Our 9 month old Keely!

 In my very honest and unbiased opinion, there is nothing better in the world than a naked, 9 month old chubby baby.  Am I right?!  How many times can I say: MY BABY IS GROWING SO FAST!  Keely turned 9 months old on November 16th and is FINALLY on the charts for her weight and height! (Previously, she had been so long and so heavy that she was playing out in left field on the growth chart).  Never in a million years when I was little playing house and baby dolls did I think my kids would be so massive.  Malia is still off the charts for her height and leaves people stunned that she is only 2 and not 3 or 4.

So Keely had her doc appt and they said she was doing just perfect:)  I had some concerns about the fact that she was not crawling and not pulling herself up, but the pediatrician assured me not to worry. Often times heavy babies are slower to do this thing and she'll catch up in her own due time.  

So, her stats are:
Height: 30" (99%)

Weight: 22.3 lbs (99%)

Head: something around 18" I think- 85% 

 And she's up to date on all her shots so she was happy about not needing to get any more that day:)

 My big girl.  I love you so!  Those chubby thighs and funny mohawk.. you are perfect to me!

Other things worth noting about 9 months:
-Keely is still such a content and mellow baby. She will go to just about anyone.

-She is eating just about everything now even those the first signs of a tooth didn't show until 9 1/2 months!  She is good at gnawing on her food:)
-Her favorite foods are raspberries, blueberries, her spinach peas and pears mix, peaches, puffs and yogurt, and pretty much whatever I am eating:)

-She is not a fan of plain green beans anymore and prefers lemon to eat them

-She is rolling and sitting up and army scooting.  She can go from sit down to lay down and back up with ease.

-She ADORES her sister!  No one makes her happier than Malia!  They are the cutest friends!

-Still no bottle for my little nurser.  Fine by me.  I love it!  Malia started weaning herself around 6/7 months and I was kinda sad about it.  I will probably nurse Keely until she's had enough or by 1 and a half.

-She nurses between 4-5 times a day and eats 3-4 meals and loves snacks (Um, she LOVES to eat!  Need I explain?!)

-At 9 months she was still taking 3 naps a day.  A longer morning and afternoon nap with a cat nap in the evening.  She sleeps through the night but is up promptly by 6:30 or 7 (so much for days of sleeping in!)

- She is a lover and cuddler.  She NEEDS hugs and kisses and is my bestest little friend

-Her first word was "MAMA" and will say it on command.  Other words she is practicing are "dada" "baba" and lots of blowing raspberries and "singing"

-She DANCES!  Whenever music comes on, she rocks back and forth to the music and will often times sing along.  I think this is hilarious!  Malia never did this.  I wonder if Keely will be our little musical one!

-Keely has 1 little birthmark in between her butt cheeks.  I think this is hilarious because when people change her they keep wiping and wiping thinking it's you know what, but it never comes off:)  She will probably hate that as she gets older.

-Keely isn't a big fan of the car seat still but LOVES going on walks in her wagon, carrier, or toy car.  

-Her party trick is that she waves to people when you wave to her:)

-She's chubby and soft and still has arm rolls for days.  We love you Keely Bear, Keely monster, Keely Weely and Sumo girl!

XOXOXO

Kirk's little Clone

Kirk has a little mini me.  Her name is Malia.  She looks more and more like him everyday.  And I couldn't be happier about that:)

Oh, and we love Disneyland.  They make snow and have Christmas parades there every day.  We live in the best place ever.  We will probably never move.

This post was weird.  Blame it on fatigue.  Keely is teething and up a lot.  I am tired.

Getting the Flu

Stinks big time.  Poor Malia was the first victim who started throwing up everywhere with about 20 people here for Family Home Evening.  And then we all started dropping like flies.  It was a catchy little bug I tell ya!  Keely (unsurprisingly) handled it the best out of all of us, but also didn't get it very bad.  And at least we had it before all the holidays and my brother's wedding... which reminds me!  My brother got married!  Ah, now for the next post after I pick Malia up from preschool, feed Keely and get ready for the baby shower I am doing here at our house in a few hours;)  

Until next time!

Halloween 2012!!

Halloween this year was fun like all the others!  I honestly love this holiday and you can tell by the amount of times we dressed up and partied (like 7 I think I counted?) we look forward to this time of year.  As time continues to SPEED by and the kids keep growing, I am learning that things are getting more and more fun also.  Like this year, Malia was THRILLED about Halloween; dressing up, going to parades and parties and of course, trick or treating.  I love our little 2 year old and how fun she makes things.  Malia is in full blown princess mode and wouldn't stand for a costume that compromised that.  She was Cinderella and Belle and then a fairy dragon princess one night also;)  Her strong opinions and spunky personality have us rolling on a regular basis.  At one of the parties I overheard her conversation with a 3 or 4 year old. "I'm Cinderella.  Aren't I so beautiful?" 

So perhaps we will be working on teaching humility this month.

And of course we love Keely who is still the world's most easy going baby.  She was our pumpkin this year and was just content to check everything out and take it all in.  Heavenly Father sure blessed us with that one!  

So now that's it's December, it appears that i have some blogging catching up to do. Stay tuned for some blogging photo bombing!  HA!

Malia's 1st story

Before I forget (which I am notorious for doing since my brain doesn't work as good anymore it seems) I have to share this quick story that our little 27 month old Malia shared with me this morning.  We had just finished reading (which we do quite a bit each morning) and were in our special "tent" (bunk beds with blankets hanging down around us).  She hadn't told me a complete story until this point, and I was just laying there listening intently to what she had to share:)

"Once upon a time there was a pretty princess. And she was so nice. Her name was Tiana.  And she climbed a hill and fell down.  She started crying cuz she had an owie. Then she was sad.  And then Sleeping Beauty went into a castle and had a Ball.  And then she got out of the tent.  The end!"

It was a short story which proved to me that she does in fact LOVE her princesses and that perhaps she jumbles them all together to create her own.  I love her more than any words could express and cherish these times I get to spend with her.  Anyway, have a great weekend!

Keely Yukiko at 7 months old!!

A few weeks ago, my baby girl turned 7 months old!  How did that happen?! I love her more and more everyday and am SO lucky to be this happy baby's mama.  She is honestly the world's easiest, mellowest and happiest baby.  I know Heavenly Father must have a wild child in store for me next time around!

So here's what's been going on this month:

• Keely sits up on her own for however long she wants now then will roll around to get where and what she wants
• No crawling, no scooting, no pulling herself up, no teeth and not much in the way of hair.  She's perfect this way.  Stay a baby as looooong as possible! You won't see me trying to make her learn this stuff faster than she needs to;)
• She is a good eater!  She has graduated to all varieties of baby food and likes nearly all of them.  Her favorites are things mixed with spinach, peas or green beans.  She actually prefers them to the super sweet stuff like bananas and peaches.  She is still only nursing (no formula, no bottles) and nurses around 5-6 times a day as needed.
• She is a good sleeper!  Goes to bed between 9 and 10 then wakes us between 7 and 8.  Takes 2-3 good naps a day and is excellent about being cheerful with unpredictable outings and being woken up by her sister.
• She LOVES Malia.  They are best friends.  No one can make her laugh and smile the way her sister does.  Even when Malia gets bossy (and that happens allll the time) Keely just takes it and seems to be happy about it. I love that they are starting to play together now, makes my heart melt
• Keely LOVES Hobbs and animals and well, just about everything.  She loves when people hold her or tickle her or play with her.  Her laugh makes her whole body jiggle like a bowl full of jelly:)
• Keely is still big and still heavy and is ready to outgrow her infant seat, but I haven't gotten her the next size up, so she'll be good in there for awhile I hope.
• Keely sings.  She never cries when she wakes up, only sings and plays until someone comes to get her.  Again, I am truly blessed to be her mom and I love her to pieces.

Our Summer (in no particular or grand order)

 Would I be a broken record to say "I am a lazy picture taking mom?"  Now that our phones have cameras and I am lugging around 2 babies worth of stuff in my diaper bags, cameras don't really seem to make the cut in the bag-o-necessities.  So, my apologies as you have to see mediocre quality, phone app collages of mostly my babes.  

But I will say this:  SUMMER IS THE BEST TIME OF THE YEAR!!! This summer has been a particularly hot one for us pansy southern California folk, but I would still take the heat over the cold ANY day! We had some 90-100 degree weeks where I wished we had A/C (no one along the beach in SC has A/C, crazy huh?) but the worst was the nights were even sweltering.  Add some little babies to the mix and it makes for some cranky nights!

But, the fall weather seems to be upon us and I am getting that tinge of regret for cursing the heat while we had it.  

Onto the pictures.  Have you seen many of these before?  I can't keep track anymore.  We sure have had some good time with beach days, pool days, family and visitors, day trips and mini vacations and lots time working on what us Schillings try to do best: having fun:)

 Have I mentioned how big our Keely girl is getting??  Geez.  I am in LOVE with this age of hers and wish more than anything I could freeze time.  She is the biggest (well more like chubbiest) love.  And did you know that Travis is getting married?!  To that beautiful girl up there in the top left pic.  Ginny! We LOVE her!!  I am so excited for them to get hitched Thanksgiving weekend and for her to join our family!

 Malia's favorite hobby she's been working on is painting.  She wants to pain every day.  I think that would make her grandma Kathy and Auntie Brookie very proud.  

And we love our friends and play dates.  We have started FHE again (Family Home Evening) with our friends in the ward and love how the crowd has changed.  It used to be mostly adults and now we are being taken over by kids everywhere!  Love the gospel, the church folks!

Malia's been doing great with swimming!  Her favorite things to do are diving for rings on the pool floor and swimming to mommy.  I decided Keely needed to get some swim time and wouldn't you know it- Keely loves the water too.  But then again, Keely likes everything so I guess I'm not too surprised.

And for those of you that didn't get the memo: we have a princess living with us.  She is a beautiful princess that loves to dance and sing and dress up in one of her many princess-y dresses.  Usually we have Belle, but then often times we get Cinderella and Ariel the Mermaid too.

And have a mentioned lately how hot my husband is?  I sure love him.  We don't get to go out all the time without the kids, but when we do it sure is a nice break!  Big thanks to Nana Freda who is the best babysitter I could ever hope for!

Okay! That's it for my lazy-multiple-posts-made-into-one blogging for the day.  Hope you all are smiling and get to do something fun today!  Peace out!

We heart Disneyland!

Living in Southern California you almost NEED to have a season pass to the happiest place on earth.  In hopes to create the best childhood for our kids (and not spoil them to death in the process) we got the cheapest season passes so we could enjoy this magical place.  We like to go with our awesome cousins that make the trek down quite a bit.  We love them.  We love Disneyland.  We love making memories with all these highly energetic kids everywhere:)

Sisters = Best Friends

 I know this post will not apply for many.  But for those of you with sisters, is there anything better than having a sister?  My sister is 8 years younger than me.  To be honest, I felt like more of a mom than a sister to her.  I would carry her, change her, feed her- basically, I helped raise her.  Now she's about ready to graduate from college and maybe within the next few years get married and have kids of her own.  We are best friends and I love my sister.  We may not get to talk everyday and we couldn't be more different, but we will always have each other.  

I am so thankful that our girls have each other.  It warms my heart to see them play together, "talk" to each other and watch out for each other.  Malia is turning out to be such a sweet big sister to little Keely.  And Malia happens to be Keely's favorite person in the world.  

 Getting a handle on the concept of sharing;)

Just a summer evening at Salt Creek with the family 

These girls make me happy.  Sorry that they are all I ever post about anymore.  But I'm a mom and I really do love them a whole bunch:)

Malia's First Haircut!

Look who's sporting a new bob hairstyle!  This girl had actually been begging me to get her a haircut for weeks and I finally agreed to:)  So, at 25 months old, we took her to this cute little place in the mall and does babies 1st haircuts.  While you can't tell from her face, she loved it.  She was stone cold and wouldn't move a muscle, but she was just in heaven watching the lady cut, then style her hair.  They even blow dried it, did this cute flippy thing in the front and put on some flowers.

Oh yeah, and that's another new thing this month that she's learned.  Picking her nose.  It's hilarious and gross all at the same time.  She views this nose picking as a chore I suppose because when I ask her what she's doing she says so matter of factly, "mom, I'm getting the boogers out of my nose." We shall see how long this new habit lasts.

6 Month Old Keely Yukiko

 Before I state the obvious, look at my baby.

Okay, now I will say it- have you ever seen anything more squishy and yummy and perfect in your entire life???  I am obsessed with my baby Keely.  I'm dead serious when I say I would be a heck of a lot more productive if she were skinny.  I spend hours kissing and loving on her.  How can I not??  And realizing how quickly they grow (has it really already been 6 months??) I am not going to feel bad about that one bit!

So at 6 months our Keely girl is learning to sit up!  Above you will see how great she is doing:) I am pretty sure she fell over right after I took this picture, but she's getting there!

 Here's our happy 6 month old at the doctor's on her hapa birthday!  She is all smiles this girl!  As you can see, at 6 months she weighs 20.1 lbs which puts off the scale for babies her age.  Her height is also off the scale at 28 inches!  She has grown nearly 10 inches since she was born!  Is that crazy or what?!  She is nice and healthy the doctor said and we loaded her up with another round of shots where she cried briefly then coo-ed and "talked" afterwards on the ride home.

Other things about this month:
-Keely had a brief week or 2 where she was waking up in the middle of the night and wanted to eat or play.  I think it was a wonder week when she was learning to roll over and move around a bunch.  She is now back to sleeping through the night (bed around 10, up around 8am)
-She typically naps 3 times a day.  Once in the morning, once in the early afternoon and a catnap in the evening.  I am actually really surprised at how well she does without a strict schedule.  Often times we are not able to be home for her naps and so she makes the most of them.  Her awake times are also super long sometimes!  For example, yesterday, between the beach, a baptism and going to my parents, she was up for 6 hours without a nap! I am shocked that she is not super grumpy with the lack of sleep she gets.
-She is almost always happy:)  She wakes up singing and smiling, and will love up on just about anyone.  Her personality is so different than Malia's was.  Malia has always been more reserved, cautious and not quick to smile while her sister is totally opposite.  It'll be interesting to see if her personality changes as she gets older. 

-She has started food and LOVES it!  She has now gone through rice cereal, peas, sweet potato, bananas, apples, beans, pears and mixes of these.  She loves to eat:)
-She easily rolls and has been doing lot of push-ups lately.  No crawling yet though, we are probably far away from that too.
-She can turn her body around 360 degrees
- She loves to put EVERYTHING in her mouth and suck on just about anything also.  She also gets mad when someone (aka Malia) takes her toys away from her.

I love these girls of mine.  They are best friends and I am so excited that they have each other.  Maybe we'll get 2 boys next so they can have the bond that these 2 girls have.  Who knows;)

Our 2 year old Malia Joy

 Our 2 year old Malia Joy celebrated her 2nd birthday on July 16th, 2012!  She wanted to get a donut and put a candle on it.  We happen to live across the street from a donut shop which made it easy to do:)  She wanted to sleep in her Princess jammies the night before her birthday, so she got to do that too. 

 Our 2 year old Malia is a good friend.  She loves her friends and loves having play dates with them.  She is learning to play with others and gradually understanding concepts of "sharing" and being "gentle"

 Our 2 year old Malia loves the carousel and pretty much any other ride she can go on.  She embarked on her 1st roller coaster the other week at Disneyland and loved it!  Our 2 year old Malia is learning how to smile for the camera but usually just likes to make funny faces. 

 Our 2 year old Malia gets camera shy.  Granted she almost always has an over zealous mom taking videos or pictures of her and is probably just sick of that.  Our 2 year old Malia shouts, "no mommy, no pictures now!" when she's had enough.

 Our 2 year old Malia is a ballerina princess.  She LOVES to sing and dance and especially loves to play dress up.  We are in the dress and skirt wearing section of her life where all she wants to wear is princess attire.  Our 2 year old Malia is a funny girl and we love watching and hearing her performances.  Her favorite fan:  Keely.  Malia will make Keely laugh and smile for days.  They love each other like no one else could!

 Our 2 year old Malia is TALL and SKINNY!  Off the charts for her height (39 inches) and barely hanging on to the lowest % for weight (27 lbs.) she is a nonstop ball of energy.  She LOVES to run up and down the beach (something I learned I loved to do at her age too.  So cute).  Our 2 year old Malia LOVES the beach and playing outside.  She also sports a nice golden tan in the summer months regardless of how much sunscreen I put on her.

Our 2 year old Malia is taking swim lessons and loves to play in the water.  She is getting good at "swimming like Ariel" under the water and will hopefully be completely water safe soon.  

Other things worth noting for our 2 year old Malia:

-She still sleeps in her crib and uses a blankie and "beebee" to go to sleep.  We will have to break that sometime this year.

-Her favorite food is cheese, peas and broccoli, mango, chicken nuggets, fruit, pretzels, gogurts, edamame, green juice (green smoothies) popsicles, spam, toast, icecream, and SUSHI.  She would live off of sashimi if she could.  She's a good sport for trying just about anything.  

-loves princesses, mermaids, painting, coloring, bubbles, going to Disneyland, the park or beach.  Loves her movies in the morning while she wakes up.

-loves to sing her ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle and princess songs from her Disney movies

-She still loves her whole milk heated up in her baba (another thing we'll have to break this year) She only gets it when she wakes up and when we are reading stories at night getting ready for bed.

- She talks in full sentences and paragraphs!  I can't get over the vocabulary she knows.  The other day, after watching Rapunzel get married (her current favorite movie) she told me this:

Malia: Mom, I get married to my husband.

Me: Yes honey, you will get married to a husband one day.

Malia:  My husband o-ing to love me so much.

Me: Yes he will baby.

Malia:  And we o-ing to live in a new house together.

Me: Oh you will? 

Malia:  Yes, a new house and it'll be awesome.

Where does she come up with this stuff?? 

We sure love our 2 year old Malia.  She is spunky, opinionated, confident and a good girl.  She has a good heart and doesn't ever want to hurt anyone or their feelings on purpose.  She is a girl which means she DOES have her diva and attitude moments where I almost lose my mind.  But I think it's normal.  And it's good for me to have that sort of obstacle of maintaining my patience.  We are getting used to screaming and tantrums mixed into our days of fun and laughter.  Every day is an adventure with this girl.  She is my sunshine.  I love to sing that song to her at night and she sings it right back:)

Malia's 1st day of Preschool!

I will never forget this day.  It was Malia's first day of (pre) preschool.  You cannot tell by her face, but she does in fact like going:) Yes, I realize she just turned 2.  And yes, I realize this is more like a "daycare" than a preschool since she goes all day long.  But do not dare tell Malia differently because in her perfect little 2 year old mind, she goes to preschool 2 times a week.  

I had Kirk go with me for moral support, and come to find out, he needed me there for moral support!  He got teary eyed dropping her off which I am glad I did not notice or else I would have lost it.

She nervously cling to my hand for about 15 minutes as we cruised around to meet all of her new friends.  There were some tears shed right when we left.  But, I was happy to see that the crying had stopped by the time we got back out to our car and peeked over to check on her.  

Malia needed this.  She is such a smart girl.  With her lunch bag in hand, she walks up to school and she tells me about what she will do that day. "Mom, I'm onna sing da ABC song with my friends." "Mommy, dare was animals that come to my school.  I saw sheep and pig and cow and chickens. I idn't ride pony cuz I was scared.  Next time I ride the pony."

These are the conversations we have now.  I am so impressed with her every day and how well she has adjusted.  We are on day #4 of preschool and each day is getting better.  Last time I picked her up her teacher approached to confirm that she was in fact 2.  "Yes," I said, "she just turned 2 last month."  Miss Lindy mentioned how advanced she was and how her language was far better than many of the 3 year olds at the school.  She asked if she could check to see about getting her into the 3 year old class this new school year. 

Brag moment: Of course, this was a proud moment for me.  I have been working with Malia since she was old enough to talk.  I assume it's because of my education degree and the fact that I love teaching and she loves learning. She  has always been a sponge to things I tell her and teach her.  It's nice to see that my 4 (well more like 5) years of college to get my degree is paying off somewhere:)  

So, this is where Malia goes twice a week now.  I miss her when she's gone, but I still have Keely to keep me company and busy.  It's a nice "break" to only have 1 kid with me then.  

But I sure am excited to pick her up every day and see her smile and run to me and give me a hug.  "I love you sooo much mommy!"  And boy, do I love her back!

Malia's 2nd Birthday Party!!!!

I can't believe my baby girl is 2!!!!  Malia Joy turned 2 on July 16th 2012 and we celebrated her with an "Under the Sea" (Mermaid) party the following Saturday.  She loved it.  We all loved it.  I think everyone that came had a great time enjoying the sunshine, the beach (we did it at Baby Beach in Dana Point), good company and treats.  

We didn't get too crazy with party details and it actually turned out just how I wanted it to- good old fashioned birthday party fun!  The park, beach, cupcakes, pizza and a pinata:)

Here is a photo overload of the day highlighting some of the fun festivities we enjoyed! 

 The birthday girl herself.  She doesn't like taking pictures or making videos, so this is the best shot of her I could get for the day.  I think it's hilarious as she tells me, "no more pictures mommy."  Wonder if she is always going to shy away from the camera.

Malia playing with her bestest friend and cousin, Kamryn.  We love them sooo much!  They made it down for her birthday and we just love them to pieces for making that trek! 

 Malia and her dear friend Lola.  These gals like to play together and are so stinkin cute together!

 Pinata time!  And a group picture at the same time

 Malia and her buddy Jane (and mommy Michelle)

 The pinata was pretty durable!  We had to have the muscles of Auntie Brookie come in to help get the breaking of the pinata going.

 Malia was a little unclear on the concept of rushing to get the  treats that spilled from the pinata but had fun still the same.  Note that she doesn't smile all the time.  I think this fact is hilarious.  She will be having the best time of her life and keep a stone cold face.  It's funny to see her little personality forming.

 Pinata carnage :)

 Some of the party bystanders- Keely and Sunny!  Sunny is the sister of one of Malia's good friends, Pheobe.  I think these girls are destined to be good friends too

 Some of the party goers- the Andersons and Asays.  We sure love all of our friends!!

 Malia's Mermaid cake made with love by her extra special Nana.  Nana Freda happens to be a baking master and created the adorable cake and cupcakes for the party- thank you!  And Malia is super obsessed with Mermaids right now, and chose the theme of her party

 Our funny little family of 4:)

 Me and Kirk in the AMAZING art that Brooke made for the party.  The kids put their faces in it and we took pictures.  It was cute

 Even some of Malia's bestest aunties came down to the party.  These are some of my oldest friends, Auntie Dawn and Liz

 Malia's so lucky to have her Nana and Papa live so close to her to love and spoil her!

 The beautiful treats made by my mom

 

 And let's not forget the party favors:  Beta fish that the kids got to take home for new pets.  Malia got the leftovers.  A boy and a girl who she named Tammy and George.  She named them after 2 of her most favorite people in the world- Tammy and George Richards.  We sure love that family:)  They are like a second family to us and they LOVE Malia so much.  We are lucky to have so many amazing friends and family that live so close to us.

And there you have it folks.  The party play by play.  Our party was not Pinterest worthy, but we sure loved it and had a great time.  Again, I apologize for the boring commentary, but Keely is yanking at my hair and "talking" to me about her day.  Being a mom to these sweet babies is the best thing in the world.  I wouldn't change anything for the world.

Happy Birthday Malia girl.  You are so loved and appreciated for all that you do and are.  You are turning out to be a sweet, smart and funny little girl and we are so lucky to be your parents for eternity.

xoxoxo, mommy and daddy