Max is participating in a study at UW and afterward we go to Green Lake and jog or walk around if its not raining. They happen to have a great park there. I put Max in one of the baby swings there. He wasn’t sure about it at first but he eventually liked it. Of course I didn’t have my camera.
Here are some pictures of Max swinging the next day with his friend Noah and my friend Tina at a playground close to their house.
Do you like yummy bread and cookies? Of course you do! Then you should come down to Kent to Coeur D’ Alene Baking and pick some up tomorrow!
6701 S. 216th Street
Kent, WA 98032 ~ All Breads: $2.50 ~ All Cookies: $3.00 ~ Fridays Only 9am – 5pm
Some of the delectable items they have are:
Bread: Cookies:
Whole wheat sourdough Triple Chocolate Chunk
French & Wheat Sub Rolls Molasses Chew
Cracked Wheat Lemon Ginger
Whole Wheat Peanut Butter
Marble Rye Trail Mix
Vegan Chocolate Chip (So good! And I’m not vegan 
FRENCH & WHEAT 6″ SUB ROLLS ON SALE TOMORROW!
ONLY $1.00 PER PACKAGE (6 pack)!!!
Great for Sub Sandwiches, French Dip, or Personal Pizzas!
Kelly and I love their sourdough cannonballs. I like to put chilli, stew or chowder in them – YUM!
Last Saturday I was gone for a few hours attending a memorial service with my sister and parents. When I got home this is what the living room looked like.
My cousin Christine got Max some super cute clothes for Christmas. My favorite is this hoodie.
Max is eight months old! Max likes to be on the move. One of his favorite things right now are outlets, cords and the space heater in his room. The space heater has a red light on it so I think that’s a big reason he wants to touch it. We have started telling Max, “no.” When he touches what he’s not supposed to (see above) and usually moving him to a different location. Today he crawled away from Kelly and myself and knocked the space heater over. We rushed to his room to see him scurry away as fast as he could toward the opposite direction of where the heater was laying. Our hunch is that he knew he wasn’t supposed to touch the heater but just had to because its so amazing! Then he heard us coming and didn’t want to get caught. Who knows if that’s actually how an eight-month-old’s mind works though.
I hope everyone has a fun and safe New Year’s celebration. We’re playing it low key this year and just staying home. We’ll watch some movies, eat a cheese ball and some little smokies and call it good. We will probably be asleep before midnight. A few years ago I would have thought this was a boring way to celebrate but right now its sounds just right.
We hope everyone had a very merry Christmas. We spent some time with both sides of our family and went to church at SVA (Snoqualmie Valley Alliance svaonline.org.) SVA did my favorite Christmas thing. At the end of the service we all lit candles and sang Silent Night. It was really beautiful. All in all we had a good Christmas. It was especially fun having two babies at the Keeton Christmas.
Here is a picture of Max and his cousin Grace with Santa (The sergeant- Grandpa Bob). He borrowed his department’s Santa suit so we could get a picture of the kiddos with Santa. So cute! Grace has grown so much since the last time I saw her! She is getting cuter and cuter.
On Christmas morning we opened a few presents at home just the three of us. Wouldn’t you know it but Max got me some presents! A magnetic calendar for the fridge and a long sleeved, white, v-neck shirt. He really read my mind with those gifts. He is quite the prodigy.
Max stood himself up on a bag full of gifts all by himself! Yes, that’s a remote control rat that he has. Were you expecting something else?
Max has the best head for sticking bows to. #1 its large. #2 the stick-um of the bows adheres perfectly to the scarcity of hair.
We stuck a ribbon to Max’s cute little baby bottom. He is staring at his beloved pots and pans in this pic.
Max playing with his toy from Cousin Grace. He really likes that thing.
(This is not baby Jesus.)
This year in preparing for Christmas I have been thinking and wondering how Kelly and I can incorporate Jesus into Christmas. Growing up I was way more focused on Santa and presents and I would like to downplay that and focus more on Jesus. I know that having Max is the reason behind this and I’m glad. Today at MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers – Max is a mopette 
we talked about Christmas traditions that families do. I’m not sure yet which ones we’ll choose to do and some are more about Jesus than others but they all seem fun:
- Make Jesus a birthday cake and sing him happy birthday on Christmas Day (His birthday
- Stretch Christmas out through the month of December read Christmas books, watch Christmas movies. My favorite Christmas movies: Elf, National Lampoons Christmas, Home Alone, Scrooged, Love Actually, Miracle on 34th Street…
- Make a Jesse Tree. (A what…?) Yes, a Jesse Tree. You take a little tree and your kids can make ornaments for each day in Advent. You also read a verse on each day. Its really cool!
- Have your kids earn money to buy presents for their siblings, family and/or friends. Then take them to the dollar store to pick out gifts. This way they will perhaps be even more appreciative of the gifts they give and receive. They may also move beyond thinking of what they want to what their sibling wants and they will get to see the other person’s joy when opening the gift.
- On Christmas morning before opening presents read the passage from Luke 2 about Jesus being the ultimate gift to us from God.
- Give your kids three gifts because Jesus received three gifts and Jesus. The first is a heart gift (something they really want), the second is a mind gift (book, game), the third is a body gift (clothes, shoes)
- Another idea is to just give one big gift to your kids that they can all enjoy. For example a trampoline or swing set.
These are just a few ideas from the women at MOPS. What are your Christmas traditions? I would love to hear from you.
I hope you and your family enjoy a very cozy Christmas filled with the joy of Christ’s love.
Max is seven months old! Crazy huh. His newest and most exciting development is crawling! He started crawling about a week before he turned seven months. And what did he crawl after you ask? Sprinkles? A cool toy? Mommy? Daddy? Oh no our little boy crawled after a cardboard paper towel tube. He just loves those things. So now with him being very moble we’ve been busy baby proofing. Kelly installed a sturdy baby gate at the top of our stairs and we’ve done some other stuff. Some new foods that Max has tried lately are: peaches (thanks Betty), apricots and pears. He liked them all. He does sometimes make his “this tastes icky” face when his food is served to him warm. He still just has the two bottom teeth and I haven’t felt any more coming in and I’m just fine with that! Max doesn’t seem to sleep very well when he’s teething so neither do I.
Taking his monthly picture is becoming more of a challenge now. He doesn’t want to stay put. He wants to crawl off the couch or grab the camera. I gave him a bowl to keep him in place.
Yum – bowl!
Getting ready to move!
Isn’t his hat hilariously adorable?! Aunt Kelly got it for him. 
I find it interesting and frustrating how Kelly can fall asleep in a matter of seconds and sometimes it takes me hours to go to sleep. He told me he can just shut his brain off (what?! So not fair!) My strategies for trying to go to sleep are writing down what’s on my mind (a list), praying, read, try to sleep in our guestroom. Last night I was particularly wired. Kelly and I went to bed and I tried to fall asleep but my brain wouldn’t cooperate. Here’s our conversation after it had been quiet for less than five minutes.
Katie: Do you think Sprinkles has enough water?
Kelly: Waaah! I was totally asleep. I feel like you you just yanked me back from sleep.
Katie: Sorry I was just wondering if Sprinkles is out of water since we moved her food and water downstairs and I don’t see it as much. I just don’t want her to die of thirst.
Kelly: Are you serious?
Katie: Yes…anyway I feel chatty (I proceed to chit chat about not very important stuff and Kelly fell right back asleep.)
A few weeks ago my friend Johanna and I drove up to visit our friend Suzanne in Bellingham. I hadn’t seen Suzanne since I moved away from Bellingham after graduating from Western in 2005. It was so much fun to see her and visit. I had a great time. It was also fun watching all of our kiddos interact.
L to R: Jubilee & Asa (Suzanne), Max (me), Ruthi (Johanna
Pals: Ruthi and Max.
Max and Ruthi spend the two hours with their fantastic babysitter playing and playing and playing while Johanna and I attend a Bible study together. Its so cute usually when Ruthi sees me she says, “Max.” So adorable!