Happy 3rd Birthday Eli!

My eldest is becoming a 'big boy'! Eli turned 3 on he May 4th. We celebrated with a big party which featured a GI-NORMOUS Spiderman bounce house which we rented for the day. I was told by some parents, their kids were counting the minutes until Eli's party started. I think it was totally worth it, the kids and 'bigger' kids had such a blast bouncing in this obnoxiously large inflatable 'bounce house'.

Eli also had his yearly doctor's appointment, I think my son is finally 'average' rather than 'so BIG' as he was often referred to as a baby, and which Keenan is ALWAYS referred to.

Stats:
Weight: 37 lbs. & 3 oz (90%)
Height: 38.9 inches (75-90%)

Of course I was not able to show how brilliant my child is in front of the doctor, because he does not like to talk to strangers. He hardly said a word, but as soon as he left, he was Mr. Chatter.

Eli says some pretty entertaining things. Aaron was telling me the other day that Eli is turning into his mother. I've taught him not to put his mouth on the drinking fountain at school, I still remember my Mom teaching me that. Well, Eli was getting a drink and he told Aaron, "We don't put our mouth on that (referring to the spout on the drinking fountain), no we don't!" Classic Cherie saying. One morning Eli was drinking ice water and he spit a piece of ice out of his mouth and said, "I better take that out, I might choke". Aaron had to roll his eyes at that one.

This will definitely make you laugh...

Keenan's First Haircut

Aaron the Barber



What's going on??



Bye-Bye Mohawk....

Keenan's Cake

Happy 1st Birthday Baby Keenan!

It's hard to believe Keenan was born just a year ago! This year has really flown by!
Here are his stats:

Weight: 28 lbs & 14 oz.
Height: 31 & 3/4 inches
Head circumference: 18 & 3/4 inches

As you can see, Keenan is a healthy baby. No worries about his eating habits or growth! I cannot complain, I have 2 healthy and happy boys! They are my pride and joy! Everyone is probably wondering what the Rourkes have been up to.

Well, we had a little b-day party for Keenan with lots of cake. It was a Curious George theme, both sets of grandparents were here to spoil the little boy. A few days after Keenan's b-day party he started walking. Our parents were the ones who witnessed the event and my Mom had to tell me the news first, while Aaron's Mom wanted us to discover it ourselves.

I have been continually training for the Kansas Half Marathon which occurred in Lawrence yesterday (4/19), it was a tough run, it was so windy, at least the rain stopped before we actually started running. Rhonda and I ran together, I did not think Aaron was going to show up, but he brought the boys. It was right at mile 10, so Eli ran with me for a little bit. Aaron said he was sad when he had to go back to Dad. I was hoping to see them at the end of the race, but did not find them until after I finished the race.

Yes, I have been lame and have not posted in FOR-EVER! My only excuse is, the last thing I want to do is open my computer when I get home, so I may just post pics and videos. May is only going to get worse!

Cuddling...

"I need to go jogging with my Dad"

Funny stuff Eli has said this week...

"I need to go jogging with my Dad", he was telling the neighbor kids yesterday when they were wanting him to come over to play longer, but Aaron was going to take him jogging in the jogging stroller.

"You have a big wiener Daddy"-- Aaron proudly tells this story, as Eli watched his Dad take a leak.

"Do you have a wiener Mommy" as we observes me using the facilities.

"Stoli OFF" as he commands the dog to drop his football, though Stoli chooses to ignore him.

We had a busy week. I worked all week at the hospital since we were doing some testing with the physicians. It was fun seeing some of my old friends from the hospital, as well as enjoying the hospital breakfast. They have the best gravy to smother all over some hash browns! I was also able to walk to Blue Koi to enjoy some lychee bubble tea and dumplings. Yummy!

Saturday, Rhonda and I ran 12 miles. Since we missed our 10 mile run last week because of the snow, we enjoyed the nice weather, as we struggled up and down some terrible hills! Our first 6 miles were great. We ran with the 11:20 pace group, and by mile 5 and 6 we were running 9:30/9:40 minute miles, which is pretty fast for us. It kicked our butts though coming back, we hit several walls because of the steep hills with no recovery time, so we walked quite a bit on our way back. If you could hear us complaining. I think I was delirious because I was dropping F-bombs left and right, then found myself laughing uncontrollably.

February--

February came and went. Maybe I should change my new year's resolution to blog posting once a month! Lame, I know. I'm going to blame my lack of blogging on Rhonda. She introduced me to the "Twilight" series. Yes, I have jumped on the band wagon, but the story is pretty captivating, and I was sucked into the vampire vortex.

I have been keeping up with my half marathon training, even with the crappy weather, except for this past weekend, when it snowed 6-8 inches. I woke up to Rhonda texting asking if our running group was canceled, and saw how much know was on the ground. We were supposed to run 10 miles, but there was no way we would have had a good run, so we skipped, hoping to run today. We'll see.

Work has been super busy, I helped support an upgrade at the hospital and had to work nights, that was interesting, I had not worked nights in years, but it was kind of fun in a slap happy way. We are getting ready for out big go-live in May, so it is getting down to crunch time. Enough about work!

Keenan is now 11 months, I cannot believe he will be one this month! His newest trick is clapping. He is so proud of himself. He has no problems eating, I was carrying him all weekend and he is so heavy! He is such a happy baby. The smallest things make him crack up and he does the belly laugh. He is very determined too, always going for the dog bowl, and he really gets pissed if we block him from it.

Eli is such a little man, but I'm afraid the "terrible three" is just around the corner. He has started to become more and more defiant, and we're not really enjoying that! He can be really sweet though, he has been coming into our bedroom in the middle of the night and I bring him to his bed, and he asks, "will you lay down with me", so of course I do, then he hands be his "Baa-by" (a little lamb blanket), and says, "you can have my Baa-by Mommy".

Lost Returns!

(This was written a WHILE ago-- just not posted)

I was never a "Lost" follower until just a few months ago. Lost re-runs were on a cable channel and Aaron and I happened to catch the pilot and we were hooked, we started DVRing the episodes, and I would get so upset with Aaron when he would see an episode without me. It was our "thing". We got to the point where we wanted to see more and more episodes, and we finally caught up and watched all of the past seasons to catch up to the new season premiere. We were unable to watch it on Wednesday because i had plans with some friends, and I was impressed Aaron did not watch it. We finally watched it on Friday.

Aaron's Mom and Dad brought the boys to "Uncle's House" for an over night stay, it's kind of a b-day gift to Aaron, so we can have some downtime and alone time. It was weird to come home to an empty, quiet house. Aaron and I watched "Lost" then went to dinner at Pot Pie. My scallops were divine, as well as their scrumptious bread pudding! It was snowing when we left so we ended up going home-- lame, but I was tired.

I was supposed to run in the morning, but it "felt like -7 degrees" so I said "f--k it", it was way too cold for that! So, I was able to sleep in. The problem with sleeping in, is that the day passes way too quickly! I ran some errands and had a much needed haircut, then we went to Brian's house with some pizza. We celebrated Aaron's b-day. The boys were both happy to see us, but I know they had a great time with the family.

Chicken Tetrazzini!!

Last week I was in the tundra of Madison. I think the lowest temp was -20! It was frigid, but at least it was sunny while I was there. I was able to hang with Elin, Brady, and Max and I was also fortunate enough to visit with Ryan O. and family as well.

I'm glad to be home, I just don't sleep as well without my flannel sheets, the warmth of Aaron, and Eli sneaking in our bed in the middle of the night. We had a pretty tame weekend. We went to breakfast at our favorite spot, Room 39, then we celebrated Brian's b-day that evening. We went over to his house for dinner. The boys had a blast as always. Sunday we spent the day at home. I did not have to work today, so I was solo with the boys. I was able to run this morning with Rhonda before Aaron went to work, it was pretty cold, but I'm glad we went. After Keenan took his morning nap I took the boys to their old daycare, Eli's "Old School" to visit. Eli was very shy, but once the teachers started talking to him about Thomas he started being himself. I think he was overwhelmed when we went into the play area and the kids all gathered around him. All of the teachers were so happy to see the boys. I was sad that Eli's last teacher had the day off, I think they would have both been excited to see each other.

We then picked up Aaron from the office and had lunch together. It was a little bit of a break for me. At least I knew I would get some help! Eli still wanted to go on another adventure, so we went to Dean and Deluca, we were not there very long, too close to nap time. We were all able to take a nap then I made dinner. Eli has learned to say "Chicken Tetrazzini". It cracks us up when he asks for more. "May I please have more chicken tet-traz-zini?". He even was talking to Lola, and told her what he ate at it was "yummy to my tummy".

Keenan is moving faster and faster. He was trying to stand on his own. He loves to babble very loudly. Eli says, "He's making so much noise!" as he's covering his ears.
Tonight Aaron read to Eli and he said this was the first night Eli said his prayers on his own. "Dear God, thank you for my family and my trains." It's a start.

So, i may have already broken one of my new year's resolutions. It's been technically over one week since I've posted...oh well.

I'm in Madison right now for my last training. Yeah! I've been able to hang out with Elin, Brady, and Max. Elin and I just had dinner together at Eno Vino, yummy tapas! We've been able to do a little shopping as well.

It was difficult to leave the family. This one morning last week, both Eli and Keenan were waking up. I went down to warm up Keenan's bottle and I heard Eli run into Keenan's room. He was standing on the stool next to Keenan's crib trying to console Keenan. Eli said, "it's ok Baby Keenan, I'm here", I wish I would have gotten it on tape!

It's pretty frigid up here! I know it's not any better back home. Well-- that's about all for now. I'm pretty beat! I'll post pics later when I have access to them!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy new year! I brought in the new year by being in bed before 10PM, waking up to fireworks at midnight, and rolling over and falling asleep again. How exciting! New Year's day I finally caught the 'rhea and vomit bug that had been in our house the past week. It was lovely, I think I got it the worse, but I still went to work the next day. I just did not want to use my PTO and I knew no one was going to be there, so I sat quietly in my cube. Aaron stayed home with Keenan because he has had 'rhea for the past couple of days, plus we found out later that day Aaron's Mom, our 'Granny Nanny' also contracted the lovely sickness.

Although we are experiencing this sickness, while I was at work and Eli at daycare we had all of our new windows put in! What a great way to start off the new year! It is amazing how nice they all look and how easy it is to open and close the windows! Now, I don't feel a terrible draft when I stand next to the windows!

I have a few new year's resolutions that I will share because I know I will follow through knowing more people are watching...

1) I am going to train and run two half marathons this year. I am going to run the Lawrence Half Marathon in April and probably the KC Half Marathon in October.

2) Blog weekly-- I think this may be difficult some weeks

3) Finish at least one scrapbook

4) Keep up with the boys baby books

Well, I hope only the best for everyone in 2009! 2008 was a wonderful year for us with the addition of Keenan. We've had fun!