Christmas Day

Christmas day started for me at 8 in the morning and I was the first one up in the house! I couldn't believe all the babies were fast asleep so Matt and I bucked family tradition of stinking while we opened presents and took showers. By the time everyone was up Keeley was ready for a nap so she was less than thrilled in most of the pictures.
Christmas Morning

Keeley and her presents **thanks Aunt Lorie!

I wanted to take Keeley to the D.C Temple to see the lights. So we ventured out. Here is the entire gang in front of the temple.

Our little family at the Washington D.C Temple.

Thank you so much to all of our family and friends for all the presents and are cards we received. We truly appreciate your thoughtfulness and generosity this year. We have been greatly blessed.

Christmas Eve

This year we headed up to Washington D.C to be with Matt's side of the family for Christmas. In the Roberts family the celebration really starts with Christmas Eve dinner.
Followed by a competitive game of Bingo where the boys fought to win guns. You can see by these pictures who were the trouble makers.

Matt's brother Peter was there from Seattle with his wife (and my best friend) Mackenzie and their two adorable children, Nathan 2 and Hailee 4.5 month. Simon, Matt's youngest brother was also there to celebrate his last Christmas home before he leaves on his mission. Grandma and Grandpa Linell also were able to come and see the new additions to the family for the first time. Aren't they quite the trio.
The Little Princesses
Looks at this Chritmas Eve cutie!

Head Bump

Keeley show affection my giving you or the object a head bump. Check out the love she is showing this crib toy.

Santa

It is a tradition in the Conner family to get your picture taken with Santa every year. I was very excited to take Keeley for her first picture.

Isn't she cute!

She is my Christmas dress that I wore at 18 months. Because our birthdays are only 6 days apart I thought that it would work out perfect to use some of my outfits that my mom kept. Little did I know that it would work out perfect but that she would be in my outfits a year early. She is so tall! Here I am at 19 months in the same dress.

1987. Here is my Mom's favorite. Sean was just not at all happy about this event and I was fine with it all.

1986

This was a family visit to Santa in 1996. When I say family I mean the entire family. We took 6 dogs to visit Santa. He had to be thrilled.
Sean, Matt and I even got pictures taken in 2006. It was great! I hope we are always able to do this. It is so much fun.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Bit off More Than She Can Chew

Keeley loves to feed herself these toast things I get. Actually she likes to feed herself anything but this is what I allow her to feed herself. She just got her third tooth on the 17th of December and so now she thinks she is a pro.

Backed Into a Corner

Keeley scoots herself all over the living room these days. This is how it starts.
After a few minutes she has her self in a real mess. Here are a few of the awkward position have found her in.
This is only the beginning I'm sure.

"The Cutest Baby I Have Ever Seen"

I'm sure all of you moms have heard the comments about how cute your baby is. if not I'm very sorry but you may have ugly babies. They go something like this.

"Your baby is adorable."
"She is so pretty."
"He is a doll." then I respond "Thanks I sure think SHE is."

Well now is my turn to convince each of you that my baby is the "The cutest baby [you] have ever seen." Here are some of the compliments that she has been given.


I think Keeley had an especially cute day as we flew back from Seattle a little over a month ago. Without (too much) exaggeration I'll bet we got over a 100 comments and a 100 others that were whispered as they passed by so we wouldn't hear them. My favorite that day was from the lady we passed who said "You have the cutest baby I have ever seen. You really should have her on commercials." Yes that is my shining moment. When some stranger thinks she should be on commercials (maybe not movies but yes commercials).

That same day I was also given (by a very straight looking man in his 30's) the award of "cutest baby of the day". Way to go Keeley!!

The most common comments I get are one of the following:

"Hey, bright eyes."
"She has the biggest eyes I have ever seen."
"What beautiful eyes."
"Look at those blue eyes."

I can almost predict that every person who talks with her, or me, will let me know that she has big blue eyes just in case I haven't noticed how beautiful my babies eyes are.

Don't get me wrong I appreciate all the compliments I get. And, I have to agree with the lady in the airport "She is the Cutest baby I have ever seen." Thanks for letting me brag.

Potatoes

You can tell that Keeley isn't an Idaho girl by this clip!

Family Shoot

Thanks to Rebecca we have some fun family pictures. This is the first time we have had "real" family pictures taken so I was very excited. Without further ado. . . .

Busy Weekend

After a night of games and hanging out at a friends house we were exhausted. Our solution was cuddling on the couch and falling asleep to replays of The Office. What more can a girl ask for.

Some friends came over for a pasta potluck and we filled our little home to the brim. Here are all the children eating picnic style on our floor. We had a lot of fun, thanks for coming!

In between our playing with friends we finished up the bathrooms, put up Christmas lights, went to a baby shower, worked on Christmas cards, and helped out a friend with a few idea for their front yard. I think we are ready for the week and a little rest! (You know it is bad when Keeley, of all babies, falls asleep on the floor.)

I've been Tagged

A--Attached or Single: Attached to this stud!

B--Best Friend: Matt, who else

C--Cake or Pie: cake. . yum.
D--Day of Choice: Sunday, day of rest how can you go wrong with that!
E--Essential Item: Vaseline, you say why? Because I use it as chapstick and I don’t travel without it.
F--Favorite Color: brown, you should see my house
G--Greatest Accomplishment: My baby girl, I did pretty good didn't I!
H--Hometown: Idaho Falls-I still claim it even though I haven’t lived there in years
I--Indulgences: Pepsi, it can solve nearly any high stress situation with a can
J--January or July: normally July. My best memories are in the summer but here it is too hot.
K--Kids: Keeley Addison but don’t worry were not done yet
L--Life is incomplete without: nature
M--Marriage Date: August 26, 2006

N--Number of Siblings: 1-Sean, I love you buddy

O--Oranges or Apples: Oranges
P--Phobias or fears: losing a baby or Matt
Q--Quotes: “Life is meant to be enjoyed not just endured” Pres. Hinckley
R--Reason to Smile: Keeley! Life may be hard sometimes but this little one makes it all worth it
S--Season: Fall – I miss Idaho!!!
T--Tag 5 Friends: Alyssa G., Jackie D., Stacy W., Deon, Jessica B.-because you haven’t posted in the last week.
U--Unknown facts about me: I’m a tree hugger deep down! I have very hippy parts of me.
V--Very favorite store: REI, don’t know what it is look it up. Matt and I could go broke there.
W--Worst habit: Taking things out on Matt even though they are rarely his fault.
X--X-ray or Ultra Sound: ultrasound. . as long as it is good news
Y--Your favorite food: Chinese food. . yum!
Z--Zodiac: Gemini

11-30-08

I can't believe we have had Keeley for six months already and at the same time I can't even remember what my life was like without her in it.

Every morning when I get her out of her crib she just smiles at me and it melts my heart.
Every time I rock her her to sleep she grabs my hand and wants to hold it as she falls asleep she melts my heart.
When she looks up at me and smiles that huge contagious smile and her eyes get so big she melts my heart.
When she crys because I leave the room she melts my heart.

I know that relationships between moms and their daughter are continuously changing but right now I just want to freeze it. We are best buds!


She is continuing to grow. She is 27.5" and 13lbs 3.5oz. The growth chart shows how she has grown over the past six months.
She has started scooting and gets up on all four now. My original guess was crawling by Christmas. It may not be Christmas but I don't think it will be long after. She loves for you to hold her fingers and let her walk. She has it figured out and puts one little foot in front of the other. She is growing up too quick. We love you Keeley and are so glad that we have been blessed to have you in our lives.

Grow Board

**I have meant to get this posted for over a month but finally I had enough help to get some good pictures. **

Mark is amazing at word work. One of the gifts you get when you get married is a piece of woodwork from him. For the last six months or so we had been bugging him getting ours. While we were visiting in October Matt started to pester again. This is how the conversation went.

Matt: "Dad, when are we going to get our wood piece?"
Mark: nothing
Matt: "Meg wants a grow board, like Heidi got but I want something cool."
Mark: smirks "I'll be right back, don't tell Mom."

Mark returns with this masterpiece.

It was suppose to be our Christmas present but we bugged him so much he finally gave in. Needless to say it is a grow board and extremely "cool." It is a Roberts tradition to have grow boards so I'm excited to have that for our kids as well.

A little history behind the details on the grow board. The idea is inspired from the Book of Mormon. There is a story about the tree of life which is the direction that we should direct our lives to return to Heavenly Father. If you hold to the iron rod then you will be able to get to the tree of life. So, the rod on the side is the iron rod and the globe is the Urim and Thummin which is a compass that only worked when it held by a righteous prophet. Here is the link to the story if you are interested in reading it. 1 Nephi Chapter 8

Now it is hanging and has the first mark on it! (This is Keeley's new face that she makes and I love it!)

Thanksgiving Week

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Mom and Dad came from Idaho and spent the week working their butts off on our house and spoiling all of us. We got more done in one week than we could have in 6 months alone. I'll post house pictures once I get everything finished up this week.


Thanksgiving day was a little eventful. Mom started dinner in the morning and we were about 20 minuets from putting the turkey in so she put the last of the casseroles in to finish up. It wasn't in two minuets and sparks and flames start shooting all over in the oven. Sure enough the heating coil blew! So we did the turkey on the grill and it turned out great. Fortunately Mom had baked several of the the other dishes the night before. It worked out fine but it makes for a good story. I mean seriously of all days to go it choose Thanksgiving day when all the stores all closed and you have to use it. We are still waiting on parts before we can use the oven again. Don't mind the string in the middle of the picture. Keeley jumped in the Johnny Jumper during dinner and I didn't want to disturb her. Matt with the feast.
Keeley thought Pappy's beard was pretty great!
Mom, Dad and Keeley in front of the house.
Thanks Mom and Dad! We appreciate all of your help. We can't wait to see you again in January (Dad, first thing Keeley did this morning was look to the fan to see if it was spinning!). We love you!

$1.84

Yes that is what we paid for gas in Richmond last weekend! While we paid over $4.00 a gallon for most of the summer it is hard to believe it has gotten so cheap. I can't remember the last time I paid less than $2.00 for gas.

An article for thought

While we lived in California I had the opportunity to serve as a temple patron. What that means is I went to the Temple at least once each week. It was one of the many tender mercy that I was granted after I lost my job. It helped my get through as I found peace and comfort by going and doing sessions every week. I even enjoyed the hour and half commute through traffic as I listen to church music. So, as I watched the protesters defile that sacred ground it was difficult to bear. Gail recently sent me an article about the protests from an LA police office who is also LDS. What I liked most about this article is that it mentions how we should be acting and examples from the scriptures that give us clear direction on enduring persecutions. While I don't fear for my family here in NC many friends are losing business at their work and having property damaged by people who are upset with the LDS stance on the issue of same sex marriage. If you have a minute please read this article.
LA Temple Protest

The Results are In

We made it back from the race this weekend; barely but I'll explain later.

Matts Time: 41min
Marks Time 46 min
Megs Time: ohh, I didn't race.

I mentioned early that we have been sick. Well the sickness hasn't stopped. Friday night as we drove up to Richmond Keeley started throwing up. Not just a little bit but enough to soak her outfit, the car seat and still drip through the bottom of seat. We pulled over and changed her and just listened to her scream the rest of the way. By the time we got there Matt and I were just a little stressed out. When I put her to bed she started waking up every 30 min! This lasted until 1:30 before she woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep. Seems how all four of us were sharing a room I didn't feel right about just letting her cry or about staying in the room while she fussed and giggled intermittently. So I hauled Keeley out to the car. It was pouring but warm so we watched the rain until 3:00. She continued to throw up a few more times and eventually feel asleep on my chest. I didn't want to wake her so we just slept (or mostly she slept, it wasn't very comfortable) in the car the rest the night. We had to be up at 5. So, with nothing more than an hour sleep and my cold moving to my chest over the night I decided it wouldn't be a good idea to run in the rain. So I watched! Just so you know I finally went to the doctor and they put me on medicine. He said that after you have had the cold for 5 days they will give you antibiotics (too bad I waited until day 13).

On a lighter note, Matt and Mark both had personal best runs. I was very excited for them and the weather cleared just 30 mins before the race start and it turned into a perfect running day. It was a very cool atmosphere and got me all jazzed for our next race, which is a story for another day.

The gang before the race.
Matt and Mark among the thousands of runners.

Matt crossing the finish line.
Medals after the race.