Your Royal Highness

Keltie has been very snuggly with Kevin lately. Especially when it gets close to bedtime. They usually are found all snuggled up with blankets laying on the floor. Keltie has now taken it to a new extreme though and wants to lay all by herself on the couch, covered up with blankets. She tries to climb up on the couch by herself, but usually ends up needing a little bit of help. She then points to blankets and says please. You have to make sure that you cover her up with every blanket that she sees, which usually includes her blanket, her taggies and a big blanket from the living room. Then she'll lay back on the pillow and just sit there like she is the princess of the house. Sometimes the blankets are so tall that you have a hard time even noticing that she's there. Sometimes she does let you snuggle with her, but lately she wants to be all by herself. Little Miss Independent!She even has to hold the remote and point it at the tv. She truly is a little sponge.

Fun Times

Yesterday afternoon Kevin decided it was perfect weather to go hunting. Keltie and I decided that we would go play outside for a little bit. We played in the swing and in the sand. Then I decided that we should go for a walk. Thankfully we live on a road that has little traffic so I let her walk down the road by herself. We had to stop every once in awhile to look at the cows and chickens. She did a really good job. When we got back she helped me pick leaves off the ground for school. When we came inside she played with these leaves for probably a half an hour. Of course she wanted to crunch them and rip them into small pieces, but it was cheap entertainment.
In other news, we are dealing with Keltie working on getting 5 new teeth. Thankfully, she is very good about this. It just means that she can eat more. I guess we both better get another job so we can afford to feed her as much as she has been eating lately.

17 months going on 16 years

Keltie got this toy car from my aunt and uncle when she was younger, but she hasn't been able to play in it since she wasn't big enough. We did try it once and she ended up falling through. This weekend Kevin and I were doing a lot of work in the garage so she was out there with us. One of the neighbors stopped by and Keltie decided she wanted to play in the car. Once she figured out how to open the door, she was on a roll. She was using her feet to push it all around the garage. Of course she even bumped into our vehicles a few times. She did fall through the floor again, but loved riding in it. She had to make sure that all of us were watching her as she scooted around the garage. At times, she looked like she was a lot older than she is. (Not that I want her to grow up any faster than she already is.)"Are you guys watching me? Mama, you want to move your car?"

Campfire Fun

Since it was so nice on Saturday, we decided that we would have a campfire at our house. There's nothing better than sitting around a campfire, especially when it's so warm out.

This a picture of Keltie with her two favorite second cousins, Michael and Ethan. Keltie is very lucky that she gets to spend a lot of time with them. They usually go camping with us and both of them helped when we made Keltie's playhouse. She was unsure of the two of them when they first arrived at our house, but was instantly drawn to Michael when she saw the Cheetos.

"This my lucky day, two different kinds of Cheetos. Can life get any better?"
Getting ready for bed. Sometimes you just have to sit and cuddle.

Wish us good luck, we're trying no nap at Cathy's today since it's been almost a week since she's wanted to take two naps. We'll see how it goes.

The Many Faces of Keltie

So Keltie looked super cute this morning in a little skirt and sweater that I wanted to try to take a picture of her. She didn't want anything to do with this. She wanted to play with the camera, but when I got it out to try and take a picture she started to cry. (I hope she isn't like me in this respect.) These are the result.

"Mama, can I touch it please?"

This isn't fun anymore. (She's still so cute even when she's crying!)

Sitting so pretty.

"I am such a big girl."

I'm thinking that she is going through another growing stage. This morning she ate a whole kiwi and half a granola bar. When we got to her babysitter's she was kind of upset. She saw food on the table and asked to eat right away. Yesterday when Kevin brought her home from the babysitter's she sat in the booster seat and ate for 45 minutes straight. For the past two days she has also decided that she doesn't want to take an afternoon nap. She's deciding that it's much more exciting to play than to sleep. Needless to say, she feel asleep lying with Kevin on the couch last night at 7:30. You just don't know what to expect sometimes.

Beautiful Weekend

This weekend we decided to try camping again. I was a little bit worried after our last adventure when it was so cold. Fortunately it was much warmer this weekend. We went to the Eau Plaine which was a place that we have never been. It is very nice there and we spent a lot of time riding bike, eating, playing bean bag, eating, enjoying the sunshine, eating, and did I mention eating? We went with my parents, Kevin's parents, and two of his aunts and uncles. We had a lot of fun. It was so nice on Saturday that my mom and Kevin's aunt Carol took Keltie down by the beach. She had so much fun just splashing around in the water. They have drained a lot of the water out so there isn't too much sand left, but there is a lot of muck. Keltie ended up just in her diaper playing. When she was finished I gave her a bath and I think that she had sand in every part of her body. At least she had fun though and there wasn't any timeouts given the whole weekend!Middle of September or middle of July?

Check out that budda hanging over her diaper!

Timeout

Yesterday I wrote about how Keltie is becoming such a big girl and can do so many new things each day. Well, I guess that now includes being put in a timeout. I went outside last night to get our laundry and Kevin tells me to come in the other door when I come in. I didn't know what was going on until I got inside. Then I realized that he had put Keltie in a timeout. She was throwing her shoes when I went outside and Kevin warned her about not doing it again a couple of times. After the third time, that was the last straw.

He put her in a timeout for a minute and she went back and threw the shoes again. So another timeout. Same result. Another timeout. The same result. Another timeout. Amazingly after this one she changed her mind and found something else to do. The first two she cried during. The second two she sat pretty still and finally realized that Daddy was serious.

Kevin was really cute though and sounded just like the Super Nanny. It seems like she's so young to be doing this with, but the doctor told us that she needs to learn her boundaries. Hopefully, that's the end of it for awhile.

Where has the time gone?

Today Keltie turns 17 months old. How can she be so grown up already? What happened to our little baby? It's true what they say, time does go by faster the older you get. We are enjoying every minute though as she changes so much each and everyday.

Privacy Please!

When Keltie went to her 15 month check up, which was actually at 16 months, the doctor told Kevin that we could start getting her interested in the potty chair. She has always been interested in spending time in the bathroom. We learned very early on that privacy goes out the window when you have kids. She is always in the bathroom now when we go in. It doesn't pay to close the door either, because she will just come barreling through it. So this weekend I got out a potty chair for her. At first she didn't really know what to do with it. Then the fun began for her. She sat on it and then would push the lid down like we do. She decided she wanted to stand in it and that she wanted to try to lift it and move it. There's no way that we expect her to be potty trained any time soon, but it's cute to see her experiment.

Even though we don't get privacy anymore, she things that she needs it!

What is this thing supposed to do?

I've fallen and I can't get up!

Time to go on the slide!

This summer Keltie got her very own swing set. We didn't think that we were going to be able to get her a slide yet this year because we were amazed at the price of them when we went to look at them. Thankfully, Menards had a sale on them and we were able to purchase one for her. She was more excited about trying to climb up it than she was about going down it at first. After a little work though, she was able to climb up all the steps, sit down and get her buns settled in so she could go down. She absolutely loves it and wants to do more. It's so much fun to see her have a good time. Of course Kevin and I also had to give it a try. I can see why she enjoys it so much.

Loving Grammy and Boompa

Thank you for always taking such good care of me. Love you lots!

Will's Backwoods Bash

For the past 5 years, Kevin's family has had a end of the summer camp out in one of their hayfields. It usually consists of fourwheeling, playing kickball and eating. This year there was also a hayride and bowling. It's a lot of fun. Unfortunately, this year it was also very cold and rainy. Friday afternoon it rained and soaked out tent. We probably had a good inch of water in out tent. Needless to say everything was soaking wet. You could ring the water out of Keltie's blankets. Keltie and I came home on Friday night, while Kevin braved it alone in the tent. Saturday we spent the day in our winter jackets. Where was the warm August weather? We did stay Saturday night and stayed warm enough, but we had 5 blankets on us. It was a good way to end the summer before school started though.

Trying to stay warm by playing with my cousin's toys.

Even though it was cold, we had to have root beer floats. Here's Keltie waiting for spoonful after spoonful of mine.

Playing inside of the tent. Luckily it was dried out. Kevin has to take the big ball so he can do his back exercises. Keltie loves playing with it though.

Family picture of us on the hayride.