All kinds of fun! Silk dresses, weddings, fire parties, Eidem boys...

It's been another busy week... Kylie started to imitate everything - she got "stuck" on the stairs, and told Mom, she started to say "yes", and she even tried walking a bit more. Neela seems to be saying phrases more than single words, but you have to listen VERY hard to understand her.

Friday, Grandma and Papa G., Aunt Angie, Aunt Heidi and Uncle Cory came for a visit. Aunt Heidi brought us gifts from her trips to China and Alaska. She brought us silk dresses - and Kylie didn't want to take her's off! She also brought us "Nina" - one of the Olympic mascots - it speaks in Chinese and English to us!


On Saturday afternoon, we went to Eric and Lexie Hitchings' wedding reception. It was lots of fun - we played with the soccer ball, played on the playground behind the house, played with the leaves in the tree, tried cupcakes, gave Eric and Lexie lots of hugs... Papa "gave" Lexie away at the blessing ceremony - he was very proud (and we were very proud of him!).



On Sunday, we played "race cars" and test drove the wheelbarrow in the backyard before our guests all went home.



After everyone left, we went to Family Day at Daddy's fire station. We played with the bocce balls, and their were LOTS of other kids there. One little boy threw cedar chips on Neela - she thought it was funny :-) Then, the Eidem family (Steven, Peggy, Isaac and Brenden) came to visit. We had not met them yet - and we played with them at the fire station and our house! They LOVED Cy, our bubble machine, our slides, our little cars, our ball pit...

Have a good week!
Love, K&N

The Zoo... and other fun things!

We went to the Como Zoo last Thursday! We had so much fun - we saw monkeys playing in a ball pit -- just like our's! We saw seals, sea lions, fish... giraffes, lions, a zebra... It was very interesting. We had a picnic next to Sparky's cage - and we got VERY tired! We fell asleep in the car on the way to pick up Cy at Alyssa's house! When we woke up from our naps, we were so excited to see Cy -- we hadn't seen him in 5 days!

Saturday, we went to another big wedding - Anna Bachman's - in Rochester. It was a long drive without our DVD players in Daddy's car, but we had fun in Grandma and Papa's hotel room, waving at people in church, playing in the church toy room, and handing every paper in the pew to cousin Patrick (right behind us).

Sunday, Aunt Angie moved in! We are excited to have her stay with us while she starts her new job.

Kylie is taking steps now - when she doesn't think about it. When she gets on concrete, she bear crawls (knees up in the air). She's also started to imitate sounds -- tonight, she told me "bye, bye letters" (right after I said "bye, bye letters"). We really better watch out!

Neela kissed the driveway on Friday night - she's a bit scratched up, but not too bad. The worst was under her nose... She was running away from Mom - trying to get to the street - and got going a little too fast. Her feet stopped, but she didn't! She's still not talking much - but she does say Hi, Bye, Daddy... and she knows what to do when you ask her things.

Love,
Jenny

Floding Resort 2008

Before we tell you about our summer vacation with the Guggisberg clan... Kylie took her first steps on Thursday, June 12... and her first steps Mom saw on Friday, June 13... but she still refuses to walk MOST of the time! Kylie also got her first molar on Tuesday, and she's working on the last 3... Neela continues to work on her molars, too -- and it made the trip one for the record books!

What did we do in Alexandria?


Mallory, Neela & Kylie sharing snacks!

We looked at fish with Papa, tried fishing with cousin Mallory's pole...


We also went for our first ride in the boat - and on the kayak!


We tried Capri Sun!


We played in Grandma's "Froggy" pool with cousin Mallory...


We went for a ride behind Papa's bike... he thought we looked at his butt the entire time, but we really liked his Cookie Monster jersey - and even managed to take a nap until he hit some big bumps!


We played in the sand...


In general, the entire group had a lot of fun - and we'll be headed back to the lake next year!


Tomorrow is Mom & Dad's 9th anniversary (can you believe it? We couldn't imagine 9 years when they told us) - and they are taking us to the Como Zoo :-) We're very excited! We've only been to the Zoo once before - in September, to the Minnesota Zoo with Alison & Olivia, and never with Daddy - and we will know so much more now! We'll post pictures!

Love,
K&N

The BIG Estochen Wedding

Hi Everyone!

Pictures speak louder than words... so we'll let these speak! This weekend, we went to Daddy's cousin Amber's wedding in Sioux City. Of course, we looked very cute in our blue and white dresses with the red ribbons :-) We made it through the entire ceremony - well, almost. Kylie told Uncle Chuckie "No, no, no" during the vows (loudly!), and Neela and Grandma went and sat under a tree 'cuz it was hot in the sun! We made it until 9 PM at the reception before Daddy decided it was bedtime (Kylie was sleeping on Uncle Chuckie by then!). But, we had a LOT of fun!

On Sunday, Aunt Renee, Uncle David, Aunt Kara and Uncle Sam (from ALASKA!), and Great-Grandma Estochen babysat us while Mom & Dad golfed in a tournament with Grandma, Grandpa, Great-Grandpa and Uncle Chuckie. Then, we all had supper together - before we made the LONG trek home today! Uncle David will be publishing lots of pictures of the happy couple (Congratulations, "Aunt" Amber and "Uncle" Adi!!), so we'll just show off some pictures of us having fun!

Love,
K&N

Little Gym Champions!

Tonight was our last night as "Birds" at the Little Gym. We were late because of heavy rain, but we had lots of fun exploring the gym. In the fall, we'll go back as "Beasts"! Here are pictures of us receiving our medals -- Gold, of course!

We drove home in the rain - Daddy went to his investment club - and had pizza, sweet potatoes, and green beans for supper. Then, it was into the tub... and for the best adventure of the night... Mom threw the towels down the stairs after she dried us off - with a sinking suspicion that something was going to happen 'cuz she didn't cover the floor with them like usual. Crazy how Moms can be right... Neela ended the night as a true champion - she decided to pick tonight to poop on the carpet! Of course, she finished in the diaper - and needed two diapers before bed!
We got in bed - and said "Night, night" to Mom while she cleaned the carpet! So... night, night, sleep tight!

Hand, Foot, and....

The weekend starting off to be an uneventful, stay home weekend... and turned into craziness! Neela got her first haircut on Friday - just the bangs, but my camera battery died - so the pictures are Sydney's camera! We'll post them when we get them.

Friday night, Kylie was up from 11-3... then Neela woke up screaming at 4... then we went to gymnastics, and did a few things around the house. Saturday and Sunday were just lazy days... a bike ride in our "buggy" with Cy on the handlebars... Dad mowed the lawn, and Neela loved watching... grocery shopping...

THEN, the girls got rashes every time we went outside. We assumed heat rash and teething were irritating them... little did we know... one of my co-worker's children came down with "hand-foot-mouth" disease, and my co-worker played with the girls last week. The incubation period is 3-5 days, followed by a fever for 1-2 days, then blisters for 3-7 days... Both girls are beyond the fever, Neela is beyond the blisters, but Kylie still has blisters on her tongue. They've been miserable - but should only be contagious via "stools" (according to Mayo Clinic literature) now (they are supposed to only be contagious until the fever is gone...). Hopefully, they'll recover soon -- we can't take too many more nights like this, and keep working :-)