Kaleb at 4 months

Kaleb is now four months old. His is one big boy.  We all love to kiss his chunky cheeks. He weighs 18 pounds, and is 27.5 inches long.

Here are some of the things Kaleb does best.

Kaleb is quite a giggler.  He thinks Austin is so funny.  Nobody can make him laugh quite like his big brother.

Kaleb is so big he is wearing clothes that range from 9 to 12 months.  We thought it was great that our boys were born the same time of year so Kaleb could wear all of Austin’s hand-me-downs.  Well Kaleb is wearing outfits in the summer that Austin wasn’t wearing until Christmas.

Kaleb is a big thumb sucker!!! It took him a little while to figure out how to get his thumb in his mouth, but once he did, the thumb rarely comes out.  Vance and I are already starting an orthodontic fund for him.

Kaleb is so close to rolling over.  He arches his back and flops his chunky thighs over, but he hasn’t quite figured out how to move his arm out of the way. 

We have started Kaleb on a few solid foods.  He has done really well and loves to eat.  He loves carrots and rice cereal, but as you can tell from the pictures, he is not super thrilled about the peas.  He is growing really fast, but he still looks so small in that great big high chair.

And finally, my favorite thing that Kaleb can do now is sleep through the night!!!

Family Night at the Drive-In

Austin has been dying to see Cars 2 ever since he saw the first preview.  He walks around chanting “Cars 2” all the time.  It seems that he even says it when he has nothing else to say.  He is quite a random little kid.  We will be sitting in sacrament meeting, or driving in the car, or even eating dinner and he will just randomly shout out “CARS 2.”  I can not adequately convey how excited he was to see this show.  We took him to Kung Fu Panda 2 a little while ago and it was a little rocky.  He squirmed and wiggled most of the show wanted to leave before it even ended.  Two hours is a long time for an active three year old to sit still in a chair, no matter how much he loves the movie.  So we said NEVER AGAIN will we pay full price for a three year old to see a movie.  Cars 2 came to the Teton Vu Drive-In and we thought this would be the perfect way for Austin to see this much anticipated show.  I am here to attest, the Drive-In is the BEST way to see a movie with kids.  These are all the reasons we love the Drive-In.

1.  You get to see two movies for the price of one.

2.  Kids (ages 1-5) see the movie for free!

3.  You don’t have to be quiet and constantly hush your children so as not to disturb the people next to you.

4.  Austin can get up and roam around for a bit if he gets bored.

5.  I can feed Kaleb in the middle of the show and no one is the wiser.

6.  You can bring your own food

7.  You can put the kids to sleep in the back seat while you watch the second show (p.s. Green Lantern is not that great).

8.  You get to watch a movie under the stars on a beautiful warm summer night.

We got there early so we could get front row seats.  It was so fun to watch the sun set in the sky.

It was great to let Austin wander around and get a lot of his energy out before the show started.

Oh, the chunkiness that is Kaleb!!!

It started to rain a little bit so we had to move the party inside the car for a little while.

Disney Land

Disneyland was the highlight of our California vacation.  Vance and I have not been there since high school and this was Austin and Kaleb’s first time.  Kids have to be at least 40 inches tall to ride most of the rides and Austin was exactly 40 inches.  The first ride we went on was the roller coaster, Space Mountain.  Since Austin was tall enough we decided to test the waters and take him on his first roller coaster.  I was so nervous the whole ride because it was fast and had lots of dips.  I was so scared that I had traumatized my child.  When we got off the ride he kept saying, “so fun, we went whooosh!”  Vance and I were shocked because Austin is not know for being up for new things.  We were so excited that he liked it!  We thought, if he can handle Space Mountain, he can handle anything.  WRONG!!!  The next ride we took him on was Pirates of the Caribbean and he had a complete melt down.  He screamed and cried the whole ride.  I was surprised because you just sit in a boat and float around in the water and see all the pirates.  When we got off he kept saying, “no more scary, okay!”  After coaxing him on a couple more rides we realized that if it went fast or spun around, he was fine.  If the ride was loud and dark with talking characters, then he freaked out.  He is kind of a crazy kid.

Once we figured out the rides Austin would like and dislike, we had lots of fun.  It was really hot, and really crowed, but we got to see most of the attractions we wanted to see.  We didn’t get to see many Disney and Pixar Characters because there were huge lines to take pictures with them.  We did see Winnie the Pooh, Woody and Buzz Lightyear.  They are building a new Cars 2 attraction in California Adventure but it won’t be open until next year.  However, there was a big Cars 2 sign in front of the construction area and every time we walked past Austin had to stop and chant over and over, “Cars 2!!!”  It was probably one of his favorite parts of the entire vacation.  We will definitely need to take him back when the attraction opens. 

The saddest part of our vacation was that we couldn’t find our camera before we left.  We borrowed a camera from family members when we could, but we didn’t end up getting very many pictures at all.  SO SAD!!!

Austin was pretty excited to see Winnie the Pooh and gang.

When Austin first saw Buzz Lightyear he squirmed through the mile long line and ran right up to Buzz before we could stop him.  He was not happy when we told him he had to stand at the end of the line and wait his turn. So we stood in line for half an hour to see Buzz Lightyear.  There were only three kids in front of us and they switched out characters and Woody took Buzz’s place.  I was so frusterated!  Austin still got see Buzz but we were able to get a picture.

Lightning McQueen and Mater were in front of the new Cars attraction and we just happened to walk by at the right time and get a picture. We didn’t get to see Mickey Mouse, but Austin saw McQueen and Buzz and that was all he cared about.

Grandma and Grandpa get the “Grandparents of the Year” award for watching all the grandkids while the adults rode rides.

California Screamin’ was one of our favorite rides.

The whole King clan finally together again after two years.  Elaine was so sweet and bought matching American flag shirts for all of us to wear so we would be matching in our family picture.  As you can see, it wasn’t worth the hassle of getting everyone in their shirts so we just snapped a picture fast before all the kids started screaming.

I love this picture of the dads pushing their baby strollers. 

Huntington Beach California

This year for our King Family reunion we all decided to take a trip to California.  The last time we were in California was three years ago for the Katapodis reunion in San Francisco.  This time we went to Huntington Beach and Disneyland.  Vance’s uncle Jim lives in Huntington Beach and his Grandma and Papa recently moved there from San Francisco.  The trip has been planned for several months.  About four days before we were supposed to leave we got the news that Papa Katapodis had passed away.  He was 94 years old and his health had been declining for quite a while but we hoped that he would hold on for a few more days so we could see him one last time.  Unfortunately, we did not get to say goodbye but we were able to attend the funeral.  Papa was a really good man with a very colorful life.  He will be greatly missed.

After the funeral we took all the kids to Huntington Beach.  Austin loved playing in the waves.  It was a really fun evening with all the cousins. 

Papa Katapodis

Vance’s grandpa James Katapodis died on June 29, 2011 at the age of 96.  He had been slowly declining in health for a long time and we knew the end was near.  We were able to attend the funeral during our trip to California.  We were sad we didn’t get to see Papa one last time. He was a remarkable man with a very colorful life.

His parents immigrated to the U.S. from Greece a few years before Papa was born.  After the stock market crash of ‘29 Papa and his family moved back to Greece because his dad lost everything. Papa didn’t like Greece and wanted to move back to the U.S. because he really felt like that was his home.  Finally, he convinced his dad to let him return to the U.S. on the condition that he would get a job and send money back to the family.  His dad thought that was a great idea and sent his mother and sister back to the U.S. with him.  That was the last time he ever saw his dad.  He and his mother and sister stayed in the U.S. and his dad never joined them. 

Papa love to fish.  His son Jim was a good fisher and Papa started going fishing with him so they could spend time together and Papa grew to have a strong love for it.  He took his family up to Pinecrest every year to go fishing.  Papa was very athletic. He was a boxer in his youth and eventually trained boxers. He stayed very active his whole life.  He used to run around the lake by their house in San Francisco every day, a total of 5 miles. Elaine says that he was always disappointed that none of his children inherited his athleticism.

Although he was not a member of the Church, he lived the Word of Wisdom better than most members.  He never drank alcohol or smoked.  Elaine remembers sneaking out to get a Coke-a-Cola because their dad didn’t allow them to drink it.

Papa was very frugal, which was probably a result from growing up with very little money.  He didn’t trust banks. He always carried around a lot of cash in his wallet. He was very family oriented.  His family was everything to him. 

One of Vance’s most vivid memories of his Papa was when Vance crashed his bike, Papa gave him “the massage of his life!”.  Vance would say, “Papa’s hands were magical”.

Papa was not very religious.  He always felt like churches just wanted your money.  When Elaine joined the Church in her twenties, she talked about the Church a lot with her family.  One of her dad’s biggest hang-ups was the law of tithing.

Papa’s most famous phrase was “Everything’s Copasetic”.

Jim, Elaine, Grandma Katapodis, Karen

There were fish on the side of the coffin to pay homage to what a great fisherman Papa was.

The Katapodis cousins from left to right

Sarah, Krista, Alex, Erik, Brian, Seth, Vance, Kari, Shawn

Jim, Elaine, Bruce, Karen

Jim and his two daughters Alex and Krista

Karen and her kids Kari, Shawn, and Erik