Thursday, March 20, 2008
$ family update
We are very sad to report that we lost the baby. We don't really want to talk about it or rehash the details right now. We appreciate all your support, concern and prayers at this time.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Justin's Baptism
It's great to be 8!!! Justin has been looking forward to this for soooooooooooo long! He will finally be baptized on Saturday, March 29th. We would LOVE you to join us if you can! It will be at our church here in Heber at 11:30 a.m. There are 4 kids from our ward being baptized so the baptism is on a ward level. The program will be in the chapel, then we will have the baptism and confirmation. Of course we couldn't let a chance go by to get together for some good eats and visiting, so we will meet at Justin's house after the baptism for lunch. We love to share these important milestones with those we love - come if you can! Printed invitations will be mailed out soon.
Love you all! Vikki
Love you all! Vikki
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Keller news
Hey family! Since I wasn't on-the-ball enough this year to write a Christmas letter in time, I thought I'd post this summary of 2007 to let you know what's going on with our family. (This letter was written for the annual Keller Family Journal that Mike's parents put together each year.) Also, we're expecting kiddo #3 around Halloween!
-Jaimie
The year 2007 was a good one for our family. In fact, Michael says it was probably the most enjoyable year he has had since we got married seven years ago, owing mostly to the fact that he is finally done with school and can, at least several nights a week, stop working when he comes home at night. Following is a review of the noteworthy events in the Keller family:
January- We bought our first home!! Jalen became a Sunbeam, and Jaimie took over the world record for the slowest, most inefficient unpacking job in history. (Our house was barely livable for quite some time, with a rate of only two boxes per day… on a good day.) Jaimie is still trying to figure out how to get anything done with two kids in tow!
February- Just eleven days after we moved into our new house, we took off on a trip to Disneyland with the Parkers. Jalen was sad after our attempt to sneak her onto the Grizzly Bear River Run with kleenex in her shoes failed. It should be noted that she was an extremely brave three-year-old, riding on the Tower of Terror, Space Mountain, and anything else she was tall enough for. We found it funny that Preston got his first tooth on his half-birthday, just like Jalen did.
March- We enjoyed a visit from Betty and Elmo, who were subjected to our unfortunate (for Mom!) tradition of celebrating half-birthdays. Luckily for our guests, we also had some traditional entertainment that weekend with some tickets to the Tennis Channel Open, a new pro tournament that is held in Vegas. The bad news this month was that Jalen tripped on a hose in the driveway and broke her elbow. (At least the cast was purple!) Michael attended Baseball Spring Training in Arizona with his firm, and also attended a missionary reunion which, due to the President’s strict rules about not leaving your area even on P-days, was more like a blind date than a reunion. Really, most of them didn’t know anyone else there! Thanks to Aunt JoLyn, our house is finally starting to come together.
April- We got a quick visit from the Moody and Wright women and children. Due to the timing of that visit, we were forced to let the cat out of the bag that we were taking Salsa lessons. Michael and Jaimie were also asked to be counselors for the mini-EFY that was put on for our Stake Youth Conference, and we’re happy to report that our group won 1st place (out of twelve) in the ‘Mormon Idol’ Competition!… ok, we admit that we rigged it just a little. Also, this month we took a quick weekend trip to Oceanside with our friends the Wents, but didn’t luck out with great weather.
May- Jaimie was diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia- “the most painful condition known to medicine”- we just love to say that for the shock effect. The saddest part was that she had to stop nursing Preston cold-turkey, which made him very distraught for awhile. Jalen had her fourth birthday party at Little Pastry Chefs, where the kids each got to make their own pizza and cake. We took a trip to SLO, where we visited a petting zoo with Michael’s friends Cliff and Chris and their families, went to Pismo Beach, and mostly enjoyed the company at the Kellers’ home. For Kimber’s birthday, Jaimie had the chance to go with her to see ‘Wicked- a new musical’ in Hollywood, which now holds the title as her favorite musical.
June- This was a busy one. We got ahold of some free tickets to see Danny Gans at the Mirage for Michael’s birthday, the big 3-0! Michael took Jalen to the Summerlin Campout (at the park, which is as close to real camping as he dares.) Jaimie and the kids flew to Denver to meet Cameron who was coming home from his mission in Ukraine. The whole Parker family bought fake tickets (refundable) to somewhere so they could actually meet him right at the gate. Due to an unfortunate series of events, Michael missed the big moment. Earlier that day, we were able to drive to Boulder to visit our old friends from CU. We attended the Allred Family Reunion in St. George, and we were happy to have another visit from the Kellers and Wrights- a major benefit of living right in between California and Utah!
July- Jaimie again traveled solo with the kids, this time to Utah to see John perform as Joseph, which was well worth the trip! We also got to celebrate Kaden’s birthday and attend the 4th of July Parade while in Utah. We (even Michael this time) went to the beach with Parkers for a few days, and Michael attended a conference for work in San Francisco, a city which he was thoroughly impressed with and wants to go back to when he has more time for leisure.
August- Our most exciting week of the year was during our trip to Hawaii. We stayed on the island of Kauai, a first for all of us. We swam, hiked, snorkeled, rode kayaks, explored caves, went on a helicopter tour of the island, visited Hanale (from Puff the Magic Dragon), and attended a luau. Jalen took a hula lesson and was even in a show, and she was obsessed the whole week with origami after seeing it on T.V. the first day. In fact, it is still one of her favorite hobbies. We even squeezed in time for a professional family photo shoot, which didn’t go well thanks to Preston being absolutely terrified of both grass and sand. Also this month, Michael took Jalen to a USA basketball game, and Preston turned 1!
September- Jalen started a new preschool with the best teacher in the whole world, Jaimie and the kids took a very quick trip to Utah for Kimber’s bridal shower, and unfortunately, Preston got a concussion from climbing out of his high chair and landing on the wood floor.
October- We had our first run-in with a homeowners’ association and were forced to speed up the process of re-landscaping our front yard. Jaimie was uncharacteristically domestic and made pomegranate jelly from the trees we inherited in our backyard.
November- Jaimie’s sister Kimber got married in Las Vegas to Craig Hughes, and Jaimie was a less-than-stellar host to the Moodys who were here that weekend… picture no beds set up, finding that we didn’t have enough sheets and blankets, and Kimi and Jon trying to sleep in the family room with our possessed light which would turn itself on and off throughout the night. (Jaimie hopes you’ll come again so she can redeem herself!)
December- By the 28th Michael had met his required hours for the year (with 3 to spare!) so we decided to take off and spend some family time in Park City. We got to snowboard & ski, ice skate, and swim outside in ten-degree weather. Mark and Bev were nice enough to brave the roads and come up to have dinner with us one night. We had a great New Year’s Eve, as Jaimie’s aunt Vikki kept the kids at her house overnight so we could go see the Jazz beat Portland, see National Treasure II, and (the biggest luxury of all) sleep in the next morning!
Jalen has kept busy this year with gymnastics, dance, and swim lessons. She loves dolls, art projects, and pretending anything. Her goal is to learn how to jump rope “fast like Brandon.” The secret that she loves to tell everyone is that she never sleeps; she just plays on her bed all night(she truly believes this). Jalen is an amazing big sister and consistently puts Preston’s needs and wants before her own. She loves him very much and says she wants to marry Preston when she grows up!
Jalen’s quotes of the year:
“I can’t believe that I’m so close to being a grown-up but I still don’t have one loose tooth!”
“Mom, your baby’s crying.” –slightly annoyed because she couldn’t hear her T.V. show.
After Mom said we needed to set the table: “But wait! We need to wipe it off to make room for the new crumbs.” –wisely capturing the essence of motherhood
“Daddy, don’t you get so bored at work just making money, money, money, money?” –with Dad wondering if J pictures him at work holding out his hand as dollar bills are placed in it for hours on end.
Innocently, while watching the hula dancers at the luau: “Sad! Mom, are you thinking what I’m thinking? Let’s get some of our extra cloth and give it to them so they can make shirts that fit.”
Our little guy is a happy, yet demanding, toddler. He requires Mommy to give him her undivided attention most of his waking hours, which is taxing, but enjoyable nonetheless. Currently, Preston will pretty much only eat ‘fishies’ (goldfish crackers). He went straight from crawling to sprinting, which led to several bumps and bruises daily. He’s still not the most careful baby you’ve ever seen, but he’s getting better. Things that make him happy are tickling Jalen and Dad and being outdoors. His two greatest loves are his silky blanky and his thumb, which we are afraid might actually disintegrate one of these days! Talents he is currently working on are building a tower of blocks by himself and stepping off the curb without having to turn around and slide down on his tummy. He is learning lots of words, most recently calling the slide a “weeeeeeeeeee!” and for some reason calling the VCR the “no, no, no!” Also interesting to note is that he wears the same size of socks as Jalen (3 ½ years older!)- see comments below. Preston is the entertainment in our home and can light up a room with his cute smile- just like Daddy’s.
Comments we’ve heard from friends & strangers about Preston:
“Whoa! His feet look like Fred Flintstone’s!!”
“How does he balance on them; they are so round!”
“There is so much padding underneath that his toes aren’t really resting on the ground!”
“I couldn’t get my kids to stop laughing at Preston’s feet all during Sacrament meeting.”
“Now there’s a future football player if I ever saw one!”
“Chubby babies are the cutest!” – and we have to agree.
Now lest we give off the impression that everything is always peachy keen, let us assure you that we have our fair share of bad moments. Tantrums are becoming a daily experience with Preston rapidly approaching age 2, Jalen routinely outwits her parents, dust accumulates, and yardwork is never finished. This year Jaimie had a root canal, Jalen already had a cavity at age 3, and Michael got a really, really bad haircut. We paid twice as much as we needed to for our lift tickets in Park City, due to not reading the sign carefully. We’ve had all kinds of “learning experiences” relating to home ownership, of which I’ll site just a few. We paid an electrician to come out and ‘fix our outlets’ – and watched him flip the breaker switch. We spent literally months trying to open our fireplace before we were told that it doesn’t open; it’s for decorative purposes. We tried to pull off the covers of all the air vents in the house (which do not come off) because we thought that was where we needed to change the air filters that we kept hearing about. (We couldn’t believe that we had 25 of them!) And finally, Mike brought a sparkler into the kitchen to show Jaimie that “it wouldn’t light,” and of course it burst into flames on the spot and ruined both our kitchen table and wood floor. We are currently dealing with a scorpion problem and wondering what it will be next.
In all seriousness, we are very blessed and very happy. We are grateful for the gospel in our lives and for the best families ever!
-Jaimie
The year 2007 was a good one for our family. In fact, Michael says it was probably the most enjoyable year he has had since we got married seven years ago, owing mostly to the fact that he is finally done with school and can, at least several nights a week, stop working when he comes home at night. Following is a review of the noteworthy events in the Keller family:
January- We bought our first home!! Jalen became a Sunbeam, and Jaimie took over the world record for the slowest, most inefficient unpacking job in history. (Our house was barely livable for quite some time, with a rate of only two boxes per day… on a good day.) Jaimie is still trying to figure out how to get anything done with two kids in tow!
February- Just eleven days after we moved into our new house, we took off on a trip to Disneyland with the Parkers. Jalen was sad after our attempt to sneak her onto the Grizzly Bear River Run with kleenex in her shoes failed. It should be noted that she was an extremely brave three-year-old, riding on the Tower of Terror, Space Mountain, and anything else she was tall enough for. We found it funny that Preston got his first tooth on his half-birthday, just like Jalen did.
March- We enjoyed a visit from Betty and Elmo, who were subjected to our unfortunate (for Mom!) tradition of celebrating half-birthdays. Luckily for our guests, we also had some traditional entertainment that weekend with some tickets to the Tennis Channel Open, a new pro tournament that is held in Vegas. The bad news this month was that Jalen tripped on a hose in the driveway and broke her elbow. (At least the cast was purple!) Michael attended Baseball Spring Training in Arizona with his firm, and also attended a missionary reunion which, due to the President’s strict rules about not leaving your area even on P-days, was more like a blind date than a reunion. Really, most of them didn’t know anyone else there! Thanks to Aunt JoLyn, our house is finally starting to come together.
April- We got a quick visit from the Moody and Wright women and children. Due to the timing of that visit, we were forced to let the cat out of the bag that we were taking Salsa lessons. Michael and Jaimie were also asked to be counselors for the mini-EFY that was put on for our Stake Youth Conference, and we’re happy to report that our group won 1st place (out of twelve) in the ‘Mormon Idol’ Competition!… ok, we admit that we rigged it just a little. Also, this month we took a quick weekend trip to Oceanside with our friends the Wents, but didn’t luck out with great weather.
May- Jaimie was diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia- “the most painful condition known to medicine”- we just love to say that for the shock effect. The saddest part was that she had to stop nursing Preston cold-turkey, which made him very distraught for awhile. Jalen had her fourth birthday party at Little Pastry Chefs, where the kids each got to make their own pizza and cake. We took a trip to SLO, where we visited a petting zoo with Michael’s friends Cliff and Chris and their families, went to Pismo Beach, and mostly enjoyed the company at the Kellers’ home. For Kimber’s birthday, Jaimie had the chance to go with her to see ‘Wicked- a new musical’ in Hollywood, which now holds the title as her favorite musical.
June- This was a busy one. We got ahold of some free tickets to see Danny Gans at the Mirage for Michael’s birthday, the big 3-0! Michael took Jalen to the Summerlin Campout (at the park, which is as close to real camping as he dares.) Jaimie and the kids flew to Denver to meet Cameron who was coming home from his mission in Ukraine. The whole Parker family bought fake tickets (refundable) to somewhere so they could actually meet him right at the gate. Due to an unfortunate series of events, Michael missed the big moment. Earlier that day, we were able to drive to Boulder to visit our old friends from CU. We attended the Allred Family Reunion in St. George, and we were happy to have another visit from the Kellers and Wrights- a major benefit of living right in between California and Utah!
July- Jaimie again traveled solo with the kids, this time to Utah to see John perform as Joseph, which was well worth the trip! We also got to celebrate Kaden’s birthday and attend the 4th of July Parade while in Utah. We (even Michael this time) went to the beach with Parkers for a few days, and Michael attended a conference for work in San Francisco, a city which he was thoroughly impressed with and wants to go back to when he has more time for leisure.
August- Our most exciting week of the year was during our trip to Hawaii. We stayed on the island of Kauai, a first for all of us. We swam, hiked, snorkeled, rode kayaks, explored caves, went on a helicopter tour of the island, visited Hanale (from Puff the Magic Dragon), and attended a luau. Jalen took a hula lesson and was even in a show, and she was obsessed the whole week with origami after seeing it on T.V. the first day. In fact, it is still one of her favorite hobbies. We even squeezed in time for a professional family photo shoot, which didn’t go well thanks to Preston being absolutely terrified of both grass and sand. Also this month, Michael took Jalen to a USA basketball game, and Preston turned 1!
September- Jalen started a new preschool with the best teacher in the whole world, Jaimie and the kids took a very quick trip to Utah for Kimber’s bridal shower, and unfortunately, Preston got a concussion from climbing out of his high chair and landing on the wood floor.
October- We had our first run-in with a homeowners’ association and were forced to speed up the process of re-landscaping our front yard. Jaimie was uncharacteristically domestic and made pomegranate jelly from the trees we inherited in our backyard.
November- Jaimie’s sister Kimber got married in Las Vegas to Craig Hughes, and Jaimie was a less-than-stellar host to the Moodys who were here that weekend… picture no beds set up, finding that we didn’t have enough sheets and blankets, and Kimi and Jon trying to sleep in the family room with our possessed light which would turn itself on and off throughout the night. (Jaimie hopes you’ll come again so she can redeem herself!)
December- By the 28th Michael had met his required hours for the year (with 3 to spare!) so we decided to take off and spend some family time in Park City. We got to snowboard & ski, ice skate, and swim outside in ten-degree weather. Mark and Bev were nice enough to brave the roads and come up to have dinner with us one night. We had a great New Year’s Eve, as Jaimie’s aunt Vikki kept the kids at her house overnight so we could go see the Jazz beat Portland, see National Treasure II, and (the biggest luxury of all) sleep in the next morning!
Jalen has kept busy this year with gymnastics, dance, and swim lessons. She loves dolls, art projects, and pretending anything. Her goal is to learn how to jump rope “fast like Brandon.” The secret that she loves to tell everyone is that she never sleeps; she just plays on her bed all night(she truly believes this). Jalen is an amazing big sister and consistently puts Preston’s needs and wants before her own. She loves him very much and says she wants to marry Preston when she grows up!
Jalen’s quotes of the year:
“I can’t believe that I’m so close to being a grown-up but I still don’t have one loose tooth!”
“Mom, your baby’s crying.” –slightly annoyed because she couldn’t hear her T.V. show.
After Mom said we needed to set the table: “But wait! We need to wipe it off to make room for the new crumbs.” –wisely capturing the essence of motherhood
“Daddy, don’t you get so bored at work just making money, money, money, money?” –with Dad wondering if J pictures him at work holding out his hand as dollar bills are placed in it for hours on end.
Innocently, while watching the hula dancers at the luau: “Sad! Mom, are you thinking what I’m thinking? Let’s get some of our extra cloth and give it to them so they can make shirts that fit.”
Our little guy is a happy, yet demanding, toddler. He requires Mommy to give him her undivided attention most of his waking hours, which is taxing, but enjoyable nonetheless. Currently, Preston will pretty much only eat ‘fishies’ (goldfish crackers). He went straight from crawling to sprinting, which led to several bumps and bruises daily. He’s still not the most careful baby you’ve ever seen, but he’s getting better. Things that make him happy are tickling Jalen and Dad and being outdoors. His two greatest loves are his silky blanky and his thumb, which we are afraid might actually disintegrate one of these days! Talents he is currently working on are building a tower of blocks by himself and stepping off the curb without having to turn around and slide down on his tummy. He is learning lots of words, most recently calling the slide a “weeeeeeeeeee!” and for some reason calling the VCR the “no, no, no!” Also interesting to note is that he wears the same size of socks as Jalen (3 ½ years older!)- see comments below. Preston is the entertainment in our home and can light up a room with his cute smile- just like Daddy’s.
Comments we’ve heard from friends & strangers about Preston:
“Whoa! His feet look like Fred Flintstone’s!!”
“How does he balance on them; they are so round!”
“There is so much padding underneath that his toes aren’t really resting on the ground!”
“I couldn’t get my kids to stop laughing at Preston’s feet all during Sacrament meeting.”
“Now there’s a future football player if I ever saw one!”
“Chubby babies are the cutest!” – and we have to agree.
Now lest we give off the impression that everything is always peachy keen, let us assure you that we have our fair share of bad moments. Tantrums are becoming a daily experience with Preston rapidly approaching age 2, Jalen routinely outwits her parents, dust accumulates, and yardwork is never finished. This year Jaimie had a root canal, Jalen already had a cavity at age 3, and Michael got a really, really bad haircut. We paid twice as much as we needed to for our lift tickets in Park City, due to not reading the sign carefully. We’ve had all kinds of “learning experiences” relating to home ownership, of which I’ll site just a few. We paid an electrician to come out and ‘fix our outlets’ – and watched him flip the breaker switch. We spent literally months trying to open our fireplace before we were told that it doesn’t open; it’s for decorative purposes. We tried to pull off the covers of all the air vents in the house (which do not come off) because we thought that was where we needed to change the air filters that we kept hearing about. (We couldn’t believe that we had 25 of them!) And finally, Mike brought a sparkler into the kitchen to show Jaimie that “it wouldn’t light,” and of course it burst into flames on the spot and ruined both our kitchen table and wood floor. We are currently dealing with a scorpion problem and wondering what it will be next.
In all seriousness, we are very blessed and very happy. We are grateful for the gospel in our lives and for the best families ever!
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