The Keene Family

Haley turned two last week in an uneventful-type day. She, however, would never be called uneventful. Haley is cheery and full of energy. She is daring and funny and loves kitties. Her favorite color right now is probably orange. She loves milk, berries, green vegetables, and - newly - ice cream. Her word count is soaring in the hundreds, as she is speaking in sentences of 4-6 words regularly and surprises us every day with new multisyllabic vocabulary that we don't even remember saying, like pillowcases. She has recently  conquered the tricky "am" and "do" verbs, which she throws around with sass: "Yes, I do!" and "Yes, I am!" , I am abundantly grateful that God gave me a daughter , who will compliment my "pretty shirt" and notice when I paint my toe nails, and who will tell me every detail about something that happened while her older brother ends the conversation with "it was fun." Haley has been very focused on b...

Ever since JT watched the original Superman movie with Uncle Jeff this summer, he has been spending a lot of time in his cape. He flies around the house and has even begun jumping off things to "fly." Grandpa Keene told him a story about jumping off the porch roof as a child and I'm hoping JT learned something from the story other than not to repeat it. :) Grandma Cole nicknamed him the Red Blur the other day and he loves that. Today while we were finishing the fence (see previous post) JT put on his cape and got out his bike. I took a couple of pictures because to me this embodies everything BOY: superheros, bikes, imagination, outside, summer... and I absolutely love the way this first one turned out! Here he is riding back... showing off for the camera! Trying "pictures without heads," courtesy Gena Cole :)

Jim has been working since May on a big project: replacing one long side of our fence. A section blew over this winter and about took out our neighbor's car, since the fence borders their driveway. He tore down the fence and has been working slowly to put it back up ever since. And today it was finished! Finishing touches Tada! Next step: a new gate that will open the entire 12-foot width so we can back in our boat.

I've been hunting for a backyard inflatable pool for two summers now. I am willing to wait to get what I want for the right price. And then, I found it this week: a large pool with a slide and without silly dangling toys. It was exactly what I'd been looking for, but $20 less than the price on Amazon. Done! We've been enjoying what I fear are our final hours of time off and sunshine today! The pool! Kicking Silly faces Hooking up the ski boat to the trailer. The slide doubles as a boat launch. Jumping! Oh-how-I-wish-this-was-in-focus! JT has been gaining confidence in the water and loves to practice diving and swimming. This is how he looked a lot of the time! Haley contemplating another jump Haley was ready to get out and dry off after about two jumps. She was not thrilled with the temperature. Clean and dry! JT noticed a bug floating in the pool and suggested I get the strainer from the kitchen to take care of it. Th...

We are wrapping up summer here in the Keene house, which is disappointing. We love summer for so many reasons! We got family photos taken (twice this summer) but I'm waiting to get the final copies to post my favs. Haley had a birthday but her checkup is next week so I'm waiting to post about it then. I did get a great picture from her small birthday celebration - she loved her pink cake! Great Grandma Hall drove in from out of town to visit and see "Baby Travis" (as my kids refer to him). We got some nice group photos and a couple cute ones of Travis. With Uncle Jim Four generations of Halls Great Grandma and just three of her many, many great grandchildren I'm working all week so there isn't much time for photos, but we did get to go to Music in the Park last night with Grandma and Grandpa Keene. We listened to Elvis sing and danced and ate popcorn. So fun! Our other news is that we got a new (used) motorcycle. Jim rides to wo...

Oh, my - what fun. We had some friends invite us to play at their homeowners' association's private beach, and it was a blast. The day was hot and the water was perfect. With 12 children ages 2-4 and three infants, it was quite a crowd! We got this awesome picture of everyone but the babies. On to the fun stuff. JT is so fun this summer. He is trying more and more things. For example, he started jumping off the dock into waist-deep water. Then I encouraged him to move out so he wouldn't hurt his legs if he landed wrong. Soon he was jumping off the very end of the dock, into water over my head. Then he would swim back to shore and do it again. He even ran off the dock and jumped in once. He was the only kid to conquer the "deep end" and he had a great time doing it. He also asked me to swim with him out to the floating dock. So we did, of course! Our friend Elisa took a picture of us after we climbed up the ladder, before we jumped in and swam back. ...

We went blueberry picking at Bybee Farms in North Bend with our friends Carrie, Emi, and Kenzi. It was hot but we had a great time and came home with three pounds of blueberries in just 45 minutes of picking. Haley did not contribute much to the bucket, as she picked maybe 50 and ate, um, 45. JT did a great job and didn't want to eat his blueberries until we got in the car, even though I assured him he could.  The next day, I made a very yummy blueberry cobbler with a recipe from America's Test Kitchen. It was sooooo good! Recipe below... Ingredients: 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 2 pieces, plus 2 tablespoons melted and cooled 2/3 cup sugar 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest 2 cups blueberries 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 2/3 cup whole milk Steps: 1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Place 9x9 inch baking dish on aluminum foil-lined baking ...

I have been trying to plan a weekend to visit some friends in Yakima for, um, two years. We finally made it happen this week! Her husband is at the police academy full time, so it was just the moms and kids. We had a blast. JT and Haley did great in the car. Haley napped both directions and stayed 100% dry in the car. Checking the map at a rest stop: We're almost there! Keeping occupied with their car baskets I warned JT that he would be the lone male in a house of women. He was completely and utterly confused at the concept of playing makeup. He even clarified for Liv: "You know there's nothing in there, right?" Too funny. Haley knew exactly what to do. Go figure. Bedtime movie on the couch Steph made this yummy enchilada pasta for dinner and we had a nice time staying up talking after the kids went to bed. The next day was hot and we kicked it off with banana pancakes. Then we spent the rest of the morning and lunch time playing in the sun and wat...