Charice Pempengco and Celine Dion

Okay....I happened to turn on Oprah last Friday when I was nursing Sadie and saw an AMAZING segment on a 16 year old girl from the Philippines named Charice Pempengco. She has an unbelievably incredible voice!! It is so powerful and almost shocking that a voice that powerful is coming out of such a young and small body! She has been on the Oprah show before, and her dream was to sing with Celine Dion, so it was arranged for her to sing with Celine Dion at Madison Square Garden. I found a clip of it on YouTube and you HAVE to watch it!! Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3nAnju3Zc0

She has been singing in local places to earn money for her family. The woman they show in the stands is her mom. Everytime I watch it I get the chills and teary eyed!

Update on the kids...

I apologize to all our fans (mainly Emma and Megan) who are anxiously awaiting updated photos of Max and Sadie. I am still figuring out how to manage, and come up with, my free time. These two little babies are keeping me busy, but I am loving every minute of it!! Sadie is such a good little baby, so far, and Max is so cute with her!! He adores her and gets so excited everytime she wakes up, and want to smoother her with kisses...and I mean literally smother her! :) They are going to be great friends!!


Max enjoying a mud puddle in the backyard.
Max giving Sadie a little push in her swing.
My chubby girl!
Sadie and her dolly.
Grandma Keough found a gameboy for Max at her school and he LOVES to sit and play it, which consists of just pushing all the buttons, copying what his Uncle Tyler does on his gameboy.
So cute!! I love this headband on her.
Grandma McLelland gave Sadie her first bath yesterday. It took 3 weeks for her cord to fall off, so she has only has sponge baths for the first couple weeks.
Max riding his first bike. He can only go backwards right now.
Pretty in pink.
Sadie likes to sleep with her hands by her face. It is precious.
Max and his bike again.
The sleeping position in it's modified one hand version.
We went for a quick trip to Sacramento last weekend and Marley wanted to hold Sadie so bad!! It was adorable!! Sadie and Marley are almost exactly one year apart, and I'm hoping they will be as close as their mama's are!! :)

More Sadie...and Max too!

Well, Sadie and I are back home and we are all adjusting to our new family and schedule!  Max has spent lot's of time with my Aunt and cousins, and has had a lot of fun!!  Sadie is doing really well too.  The first night home was a long night, she didn't go to sleep until 4 am, but she's sleeping better now so we can all get some rest.  Here are a few pics from the last couple of days!

Max LOVES Sadie!!  He loves to kiss her, but isn't too sure about her when she cries.
Never thought I would like bows, but now I think they are cute!!
So sweet!
Great Grandma Halvorson and Sadie Rose.  The Rose in Sadie's name come from my Grandma's favorite Grandma.
This look makes me think of Max.
Max likes to rock her bassinet, a little too hard sometimes! :)
Grandma McLelland  gave Max some ketchup with his fries!!
What a face!
Cleaning up in the pool.
Big kiss!

Sadie Rose Keough

Sadie Rose Keough born August 28th, 2008 at 2:24 PM weighed 8 pounds 13 ounces and measured 21 inches. Here are a few pictures of here for you all to enjoy.



Isn't she precious!


Mom did such a good job with the labor and here she is enjoying the newest addition to the family!


Dad holding baby Sadie for the first time!


Right after she came into the world!

Update....

Just a little update that tomorrow night around 11:00pm I go into the hospital so they can start to induce me!!!! HOORAY!!! For those of you who haven't seen what I look like lately, which is most of you since I refuse to take pictures, let alone post them on the internet right now, I am HUGE!! In fact, the doctor said we needed to get the baby out before she got any bigger!! :) When I went to sit with my primary class, CTR 5, on Sunday, one of the girls just stared wide eyed at my stomach and said, "You're stomach is SO huge!" Precious. I just laughed, because I love this little girl and she is so funny and spunky!! I am very excited and busy getting everything ready. I could never just go into labor on my own now, because I love being induced and being able to plan everything and be completely prepared. I've deep cleaned everything, washed everything, got a pedicure, am getting my hair done tomorrow, going to lunch for my aunt's birthday, and still have time to pack me, Sadie and Max (he'll be spending a few days out with family and friends while I'm in the hospital). I'll only be 38 weeks tomorrow, but that's about how early I was induced with Max also....and it's just time!! I'm having contractions on my own already, and walking in Costco for 2 hours today only helped I'm sure! So be looking for pictures in a couple days!! Sadie Rose is on her way!!

The stuff dreams are made of.

Like most of the nation, and Olympic viewers, our household of 9 has been obsessed with watching Michael Phelps compete. This is largely due to the fact that my 11 year old brother McKay is completely in awe of him, and has been inspired by him to be an Olympic swimmer. After hearing how he started swimming at the age of 11, McKay knew it was the perfect time to start realizing his dream too. I took him to Target one day and he bought a pair of goggles and a swim cap. He followed the directions for preparing your swim cap on the package very precisely, so that his cap was perfect for racing. Then he went right out to the pool and swam laps for about an hour. He was so serious, and knowing McKay, I believe that in his mind he was not in our pool, but in an Olympic race. He and Aaron had a great conversation at lunch one day about what sacrifices need to be made to be at that level of competition, and McKay said he was fully prepared to make all sacrifices necessary, including giving up football this year, something he has been waiting to do since birth. Everytime all the cousins get together to swim, he organizes them into relays and races. He and our cousin Taylor even started swim lessons last week, learning to do all the strokes, turning, starting, and everything else they need to know. He really is a great little swimmer, so my mom wanted to get him in lessons while he was all fired up. It's stories like this that make me love the Olympics even more. Ordinary people who have worked extraordinarily hard to accomplish amazing feats...and the people, especially the youth they inspire. We need great role models for all aspects of life, and Michael Phelps has definitely inspired my little brother to dream big, and to work hard to accomplish that dream.


I convinced McKay to let me take a few pictures to document the beginning of his swimming career.

Megan and Dustin's Visit/Annual Family Lake Day at Shaver

We had so much fun with Megan and Dustin here!! I was exhausted when they left! :) Here are some shots, mostly ones that Megan took on my camera, which is why she appears in so many of them. :) We had a fun day at our annual family lake day and had a great family concert the night before. On a side note, once again, Aaron got a terrible sun burn, which he blames on my lack of skills in applying sun screen on him. I did a good job applying it, but I always forget to remind him he needs a second application half way through the day. He's healing, and peeling now.