Happy Birthday Girls!

Ripley and Nixon celebrated their 3rd birthday today – a bittersweet day filled with lots of fun but a little sadness because my babies are growing up.  Also sad was that Kyle couldn’t be here to join us in the festivities.  But, despite the setback, we had a wonderful day, both at their school and at home.  Happy Birthday, my sweet girls.

"Happy Birthday" Habibi's Hutch style.

Imagine 78 toddlers/pre-K'ers singing Happy Birthday in English then Spanish

Ripley and the first of many cupcakes today

Ripley - just hangin'

Nixie - Hmmmmm

Mars found a canoe and some other boys - cool.

Making cupcakes back at the homestead (with Delphi)

"Cooking"

...One second later

I love you sweet Birthday Girls.

Summer?

Apparently it’s already summertime here in Austin because it was 90 degrees this afternoon!  Luckily, we still had last year’s baby pool so we made a dash for the backyard and took a dip with our friends, Jamie and Finley.  You’ll notice, of course, that the yard is still covered in leaves from the fall that we never bothered to rake.

How many Killens can you fit in a baby pool?

Mr. Man, chillin'

Finley's trying to pick up a few leaves for us

This is moments before they tried to disrobe.

After falling in the pool face first he let me cuddle with him for a bit.

What's cuter than this?

Playtime!

Somehow it’s gone from snow-time to spring-time!.  Yay!  Here are a few pics of the playing that we’ve been doing around here.

Fashionistas!

Nixie

Mr. Man after playing in (very small) puddles

RARH! (Nixon)

Ripples at school (taken the same day as above photo - notice the contrast in amount of clothes!)

Me and Marsie Bars!

Snow!

Well, it didn’t snow much but it was enough to cancel school for the day and give the kids a taste of the stuff.  The verdict:  The girls liked it for about 10 minutes.  Mars liked it not at all.  Matters weren’t helped by the fact that I put plastic baggies over Mars’ shoes to keep the snow out, causing him to slip and fall on his face several times.  Live and learn.

Check out those slip-slidey shoe covers. Smart move, Me.

Two seconds before above photo.

"This stuff is COLD!" - N.

"Now what?" - R.

Deicy rescuing Mr. Man.

"I don't know, it's not so bad out here" - N.

Welcome Liam Ambros Killen!

Seems like babies are springing up like wildfire in our family!  Meet our newest nephew, Liam Ambros Killen!  Sara gave birth at home with the help of a midwife and Bryce to a hefty 9+ lb bundle of joy on Sept 27.  Baby and mom are doing well.  We can’t wait to get our hands on the little guy!  Here are a few photos.

Mars’ turns ONE!

It’s been a crazy first year but we wouldn’t have changed a thing.  Mr. Man turned one a couple of weeks ago and we headed to one of our favorite neighborhood parks to celebrate with friends over cupcakes and juice boxes.  Conveniently, it was also Kyle’s birthday so the two of them blew out the candles as a cute little father-son team.  Happy Birthday Killen men!

Make a wish...

The birthday boy.

The girls

Yummy.

Playing with Oma

Momma's boy

Silly girls

 

Christmas!

This is a bit late, but here are a few pictures from Christmas.  I worked Christmas morning so we celebrated on the 26th up in Burleson.  Austin and Amy were there with cute little 3-month old Calder.  It promised to be a good time, but the holiday was plagued by illness (Mars and I got strep throat, Grandmother Cox got pneumonia and ended up in the hospital shortly after Christmas).  But, we had a good day nevertheless and managed to get a few cute pictures out of it.  And, luckily, Grandmother is out of the hospital and getting stronger every day.

This was our best attempt at a family photo.

Mars and Calder hangin' out for the first time.

Nixon baking brownies old-school-apron-style.

Grandmother Cox with Ripley

One of two amazing quilts made by Gigi (Dana)

Tree decorating.

 

Thanksgiving 2010

We spent a few days in Burleson for Thanksgiving, hanging with the grandparents (and great grandmothers) and enjoying some home cooking.  Opa gave out “tractor” rides (really a riding lawn mower) and built little piles of leaves for the girls to jump into and Mars had a wonderful time crawling after frisbees and falling down in soft grass.  All in all, a perfect holiday spent with some pretty great people.

We couldn't find the baby for awhile and here's where he turned up

He's got his dad's frisbee skillz

So squeezable!

Tickle time!

The girls weren't sure about riding in the trailer

Nixie's at the wheel - watch out!

Deicy and Ripples

Mars and Nixon in Opa's leaf pile

Ripley

Farmer Joe

Wacky family photos

Back in Sept the kids had a little mini-photo session with a local photographer.  Of course, it was super humid (FRIZZY hair!),  Nixon (polka dots) was in a foul mood so refused to smile, and Mars wouldn’t stop biting.  Despite the challenges, we ended up with a few pretty funny shots.

Halloween!

My little pirates and pumpkin had a great time trick or treating this year.  We hit a festive street near our house and within an hour we were all ready to go home and eat candy.  Unfortunately, both of my cameras ran out of batteries within 5 minutes and Nixon flat-out refused to be in pictures.  So, our photos are limited, but you’ll get the general idea…

Weird photo (out of focus, etc) but our only family shot

Girls on the move

I couldn't get Ripley to stop saying "ARRRRH"