Monday, December 22, 2008

Invitation

We have decided to do away with open blogging for now. If you would like for me to send you an invite link or you know people who read and I haven't yet sent them the link, just email me at keyskidsblog@gmail.com.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Big Girls DO Cry

We took Olivia to her two month checkup last week. It's hard to believe she is already over two months old.
She weighed in at a whopping 12 lbs, 6 oz. and is 24 inches long! She is in the 95th percentile for her weight and length.
That pretty much explains why she is drinking 8 oz. bottles without even flinching; and would you believe that when she is finished with that, she usually cries for more.

Also at her visit Livy was given her vaccinations: four shots in the leg and one orally for the rotavirus and she did cry... but only for a few seconds. Right before the nurse gave her the first shot she looked up at us and said, "She IS going to cry, so be ready!" At that time, Livy pouted her bottom lip as if she knew what was coming. We figured she probably just cried because of the initial pinching feeling because she was out like a light soon after the nurse was finished. What a good girl!


What a big girl!


Zonked out after her shots

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Gama's Christmas

On Saturday we took a road trip to Gama's house! Gama is Livy's Great Grandmother. We had a fun time eating delicious food, opening presents and having lots of laughs with the family. Livy slept a good bit of the time but when she was awake, she enjoyed being held and making everyone laugh with her infectious smile.

Next week we leave for North Carolina! We are going to meet up with family and friends and attend Johnny's graduation ceremony. So, pictures of Dr. John R. Samuels Jr. will be coming soon!

In the meantime, here are some pictures of our early Christmas celebration as well as some other pictures I couldn't resist taking...

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Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Success!!

Our road trip went very well. Olivia slept the entire trip over and almost the entire trip back. The traffic jams made our trip back quite a bit longer than expected. We find she is happiest when the car is moving.

The first morning we all got up and went for a walk in the chilly weather. Yes, it even gets a little cold in South Florida:) The rest of the time was spent cooking, baking, hanging out with family and friends, wave-running on the lake, eating and sleeping (okay, not so much sleep).

Enjoy these pictures of our Thanksgiving adventure!

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Monday, November 24, 2008

Anticipation

Our first road trip with Livy (and of course the minivan) is right around the corner.

On Wednesday, after Johnny gets home from work, Livy, Ellie, Boots, Johnny and myself will load up and travel about 3 hours to our Thanksgiving destination. Well, at least it used to be a 3 hour road trip - we'll see how it goes now that we have "Little Bit."

This past week I have been mentally packing. It's amazing how many things there are to think about when traveling with a baby - from bottles and diapers to clothes and toys. Johnny and I will probably arrive with nothing more than the shirts on our back.

Anyway, we are looking forward to spending time with family and digging into tons of delicious food!

Be on the lookout for pictures of our highly anticipated road trip.

Monday, November 17, 2008

53 Days!

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Baby Boots

Boots, our first baby, makes yet another transition.

Let me give you a quick timeline of Boot's life.

In October 2002, Boots was given to us by a friend as a 3 week old little kitten. He had the run of the roost. All of our attention was given to this little ball of brownish-black fur with white feet - hence the name given to him by Johnny - "Boots".




















In May 2005, we adopted Ellie, a sweet little treeing walker hound, from the SPCA. Boots quickly welcomed her into our home and even started to "look up" to her.




















A series of big moves during summer 2008 from one apartment to the next may have made any other cat "turn up it's tail" on us.  This is especially true since he moved from a house and a neighborhood filled with his kitty friends and grass to roll in.



On top of all these moves, Boots began to notice that one of his owners had an evergrowing belly which he didn't quite know what to make of. So, he decided to hide anywhere and everywhere he would fit (and if you have met Boots, fitting into places is a challenge:)





















Boots, being a curious cat, decided to wait it out and see what came of it all.
Currently, Boots has made it his daily job to remind us that he is still our baby.




























































Though Boots has endured many changes, at the end of the day he purrs louder than ever as he is confident that he will always be our Baby Boots!









Friday, November 7, 2008

Six Weeks!

Uncle K.C. came to visit last weekend! We all went to Trunk-Or-Treat (of course, Livy wore her pumpkin outfit) and enjoyed hanging out together.

In other news, Livy is starting to sleep longer hours during the night - a whole 4 hours STRAIGHT, for which Johnny and I are very grateful.

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Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Happy Halloween!

Thanks to our SGB (a.k.a. John, or Gramps as he's known to Olivia) we have added so many beautiful pictures of Livy to our album! We all had such a great time visiting with Gramps last week.


Johnny is in the middle of yet another project. He is building a rocking horse for Olivia. You should see him set up shop with his tools (including a miter saw) on our little 5 x 5 deck.

The other night, we went to a Halloween costume party. We brought Livy dressed up as a pumpkin.

Enjoy these pictures from our recent adventures!



Johnny and Livy with some of the rocking horse pieces cut 10/08
(This was the only photo not taken down by photobucket)

Sunday, October 26, 2008

SGB is back!

Hey again.  As promised, here is what was ordered last night at the Longhorn Steak House:

Steak.  Except for Richelle.  She had chicken.  

Well - wasn't that worth waiting for?  

Olivia is one month old today.  I'm going to stroll over to Panera Bread with her - I think they give people free coffee on their birthday.  Or maybe a free bagel.  

Well - TTFN.  Thanks for tuning in.  Have a nice day.  

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Special Guest Blogger

Hey there! It's me, John. Johnny's dad. Richelle said I could write today's blog entry. So here it is:

Hi. Not much happening around here.  Lots of rain, and a bit windy. Johnny, Richelle, and Olivia are fine.

I came down from Chicago for a little visit.  I was going to bring an Aurelio's pizza for Johnny and Richelle, but I didn't want to roll it up and stuff it into my carry-on bag.  So I think the next time I drive down I'll bring one or two pizzas.  (They pack 'em on dry ice...)

Tonight we're planning to meet some friends at the Longhorn Steak House.  Tune into this blog tomorrow to find out what we ordered!

(Let Richelle know if you want me to return as a guest blogger...)

Bye for now!  


Sunday, October 19, 2008

Firsts!

We took Livy to her well baby check up on Friday. She gained almost 10 ounces in 2 weeks! She is growing up fast.
This week was filled with more "firsts." She stared at herself in the play gym mirror, played around with and tracked Daddy's face and had her first real bath. Check out this video scrapbook for pictures of the events!


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Friday, October 10, 2008

My Girls

A quick video of my two favorite girls:

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

First 2 Weeks!

Olivia is a joy! She loves to chew on her fingers and kick her legs. We love watching her grow and change each day.
Enjoy the pictures!

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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Happy Birthday Olivia!!

We are proud to announce the birth of our daughter, Olivia Caroline. She was born on Friday, September 26 at 8:27 am weighing in at 8lbs 4 oz. and is 21" long. Our little girl has blue eyes and a head full of blonde hair. She is beautiful and we are enjoying every moment with her. Enjoy the pictures! (Of course, Johnny is preparing a video and we will post it soon.)

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Monday, September 22, 2008

38 Week Pictures

We can't wait for D-day! Here are some recent pictures. Enjoy!


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Tuesday, September 9, 2008

The Nursery

The nursery is DONE! We have all of the baby supplies we need (well...maybe a few more diapers wouldn't hurt....) and are ready for baby girl to make her grand entrance. Johnny has been working diligently putting together the bedroom fan, furniture, pack-n-play, stroller and the baby swing. All that is left is the car seat base that needs to be installed in the Camry.

So, without further ado, here are the nursery pictures as well as some pictures of Johnny building his masterpieces - of course with the help of our little inspectors!


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Monday, September 1, 2008

Moving Day

Thanks to a lot of help from friends and family, our third move in three months went off without a hitch. You don't believe me? Take a look below. By the way, there is another version of this video that is a real "gas." If you'd like to see it, just leave a comment (click the link "comments" at the end of the post) and I'll shoot you a link ASAP.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

It's finally here!!

No, Richelle did not have the baby (yet!). Instead I finally have in my possession our wave-running adventures in Lake Placid (despite delaying tactics and a damaged video). The scenes in the video occurred during the Fourth of July weekend. Heed the warning in the video - please do not try this at home!!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

We Survived

I don't know how we did it but we survived Tropical Storm Fay. Judging from the news reports you'd think we just underwent a tsunami when we really just experienced a very windy rainstorm. The best part about the storm? No thunder, which meant Ellie didn't get herself worked up into a tizzy. She merely hid in a closet. The worst part of the storm? The Camry. It seems that a sedan is not the best vehicle for driving on flooded roadways. But the Camry did what needed to be done without stalling in two feet of water. Anyway, here's some pictures and a video.

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Monday, August 18, 2008

The Long Wait...

Well, here we sit waiting for TS Fay to strike. The Hurricane Center projected Fay to hit the Keys, but the island folk missed the bullet. Instead, it seems that Central Florida/Space Coast will feel some of the effects of the storm. So, this leaves me with one question - will my mother-in-law use her time off from work (school is out until Wednesday) to send me a copy of the much-anticipated, long overdue, wave-running video that was promised over a month ago?? We'll see.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Move #3

Yes, we are all set to move for the third time in three months! This is the move where we get to unload the POD and use some of our worldly items again. K.C is coming up to help us unload the big stuff into our two bedroom apartment which should be just enough to keep the five of us comfortable for a a few months. Ellie and Boots may end up snuggling together in the baby's crib for the time being but they are not strangers to confined spaces. I promise to post pictures of the adventure.

Also, Johnny has some pics from Kristen's wedding - he's still working on the video and should be done soon!

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Sunday, August 3, 2008

One more thing...

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Well, Richelle had an ultrasound a couple of weeks ago. Everything is great - by all measures the little girl is healthy. It was a pretty routine event, until the technician measured the baby's head. At first all Richelle and the technician could see was the top of the skull. But after a few seconds the baby slowly titled her head back and stared straight up at the wand - just as she did at the first ultrasound (see the June 2nd post)! Well, that surprised even the technician who had never seen this type of behavior before. Anyway, this is a hopeful sign since being comfortable with the camera is a good trait to have in this family - around every corner lurks some type of recording device at at the Knudsen compound. Heck, I bet there's at least 52 hours of Richelle and K.C. doing dishes after dinner.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Love is in the air...

Well, Richelle and I just got back from Chicago where we spent last weekend celebrating Kristen and Lar's wedding. We had a great time. We got to see and visit with family and friends that we haven't seen in a long time, as well as enjoy Chicago when the weather is pleasant. Some of the wedding highlights include:

- my cousin Austin's extreme dancing
- Zoe (Kristen's dog) chewing through a leash
- an awesome chicken dinner at the wedding reception
- the Borg cube wedding cake (according to Lars it was from Star Trek's "First Contact" movie - see the video for more details)

Don't worry - even though I have a video backlog (I am still waiting on my mother-in-law to send up the wave-running video) here's a little snippet of the wedding:

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Road Trips

In between Johnny starting a new job and house hunting, we've managed to take a couple of road trips. Our first was to the Keys where we celebrated Dad's birthday, took the wave runners out for a spin and even tried to set up the baby's brand new pack-n-play!

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Then over the Fourth of July weekend Johnny and I (along with Ellie and Boots) took another short road trip - this time to Lake Placid, FL. We met up with my parents, grandparents, brother and his girlfriend. We (again!) took the wave runners out on the lake, set off fireworks and ate everything from burgers to fruit salad. As soon as I become savvy enough, I'll post a video of a wave running stunt that has now been mastered!

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Thursday, June 26, 2008

And the winner is...

So who had to make more bathroom stops on our road trip from Raleigh to Melbourne? Well, it wasn't much of a contest. Dad, with his trusty McDonalds' cup, continues to defy high expectations. At one point during the trip however Richelle was actually in contention by requesting back to back stops, but Dad clinched the competition by remaining behind us and sneaking off to rest areas. We caught him because at the end of the trip he was at least 10 minutes in FRONT of us, but when he arrived in Melbourne 15 minutes BEHIND us we knew something fishy was going on.

Once we arrived in Melbourne the fun really began. After unpacking one of the Camrys we realized that most of the stuff in the other Camry could be put into storage. Also, the baby furniture arrived at the local JCPenney and needed to be picked up by Saturday. The only problem was that not all the furniture could fit within the Camry. That meant we had to tie the crib to the roof of the Camry, drive it to the apartment, and unpack everything into storage. All this had to be done before the 3 o'clock afternoon rainstorm. Luckily we had the expert help of Andy, JCPenney's very own MacGyver. You can see from the pictures that his help was indispensable.

All in all Melbourne seems to be an interesting place.

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Dr. John Richard Samuels Jr.

After 5 years of graduate school at NC State, Johnny successfully defended his thesis and officially earned his PhD in Applied and Computational Mathematics! After his defense, John, Johnny, myself, a variety of professors and friends celebrated at a local dive. The event included a giant cookie from the Original Cookie Company, drinks, appetizers, lots of laughs along with some sad goodbyes. All in all, excitement and big hopes for the future filled the air!
I'll post pictures soon...

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Welcome home...

Well Richelle and I are officially Floridians again. Last Wednesday and Thursday Richelle, Dad and I tried to shove everything that didn't make it into the POD into 2 Camrys. A couple of us were optimistic that the Camrys would do the trick, but as predicted we ended sending 8 boxes through UPS. Thank God for UPS, or else Boots would have had to ride roofside. Anyway, we woke up early Friday morning, loaded Ellie and Boots in the car and off we went. We had a good time driving down - heck, we even had a little contest going on. We wondered who would have more bathroom breaks - Dad, with his refillable coffee cups in hand or pregnant Richelle, who seems to hit up every bathroom in her path. Just for a little suspense I will post the results tomorrow...

So, we have a few stories to share about our adventures in Melbourne, but since I can't upload pictures yet they'll have to wait.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

The Announcement Redux

So, some thought the video we posted May 31st did not work - they didn't have the volume turned up at the start of the video.  Here's our second attempt (make sure the volume is up!):

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Four Years! 24 Weeks!

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Four years ago today, Johnny and I were married down in the fabulous Florida Keys surrounded by family and friends! 
We celebrated with an awesome dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Yummy! Johnny worked down on campus for most of the day in order to finish up the loose ends with his disertation. He gives his Doctoral Defense on Tuesday!  
This morning I went to the dentist. Turns out, I have pregnancy gingivitis. It made for a rough cleaning but basically my gums are red and irritated. The dentist said it should go away as soon as our little girl makes her appearance.
Speaking of our little girl (nameless so far), she is 24 weeks today! She is getting big. She lets me know she's up each morning with the pitter patter of her little hand or foot knocking on my tummy. Here is a picture of what she may look like at this pointEnjoy!


Friday, June 6, 2008

Pictures

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Baby furniture has arrived!!!

We are excited about putting it together once we find a place in Melbourne, FL.  When will we have a place in Melbourne?  Good question - that's one more reason to keep tabs on the blog!!  Enough marketing, here's a shot of the crib (from JCPenney).  There's also an accompanying changing table and 5 drawer dresser that we chose (no picture available in the coffee color).  Thanks to Gama for the generous gift!! 


Monday, June 2, 2008

19 week pictures

Here are a few pictures of our little bean sprout at 19 weeks. The first shot of our little girl shows her looking directly at the camera. Johnny thinks it's a sign of her brilliance that she turned to look at us the moment the technician snapped a shot!



Here is a profile shot that proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the fetus is a girl. They could have told us that I had sextuplets and I wouldn't have aruged - who can tell what's going on in there with just an ultrasound picture?




Another profile shot of her head and one of her arms.







Here she is again looking at the camera.







We could have probably figured this one out on our own - those are her feet! The same ones that I feel kicking me all day long!






Another profile shot of her head and arm.




Saturday, May 31, 2008

The Announcement

We were fortunate enough to share the news of Richelle's pregnancy with her family (and my Dad).  We announced the news in the middle of a video I made of a cruise Richelle and I took with the Knudsen clan (Ken, Juanita and K.C.).  At the end of the video we dropped the pumpkin bomb.  Since we weren't able to share the news this way with everyone else we decided to post it...

Hello World!

Ok, Richelle and I decided to start a blog so that our family and friends won't have to view a deluge of pictures from our quest into parenthood and other various adventures. Without further ado, here's a brief synopsis of what's been happening in Raleigh:

1) 2904 (our house) has sold! We closed on our house of four years May 27th, 2008. Everything went smoothly, except for a bit of toilet bowl cleaner that leaked out of the bottle onto our carpet. Well, it didn't really leak - I dropped the bottle. But the cap was not securely fastened, so someone else (not to mention any names) may share some of the blame :). That little setback cost a chunk of change. Anyway, with the help of my Dad, we were able to stuff a POD (portable on-demand storage unit) full of most of our worldly possessions.

2) Because of the sale of the house, and the fact that we won't be leaving Raleigh until mid-June, we are now living in temporary housing. The place comes fully furnished and has a place to walk Ellie. The best part - it comes with cable (it's been a while since we last had cable)!!

3) We found out Richelle is carrying a little girl. This is great news for Babies-R-Us since I can guarantee that my mother-in-law will be spending a few hours in their stores.


Well, the battery on my laptop is almost drained and Richelle is completely drained so I guess that's it for this post.