Merry Christmas!

This Christmas, Keegan, Chris and I went up to Dallas to surprise my two sisters, their husbands, and our nephew Landen. My parents were already there in Dallas picking up my grandpa - Poppop (who comes to stay with my parents in Helotes from December/January to March). They were very surprised when we arrived at their house on Christmas Eve - Ryan (my little sister Lauren's husband) and my parents were the only ones who knew we were coming. It was quite fun! We enjoyed family time and got to play Rock Band on Ryan's Wii. That game is so cool. Chris rocked out on the guitar and I played the drums. Keegan enjoyed dancing and even tried to sing through the microphone. So much fun!

I hope all of you had a wonderful and blessed Christmas. It is such a wonderful holiday - the birth of our Savior - Jesus Christ! We are all truly blessed.

Will post some pictures of our weekend soon!

Love always

Chris, Erin & Keegan Stinson

I turned 1!

I can't believe that a year has already passed since Keegan was born! Time sure flew by - like everybody told us it would. We had so much fun with all my family and friends that came to join us in celebrating Keegan's birthday. We collected blankets for Brecken's blankets - in memory of our nephew (& Keegan's cousin) Brecken. We will always remember you! We had a great time.

I can't believe how much he has grown and all the things he can now do. He is a crawling machine! He is very fast. He will stand and attempt to take steps but just decides that it is easier to stop, drop & crawl! He is a climber! He loves to climb and pretend that he is falling off - we set up some pillows around a chair his Nana & Papi got him - he will climb up it and then fall of into the pillows. He loves it. He is eating more table foods, but has become a picky eater. Some days he loves anything I will give him and other days he is very picky and will refuse to eat anything I try to give him. He still is not much of a sleeper. Most days we are lucky if we get an hour nap in him. He does not sleep through the night yet - I am hoping that day is fast approaching. For the most part he is a happy little boy!

I will try to be more deligent in keeping up with this blog!
Take care and we hope you all have a safe and wonderful holiday!

God bless,

The Stinson's

Happy Halloween!

My Mommy & Daddy dressed me in a skeleton outfit. They took me to a couple of houses to get some candy but I was more intersted in looking at the decorations and all the funny/scary costumes. I helped Mommy & Daddy hand out candy. It was fun!

Love ~ Keegan

Pumpkin Patch

Hello all! I can't believe my little one is getting so big. We went to the Pumpkin Patch this past Sunday. Keegan really enjoyed playing with the hay. Daddy had a difficult time getting him to look at the camera. We got some really cute pictures though. Keegan is starting to pull up everywhere. Tonight, I was working on the computer downstairs and he proceeded to climb up the couch to get me. His Daddy was so proud. He sure is a dare devil. All I could say was, CHRIS watch him! Don't let him fall. Chris was like - he is fine - LOOK at what he did! I am so proud. He is so amazing and we are so thankful to God for such a wonderful gift. We hope you are all doing great. Take care and we will have some pictures of Halloween soon! We are going to put him in a skeleton outfit - we are not going all out though. Did not think he would tolerate a made up outfit nor did I want to spend $50 for an outfit he would have on for 30 minutes. Take care and God bless,
The Stinson's

It has been awhile...

Hello all! We hope this blog finds you doing well. Keegan just turned 11 months. I can't believe that in less than a month, he will be ONE! Crazy. This first year just flew by. Keegan is doing so much now. He is still now "crawling". His idea of crawling is till on his belly and "skooting" along. He will get on his hands and knees but then decides it is easier the other way. He can now pull up on things (couch, toy box, dishwasher, etc....). He used to LOVE looking into my cabinets in the kitchen but his Daddy put the door stoppers this weekend and he can't get them open. Any other door that has not been "fixed" yet, he will sniff it out! He is eating "big people" food now. He loves potatoes, carrots, crackers, chicken, avacado, peaches, cheerios, mango, tortillas, rice, and beans. His Daddy let him try some Gatorade the other day and he LOVED it. So I have to monitor that. Don't want my kid hooked on Gatorade. For the most part, he is a HAPPY baby. Playing, smiling and loves to interact. He can wave bye bye, play patty cake, points to a light when we say "where's the light Keegan" (if we say "where is Daddy/Mommy/etc." he will point to the light!), and sign "more". He has sade a couple words - what we think he has said - cracker, bath, ball, and car. I swear the first time he said cracker, my Mom and I almost died. We were feeding him one night and we said "you want a cracker, Keegan" and he looked at us and clear as day said "cracker". We were floored. Obviously he does not say it clearly now, but he sure can say the beginning sounds of all those words.
We hope you all are doing great. We love and miss you all! Have a safe and Happy Halloween. Still not sure what he will be - we will figure it out. Taking him to a Pumpkin Patch this weekend. He will love it hopefully!
Love always and God bless
The Stinson Family

Prayers...

Hello all. I hope this post finds you all doing good and that God is blessing you and your families. I have some sad news to report. My older sister, Kirsten, went into premature labor on Saturday September 6, 2008. They were unable to stop her labor (she had an infection - can't remember the name, but it was in the sacs surrounding the baby). She gave birth to a baby boy - Brecken Jared Jones around noon time. He passed away about an hour later. My sister and her family are relying on their faith to get them through this tough time. We will have a memorial on Saturday September 20, 2008 in McKinney, TX. We know that Brecken is with Jesus and we will see him again when we are all together. Please pray for my sister Kirsten, her husband Scott, and their 2 1/2 year old Landen.
May God bless you all!
The Stinson Family

Our baby boy.....

It is truly amazing the love you have for a child. We sit and look at Keegan as each day goes by and thank God for such an amazing gift that He gave us with our little boy. He is growing up so fast. Keegan turned 9 months on the 19th of August. He is starting to "army crawl" and has developed such a fun personality. He has such a beautiful smile! Keegan is starting to eat "finger foods". He loves bananas, carrots and "toddler cheetos". Keegan continues to love drinking from Mommy and Daddy's "big people" cups. He prefers this instead of his sippy cup (only the ones with a straw). His 9 month check up was perfect. He is 20.8 lbs. and 28 inches long. Dr. Benbow says he looks wonderful! We continue to pray that our little boy continues to grow and be healthy. We look forward to what the next couple of months have to offer: crawling, more teeth, and overall getting more active. Before we know it, we will be celebrating his 1st Birthday! WOW!
May God continue to bless you all!
Love always,
The Stinson Family

Daddy and Me

My Mommy and Daddy celebrated their 5th Anniversary on August 2nd. Since they are both turning 30 soon, they decided to plan a trip with extended family as a get away. They decided to go to Barton Creek in Austin, TX. Nana, Papi, Auntie Kirsten, Unkie Scott, Cousin Landen, Cousin Baby Jones (due in December), Auntie Lauren and Unkie Ryan joined us. We had a great time. Here is a picture of me and my WONDERFUL Daddy. We got a family picture so my Mommy will have to post it on my blog so you all can see. We had a great time!

Happy 4th of July!

Hello all! For 4th of July weekend, we ventured to Houston to see MeMe, Papa Gary, Auntie LaTissha, soon to be Unkie Jacob, Unkie Cody and Unkie Taylor. I loved the fireworks (unlike my Mommy - she does not like fireworks - they are too loud for her). I sat there and just looked in amazement. Mommy made Daddy hold my ears because they were pretty loud, but I guess I did not mind. I loved playing with my Unkie's Cody and Taylor. Auntie LaTissha loved hanging out with me too. She was feeding me - it got all over - no worries Auntie, you will get plenty of practice before you and Unkie Jacob have any babies. I had a great time with MeMe and Papa Gary. Mommy and Daddy went on a date one night and I played with MeMe in the sink.
I turn 8 months this Saturday! Wow time is flying. I am cutting two teeth - my bottom two. Mommy will try to get a picture up soon of my "snagle-teeth".
We love you all
Keegan

Keegan's Baptism

Today was a very special day for us. Together with our family and friends, we welcomed Keegan into the great "family" of God. We had him baptized at Faith Lutheran Church by Pastor Crick. As Christians and parents, we are called to bring our little one up knowing and loving God.

Jesus told us: "Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." It is in baptism that God grants the new life of forgiveness, joy and peace to little children. By the power of God's Word, this gracious water of life washes away sin, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe.

We are truly blessed to have our families and friends there to celebrate in this special day. Keegan did such a wonderful job. He seemed to enjoy his "mini bath" when Pastor Crick baptized him. He was all smiles during the pictures. May God continue to bless you and your families and may His light always shine on the path that you walk.

The Stinson's

Summer is finally here! We can't believe it. Mommy is out of school - she is going to do some contract work as a Recreation Therapist and work about 10-15 hours a week. Papi (and Nana - now that she is out of school too) will watch me when Mommy is working. Mommy is doing this so she can spend more time with me. It is great. I just got back from Dallas with my Mommy and Daddy. My Daddy had something with his work - it was fun. We swam at the pool and I got to see my Auntie Kirsten, Uncle Scott, and my cousin Landen. My Auntie Kirsten is going to have another baby in December. We are really excited. We hope you all are doing great. I am going to be 7 months in about 4 days. My Mommy and Daddy say that I am just doing great. I am a very happy baby now (better than the first couple months where I was fussy britches).

I hope you all continue to have a great summer. Be safe and stay cool! May God continue to bless you all!

I love you all

Keegan

It has been awhile since our last blog. I have 5 more days of work. YIPPIE! I can't believe this school year has gone by so fast. It has been a very busy month - I still have so much to do. I hope I can get it all done. Keegan is doing great. He is enjoying his 3 meals a day; he loves pears, sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, winter squash and bananas. I have been buying organic food or I have been preparing it myself. He seems to really enjoy the "true" taste of the fruits and vegetables. We hope all is well with everybody. I hope to do lots of blogging this summer to keep you all updated on Keegan (and us)!

We love you all

Erin

Look at those lashes...

One of Keegan's favorite things to do when is to go outside and swing in his swing. He loves it. Everyday at about 2:45 - 3:00 p.m., Keegan starts to get ready for his Mommy to get home from work and give him a feeding. At times, he can get "cranky" so all Papi has to do is put him in his swing. Sometimes he will fall asleep. He is so darn cute. Luckily he got his Daddy's lashes. He will be the envy of all his girlfriends if his lashes stay this long. I love it. I will have to get a close up of his beautiful eyes too - they are deep blue (he got that from his Mommy). We hope you are all doing great! We get to enjoy having Chris's grandmother for another two weeks. Chris's Mom will come the first week in June to watch him. She is so excited. My Dad is really enjoying his time with Keegan. He even asked if I wanted to return to work full time so he could watch him. We are so blessed that we have such a supportive family. Keegan will have such great memories for years.

Look at those cheeks!

As we look at our son each and every day, we can't begin to grasp what a blessing he has been in our lives. God is so good and we are so thankful for his creation. Keegan is just amazing and we are so blessed to be his parents. He reminds us each and every day that we have such an amazing creator! We hope you are all doing great. Love always, Chris and Erin

Generations.....

Hello all. We have had a very eventful past week. Chris's grandmother is in town visiting and getting the opportunity to watch Keegan with my Dad (Papi). We call her uella (short for abuella - the spanish word for grandmother). Keegan is really enjoying his time with his great-grandmother. She watches her other great-grandson up in Wellington, Texas - Caison. He is about one month younger than Keegan. In January, my Poppop (my Mom's Dad) was here visiting from January to March. He really enjoyed getting to visit with his second great grandson. Keegan really enjoyed the stories that "Big Chief" would tell him. Keegan's nickname was "Little Chief".

We are really enjoying this time. It is such a blessing to have the opportunity to have our grandparents here to visit and get to spend time with their great grandson. We love it.

The wonderful outdoors.......

I love being outside. This is a picture of me when I was at the Race for the Cure on Saturday March 29, 2008 with my Mommy and Daddy and some of my Mommy's School friends. It was so much fun. If I could be outside all the time, I would!
Love you all ~
Keegan

Still figuring it out....

Hello all. Still trying to play around with this blog thing. Keegan was 5 months last weekend. I can't believe how time is flying. I really want to get this thing up and running so I can keep in touch with my family and friends and share all the wonderful pictures we have of Keegan. He is doing great. Getting big. On the verge of turning over on his own. He is getting so animated. He is smiling all the time. He is really enjoying his time with his Papi (my Dad). Papi has been his nanny since I returned to work on March 3. They both love it. Chris and I are so blessed that we are able to have family take care of him instead of putting him in daycare. We have decided also that I will be leaving teaching to do some contract work for Recreation therapy and work part time so I can be a stay at home Mommy. I love it. It is such a blessing and we are so happy that we will be able to do this. I will return to teaching once our kids are school aged.
Keegan is going to get to spend some time with his Great-Abuela. Chris's Mom's Mom is coming to stay with us for about 3 weeks to spend some time with Keegan and take care of him along wiht my Dad. WE are so excited about this. Such great memories - We will have to put up pictures of this.

Hope all is well with everybody!
We love you all
God bless
Erin

Saturday April 12, 2008

Still trying to get used to this blog stuff. Will continue to play around with this and hopefully I can get the hang of it to do it justice. Hope all is well with everybody!
Love always
Erin

I finally did it!

I can't believe it has taken me this long to finally create this blog. I have some dear friends (Christy and Jenni) who showed me his wonderful site ages ago. Today I had some time on my hands (while Chris was feeding Keegan cereal) so I decided to look up Taryn's (Jenni's daughter)blog to see if there were any new pictures of the family. There were tons. I noticed that Kristen Hewitt stated a blog now that Olivia is here and I got to see how big Caleb (Christy's son) is getting. I decided to take the plunge and make one for Keegan to communicate to family and friends and keep you updated on all the wonderful and exciting things he is up to. I hope you all are doing great. I hope to get this thing up and going this weekend! God bless you all!
Erin