Kevin Minnis

Okay, so the title may be a little misleading. There have been a lot of “little” things happening the past month or so.

Jayden now asks for a Dewski whenever Kim goes into Quicktrip or Kum & Go to get her fountain Dew. I’d say that’s a pretty good accomplishment. He’s almost there with using the peddles on his trike and bike. If only he were there with potty training. We’re hoping that a switch will flip and he’ll want to finally use his “big-boy scibbies”. He talks about everyone else using the potty, but still no go. He still has the occasional melt down, but, knock on wood, they don’t seem as frequent as before. He’s also looking forward to his birthday and now asks for things for it.

Josie has started to walk on her own. She does mostly walking now instead of crawling. It’s fun to watch her make her tiny steps. She’s kind of wobbly at times, but is doing a pretty good job so far. She’s also good at getting into trouble. It won’t be uncommon to turn your back for a second and find her standing on top of the kid’s picnic table. She is learning a lot fast. She’s also good at being a Daddy’s girl.

House painting is done for the most part. I painted the back last week so the “normal” areas to paint are done. I’ll probably try and get the garage door and the concrete part of the foundation done sometime before it snows. I also have to make a cover for the sandbox. I’m tired of looking at the blue tarp that covers it now.

Let’s see…where to start. We’ve been pretty busy despite the coldness outside. Kim’s with Josie at the Doctor’s office as I write this. Jayden fell asleep on the couch while watching Sesame Street. It all started last Wednesday. Jayden came down with a fever and then it turned into coughing. We called the doctor’s office and they said to bring him in on Friday if his fever didn’t go down. It did go away on Friday, but then it came back yesterday. His coughing has been getting somewhat better, but he still looks like he’s going to cough a lung up when he coughs. So, I think Josie got the same thing as Jayden. I’ll find out when Kim gets back. She coughs like a dog and has a high fever (103.3). Nothing like having Josie rip your heart out when she can hardly breath. Luckily she could get an appointment this morning. Jayden goes in for his appointment at 1:00 today as he’s still running a fever. That’s one of the annoying things of having sick kids on the weekend. You can’t visit the doctor’s office.

Aside from the kids being sick, we painted our living room a couple of weeks ago. We were sick of the poorly painted yellow that the old owners had. Funny it took us about 4 years to get it painted.

Update: Well, it appears that Josie has croup and Jayden has ear infection. At least Jayden already had it once so now we know what to do with Josie. Josie seems to be doing better after they gave her a steroid shot. Jayden’s at least eating some cereal now.

So here it is….2007. We had a great Christmas and New Years. Glad it’s over so that we can get Jayden and Josie back on to their schedules. Kevin took the week off after Christmas and we got to spend time together. It was a much needed break. Jayden and Josie received lots of fun things for Christmas. They haven’t worn anything out yet. We are working on organizing the play room. With two kids they sure accumulate a lot of stuff. The next step is to paint!

Speaking of painting and remodeling….after tonight, we can officially say we are DONE WITH THE WINDOWS!! We have been working on them since September, yes, September. What a pain! But after all the hard work that Kevin and others put into it, I can say they look rather nice. Next project please!

Jayden is getting bigger and turning into a little man. He’s so fun and talks all the time. (Don’t know where he gets that from) He’s our “little parrot”. He’s been a regular two year old out and about at stores lately. He tells us “I’m just looking.” Annoying, but cute. So then we have to drag him on and he still tells us, “I’m just looking.” Last night, while Kevin was working on Josie’s window, Jayden informed us that he needed his “own toolbox.” He’s Daddy’s little shadow and has to help with everything! We wouldn’t have it any other way.

Josie, Josie, Josie. Let’s just say, we love her to death. She’s growing like a weed. She still HATES her car seat. She LOVES to watch her brother and try and get her hands on him. She is sitting up. She loves to smile, especially at her Daddy. She loves bath time. She’s almost off her pacifier (thank God). And she’s still a lot of maintenance.

Jayden and Josie both had new years resolutions. Jayden’s is to get off the sippy cup, which he doesn’t have very often anyway. And also to hopefully potty train by summer. What a chore! Josie’s resolution is to get rid of the pacifier (it’s a love/hate relationship). And to crawl/walk before she’s one. At this rate, we hope she’s crawling.

Kevin and I have lots of resolutions, but we’ll see how many of them get taken care of. We’d both like to start working out again. We sure miss the exercise. And some days I feel like I’m paying for it. Have to work off these two kids!! We’d like to get more done on the house. Take a couple weekend getaways. And just be a healthy and fun family.

We also have been giving the church we had been going to another chance. It’s hard to go back and face what you don’t want to face, but we somewhat like it there and don’t want to have to change. We have put the past behind us, but we have to get over the hump and feel comfortable again. This seems like it’s taking awhile. Thankfully we have some friends that have been there with us. It’s amazing how some things can affect a person, but in the end, we think things will be okay. We won’t get back what we lost, but hopefully we can start anew.

Sorry to all of my viewers for not updating for more than a month. It’s been a busy time of year, between getting Christmas presents purchased and a project at work, I haven’t had a lot of time to get this updated.

Last weekend we had Christmas on the Wagner side. We all had a good time and watched the normal movie, “Christmas Vacation”. We all got some good presents and more presents.
Yesterday Kim and the kids hung out with Emily and Mady. The kids exchanged gifts and apparently Jayden wanted to keep opening gifts…even though there weren’t anymore. So, I think Jayden is getting the hang of Christmas or at least the gift part. haha.

Josie has been growing a bit…not as fast as Jayden did at her age, but still growing. She had her 6 month checkup yesterday and was a whole 12 pounds. She’s starting to sit up on her own now. She’ll sit for about a minute then fall over.

Don’t forget to good and if you need help tracking Santa be sure to visit the Santa Tracking Site.

Merry Christmas!

Finally, we’re done painting the front of the house. I, with the help of Tony and Martin, got both windows replaced. What a relief to have the job done. The windows work really well in sealing the cold out and keeping the sun from baking the bedrooms. I still have to do the trim work on the inside, but at least I don’t have to worry about getting another warm day to get the job done. The staging is all put a way so I don’t have to look at it any more. Sad to think that the staging was up in some form in front of our house since July.

Jayden has been busy being a big brother. He does pretty good with Josie, but at his age, just doesn’t grasp being gentle. He’s also showing his being 2 a bit more. He knows what he wants and can have the occasional meltdown if he doesn’t get his way. He LOVES the new Car’s movie that just came out on DVD. He sat through the whole thing watching it when we got it and now wants to watch it all the time. I think Thomas the Tank Engine is getting jealous as he’s starting to fade in the background. But, he still loves trains so Thomas shouldn’t feel too bad.

Josie’s been having fun in her bouncy seat. She just loves it. She’s also started to roll over on her own from her stomach to her back. It’s amazing to see how much different she is from Jayden. She’s way ahead of Jayden. She likes to try different foods and usually drinks her whole 6 oz. of milk within 15 minutes. She also has found her voice and likes to “talk”. I hope it’s not a sign of the future when she gets a cell phone.

Kim has been keeping herself busy (most of the time…but she gets bored staying at home) being Mom. She does a great job keeping everything ship-shape in spite of Jayden’s use of the living room as the play area. At least Jayden likes to organize his cars. He usually has them all lined up all straight and tidy. Kim’s also getting everything ready (shopping) for Christmas which helps keep her mind occupied. She continues to read lots of books. I think she reads one a week. Too bad I didn’t have more time to read. Oh well, maybe when I retire.

About three weeks ago I was driving our Focus in a parking lot and heard a weird noise coming from the front. Hmm. Brakes? Sure enough, the brakes were getting bad. I only heard the noise about 2 times and didn’t think they were that bad, but as you can see from the picture, they were almost metal against metal. So, Zach found me a good place to order them online and because he’d just replaced his brakes in his Focus, helped change my brakes this week. What a difference that can make. They are a lot better and shouldn’t make my wheels dirty as I ordered the ceramic pads. w00t!