Knauss Family Adventures and Everyday Life

Whew, where to start?!

Back to the end of August we go in a time warp...

I am now married to an old man. Ok, ok...he's not really old. But it doesn't mean I can't give him a hard time about turning 30! We invited the other 144 OpDiv pilots over for a cookout in celebration of him being able to legally weigh more now :P

Some of the guys hanging out

Keighan. Elizabeth, and Henry.

K & H are just days apart, E is about a month older than them

L1, L2, and Ben taking every single vehicle we

had in the toy room and putting them on the train table.

We were lucky to dodge hurricanes this year (well, technically the season isn't over yet....). We did get a nice little Tropical Storm/Depression that sat and dumped rain, and more rain, and more rain on us for a few days.

Put Keegs outside in the ExerSaucer during the rain

(he was covered, don't worry!)

Landon went outside in the rain to play!

It wasn't lightning or anything, just lots and lots of rain!

(L2 was napping and later joined)

Just a few random shots of K-man.

Love him so much!

My parents had a condo over in Orange Beach for a week, so we headed over for a few days. The boys had a blast!

Logan running out to the beach for the first time

(that's first time this trip!)

Keighan at the beach for the first time

(that's the first time ever)

G putting Keighan down in the sand to test it out

Mommy and Keighan

My big guys playing in the water!

Landon taking a little rest

(which of course lasted all of 3 seconds)

5 of us together,

rare to get a pic of it!

Mom and I had to run to Publix for a few things,

but really didn't want to bring the boys along so we could make it quicker.

So we promised a treat for them.

The treat ended up being 2 giant M&M cookies,

held together by icing, and half of it dipped in chocolate.

Good thing the kids don't worry about their caloric intake!!!

Landon had SO much fun in the ocean!

G & her boys in the water

Keighan chillaxin' while we took a stroll on the beach

Mommy with the bigs

Mommy with the little

Daddy teaching Landon how to skip shells

Landon checking out his shell collection

Both of the bigs are playing T-Ball at Westside baseball. Logan is on the Bulls and Landon is on the RiverDogs (both minor league teams).

Logan's jersey is WAY big on him, it was the smallest size!

He is doing awesome and is really getting into it more and more each game.

Last week he even got the game ball!

All of Landon's games are at 7pm which makes

any photo taking rough due to lighting.

He has improved so much this season

and is usually found playing shortstop.

When we were in Orange Beach G gave the boys

a bug box with some chrysalises in there from their house,

I think there was 5 total.

Within a few days of returning home all but 1 hatched out.

When we let them out they hung around the back yard for a while

and kept landing on us.

Landon thought it was the coolest thing ever!

September 17th, Keighan turned 4 months old!

At his 4 month well baby he was 27.25" and 14lbs 15oz

Growing WAY to fast for this Mama's liking!

Keighan LOVES his seat and the toy that attaches to it.

He's always going to town chewing on it.

Then again these days he's always chewing on everything!

A friend of mine

(from when we lived here in '06)

made this for Keighan!

Of course he had to have something to wear to the baseball fields

Landon achieved his AR goal for the first quarter

(my brain is fried right now and I cannot

remember what AR is...something about reading)

As a reward, all the kids from Hutchens and Dawes

who met their AR goals got to run across the field at the

Baker HS homecoming football game.

Landon is in the orange shirt towards the middle of that shot.

His school mascot was also at the same

which he thought was just tremendous!

It just melts my heart how much L1 and L2 love their baby brother.

You can tell K loves them too,

he always lights up when they get home from school or

just when they give him any attention!

I cannot wait to see this bond develop over the years.

(Ok, so I really can wait as I don't want them to get any bigger!)

In an unexpected turn of events one day, we discovered Landon had a condition called Meatal Stenosis. He had to have a little outpatient surgery to correct this. Soon he'll also undergo some kidney testing to ensure there wasn't any damage caused (unlikely but they want to cover all the bases just to be sure!). Now that we know about it the signs of it go back for several years and it totally makes sense, just didn't realize it was anything until it started causing problems. He's been a champ through all of this and we're so proud of how he has handled it all.

Getting ready to head to the hospital

Just the day or 2 before we'd gotten a box

of goodies from G & Grumpa

in it was Adidas track suits for all the boys.

Landon was so excited about his he wanted me to wash it right away

and kept saying it would be comfy for the next day!

He cracks me up anytime he has his blood pressure taken.

He always tells the nurse that he's done it before

and knows it'll squeeze so not to worry because he isn't scared.

Just the right size, don't ya think?

He found this hilarious!

To help things we got Landon a new DS game.

Helped pass the time before surgery and also in the week after when

he wasn't supposed to do anything active.

The hospital also gave him crayons and a coloring book.

Landon LOVES his bear and corners.

The bear is one he got from Brookstone when

he was about 14 months old.

The "corners" are blankets, again he's had them

since he was just a wee little guy.

The original one got the name "corner"

because he would always rub

the corners as he fell asleep, one corner

developed a part unraveling and he loved that.

We've since packed away the original one as it was

falling apart but he has 3 others just like it!

(I made sure to buy several as soon as he showed a

fondness for it...yay for smart mommy!)

We brought them to the hospital with us for comfort measures.

They allowed him to take them back to the OR with him,

I was told he came out of surgery with the bear tucked under his arm.

When we first met with the urologist for the initial

appointment he explained the surgery.

He was telling Landon how he would get to put on a

mask and blow up a balloon.

This got Landon SO excited about it all.

All morning long he kept asking every

person we dealt with (even at registration),

if it was time for him to have the mask to blow up the balloon.

When the nurse who was going to be in the OR with him came in and he asked she told him she would see what she could do about it.

The masks are scented, she went back and found a

strawberry one for him and let him have it then.

He thought it was the coolest thing!

And...it's still sitting on my living room table

because the boys love to play with it.

Normal? Yeah, probably not. Never claimed they were!

Landon's Dr along with some of the support

staff that was in surgery with him.

The first few days of recovery were rough...on all of us.

It's almost been 2 weeks now and he's almost back to normal,

still a little pain here and there but nothing like it was before

(thank goodness!)

The same day of Landon's surgery Logan had a field trip to the fire house and police station. Dan got a chance to don the Super Dad cape for the morning! He took Logan and Keighan on the field trip and managed to take some pictures too! Thanks dear.

Remember my comment earlier about my boys not being normal?

Yeah, well...here's proof.

Logan has a deep obsession with the American flag,

and the color red.

This is him hugging a flag pole because the American flag was on it.

On the front of a fire truck!

This is Mrs Anita trying on a firefighter's suit.

When school first started, Logan was not a fan of

getting out of the car in the mornings

(they do a car line where a teacher comes and

takes them out then walks them into the building).

It seemed that every time Logan was in a grouchy mood over it,

it was Anita who was getting him out kicking and screaming.

One day she told me she was going to need to bring her camera to

show me that he really has a great time there!

Her classroom is next to his and she sees him

on the playground all the time.

She also happens to be a friend's neighbor!

Now he is excellent about going to school and never fights it anymore.

Driving an old firetruck!

Seriously the kid was in heaven with all the red around there!

*SIGH* Already...my baby is 5 months old. 5 months! The time has gone by WAY too fast for this Mama's liking! It doesn't help that the boy is a giant. He's been such a love lately though. He had a bad case of croup this past week, which he's still recovering from. So we've spent a lot of time snuggling (and being in a steamy shower then outside in the cold due to the cold snap). K's about 28" now and weighing right at 17lbs.

He's getting pretty good at sitting up on his own,

not much longer now and he'll be a pro!

Of course L2 couldn't resist jumping in the pics with K!

Dear Keighan,

Mommy does not appreciate your attempts to crawl.

I am SO not ready for that to happen yet!

Today (EEK! I'm caught up!) we went to the Christ United Methodist Church (AKA Logan's school) pumpkin patch. They were having their Fall Festival today.