Our Birthday Boy!

Gavin is 2! We are having trouble uploading pics to our blog, but you can view them here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/joslen.koester/2010_11_November#

Car/Bus

We got a new car!! Or car/bus as Gavin refers to it. Gavin loves riding in it. London, maybe not so much since I locked him in it yesterday at day care! The fire department came to save the day but couldn't get in to the car. It took Pop-a-lock only about 5 seconds to open the door once they got there. So much to learn with a new car. Lesson #1 was the locks automatically lock. Don't leave your baby and keys in the car!

Congrats Morgan & Clint!

We are excited to have Morgan in our family and thankful that we were able to help this sweet couple celebrate in Winter Park. Have fun in Cabo!

July pics

Our July pictures & videos are posted! http://picasaweb.google.com/joslen.koester/2010_July#

Preview:
* 4th of July
* Bo & Terri's wedding
* Gavin Videos - crawling in crib, eating corn on the cob, counting to 3
* London's 1st cereal
* London Videos - singing, dancing
* Waco zoo
* London 5-months

London's sitting and standing (doing one better than the other)

London is growing up so fast! I can hardly believe he is approaching the 6-month mark! What that means is I need to schedule his 6-month professional photos. (Working on that BTW.)

He has mastered sitting up and can now be considered a "sitter" vs. a "supported sitter" He is eating baby food 2x per day, and he is now working on standing up. Here are a few pics of our sweet baby.


Such a cutie!!



Standing up in between the couch and the ottoman...bouncing like a pinball.

Toddler Bed

...as you know London took over the crib a few weeks ago...after he out grew the bassinet and after Gavin figured out how to climb in/out of the crib and was forced to graduate from it. So Gavin has been in a pack-n-play for a few weeks until his toddler bed arrived. We set up his Big Boy Bed last Sunday and he loves it! He runs in the house when we get home at the end of the day and heads straight for his bed. He loves London to play in his bed with him too.

The first night he fell out of the bed and hit the hard wood floors. :( So we pulled the soft lambs wool rug up to the edge of his bed so he would have a softer landing. The next morning we found him sleeping soundly on the rug at 5:00am! But at 7:00am when we checked in on him he was sleeping back in the bed. Since then we haven't found him on the floor, but that doesn't mean he hasn't had a few more falls.

Here are a few pictures of his new bed.


First nap in his Big Boy Bed - last Sunday 8/8 (me sneaking a picture of him...I found him reading in bed instead of napping!)


First night in his new bed (only fell out twice)


Getting sideways

Happy Birthday, Grandma Ardie!

WE LOVE YOU and hope you have a wonderful birthday!

Congrats Lansen & Heidi!

My cousin Lansen got married this weekend to Heidi - I love her!! Congrats you two!!

Rihanna!

One of my best friends from college (Nicole Beck)...well her husband Stuart met Rihanna! He just got back from LA where he watched Rihanna shoot a music video for Doritos! That's his job! Stuart you rock!!
The Beck Bunch: Rihanna!:

Zoo Crew

Gavin, London and I went to Waco this weekend to meet up with Nicole and Brayden Beck (one of my best friends from college/Theta and her 1 year old son) from Dallas. Waco is between Austin and Dallas and just a one and a half hour drive for both of us. We met up about noon at the Waco Zoo, spent the afternoon there picnic-ing, meandering, and having fun! Then we checked in to a hotel, swam, had dinner, slumber-partied and came home Sunday. It was a great weekend! We had a ton of fun...evidenced by Nicole and I staying up until 3am just chatting after the boys all went to bed! We had fun and only created a bit of chaos.

The swimming pool at the Holiday Inn was indoor. Although I had brought a life jacket for Gavin to be safe in the water (since I had to keep my eye on two)...it helped out most to break his fall on the slick, wet tile surround. Not only was it crazy keeping an eye on two little boys, but keeping Gavin upright on his feet on the pool deck was challenging. (PS, Later on I provided some "feedback" to the hotel manager about the safety of his pool.)

Ok, so swimming was a little crazy...but how crazy could dinner at a hotel restaurant be...especially when you are practically the only party dining? Not so crazy until your kid plays by the window and takes down the full curtain rod, drapes and all! oops! There were only a few parties dining who weren't too disturbed.

Our chaos proved to be birth control for Nicole! She said she would wait awhile for #2! :)

But seriously, we had a great time seeing Nicole and Brayden...who by the way is one of the cutest kids ever and such a great demeanor.

Here are a few pics of our weekend:

London enjoying every moment of the 4-hour zoo tour


Brayden sitting on HOT monkey! We didn't realize it was hot though...oops!


The Zoo Crew


Biggest Popsicle EVER - for only $1


Me and my monkeys

London is 5-months (July 26th)

Today is London's 5-month birthday! Here are his stats:


* laughs daily!
* rolling over from front to back
* his BFF is Gavin already! he can't keep his eyes off of him!
* eating cereal (ok, he has only had it twice but will now be part of his daily routine)
* sitting up .... for a few seconds at a time without support
* grabbing everything!
* he is the most patient family member!
* rides up-right in the stroller (without a car seat)
* sleeps through the night in his crib on his tummy
* weighs 15+ pounds
* sweetest baby on the block (and there are a lot of babies on our block)!
* crawls (but only in his sleep from one end of the crib to the other - and it takes all night)
* brings so much joy to his parents. WE LOVE YOU, LONDON ADLER!!

Day Care Family Photos

At day care the boys have family photos that hang in their cribs. Well Gavin isn't in a crib, but it hangs next to his sleeping pad on the floor. We just updted them with more recent pictures of their families. Sharing.....

Promotion to ESP

Gavin was promoted this week to the Early Preschool classroom. His third classroom at Children's Courtyard. This is a class of kids ranging in age from 20 months to 2 years old. In this class he meets up with some of his friends who are a bit older than he is who have already moved up. I am glad he will have some friendly faces in this class since he will be adjusting to a new teacher.

He started in the Infant classroom with Ms. Ashlie (who now cares for London) from 3-months of age through 13-months of age. Then moved to the Toddler classroom from 13-20 months of age with Ms. Shawn and Ms. Dezi. All of these teachers have been fabulous and I was really sad to have him move out of Ms. Shawn and Ms. Dezi's room. They love him so much and think he is so funny! They were both really sad that he moved up as well. Here are the notes they wrote to me on his last day in their room last Friday.

Ms. Shawn - I'm really going to miss Gavin! He is so much fun. I'm glad that we got to have him in my room! Can't wait to get London!

Ms. Dezi - I have loved Gavin being in Toddler 2. He will be truly missed!

Graduation

We graduated London to Gavin's crib on Monday night and Gavin to the pack-n-play. (Note to parents: It's time to find a toddler bed!)

Two reasons....London is growing out the his bassinet and Gavin learned to craw into his crib (and therefore probably can get out and we don't want to risk him falling out).

Here's the proof...

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Bo and Terri who got married on Saturday July 10th. We were so happy to get to help them celebrate!

From the voice of London

June photos...

...are now posted
http://picasaweb.google.com/joslen.koester/2010_June#

Austin Zoo

We took a trip to the Austin Zoo with our friends the Stansberry's in mid May and just now got the photos from Maria's camera uploaded to our Picasa page. There are a few pretty pictures here. Maria has an amazing camera!
http://picasaweb.google.com/joslen.koester/2010_May_Zoo#

Another BOY!

Dirk and Kristen had a beautiful baby boy this morning around 8:30am. His name is Townsend Hague (pronounced hay-g). He is 7 lbs. 11 oz. Almost a full pound larger than Sawyer (his brother) was. All are doing well and Kristen is looking and feeling great!

Popsicles for dinner

I had the freezer door open last night getting out dinner ingredients when Gavin grabs the Popsicle box and starts saying "mine". I rationalized with him for a few minutes and promised he could have a Popsicle after dinner, but he continued to cry, reach for the freezer and refuse to eat what was on his tray....the end result...Mommy caved in and Gavin ate chicken/carrots/potatoes/Popsicle for dinner!

At least he ate his carrots!

Tandem or Quad-andem?

Scott bought me a tandem beach-cruiser bicycle for my birthday about 4 years ago...and believe it or not it gets a lot of use. It used to get more use from the two of us, before we had babies. More recently it was Scott riding solo to the grocery store or the Kolache Factory...or toting his guy friends to tailgate parties with the front basket filled with beer! Now it is the preferred mode of transportation by a 1 year-old you all might know.......oh, and the front basket is still filled with beer! :) Do you see Scott and Dirk's cooler in the basket!? HA

Do you see that little gray seat just in front of Scott? Well that is called a wee ride. That is normally where Gavin rides. However this weekend Sawyer and Dirk came over and the four boys rode to the swimming pool, so the little guys are in the trailer which is hitched to the back of the tandem. I think this crew needs a bumper sticker warning of WIDE RIGHT TURNS! Can you see the little guys in the trailer with their helmets on? Here is a close up of those two cuties!!

Busy Bodies

Hi! We have been busy giving our blog a face-lift and posting our April & May pictures & videos on Picasa. Check out our April and May albums by clicking on Koester Family Photos on the right. After you click on that link you can visit each album by clicking on the name of the album then playing the slide show. Enjoy the photos and videos including London's visits with his uncle Kiffin, aunt Megan, both sets of Great Grandparents on Joslen's side, Mother's day, golf fun, Sea World, boating and the beginning of summer in Austin. Thanks for playing!

Generations

In early May we took a family trip to WY/CO to see London's Great Grandparents. These are two very special pictures! Four generations on each side of the family!


Nana Teri & Great Grandparents Kelly & Ardie Bowen


Papa Howard & Great Grandparents Robert & Helen Wigert

L, L, L & L

London is adjusting to daycare day-by day. Some days he comes home exhausted and naps from the time we get in the car throughout the night barley awakening only to eat. Other days he naps really well at day care and is bright-eyed in the evenings at home. They day care teacher, Ashlie, says he loves to be in the exersaucer (which is a toy in which he can stand. There is a picture below of him in the one at home.)

In London's class there are four kids with names starting with L. In addition to London there is a Logan, Lila, and a Leo. His bottles and belongings are labeled with his full name, not just his initials so hopefully nothing gets mixed up!

cutie pie!

Baby London....he is SO sweet!!

May 26

London is 3 months old! May 26th - yesterday was his bday!

Hiccups

London had the hiccups and Kiffin decided that the best way to get rid of them was to scare the hiccups out of him. London thought it was pretty funny!

Spring time Friday fun

Today was a GORGEOUS day in Austin! It was 90 degrees and we had a fun, fun filled day! It started out with a 3 mile brisk morning walk around the Town Lake trail with Leslie, Savannah and Brayden Sheiner. After our walk, Savannah and Gavin played in the water fountain to cool off and played chase while the Mommy's caught our breath.

The afternoon sunshine brought out sidewalk chalk and bug spray. Gavin has been getting eaten alive by the bugs when we play outside so we stocked up on bug spray and didn't let the bugs stop our creativity on the sidewalk with our new toy. Gavin and I drew on the sidewalk while London slept in his swing in the doorway and supervised from the shade.

The fun continued into the evening with pizza and ice cream cones at the Parker's. We played in the backyard with ALL of Hunter's toys and came home with Gavin's clothes in a bag which were soaking wet and muddy. Ahhh, boys will be boys. London and Hudson were happy, snuggly little babies. I can't imagine what this crew will be doing a year from now. These boys are all bound to be good friends.

Good times in Austin! Thanks for the fun day, Sheiner's and Parker's!!

Easter

We had such a fun Easter since Gavin picked up on the concept of hunting eggs. We went to an Easter Egg hunt on Saturday where we saw the Easter Bunny, rode a mini train pulled by a tractor (two of our favorite things) and hunted eggs. When I say hunt I mean that 1-3 year olds and their parents ran around picking up eggs that were scattered across the grass. I am telling you, it was competitive and the eggs disappeared quick! We only got ONE egg and Gavin proceeded to throw it in the fountain! Oh well!

The Easter Bunny did not go over so well. Fear is the first word that comes to mind. Gavin was having nothing to do with the Easter Bunny and cried super hard and wanted as far away as possible. On the other hand, his cousin Sawyer couldn't get enough. Sawyer went back three times to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap and cried when they took him away.

Sunday we went to a nice church service, had a fabulous brunch that Kristen made, hunted eggs with Sawyer in his yard, and then moved on to our third and final egg hunt at the Bush's where there was quite the crowed and plenty of eggs to go around. It was great to see all of our dear friends and all of the sweet kids.

Thanks to Michelle Bush and Kristen Koester for such a wonderful weekend!

More pictures are posted on our family album (click on the link over there to the right!) :)

London Adler

We welcomed London Adler on 2/26 and are so thrilled to have him as part of our family. He is such a sweet baby and everyone loves him! No one can get enough of him! Check out our March album on Picasa for his latest round of pictures.

Here is one picture that we just had to share. We took this when he was about 2 weeks old....and he looks almost exactly like Gavin did is his 3 week picture here. Wow! They must have the same set of genes!

London Adler - 2 weeks


Gavin Brody - 3 weeks (2008)

15 month videos

Our 15 month old monkey....he loves climbing. He has just adopted the newest hobby of getting off the couch over the side arm. He is a little risk taker! Check out the video on our Picasa Web album - it is in the Jan/Feb 2010 album at number 37.

All About Christmas 2009

We had a fabulous Christmas holiday and are finally getting the pictures up to show it.
We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day in Cheyenne, WY at Nana T's house. Then spent 4 1/2 days in Loveland, CO at Papa Howard's house. We were thankful to have snow since Gavin had never seen it or played in it before, but we did miss out on seeing one set of Joslen's Grandparents due to road closures and bad weather. We had a nice, relaxing, snowy holiday.
Our pictures are now posted on Picasa. Click on the link to the right to view the Koester Family Photo Album.

After the snowy weather we headed to Phoenix to spend new years vacationing with Nana T to celebrate Nana T's "milestone" birthday. We don't have any pics of Phoenix because they are on Nana T's camera...but will get them from her and get those posted as well.

Gavin seemed to change so much during our vacation. A few things we noticed that he learned while we were spending all of our quality time with him......
* He started feeding us! He shared his grilled cheese sandwich with me and enjoyed feeding me. Must say he literally was shoving it in my mouth!
* We are weening him off of his pacifiers and trying to just use them in his crib, so Scott taught him how to throw the paci into the crib when he gets out. He has quite the arm and loves this new game!
* He found his "nose". We are working on mouth and ears but nose is pretty interesting.
* Nana T and Papa H both have steps at their house and Gavin did a great job of "turning around" to go down backwards. Now at home he even turns around to go down our two steps on his tummy backwards. He is very responsive to this new command.
* It is so fun to see him remember who his Grandparents are. When asked "where is Nana T" (or Papa) he points to them! He does this when asked "where is Daddy" too, but some how can't find Mommy. We are working on that one!

Anyway, it was so much fun to have 11 days together as a family and see our extended family too. We enjoyed every moment of our Christmas vacation!

Gavin must have been a good boy this year because Santa was good to him. He got a motorized, green 4-wheeler. There is a video posted on Picasa with the pictures of him discovering it on Christmas morning and learning to make it go with just the push of a button. We had fun with this toy over the holidays!