Slow and steady

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LIFE (Feel Free to Just Peruse the Pics!!)

Doug reminded me the other day that our blog is like our own little family history and that I've seriously neglected it lately. Life keeps going and this year has gone by in a flash! So much has happened since I last wrote, I'm just going to cover the highlights. So here goes. . .

• I had 2 surgeries on my foot over spring and summer and was in a wheelchair for about 3 months - NOT fun!

my pretty pink cast!

At the time, I thought my foot would NEVER heal, but I'm happy to report that all is back to normal now:) It took about 6 months total, which was like an ETERNITY for me, but definitely taught me to be grateful for two healthy legs!

• trip to Utah over fourth of July weekend

Keegan took this one!
Me & the kids with my grandparents

We took a short trip to UTAH over the fourth of July weekend. Doug went HIKING with some friends from Albuquerque and me and the kids VISITED with my grandparents. I also got to see one of my DEAREST friends from Orlando, Tiare, who just had an ADORABLE little baby boy. While I was there I also arranged a mini-reunion of ORLANDO kids that now live in Utah. My friend CHERI hosted and six of us with our families came. It was really nice to CATCH UP with all of them!

• Happy birthday to Keegan!

We didn't officially have a party for Keegan's birthday this year, but invited over some of his closest FRIENDS for cake and ice cream. He's so BLESSED to have great friends here in Albuquerque and I feel LUCKY to know and LOVE all of them and their families. THANKS to all who made his birthday SPECIAL!

Things about Keegan at 7 years old:
*He's an AMAZING brother. He wanted a baby for so long and since Kaia was born, his life is complete. He loves that little girl like CRAZY and it melts my heart to see him with her.
*He STILL loves CARS! Maybe it's something he'll never OUTGROW, but since he was a baby, he's been fascinated with ANY & ALL cars. He knows cars way better than I do. It's funny because he'll know what kind of car all my friends drive, even when I don't!
*He loves to BUILD things. Again, he's so much better than I am at building AIRPLANES or cars or houses or BOATS with his Legos, K'Nex and Tinker Toys. I'm amazed at some of the things he builds without any instructions or guide.
*He's still such a GOOD boy. He's really HELPFUL around the house and ESPECIALLY with Kaia. He still loves to CUDDLE, which I'm grateful for! He loves MUSIC - we hear him singing QUIETLY in his room almost every night. I just LOVE him a TON and am so thankful he's my little boy!!

• Rocky Point with the Doug's family (minus Doug) in late July
• 

Bridgy and Kaia
Keegan and Tristan
cousin pyramid
sweet girls in the morning

• Dave's family stays with us a beautiful double-rainbow during the storm
• 
  playing in the rain
  

Kaia and Bella seeking shelter from the storm
playing peek-a-boo :)

Doug's younger brother, DAVE, had a podiatry rotation in Albuquerque for the month of AUGUST. Since his FAMILY isn't going to get to see much of him this YEAR, they came and stayed with us. It was really nice for the kids to have their sweet cousins around to PLAY with. KAIA and GAINES were so cute together! At first, Kaia just kind of MAULED him - she would climb up on his back and use him as her own personal little TRAIN :) But after a while, Gainers got USED to her and they started to have lots of FUN. They played PEEK-A-BOO, followed each other around the house, and ROCKED out on the drums! Since almost all of Keegan's toys are CARS, Bella developed quite a fondness for them! She and Keegan set up TRACKS and raced cars; they also liked setting up all our throw PILLOWS and jumping over them. It was SAD for all of us when the month ended. Kaia even woke up the next morning and was looking around the house for something - I think she missed her little CUZ :)

• Keegan starts the 2nd grade!

I can't believe he's already 2nd grader

• Labor Day in Spar

We ALWAYS have so much fun in SPAR! It's absolutely BEAUTIFUL there and we love being able to SPEND TIME with our good friends the Drakes and the Rices. The kids FISHED and HIKED and just enjoyed being in NATURE! I shot a GUN for the first time in my life - it was actually pretty FUN:) Lots of THANKS to the Rices for sharing this AMAZING place with us!

• Papa visits

Dad came for a week in September to meet little Kaia and spend some time with Keegan. The kids LOVED having him here as always! He even had time to read a couple of books while he was here. I told him how great The Book Thief is and Doug talked him into reading Manhunt, which is also really good. We're so grateful to him for coming out and always LOOK FORWARD to his visits. (I forgot to take pics until the last day of his visit and it was past Kaia's bedtime, so she wasn't very cooperative - dangit! But I love this one of the 3 of them. Dad's expression is PRICELESS!)

• Kaia turns 9 months

I love this picture of her with sweet potatoes on her face and her cute little teeth showing!

Weight: 17 lbs, 12 oz - 25%
Height: 27.75 inches - 50%
Head: 45 cm - 75%

At 9 months, Kaia could say mamma and dadda. She was standing up on her own, except when Doug tried to make her; then she would go all rubbery-legs and just sit down! She LOVED to jump, jump, jump and still lit up whenever Keegan came into the room. Doug taught her how to give HUGS and WRESTLE. Her hugs are short and sweet, but since it's pretty much the only time she sits STILL and cuddles, we all LOVE it (especially Daddy). Her version of wrestling is just growling and digging her face into Doug's shoulder, which is HILARIOUS! We're teaching her some SIGN language, so when she's all done with her meal, she'll WAVE her hands and say, "ah dah." It's pretty much one of the CUTEST things I've ever seen! She also loves to play PEEK-A-BOO and already has a BESTIE: the little girls she sees every day in the mirror! (see video above) She started WALKING at about 9 1/2 months and hasn't looked back. (see above video, again!) It's so funny to see her walk because she's just this TINY little thing. She really does bring so much JOY into our lives and we LOVE her guts!

• Happy birthday to Doug!

Doug's bday this year fell on a SATURDAY, which happened to be super BUSY for us. So we had dinner and CAKE with our friends, the Foutzes, on Friday night. Doug got a new TENNIS RACKET, some BALLS and lots of CHOCOLATE! Saturday, we took him out to LUNCH for his official BIRTHDAY and that night, he went to the UNM football GAME with a good friend, Seth. Happy 36th, old man!!! We sure do love you :)

• Balloon fiesta

We decided to go to the BALLOON FIESTA this year since we haven't been in a while. Keegan has always wanted to see the GLOWDEO, so we went that night. Unfortunately, there was too much WIND, so it was canceled. We were a little disappointed, but ate some YUMMY, highly fattening FOOD, watched the FIREWORKS and went home. We found out the next day that we could go again for FREE, so Keegan and I went and FINALLY got to see the balloons LIT UP in the dark. We all had a really good time :)

6 Months Old (a little late)!

Kaia turned 6 months old about three weeks ago but this is the first time I've been able to sit and write about it. I just can't believe how fast it has gone by. She is growing up like crazy and learning new things every day. Here are her stats:

Height: 25.5 inches, 50%
Weight: 15 lbs, 2.5 oz, 25%
Head: 43 cm, 75%

Some fun facts about Kaia at 6 months:

• Watch out world! She's mobile now and into EVERYTHING!!!
  
• She thinks her brother is HILARIOUS! Any time he even walks in the room, she laughs.
• She's fascinated by her hands - she studies them constantly, moving them from side to side and opening and closing them.
• She's ALWAYS happy, seriously the happiest baby I know.
• She loves giving kisses - big, open-mouthed, slobbery kisses!
• She's a total busybody. If she's not sleeping, she's moving! It's impossible for her to sit still.
• She loves attention. If you're not giving it to her, she'll fake cough or yell, "eh, eh"!
• She hasn't met a food she doesn't like, although she does seem to have some faves: bananas, pears and sweet potatoes.

We love her to death and can't imagine our world without her in it! Happy 6 months chiquita!!!

Summer Fun

So far our summer has been really fun. Keegan is a lot busier than we meant for him to be, but he's enjoying himself. He went to a basketball camp the first week of summer and really improved his game! The other teams finally realized that he was one of the stars on his team and starting sticking to him like glue - he still managed to get off a couple shots!!



He's also doing swim team at one of the local pools. I totally didn't prepare him for it though! They pretty much just get in the pool and do laps the entire hour. It's really tough but we're going to try to stick it out. We'll see how it goes. . .

Doug is helping to coach soccer again this summer. They only have one game a week with no practices, which is really nice. The World Cup is inspiring Keegan to try some new moves and last week he scored two goals :)

Some days, we decide to just chill out at home and take a break from all the busyness. It's nice for Kaia to be able to nap in her own bed! Today was one of those days, and we invited one of Keegan's best friends over. They play so great together! They played in the sprinklers, made a mud pool, had a picnic and then did some sidewalk art, (which is my FAVORITE kind since there's no clean-up involved!!) Yeah for fun summer days!




Also, we're pretty sure Keegan has a future in the long jump!

Memorial Day

soooooo sad that Triston had to go home!

3 out of 4 ain't bad!

the "mud pool"

Quinn and Dani came up to visit for Memorial Day weekend! We ate lots of yummy food and Keegan and Triston played non-stop. Kaia was just dying to keep up with the big kids. She wanted to be wherever the action was and thought little Bridgie was fascinating! It's so nice that Quinn and Dani are just 5 hours away and we loved having them. Thanks for coming guys - can't wait for your next visit!!

just threw this one it because this little dress just kills me - so cute!

From the time that Kaia started sitting up, she started trying to move around. It's so funny, because she'll be looking at something right in front of her and try to get at it, but scoot backwards instead. She's gets pretty frustrated, but we're pretty sure she'll be crawling soon enough.

Growing :)

What a busy week!

We've been pretty busy the last couple of weeks and I wanted to share some of the highlights -

1. Kaia got her ears pierced! I was totally nervous about taking her in and feeling like a cruel mommy, but she was a total trooper! She only cried for about 5 seconds, which made me feel better about my decision to do it. And I have to say that she looks adorable with her tiny little pink czs :)

2. Doug & his siblings ran the Ragnar Relay del Sol! I'm so impressed with the Gooch brothers, sisters & 2 cousins. They ran a 202 mile race over 24 hours. There were 12 runners on the team and each had to run 3 legs of the race. Everyone was exhausted by the time they finished, but it sounded like they all had a good time. Yeah for the Shufflers!

Doug kickin' it old school

attacking a hill

3. Grandpa Gary Gooch celebrated his 70th with all of his children. After the race, everyone got showered and headed to Garcia's in Phoenix for some yummy Mexican food. The family shared some memories of Gary over the years and some tears were shed, although most of them were from Kaia, who had had enough by that time! She screamed something fierce for the last half hour or more of the dinner :(

4. Kaia Rowan Gooch was blessed by her daddy. We figured it would be a great time to bless Kaia since most of Doug's brothers and sisters would be able to attend. Kaia was kind of touch and go all weekend. She was just a bit overwhelmed by all the people, so I was a little afraid that she was going to cry all the way through her blessing. By the time we got to church, she was okay, but then she heard everyone singing the opening hymn and it made her sad. I took her out thinking that I had until after the sacrament to get her calmed down. Turned out, though, that she was on right after the opening prayer. Doug came running down the hall and said that it was time. She still wasn't very happy, but there was nothing we could do. Doug took her up there, and she stopped fussing completely! She was a little angel throughout the blessing, which was a relief to both Doug and me. Doug still talked as fast as he could, but thanks to his sisters and niece, we have a record of her blessing. (Thanks to Mimi for the beautiful dress & Grandma for the darling blanket!)

sweetie pie

totally relieved!

our little fam

everyone at the blessing

see those cute earrings?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Me & my sweet little valentines

Keegan made me the valentine necklace that I'm sporting in the pic - he did such a great job! He even gave me a dime, (you can see it taped to the middle of the valentine), which he thinks is pretty much the best present you can get! Actually, he told me he wanted to give me a dollar but he couldn't find one, so he gave me a dime instead. He's such a sweetie :)

I just had to throw this picture in, because she's so stinkin' adorable! It really is so much more fun to dress little girls than little boys.