Kellen's Swimming Summer

With summer in full swing our little turtle is back in action in the pool. We had a little bit of a bumpy start after taking a break for the winter, but after two weeks he found his groove and now swims at least four times a week.

We are now working on taking breaths and he can jump in and swim across the pool to the steps lifting his head and taking breaths along the way. Daddy has even started teaching him to dive and he has it down pretty good. Now if we could just get him to point his toes.

His favorite game is diving down to the bottom to pick up his dive sticks. He can play for hours. We have to give him a little push but he picks up the toys and then uses his feet to push off the bottom and come up for air, then it's back down for the next toy.

We are very excited to show off all his skills at his birthday pool party this year which is being held at Nana's house in Cincinnati. Only 15 days till we leave to make the long drive home.

Kellen's Dandelion

Kellen's First Snow

Our First Sale

You are looking at the next HGTV reality stars! Well sort of. As many of you know we have been talking about selling our house and giving up palm trees, beaches, and sunshine to move back to Cincinnati to be with our family. We finally were given the push in the right direction to make this dream a reality.

One of our friends who is also a realtor was selected to be on HGTV's My First Sale. A reality show that follows a couple through the up's and down's of selling their very first home. We filled out the application and sent in photos of our house, us, and our pups. Next was a phone interview and once we passed that they decided to shoot a casting video. The videographer that they sent was a really cool guy named Andrew. He was really helpful as he interviewed Chris and I and Tracie our realtor. They wanted to see how we would be on camera, how we interacted with each other, and to check out our pad. Once that was done they sent it off to the HGTV executives and less than a week later we got the call.... we would have our very own episode.

We find out this week what the shooting schedule will be and when we will begin this very exciting journey. I am planning on blogging and video taping our whole experience to share, so stay tuned!

Bringing Back the Blog

Life has been pretty crazy and so I have slacked big time on our blog. Please accept my apologies. I am making a commitment to bring our blog back to life with photos, videos, and of course many tales from life in Sunny South Florida. We have so many exciting things coming up in 2011, that it seemed like the perfect time to pick up where we left off.

Kellen had his 2 and a half year check up last week and Nurse Jackie said he is perfect in every way. Kellen weighed in at 38 pounds, 37 inches. He is in the 95th percentile for weight, 90th for height and his head is still off the charts, meaning it's over 100. He is holding strong in a size 4T and shoe size 9. Still a long way to go to beat Daddy's size 13.

Stay tuned for all the exciting updates.... I think you will be pretty surprised at everything our family is up to.

Our Beach Video Please Vote!

The TradeWinds Picture Perfect Beach Contest has officially started and we need your help to win!

Our video is the contest and we need votes votes votes! All you need to do is sign up one time and then you can vote for our video 10 times per day. If we win our family gets a weekend stay at The Tradewinds and we will a new HD camcorder. I really would love to win so that I will have 2 cameras for shooting professional events like my sisters wedding.

Pretty pretty please help us win! Once you sign up it's so easy to just click our video 10 times in a row. I will make sure to keep pestering, I mean reminding you!

Thanks so so so much!!!!!!!

Eileen's entry for the Picture Perfect Beach Contest

Disney & Our Turtle

The first time I went to Disney World I was 24 years old, and I cried when we drove into the park. I was so happy that I was going to meet Mickey and the gang, and could not wait to experience the magic. Kellen was 23 months. He seemed very excited to see the giant Micky, Minnie, and Goofy cut outs that welcome you to the park. But as we parked, rode the tram, then the monorail and finally walked into the park 25 minuets later he was hot & sleepy. I think that Daddy & I were way more excited than Kellen, butI didn't care, I was just excited to take him and watch his chunky face as he took everything in.

Kellen loved the giant parade and was clapping his hands and laughing as we danced in the streets with Mickey, Buzz Lightyear and cast of characters. We were really surprised at how many rides he actually made the height requirement for. He rode the race cars with Daddy, he even was allowed to steer the car while Chris pushed on the gas pedal. it was so cute. He was even allowed to rife his very first roller coaster Goofy's Train something something. He even put his arms up, again sooooo cute.

As the day went on we made our way around the park stopping to ride The Tea Cups, Aladdin's Flying Carpet (his favorite) and of course Dumbo. Kellen napped for a few hours and Daddy and I ate lunch and took turns riding Space Mountain. By five pm we were all set and ready to call it a day. Kellen could not grasp the waiting in line aspect of the park, and really who can blame him. The rides would come to an end and he would sign "more, more" and really just wanted to stay in his seat and go again. Explaining why was just not cutting it.

On the way out of the gates we stopped to get Kellen his Mickey Mouse ears. You just cant leave Disney without the ears. We even had his name embroidered on the back, it's really adorable. Now if only Kellen would wear it : ) We had such a great weekend together.

Wish we were here...

St. Pete Beach Baby from EILEEN PIKE on Vimeo.