Blankey's!

DOG PILE DADDY!!!!

When Aunty Laura, Uncle Terri, and Jennifer came down for our Baptism, Laura gave the boys a blanket. These blankets are AMAZING! She made them herself and the boys loved them so much, they had to use them in the car on the way home! Kaiden wouldn't use any blankets that night, except for his soccer ball blankey! And the front of his has the most intricate sewing!!! AMAZING!!! Thank you so much Aunty Laura!

SHHH! Kaiden's sleeping!

Baptism Today

So, Dennis and I were Baptized today!! It was such an emotionally great experience!! We were so lucky to have his mom, her Boyfriend, sister and her fiance Derek, Aunt Laura, Uncle Terry, and his cousin Jennifer to witness the event! We went to eat afterwards and Aunt Laura and Uncle Terry gave us this amazing Baptismal statue!! I will take pics and post soon. The pastor read our testimonies
Dennis:
Before Christ
My mom raised my sister and I with the good Christian beliefs, and because of her, I always considered myself a Christian. I believed in God and Jesus as my savior, but never actually asked Jesus into my heart until recently. Before Christ entered my life, I found that I was angry a lot of the time, while at others I just felt lost. My wife and I began attending a few different churches in Oklahoma while we were in the Army, but I never really pursued Christ.
Meeting Christ
Recently my wife discovered ORBC and we began attending regularly every Sunday. I started to look forward to Sunday. Then the question finally came up that I needed to hear, “Have you asked Christ into your heart?” It hit me like a ton of bricks that I had never really asked that question and now knew what I was missing. The Lord then took a hold of me and I knew that I was saved.
With Christ
Since that day I have found peace in myself that I never knew possible. My faith makes my marriage so much stronger and I find myself praying constantly for my family, friends, and all those I encounter. I know now, that I cannot really live life without Christ. I find great joy in talking about my faith with others and I can only hope to open others eyes and hearts as well. This is something I don’t want anyone to miss!

Tarin
Before Christ
I was raised in a Christian home from birth until I was 6 or so and was told I was saved and baptized at the age of 5. Then my family stopped attending church due to a conflict in the church they had attended. I was always the outcast in school and never had very many friends. I always felt so alone and never understood exactly why. Then when I was 14 years old, a girl had transferred to my school and asked me to come to church with her one day.
Meeting Christ
Soon I began going every time the church doors were open and finally felt I had found somewhere I was welcome and comfortable. When I was 15 I attended a youth event called Acquire the Fire, excited to see my first concert (The Newsboys). That first day my heart was completely broken and I found myself on my knee’s asking Jesus into my heart and thanking him for his sacrifice on the cross. There was an overwhelming sense of completion that engulfed me and I had found the missing piece of my life.
With Christ
I finally convinced my family to attend with me and things were great until the church family I grew to love severed ties with me a short year after I was saved (I don’t know how to say this here, they basically banned me from church because I showed my belly button, but they never told me that was why, they just told me I couldn’t go to youth anymore. No one ever told me that it was a problem or anything I had no clue that it was improper!). My parents then lost all faith in churches and I was almost all but banned from that church. I attempted to find another church home, but never felt quite right anywhere else and was so torn. When I was in the Army I met my husband and we tried to find a church that fit, but it wasn’t until I came to Maryland and discovered ORBC. I prayed long and hard and God revealed to me that the church is made of people and that we are not perfect, that we are to attend church for God. While attending the 101 class I came to the realization that I had never been baptized on my own accord.

We attended the 101 class for our church last month as a step towards membership and Dennis has been a newfound Christian and I just was never Baptized with the knowledge of what I was actually doing, or remembering it! So we are now officially members of Oak Ridge Baptist Church of Salisbury, MD!! Makes it more real that this is my home now!! My first time that I could ever say that I was actually a member of a church!! WOO! LOL!

NOW, we still need prayers to continue on strong in our faith and I NEED MEGA PRAYERS CUZ FINALS ARE THIS WEEK!!! HELP ME LORD!!!! Love you all!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Turkey Day Fun!

So, we went to Dennis' Mama's house for Turkey day again this year. It was great! The turkey was amazing and everything else was great too! Poor Kalan, however, was not feeling too hot!! Poor boog! It started Wednesday night out of nowhere he performed an exorcist remake in the back seat of my car. OH HOW GLORIOUS! We were going to the outlets and I had to run and get him some pants and we rushed in and out and he was fine the rest of the night. Next morning however, we had a few more re-enactments of the previous evening. He couldn't eat at all. It wasn't too bad, but he was just really whiney on top of it. We gave him medicine and he slept for a good while, but it kind of took out of us spending with the fam, which sucked, but my boy needed some rest. He was ok till it was time to eat again. He seriously ate like a piece of bread and I tried to get fluids in him, but he's seriously noncompliant to his theraputic regimen(That's some nursing jargon fer ya!! LOL!) So, we had to go home earlier than we would have liked as well, but got some good fun in too. AND, we put up the tree last night after puttin the boys to bed. Now we gotta remember what the hey we did with them ornanments!! LOL! I am pretty sure we put them back in storage...blah! That should be fun to go find!! These are the pics. I am finally posting some pics of myself, well me in them besides my noggin! BWAHAH! I still got some baby weight to lose, but my family has been reaming me to get some up....so there ya go!!

Some Picco Pics!

Soccer Star Kaiden!

Kaiden Keener
Little Squirts
Wicomico County Rec
Age: 3
Ht: 3' 5" Wt: 40
Position: Fullback
Fav Pro: David Beckham

HALLOWEEN!!!

Frankenstein and Superman, in clean clothing, went a trick a treatin all around Willards! It was fun for them both and Kalan was saying tick o teat!! It was precious. They only went to 2 neighborhoods and got far too much candy! We then went and saw Mee-Maw and Systle in OC and back home again in time for passing out! LOL! We were just SO HAPPY that daddy actually made it back in time, cuz he was in Elkton for a post office academy thing. FINALLY Daddy was home for Halloween with our munchkins!

Fall Festival

So Superman and Frankenstein embarked on their journey to the Fall Festival at our church, Oak Ridge Baptist Church. It was fun for them. This place actually had lots of things, including real carnival rides! The preferred the bounce houses, even Kalan got to hang out in the kiddo one! We surely got the costumes dirty before Halloween! LOL!

Kaiden's 1st Day of School

Kaiden embarrassed?? NEVER!!!

Look it's MARIA!! HEHE! Kaiden walking into school

Playing right away and ignoring momma!

Kaiden started school on Oct 28th!! He was so excited! I managed to get 30 min off from the hospital and Dennis was off that day. So he took Kaiden there and I met them to snap some shots and run back to work. I was so excited for my little big guy! It's so sad that he's getting so big already. My little man ain't so little anymore!

Pumpkin Carving and Halloween Decor!

We finally got our pumpkins! We went to Aunty Crystal's (Systle) house and carved pumpkins, well I carved the boys poked theirs. Dennis had to go to Baltimore for the post office business so he couldn't come :( But we made the best of it! We had fun with the boys and then watched movies after we put them to bed


Showing off their masterpieces


OH NO! Kalan turned into a pumpkin!

The morning after!! MMM Peanut Butter Crunch!

AND HERE THEY ARE FOLKS!

OUR BEAUTIFUL PUMPKINS!

So, on Oct 1st, EXACTLY, I put up Halloween decorations and am just now getting around to putting them up! LOL! Here's the boys behind the enter if you dare tape and our lighting pumpkin in the window.

Showing off our glorious pumpkins, but daddy still hasn't gotten to his yet! Notice the sizes? It's a family of pumpkins!

And here's a further back pic, notice the blood oooooozing from the window

And here's a horrible pic of it all. Yes, it is true, it was dark! LOL! But there are skull stakes that we can't plug in and cobwebs. We actually started a trend and now every apartment but one on our row has spider webs on their bushes! We had tons of fun putting them up and doing the pumpkins!

Update

WOWZA! It's been forever since I've posted on here. SO SORRY BOUT THAT! School is absolutley insane. I should actually be studying right now, but I really need to update!
Since our last post, the boat ride, I just started school. WELL NOW! I'm into it full steam and it's insane! Clinical is really fun, so far. We were at the nursing home the first 2 and now at the hospital. It is hard, because we are literally thrown in there and go at it. The hardest part is charting in the unknown computer system and not knowing where anything is. Also, I'm so concerned with technique and doing everything right, I don't really have time to critically think through situations yet. Only time brings that on. I go to the Operating Room for a whole day the week of Thanksgiving. That will be awesome! And I already saw a colonoscopy, which was really nifty! We have a test every week until the end of semester and something due every monday!!! It's a bit nuts! And on November 1st our medication quizes start, so that will be just insane!!
The boys are doing really good. Kaiden is still in speech therapy for his S and Z sounds. He knows how to say it, but it's hard to change how you have talked for 3 years in 2 months when your only 3! They still love going to Dawn's house and love the attention they get for just being the 2 of them there. Now I don't have to worry bout other crazy kids beating them up, just those two beating up on eachother! Kaiden has already given brother a nice shiner and they go at it all day long! I can't imagine what it's going to be like when they get older!!! Kaiden will be starting pre-school soon. I go to his open house on Wed, 22nd, at 10am and then I'll know more about it.
DENNIS IS HIRED ON AT THE POST OFFICE!!!!! So exciting! He had a bunch of hoops to jump through but so far it's been ok. He has a test on Monday, however, that if he doesn't pass he's done, but he had an entire class focused on how to pass this test, in Baltimore Friday. Sucky thing is he is basically at the will of the post office. He has to work for an entire year before he can become career, which means considered part time, even if you work 100 hours a week, and NO BENEFITS! Thank the Lord we got the medicaid stuff! He has to go to the academy on the 29th, 30th, & 31st in Elkton. He's going to stay with Aunt Mala or Dawn, not sure what they decided yet. The boys and I are driving down there and going trick or treating there so he won't miss Halloween!

So things are a whirlwind here!! I have no time to breathe! I haven't even gone to the gym in 2 months, because I feel so guilty that I'm not studying or spending time with the boys. It's a nutty, brain twisting, agonizing feat to manage my school work, the boys, and any personal time I can get! BLAH! But I have this Tuesday off from Clinicals because I volunteered to work the week of Thanksgiving. So we are going to Aunty Crystal's for pumpkin carving and a sleep over!! OH YA, AUNTY CRYSTAL IS ENGAGED!!! YIPPEEEEEEE!!! The guys name is Derek and he is the best guy around, of course except for Dennis!! CONGRATULATIONS AUNTY SYSTLE!!! WE LOVE YOU!!

Miss you guys all terribly! I am planning on coming home for 10 days in January before school!! I'm excited! I am missing my family like crazy right now!
XOXOX MUAH! XOXOXO
Keener Klan

Pumpkin Patch Fun!

Thought since it's been FOREVER since I posted, I'll post the most recent now and an update later!
We went to the pumpkin patch off of Mt. Hermon Rd. and got some pumpkins yesterday! We wanted to do the corn maze, but the boys weren't too interested and were ready to leave when we were finished! But they had fun while it lasted, mainly Kalan runnin around like a crazy nut! That boy is like the road runner, fast fast, gone in a blink! I got some good pics!! We need to get pics done really badly! We're all doin good right now! I will post an update soon and really get back into this bloggin business!
XOXO!

Boat Ride/School Time!!

These are Kaiden and Kalan's footprints and I wrote their names in the sand. One day when I get a good camera I'm going to do this! Wouldn't that be such a cute pic?

As if my camera didn't suck enough!! We went to take this Assateague boat tour and I forgot my camera so we were left with the cell phone photo's! ACK! But we passed by that pirate ship!! I want to take the boys on it when Kalan is a little older! They will have so much fun!!! But we went on this boat ride and it took us throughout the bay showing stuff and the insane houses lining the beach!! Then we went to a part of assateague island and got off to go "clam diving" diggin or something or other. Basically we had nets and got seaweed in them! LOL! It was so much fun and Kaiden still talks about it! It was so nice and relaxing too.

August 25th I had my "surgery"!! Well kind of, it was more of an outpatient procedure at first. It was to take out my IUD, but it turned out that part of my IUD had attached to the wall of my uterus!! Or my tissue grew onto part of it! So joyous for me it's been 20 days of bleeding!! Including 5 of Aunt Flo, the rest form doc messing with my IUD/surgery! It's no fun and is showing no sign of stopping!! I go back on the 19th so I'm hoping it will have stopped!!! I tell you what I'm pretty annoyed and still in pain! It's not as bad unless my body goes through a surge and then I feel like my ovaries are exploding! UGGHHH!

Now!! I started school on the 2nd!! We went to an orientation, Class on Wednesday, and clinical orientation today. This is going to be one heck of a ride!! Sucky thing is the bookstore really did a number on me and our pocket book!! They had the wrong edition of our books in and so when I went to get the ISBN# of the books to look up on half.com I bought the wrong books! So now I had to pay full price, on top of what I already paid for the not useable books, and had to get the right ones. Plus the one book that was correct isn't in yet and I need it for tomorrow! LUCKY ME! They are something interesting right now our uniforms are backordered too! But they got their money so they ain't worried I guess! But I do get to do an entire day at some point to watch/help with surgeries!! That's going to be the coolest!! But our schedule is packed, got insanity due every week! But I'm praying like crazy, got the good Lord on my side. Hoping that since this is what I want to do that I just GET IT and it won't be sooo bad, Ya know??

And... the boys started back at daycare. It's Dawn's house and they love it there. Kalan don't even want anything to do with us when we come to get him! He doesn't even want to leave! And he no longer cries when I leave. I know I know, such a good sign and good big boy, but at least I knew he wanted me!! LOL! I miss spending the time with them already! It's sad because I'm never going to have as much time to just hang out with them, like I did this summer!! But we'll get through these 2 years and life will be grand!