birthdays!

One month ago was Seth's 3rd birthday and Olivia's 1st birthday.  Since their birthdays are only 11 days apart, we decided to do do a combo party ... well, make that two combo parties:  A playdate party in the morning for their friends and my mommy friends, and a family party in the afternoon for our families.  Seth is at an age now where he has real friends, and I've drawn very closely to a group of ladies that have babies all around Olivia's age.  Our house just isn't big enough for both friends and family, so ... two identical parties with two groups of people we love!  

I decided on a "Bugs & Butterflies" theme party.  Boys love bugs and girls love butterflies.  So I kinda went with an picnic take on the decor: plaid tablecloths, sandwiches and fruit for lunch, sticks as table centerpieces with little plastic bugs crawling everywhere and butterfly nets with butterflies all around.  It was really fun.  We also borrowed a bounce house from Jack's brother and the kids were all over it!  As an activity, I found these cute little bug boxes that I had the kids decorate with stickers to spell their names out and they went to go find bugs (the plastic bugs I had all over the tables).  We had a great time!  And the kids were blessed with so many fantastic gifts.  Olivia downed her cake like nobody's business.  She loves her sweets!  (Well, she loves everything.  She's my great eater!)  

I'm so amazed still at how fast their first year of life goes.  And honestly it goes faster as they get older.  The fact that I can sit down and have a full conversation with Seth blows my mind.  He's in school for goodness sake!  Where did the time go??  So blessed by two healthy, happy, and sweet children. 

The Party

The Playdate Party

The Family Party

New party, new outfit :)

Joel just told Seth that his gift to him was a trip to the SF Zoo.  Seth just walked away.

On Seth's actual birthday ... sprinkle french toast and party hats at breakfast!

our own haven

Quite a few months ago now, we had our backyard re-landscaped.  Well, I should say it was just landscaped ... it was just a plot of weeds before.  We wanted a space for the kids to run around in and a space that we'd actually want to be in.  Our dining room is rather small inside, so we also wanted an area for a dining table and chairs to use during the summer months.  We are so very happy with the results!

Before:

After:

It was a really great process too.  Our landscapers were so kind and hardworking.  It took them 5 days to build everything.  We added a  deck, irrigation and drip system, sod and lots of beautiful plantings.  I found a great flower garden diagram of "Tough as Nails" plants from the Better Homes and Gardens website.  Since I have such a black thumb when it comes to keeping plants alive, I thought this would be a great way to still have flowers, but knowing I couldn't kill them as easily.  The whole family went to the nursery one Saturday and picked out the plants from that plan, as well as a few more that we just really liked.  We are so happy with the outcome!  It's gorgeous.  I would do everything the same all over again.  Now we just want to spruce up the front yard a bit more.  :)

happy 1st birthday, olivia rose!

It is so hard to believe that 1 year ago today, our sweet Olivia Rose was born.  Whew!  I remember that day as if it was yesterday.  Seriously.  Even though we knew she was going to be a girl (the Lord confirmed it in my heart early on, and the ultrasound proved it), God added the cherry on top with her deep red hair.  We were so surprised!  

Praise the Lord for the sweetest, most happy little girl I know.  She has brought so much joy into our lives.  I distinctly remember moments in the last year that I have walked into her room after she woke up from a nap to find this precious little lady standing there, smiling from ear to ear, and I'm thinking, "Wow.  I can't believe she's mine!"  I can honestly say I feel so blessed to be her mom.  I am so proud of her.

We're celebrating both of the kids birthdays in a couple of weeks, so this morning was just a simple birthday breakfast celebration ... party hats, party horn blower thingys, and sprinkle french toast.  

That's her mid-action blowing out her candle!

seth's first day of preschool

Seth is officially in school.  He started this Tuesday and absolutely loves it!  Both days this week when I've come to pick him up, he doesn't want to leave.  I love it.  His favorite time is circle time when they sit and read books and sing songs.  Both of his teachers are so sweet and seem to be great with the children.  My little boy is growing up!

4 years strong ...

This last week Jack and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary!  It's crazy how fast time goes - and yet I can barely remember what life was like before marriage and children.  It seems like a dream.

To celebrate, we dropped the kids off at Jack's parents house and we went to be tourists in our own city for a day (how often do you ever do the tourist-y things in your own city?!).  We rented bikes on Fisherman's Wharf, rode them along the water, stopped off at the Palace of Fine Arts, rode up the *extremely* steep hill to the Golden Gate bridge, across and down into the quaint town of Sausalito to have lunch and the rode the ferry back into Pier 39.  It was a wonderful day!  We had an absolute blast.

Here's to many, many more years!  Love you, Jackson!!!

Trying to take a "selfie" and get the Golden Gate in the background ...
eventually someone came up asked if they could help.

That's better :) 

Overlooking the Bay ... made it up the toughest hill!

Took at pit stop at the Palace of Fine Arts

  

Getting closer to the bridge!

Overlooking the Bay ... made it up the toughest hill!

Made it!

Made it!

In Sausalito

wisconskin

We made it safely back from our family vacation of 2013 in Eagle River, Wisconsin (or "Wisconskin" as Seth would say).  We had a wonderful, wonderful time!  This is a vacation that my parents, brothers and I would make every summer growing up as kids - back to the same lake where my mom grew up in northern Wisconsin - so it was really awesome to be able to share that part of my life with my husband and kids.  Here's a little recap:

Travel
The kids did a great job on the plane, there and back.  I was so impressed.  We packed Seth a little backpack full of new toys he's never seen before and added new apps onto the iPad for him ... he was well occupied!  Olivia is a happy girl in general, but she also slept on each flight, and we passed her along between Jack, myself and my parents and brothers.  The 4-hour car ride once we landed in Madison, though, was another story.  I could totally understand the kids were ready to get up and run around for awhile, but we had to get to the lodge.  The last hour or so of the drive consisted of me, Joel and Carlee (Joel's wonderful and amazing girlfriend) singing "Father Abraham" - with all the hand motions - and every other Sunday School song we could think of just to keep the kids' screams at bay. Haha.  I'm sure we looked ridiculous.  


Family
Even though we live only two hours away from my parents, we rarely get to see each other, so this week was nice just to be with them.  It was so wonderful to get to spend time with almost all of my aunts, uncles and cousins from that side of the family too.  We used to all get together like this every single summer growing up, but once we moved to California when I was 14, we went back once.  So we really haven't had much time with our extended family like this since around 2000.  Now all of us cousins are older, some of us married and with kids.  It's a whole new dimension and it's wonderful.  My cousin, Brian, has a 3-year-old daughter, Mina, who played so well with Seth while they were there.  It was adorable seeing them together.  And it reminded me of my second-cousin, Duste, who was my same age and who I rarely got to see, but when we did, we were best friends.  It was also a blessing to introduce Olivia to everyone.  My grandpa from this side of the family went by his nickname, "Red", because of his red hair.  His hair color was passed on to me and a few of my cousins, and now onto Olivia.  Such a joy to be able to pass the rare trait into another generation!  I was reminded of what a great family we have.  We are so silly, sarcastic and fun, yet can be very serious, Godly and emotional.  There were a few moments during our time there that I was struck with just an overwhelming feeling of love for my family and a feeling of being so blessed to be called a Keller(-Hull-Osorno).

The Lodge
The lodge we stayed at is actually the very house my mom grew up in!  Even though her parents sold it over 40 years ago, we're still able to rent it out for this one week each summer.  It's a huge house with lots of bedrooms, a large kitchen and a huge dining and living space.  Perfect for everyone who was there.  Seth and Olivia absolutely loved all the open space to roam and explore.  Outside, there's a grass area leading down to the lake and dock.  Both kids loved going down there as well.  Seth is still talking about the lodge with fond memories.

Activities
My uncles all have boats and jet skis so we spent parts of each day out in the water boating, water skiing, jet skiing, and fishing.  Joel, Max, Carlee, Jack and my dad went out with my Uncle Mark two mornings and brought back some great fishing memories and a few fish large enough to fry up and eat.  It seriously brought me so much joy for Jack to be able to do this.  He's never had the chance to fish before, let along catch something, learn how to skin it, fry it up and eat it.  It was also his first time tubing and water skiing.  It seems weird, but it really blessed me to be able to give him these opportunities and to do things that I grew up doing.  I thought Seth would be addicted to riding in the boats, but quite the opposite.  I had to force him to go.  Ha.  That's his personality though.  Once he was on the boat for awhile he warmed up quite a bit.  He even drove the boat with Uncle Jed a few times - and he fell asleep at the wheel in Jed's arms.  It was precious.  Olivia on the other hand LOVED the boat.  She loved to stand as tall as she could get and have the wind whip her in her face.  Not one ounce of fear in that girl!  We were also constantly playing games - card games, pool, jarts, "dingleberry toss", concentration, trivial persuit, telephone pictionary - you name it.  So much fun!  There was one night that we went into downtown Eagle River for dinner, to walk around the shops and enjoy the live music and street dance.  Such a cute town!  And, of course, I got the kids their own Minnetonka moccasins to remember our time there (there's a large Native American presence in the northern midwest).  One unfortunate activity we had to make was to the E.R. for Olivia.  She had not been sleeping well the first few days there, but I just thought it was because we were in a new place with new sounds.  But after three whole nights of Jack and I getting maybe 4 hours of sleep ... we took her in and sure enough her ears were pretty inflamed.  She was sleeping a little better the rest of the week, but not fantastic at all.  Honestly, Jack and I were exhausted ... and cranky ... but we had enough help that we were still able to enjoy our time.

It really was a great vacation.  One that we'd love to do again one day.

Carlee, Joel, Mom and me out boating 

Boating together

Seth's first fish!

Swimming with Papa!

Seth and his second cousin, Mina

Olivia loving the boat

At the E.R. with an ear infection :(

Seth and Olivia loving the pool table

Max water skiing

Falling asleep at the wheel of the boat

Loving the boat with Uncle Jed

Almost the whole family:
Carlee, Joel, Uncle Joel, Uncle Corbin, Kyle
Dad, Max, Cali
Uncle Mark, Mom, Me, Olivia, Seth, Jack and Uncle Jed