovery. With 2 birthdays and a Christmas in December, January is a time for us to get back into a routine (if we ever actually have one :)

The last several years we have had the Kehrt family Christmas in January. That is our fault because kids have been born in December. This year we actually got to have Christmas in Clear Lake at Mom & Dad's house which was great. Everyone was able to make it, even Josh was home from Brazil and able to join us. We had a great time visiting with everyone. Isaac has a little excitement the days before that made the trip questionable at first but in the end a good idea for Bruce and Me. He caught the ugly rash/virus Hand, Foot, & Mouth which is a highly contagious virus that is relatively minor in nature. It is NOT hoof & mouth for you farmer folks :) . Most of the time this is no big deal and 50% of the people that get it don't even have symptoms. Isaac was not one of those people. He also got a bacterial infection on top of it which led to an entire body rash that made him look like a burn victim. It was horrible. He was up about 4 hours a night screaming due to the irritation of the rash and the sores in his throat, nose, and belly. After a couple trips back to the Dr we were able to get some medications and get him on the road to recovery. His Dr gave us the ok to travel to Clear Lake which turned out to be a great idea because Bruce and I got some rest with the help of the rest of the family. Emerson ended up getting it that weekend too which did elicit an episode of her screaming too. It took Me, Bruce, Grandma, and Papa's group effort to get her calmed down. But the fly on the wall was laughing his ass off watching a 3 year old order 4 grown adults around at 1:00 in the morning to find ANOTHER BOOK! Both of the kids made out like rock stars for Christmas this year. I think we offially have almost all the disney princess stuff accounted for as well as a host of Dump trucks for Isaac. Emerson even recieved a pink dump truck!

Isaac is back to full strength, he is pushing out the 2nd molar and starting to stand on his feet. He is fun to watch. He will be sitting in the middle of the floor and put his hands down and feet flat on the floor and stand up... it took him a while to decide to crawl but it looks like it will be soon and he will be running around the house.

Emerson is still the funniest kid I've ever met. She is so much fun and loves music. We have never been ones for listening to "traditional" kids music... so naturally she has grown to like our "fun music" as we call it. Her favorite band is still the Foo Fighters and she can name you the band members. She is also a huge fan of Zac Brown Band and Jimmy Buffet (naturally!). She recently has gotten into some modern pop songs. She can be heard walking around the house on a normal basis singing "Girl look at that body. I work out!" and "I got the moooves like Jagger!" These are her own spontaneous outbursts and they are hilarious and fun!

Grandma & Papa Kehrt don't have a bathtub....so we improvise!

Celebrating Isaac's birthday....a 3rd time

Below: Our little princess!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas to All!!! Its been a long time since our last post but here are the hightlights of December, with more to come!

Emerson turned 3 years old on December 6th. It is hard to believe that she is that old already!! We had the most fun at her birthday party!

Friday night we had the Oberle family Christmas in Claflin. It was great to see everyone and we got some great family time together. Short but fun!!! Both of the kids racked in a ton of cool stuff for Christmas and birthday's. The reason we exchange gifts was evident when Emerson opened her gifts this year. It was super cool to see her so excited. Grandma Ann- The tutu dress was a GREAT idea!!!

We got back to Overland Park in time for Church so we made the mad dash to get the kids ready and get to Mass. Isaac is generally an angel in church...he picked Christmas Eve as the one day to make church difficult. By difficult, we still got compliments on how good both of them were in church so I guess it couldn't have been that bad!

Last night we set out the cookies and "juice" (propel water) for Santa and carrots for Rudolf and the reindeer. Emerson thought Santa would prefer juice over milk. This morning the kids had their way with the toys and we now need to add on another wing to the house for all it! Isaac and Emerson were thrilled with their gifts. Isaac thought his Thomas the train was pretty awesome.

Its hard to believe that Emerson is 3 but its equally hard to believe that Isaac will turn 1 next week!! The time is going fast and he is growing big and smart! He is so much fun and we couldn't imagine our lives without either one of them. They certainly made this Christmas amazing. Isaac will get to enjoy 3 first birthday parties this year since his birthday is so close to Christmas. The first was at Oberle Christmas where he had a cake. He wasn't sure about that but I am sure that by the time he gets to the 3rd party at the Kehrt family Christmas, he will have it Mastered. His actual birthday may be far less excitements for him since it will just be the 4 of us.

Getting Closer!

We haven't been up to much the last two weekends there are no pictures this post. Sorry....

We did have our friends Andrea and Jason Kidd come into town to have some fun this weekened. They have two small children of their own and the kids all had a BLAST. It was a ton of fun!!! The kids played well together. Isaac has a new best buddy in Sam. Friday night Bruce grilled and we caught up with conversation while Em, Isaac, Sam, & Caitlyn played hard! Saturday morning we joined some other couples to watch the Nebraska game (they are alums). We later headed out to the Legends. The guys watched the K-State game while the girls and kids did some shopping, which was essentially the trainwreck of public outings! We finished up the night by taking Sam to the T-Rex restaraunt out there. The kids thought it was pretty awesome and they had some fun adult beverages for us parents so all were happy!

We have been working on making kid milestones the last two weeks!

Isaac is getting closer to crawling and finally shows bits of interest. I understand his logic completely...."why do I need to learn to walk or crawl when these 3 people that in live in my house do it all for me. Mom and Dad will put things out of my reach just to mess with me...but if a make cool noises, my sister just hands them to me! It works out very well in my favor". He is getting up on all 4's now and several times has looked like he is just going to do it...but so far...just living the dream of having us be at his beck and call.

Emerson has made leaps and bounds at potty training. Very few accidents this week!! WHOO HOO (knock on wood) we aren't there completely but we can see the diaper expense line in our family budget already improving :) We are not opposed to bribery so she is reaping the benefits in stickers and M&M's. She filled up her 2 potty cards in the last two weeks which has earned her "big" rewards which she is quite proud of.

Its been a while!!!

Wow I didn't realize Its been that long since I posted! October went too fast!! We had a pretty low key month which was nice change from a crazy September. I will try to relay the highlights!

Isaac received a clean bill of health at his 9 month appt. He is 19# and thinning out significantly from his prior stout little self. He is not crawling or walking. He rolls if he needs to get somewhere but really there is little motivation to learn to be mobile. I mean really, if he has a sister at his beck and call what more does he need?!?! He is also so laid back that if he has his bink, he is pretty content doing --well nothing! But he is happy and healthy and that's all we care about! The mobility will come when he is damn good and ready!

Emerson is still working on potty training. We are starting to make some headway this week which I am scared to say because September and October were met with much resistance so we didn't push it. She has a little girl at daycare that she is really good friends with that is potty training which is really helping and then she spent some time with Iowa friends and cousins that use the big potty...so we are using that motivation as leverage :) Again, it will come when she is damn good and ready!

Grandma and Papa Oberle came to visit for the NASCAR race in October and as usual it was super fun having them come to stay. They stayed with us one night so they did get some good 1-1 time with the kids.

Last weekend we took a trip to Iowa to Celebrate our friends Brice and Sarah's wedding. Yes, Sarah and Brice have been married for a few years now but we have never had a chance to celebrate their wedding. So what better way to celebrate than a Halloween party!!! It was an absolute blast! We were able to see a lot of my Des Moines friends as well as quality time with Grandma and Papa Kehrt and Uncle Noel, Aunt Stacey, Mara, & Ellen.

Halloween is starting to get to be a lot of fun at our house. This year we were able to take Emerson around and she is really getting into the fun of Halloween and trick or treating. She was a cute pink cowgirl and Isaac was Yoda! It was a lot fun! After getting Emerson her stash of candy she had fun helping me hand out candy to the other kids too!

Here a some good pictures!

Uncle Noel- Need a buddy to watch the big game with? Call me!!

Howdy Pardner!

Time to get candy it is! Saddle up Pardners let's hit the trail!

How often do you get a deceased Osama Bin Laden, Flashdance, A drunk monk, a slutty nun, and Princess Kate and Prince William in a room together??

Little Princess and Congratulations to the King & Queen!!

This was a big weekend for the Oberle family! One we have been waiting in great anticipation for! Our little princess was a flower girl for Uncle Mike & Aunt Angela's wedding!!! It was a beautiful weekend. The weather could not have cooperated any better. We had both sets of grandparents on deck to assist with kid duty which was a huge help. Bruce had Best Man duties and Emerson had flower girl duties. They both did a wonderful job!

Getting ready for our big role!!!

Isn't she the cutest flower girl you've ever seen???

Isaac with the grandparents-- all looking very sharp!!

Grandma Judy did Emerson's hair for the big event and it turned out adorable to say the least. The dress was perfect. We didn't even need to get it altered and her little gold shoes set it off! She walked down the aisle and back with no issues! Mike's Niece, Brooke was another flower girl and she helped/led Emerson very well. Emerson also sat with her for the first 3/4 of the service and Emerson was quiet as a mouse. I have no idea what they did but when she came back to sit with me, she was a little chatter box!! I told Brooke that we owed her big!!! And we still do! Emerson danced her little buns off at the reception and Isaac was picking up chics left and right with his little brown suit! We owe Grandma's and Papa's Linda, Judy, Dick, & Leon because they took the kids home around 10:15 and Bruce and I got to stay up with the big kids and play for a while! Among all the other tasks they did this weekend!! There were so many of our close friends there! It was a great party!!

Grandma's & Papa's I think had a pretty good time watching the kids too ;)

Uncle Mike and Isaac-- The two most handsome men at the party!

Mike and Angela looked stunning to say the least! They are a georgous and amazing couple! The wedding was fabulous and we were so happy to be a part of their big day! Congratulations to King and Queen of the day!!

Grandma and Emerson waiting for pictures

This might be the best we've dress for a long time and a long time to come.

For fear of getting of getting in trouble for not updating the blog. I thought I would get ahead of you all!

There isn't much to report the last few weeks. We haven't done much. We are excited that football season is upon us so that will now consume most of our weekends.

We were able to get to a K-State football game for their opening game. We got some tickets from friends that were going to be out of town. We even had an offer to babysit....can't pass on that. Bruce and I had fun it was a quicker trip that Bruce would have liked but it was fun none- the- less. Labor day weekend was low key besides that. So lowkey I can't remember what we did!

Last Saturday we went to our friends John & Heidi Ernst's to watch the Iowa/Iowa State game. Since, K-State was off a week- Iowa State had both kids full attention. For the record, I try to be fair to both teams equally (even against my instinct to make it all ISU) but this week-- nope full speed ahead for ISU! John is an Iowa Hawkeye fan and Heidi is an ISU grad so we were in good company... the game ended with the good guys winning but not easily. Heidi and I were jumping up and down screaming, John was pacing the floor, and Bruce was laughing his head off at all 3 of us. In the end it was a great fun day!

I gotta run...Emerson just pulled a fast one on me

Emerson- Hi Mommy, can I have a hug?

Me- Yes honey of course as I give/get a big hug

Emerson- Mommy can I have a kiss too?

Me- Absolutely as I give/get a kiss

Emerson- I love you Mommy, now can I have a cookie?

....I feel so used!!!!....but after that much effort....yep she got a cookie. Mission Accomplished Emerson!

Great Summer

Summer is drawing to an end and we have had a great season with the kids. We didn't "do" a lot but it seems likes we were/are always busy! Some of the cool things... we spent time in Claflin at the all school reunion, we went to Illinois to see Grandma Marion and The Kehrt side of the family, we traveled to Iowa for the 4th and had a lot of fun on the lake, and there were several days by the pool and in the backyard.

This is not a posed picture. They are watching Mickey Mouse together...this pic will prove as visual documentation in 5 years that there was a time that they actually liked each other!

Emerson is doing very well. She loves to "read" and color. Those are really two of her favorite activities. Outside is always fun and she recently got a new soccer ball which is getting good use. She is still a string bean weighing in at appx 24 pounds and she stretched out a little this summer. But just like her mommy, don't let her size fool you-- she has a very strong personality and has no fear telling you her opinion. From what I am told her verbal skills are excellent and some of her comments will make you first wonder how the heck a 2.5 year old thinks that crap up and then second laugh your head off. She ADORES her little brother and remains his chief protector. We have initiated the potty training, but it is a slow process for her- we are in no hurry so it is coming along slowly but surely.

Our Summertime Princess!

Isaac is growing like crazy he has gone through 2 growth spurts this summer alone. He now has 3 teeth and hopefully 2 more will come through this week. His teeth have been giving him fits lately so we know they are hiding in there. Outside of teeth pain, I think we may have the most laid back kid in history. Now, I know I said that about Emerson, but she doesn't hold a candle to this kid...keep his bink in his mouth and his belly full and he is good to just let the world turn. He will quickly surpass his sister in size. Right now he is appx 17-18 pounds but is in the middle of that second growth spurt!

We didn't know that Accounting could be so funny!!!

Are you ready for some Football??