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.

Man, talk about a busy time. Where to start. I’ve been busy painting the house the past three weeks or so. Kim and I are both glad that it’s almost done. It’s been a challenge for Kim to take care of the kids while I’m out trying to get the painting done. We’re almost done as we only have the back deck area to paint.

A lot has been going on with Josie too. Josie got baptized on May 27th with her Grandpa and Grandma’s and Aunt Chris and Kacie watching along. She had surgery on a blocked tear duct on June 6th. It went very well and by the next day we could tell a difference already. It was nerve racking none-the-less, but everything turned out okay. Josie now has 3 teeth and is working on her fourth. They haven’t been too difficult which is nice.

Yesterday Josie turned one. I took the day off of work so that I could be with her and Jayden and Kim. We went to the Jordan Creek area to get Josie’s 1 year photos and then went and hung out at the Jordan Creek Mall for a bit. The kids played in the play area and Josie got to make a teddy bear. After coming home we went to Big Creek State Park to play in the water and beach.

We’ve had fun building a sandbox for the kids. I think Josie was more interested in it at first, but now, they both seem to like it. It helps when Jayden’s friends come over and play in it too.

 Oh, and we reverted back to a minivan. We were so cramped in our Pontiac Vibe so we traded for a Chrysler Town & Country.

So, all in all we’ve had a very busy month. Hopefully the summer will get a little quieter, which I’m sure it will once the house is done being painted.

Wow, almost a month since the last update! Last week I was in Florida for almost a week to attend the Informatica World 2007 conference. I learned a lot and had a good time hanging out with Broox and Kevi. Broox was down there for and RFID conference so the timing was perfect. The weather was perfect too. It would have been fun if Kim would have gone with too, but that will have to wait till the next trip.

Back at the home ranch…the kids are doing pretty well. Josie is working on getting some teeth now so Sunday night was a tiring night as she didn’t want to sleep much. It amazes me how growing teeth can be so painful. Josie’s also crawling all over the place including going up any and all stairs she can find. Of course she can’t come back down yet, so we have to run up and get her.

Jayden has been keeping his end of the deal up being an almost 3 year old; the almost daily melt down and his big brother attitude. He is as curious as ever and loves to “do things on his own”. In his words, “I will do it!”.

Kim was very busy taking care of the kids last week, as well as, organizing a garage sale (Jayden’s pile and Josie’s Pile). It went over pretty well and we got rid of quite a bit of stuff. It amazes me how much stuff one accumulates having kids.

It’s good to be back in the groove now, but the Florida trip was fun. See more pictures in the Informatica Set

What a busy month. This month has started out with Josie learning to crawl. She loves try and get into the entertainment center now and gets mad when we tell her she can’t. She’s also started to pull herself to stand next to furniture and even climbed her first step today. She loves watching Jayden and I’m sure is learning a great deal from him. It’s been exciting to see her advancing.

Jayden’s been learning his ABCs and numbers, as well as, preparing for the next American Idol. One day last week he was standing on the stairs and singing away. Then he said I sing like American Idol. haha. Speaking of which, American Idol and Ford have done an excellent job marketing. Everytime Jayden sees a Ford symbol he now associates it with American Idol. Sad isnt’ it.

Yesterday we had fun watching the kids with their Easter stuff. The night before we told Jayden that the Easter bunny was coming and we needed to make sure things were picked up. In no time, he was running around cleaning up his toys and putting away shoes to make sure the place was clean for the Easter bunny. Talk about motivation!

Kim’s been doing the best she can to not get too bored during this last spell of cold weather. I think she has everything ready for the garage sale that will be the first Friday of May (and maybe Saturday). So be sure to mark your calendars and come out and buy some good stuff. haha.

Work for me has been very busy. But, that keeps the time flying by. I keep thinking someday I’ll get caught up, but I don’t know about it now.

Check out Jayen and Josie’s Easter Videos: , Video 1, Video 2, Video 3

Blizzards 1 and 2…

Well, we survived the blizzards 1 and 2. We didn’t even lose power over the whole deal (first blizzard), but some of our friends and family did. Our trees that were really low to the ground after the ice storm even came out of it without a trace of damage. My parents were without power for about 40 hours because of the ice buildup and breaking of the electrical poles. Luckily both my Grandparents and my Parents have generators.

The second blizzard was something to see too. We got out of work early on Thursday and then on Friday Pioneer was closed. I’m sure glad I didn’t have to go anywhere as the roads were full of snow and visibility was very poor. We did manage to make it up to Ames Saturday evening for some Hickory Park with Dave and Laura Ekhart and Tasha and Tony Vorm and all the kids (6 of them). Traffic wasn’t too bad, but you could definitely see the aftermath of the storm.

A look back…

In some ways I’m glad that we got as much snow as we did as it, to me, makes things seem like normal. Growing up I can remember huge drifts being as tall as the honey suckle trees in our grove on the farm. In fact the drifts would be so hard, the cattle could even walk on them. The gravel road next to our place would also have been packed with snow. I can remember sitting at the top of the snow and roll huge chunks of snow down the bank after the road grader opened the road. My brother and I would always watch in anticipation, as someone came down the road, to see if they’d run over the snow chunks. Doing chores was the worst part about getting huge storms as you’d have to trudge through a ton of snow carrying straw bales to bed the pigs and calves. You’d also have to scoop out all the troughs so you could feed the animals. It was hard work, but we survived and have the memories, good and bad. I think chores also took longer just because we’d play around more just to enjoy the vast landscape the wind and snow created. You can’t have all the snow without making a fort.

In other news…

Jayden and Josie have been growing quite a bit. Jayden’s I think has been trying to grow emotionally as he’s truly showing his 2 year old attitudes. He’s having at least one melt-down a day and is a “joy” to take shopping. He’s still a relatively good boy, but has his moments. We had to upgrade his play shoes to size 7 1/2 now so he’s growing despite his weird interests in food (he’d choose a salad over a hot dog any day).

Josie on the other hand, even though she hasn’t had a single tooth come in yet, will eat anything you put in front of her. She’s beginning to question baby food and would rather have “real food” (small cut-up pieces of green beans, carrots or fruit). She’s really getting a personality now and always has a big smile on her face, well, at least when she’s not mad or crying. She hasn’t crawled yet, but is really close. She does tend to migrate in reverse instead of going forward when trying to crawl.

Last weekend we walked for Amber in the JDRF in the Des Moines Sky walk system. I should say, Josie slept and Kim, Jayden and I walked. Jayden had fun in the inflatable games and I’m glad JDRF chose to get the games instead of forking over big bucks for a breakfast.

My Grandpa Minnis had knee surgery this last Tuesday. Everything went really well. But, I guess today/last night he’d been whacked out on meds or something as he pulled all his IVs out last night and then had my Grandma stop the machine that bends his knee every so often. Hopefully he straightens up so he doesn’t get into more trouble.