November 5, 2012

Wrapping up October

Like we mentioned before, October has been a busy month for us.  It has been overall a great month but still has been really busy.  Take a look at what we've been up to.

APPLE HILL
We made our annual Apple Hill trip mid-October and some of the trees had started changing colors.  It was a cool day which is how we like to experience Apple Hill, but also a shock as most of the days in October have been quite warm.  Unfortunately it didn't work out for the whole Kelley family to go together like we normally do, but it was still a great time with Nonni and Papa.  Landon enjoyed eating apple donuts (his first donut experience), watching people catch fish, and riding on the train.  Landon has also enjoyed the apple cider/juice he's been having and we've enjoyed are apple turnovers!
Yummy donuts
Landon sharing with Papa
Landon with Papa and Nonni at High Hill
Same donut!
Landon loves Trains
AUNT JAN AND UNCLE BILL
John's Aunt and Uncle from Colorado made a visit to California--something that they don't do very often.  The last time we saw them out here was probably 6 years ago.  We had a great visit with them.  They joined us for Trunk or Treating at Nonni and Papa's church, which was the first time Landon really dressed up.  He had a great time handing out candy (thankfully he doesn't know candy yet so he enjoyed handing it out rather than eating), going down the big bounce house slide, and playing in the fire engine.  They took us to a great breakfast at a place we don't get to go very often which was also a great way to end their stay with us.  We were so glad it worked out for them to come visit as Landon absolutely LOVED the attention he got from them.
Handing out candy with Nonni and Papa
Playing in the Fire Engine

Uncle Bill
Aunt Jan
Landon enjoying his time with his Great Aunt and Uncle
HAPPY HALLOWEEN
Landon had a lot of fun Trick or Treating this year.  Last year he was in bed before the kids arrived and was in his costume long enough to take a picture.  This year he actually got to enjoy the evening.  We went over to Uncle Chris and Auntie Kat's house with Nonni and Papa as well as Auntie Kat's family.  They made a lasagna, salads, dips, and great desserts.  We had a fire-pit at the end of their court and just hung out.  We then took the boys around to the houses and totally wore Landon out.  He would knock at the door get his candy then ask for us to "hold you."  John was disappointed with the amount of candy Landon brought home since we didn't buy any.  Thankfully, we won't have that around the house.  We also carved a pumpkin with Landon and he didn't care much about that either.  He played along for a bit but then got bored.  He did put his hand into the pumpkin once, but didn't really like the feeling.  He'd pick out the seeds from John's pile, but didn't care to actually grab any of the guts out. 
Our little chicken
 
Landon and Tyler
Biker Papa, Chicken Landon, and Farmer Nonni
Uncle Chris with his nephews
Landon and Tyler Trick or Treating
Nonni and Papa with their Grandkids

Scooping out the guts of the pumpkin
AROUND THE HOUSE
We had a really large tree in the front yard that would drop paper towel size leaves.  Every fall we would dread the time we 'd have to clean up all the leaves.  We filled so many trash cans...we'd have to use the neighbors' can too.  During the last major wind storm a couple huge branches fell down and it became clear that our tree was in poor health. Instead of worrying about it coming down on our house (or the neighbors) or paying a ton to prune it again not knowing when something else would fall, we decided to just take the whole thing down.  Landon enjoys playing in the bark and climbing on the wood pile.  It's so great that he loves being outside so much.  
Shani's old roomie from Cal Poly and soccer buddy was in town for the weekend.  She came over for a fun visit and to meet Landon.  The last time we saw her Shani was pregnant with him.  It was great fun catching up and playing with Landon.
Christy and Landon
JOHN TESTIFIES IN COURT
John testified in San Mateo County Superior Court on Monday and Tuesday last week. He was assigned a big case (a former psychiatrist who had been diagnosed with dementia), had a controversial opinion (that he was faking symptoms to avoid trial), and then was called to court to defend it. John doesn't want to put any identifying information on the blog, but if you're curious about the case, you can "Google" John's name and "psychiatrist" and read some of the articles. John felt good about his testimony and put a ton of work into the case, so he was pleased with the positive feedback he received from the district attorney and the judge (through the decision). The case has been stressful for a while, so this weekend has been especially relaxing.

October 14, 2012

20 Months...



Landon is 20 months today.  For those of you like us, the math starts getting too confusing for the quick count.  So…that makes him a year and 8 months or a year and three quarters or four months until 2 years (a crazy thought to us) or how we think of it, a little over a year and half.  That probably made it all that more confusing, but oh well we guess you’ll read on.  Landon’s going through so many changes lately.  The biggest change is his speech.  His vocabulary has grown so much, although much of it is tough to understand unless whatever he’s trying to say is right in front of him.  The other day he was saying something to John and was near our kitchen table but John had no idea what he was saying.  Landon was very adamant and knew what he was talking about.  Finally Landon was able to show Daddy the “sticker” and John realized it did make sense what Landon was saying.  Bare with us kid, we are trying our hardest as we know you are too! 
Kefir smile
The potty continues to go really well too.  We do have to  continue to ask him to go, but we still get 2-3 hour stretches of dry diaper and we don't have to ask him every 15 minutes if he wants to go.  This has made our laundering of his cloth diapers difficult as he doesn’t use as many per day, but we can’t go too long between washes otherwise they get really stinky.  Don’t worry, we’d rather have him using the potty than worrying about laundry. He also loves riding in his play car (yes the pink one from past post) down the driveway on his own and down the street.  He’s getting quite adventurous with that.  Landon has also spent up to an hour playing with our BBQ and using John’s coals and smoking chips.  He has become skilled at using the spatula flipper and tongs on his own to stack things.  It’s pretty cute how long he can spend doing that.  He’s also developed quite the personality.  He can get quite the wild hair that at times makes Shani want to snap (John’s so much more patient).  There was one of those days a couple weeks ago before church and the paper/activity that came home with Landon from Sunday School was talking about how God created each of these little miracles for us and to remember how special they are.  God knew it was the perfect day for that lesson!  We are having a blast with our son and love watching him develop more and more each day.  We still can’t believe how much growth there has been in such a short period of time. 
Landon BBQing
Landon taking pictures on his own.  His "cheeeeese" smile!
October has been a really busy month for us thus far and we are only half-way through.  Although you wouldn’t guess it is October with our 90 degree days we are having.  Where is fall?  We love fall! 

We took Landon to his first pumpkin patch.  We didn’t go last year because he still seemed a little young.  He played with pumpkins some up at Apple Hill but we didn’t take him to a “real” pumpkin patch until this year.  We had such a great time and definitely hope to make another trip before the end of the month.  There was a train ride which is always a big hit for Landon.  He’s really into “choo-choos” right now.  The hayride was also a lot of fun for him.  They had a petting zoo and slides, all the things kids love.   Landon had fun walking around finding the pumpkin he wanted.  He tried to pick up a couple but couldn’t quite manage the size.  It was still really cute to watch.  We look forward to carving some at the end of the month.  We’ll see what he thinks of cleaning out the guts.  Our guess is he’ll love it!  
Train at Bishop's
Landon loves petting the animals
Landon loves driving cars/tractors too!
Yes John is ready to catch the pumpkin
What a big boy!
So many pumpkins to pick from
Trying to lift one
Shani and Landon went to the Sac Zoo with Liz and Sophia on one of their days off.  It's always fun to watch the kids play together since they are only a couple months apart.  Plus Shani loves catching up with Liz since she doesn't get to see her much with their opposite work schedules and the 45 minutes between us.  The kids loved running around the zoo although we don't think they cared much about the animals.  They seemed to actually have more fun when we let them run around the park near our cars.  Guess it's always the simple things with the young ones.  
The most they cared about the animals
Landon and Sophia
Last weekend we ran in a 5K Mud Run with our great friends Karin and Zach.  There was a lot of convincing to get John to sign up for it; thankfully we got a deal on Groupon.  We eventually talked him into with the “beer tent” that waited at the end (turns out it was Coors Light - Just says it was false advertising).  The night before the race John said he bet after the race we’d wish we’d paid 60 bucks to not run.  Shani was worried he was going to be right.  The furthest we’d been running was 2 miles and we’ve been so out of shape.  In the end we had an absolute blast!  We even plan on doing it again sometime.  The 3 miles was no biggy at all (the obstacles broke up the run) and the obstacles and mud were actually a lot of fun. The boys got pretty banged up during the slides, actually drawing blood!  We finished pretty close to the front of our wave time which was not too shabby.  We felt it by the end but definitely doable.  It definitely was no Tough Mudder but we consider it an accomplishment anyway!
Before...
After!
Finish line- we are still smiling!
Mud Crawl
Karin, Shani,  and John through mini mud pit
This was after we "washed off"
Zach got a little dirty
War Wounds

October 2, 2012

Happy Birthday Nonni

Landon was very lucky and got to spend the entire day with Nonni!  It was her birthday and all she wanted was to spend some time with her grandchildren and she did.  She watched Landon all day for us and even got to watch Kaydence for a bit while Auntie Kathryn ran a couple errands.  For her birthday, along with Chris and Kat, we took pictures of Landon and Kaydence and framed them for her.  Here are a couple pictures from our "photo shoot."  By the way, after trying to take pictures and have both kids cooperate, Shani gives a ton of credit to photographers that do this on a daily basis.  It's tough but the rewards are great!