HALLOWEEN PIX!!

Hey here they are!! HALLOWEEN BUDDIES on the town!

It's a little late for posting it, just two months behind the times, we sure have a busy family. As those of you may have heard from our Christmas ramblings, even that was a half letter! Curt was asked to show the president of his company around boo-tiful Fresno (yikes!) and I've been accepted to accelerate my schooling and graduate early! HOORAY! Grayson is officially ONE!! But not in these pix - he's at ten months! ENJOY! And now that I'm on winter break hope to post his B-day pix soon and Christmas ones too! LOVE TO ALL!

Here is Grayson and his bestest buddy Mason they are a few months apart and make for perfect monkeys on Halloween!! It cracked us parents up with the queries - "are they twins??" - nope, but they sure look cute together dressed the same huh??
Grayson peeking out of monkeydom purty curious about the world at the time... I was amazed that neither of the boys cried and basically had a good time running about in the dark, with other scary kids doing the same and what not. They're tough kiddos!
Grayson is the one minus a sock, we COULD NOT keep those on!!! And he ALMOST got into the KitKat, but - it was mostly avoided. Mason on the other hand scored with his Nerds and promptly shared like a good friend should right?? Enjoy the sugar rush!
YES!!! I'll take that pleassssssssseeeeeeee!!!
Final pic kinda SPOOKY huh?? I didn't think digital cameras could double expose, but yet - here it tis!! Maybe we had someone "with" us on our tour of the town in our quest for chocolates and sweets?!?! Who knows??

The WIG!!

It was halloween night and all the creatures of the house were restless... and amped on incredible amounts of sugar and chocolate... and someone whipped out - - - THE WIG!!!

Baby Grayson - in THE WIG!!
Mama Tristan in - THE WIG!!
Best Friend Mason in - THE WIG!
Mama Tristan's Bestest Bud Robyn in - THE WIG!!
Uncle Eric in - THE WIG!!

Gonna do a few more posts right after this one to get folks caught up! Sorry it took so long, finals this semester were REALLY REALLY tough!! Love to all!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

SOOOOO... I realize its been awhile since I've posted!! HEH, been busy busy with nursing school, my poor kiddo! I had him help me with a SIDS prevention campaign... This is part of a "post-test" I gave to new mamas to identify SIDS risk factors, i.e. drinking and smoking around your kiddo, blankets and pillows and toys galore in the crib, the day of the week, overbundling and so on and so forth!!! But LOOK at that FACE!! I can tell that Grayson was eager to help in this project, "Uh, hey mom, like what ARE YOU DOING?!?!?!?".... Sighs, well my teacher said it was creative and will help make a lasting impression! I hope it helps someone!! :)

I am OBSESSED with taking shots of Grayson's face when he's sleepin! He's such an angel!! I used my hand in front of the flash to obtain the lighting effect BTW!!

Grayson at nine months with his "I can feed myself" face!! I let him have the spoon I think maybe twice and SOME of it got in his mouth. Not really sure how much tho!! He was late to crawl, rolling like at 6 months and "Commando" crawling at eight months, just like GI JOE under the barbwire, it was hilarious!! Then crawling at nine, but after two weeks of "real" crawling he decided its more fun to stand up and cruise using things and he still crawls REALLY fast! We cannot keep up with this kid! Its just amazing how time flies!!

We have some more of these pix we took at the cabin to get a good "ten month" picture, although its about two weeks early. But this was then one that just cracked me up! This kid just kills me! He's a comedian and tries to make faces to make you laugh, and does a snorting thing, I think this might be mid-snort!! Anyhow, it busted me up so I'm including it instead of his more serious ones, maybe I will have time to post those later!!

STILL not sure that we will use this one for Xmas cards, the rest really aren't all that either. Darn timers!! One of us looks good in just about every pic, although in just about every pic Grayson's hands are somewhere, could be ANYWHERE!! So, we will see!!! BUT this is grrrrreat to use as a HAPPY HALLOWEEN from the Kleinknight Family!!! Hope you enjoyed the quick update!! Ohhhh - almost forgot! I'm on track to graduate early in May 2008 versus December! HOORAY! Had to petition, and it was a piece of cake! Hopefully I will have the initials RN behind my already long name by June or July of next year! Will keep everyone posted! And... Curt got a raise and I took a leave from my job to have more time for school and family... So, we will see how that goes! Kinda tight on the budget but it will all work out!!

Love to all!! Tristan, Curtis and Grayson

At seven months...

SURPRISE!!! I'm almost 7 months old in this pic! HOORAY!!

Playing around with Photofiltre, which I think you can google and find for free... Its a neat program and we've had fun playing with Grayson's pictures. This is "old photo" I think!!

One thing for sure is changing, these beautiful baby blues are starting to go green... I think I'm going to miss that, but they are still so pretty!! Thank goodness he's got daddy's eyelashes!!

In the car on the way to Monterey... Sepia wash with a "photo masque" that adds other images, like the little leaf!! This is another calm before the storm moment actually. He was really tired of the car tip and let us know it for sure about 10-15 minutes later!!

My serious little boy... Still at least a month behind on posting his latest photos, still need to post Morro Bay and Montery and much much more!! But this is what we've got until then, love to all!

Japanese Gardens, Fresno CA

Over the summer we were fortunate to have my cousin Tori from KY fly in to assist with caring for our son Grayson while I attempted to work and complete summer school!! It was the best time ever, the classes were a success and we were also able to enjoy several little mini-vacations along the way. One place we went was close to home, and the family hadn't even seen it before, so we went to the Japanese Gardens in Fresno!!

The area was well manicured, and California native and Japanese plants were used to create a lush environment where one could relax and enjoy a "traditional" type of atmosphere that is found in a Japanese Garden. It was beautiful!! Check and see!!

Grayson was a little hot and tired, and at first - not too sure that he was going to like the place I think!! But we packed water, had on a summer jumper that was pretty cool and hit the trails!

The area surrounds a manmade lake where there are koi fish and turtles abound! Also running about were several peacocks, peahens and their baby pea-chicks!! HOORAY!!

Grandma Gale checking out the water. Wish we had a pic of Tori up here, maybe Grandma Gale has... There is one of us up there too, but baby is looking way away... (And doesn't really flatter mommy's tummy either - yuck!!!) har har... Anyhow - this bridge is REALLY steep on either side and has a high peak in the middle so you can see all around the gardens. NEAT!

AND when all was said and done - check it out! You guessed it!! Even Grayson was totally amazed!! Hope you enjoyed our little outing! We have more pics we can send if anyone is interested, just drop me a line at my email!

Postings are slowing down a bit and may stay a bit slow for a time! Just started my 4th semester of Nursing School, so may be really really busy! We will see! Doing a pediatric rotation AND a OB/Delivery rotation so it should be pretty neat!! Will do our best to keep everyone posted on our lives!! Curt meanwhile just celebrated his first year with his company ACRT and all is going good there too! He loves it! Baby Grayson right now at 8 months!! He weighs over 21 pounds and is 30 inches or so tall - OFF THE CHARTS! EEK! What do we feed him you ask?? Mama's milk, fruits & veggies, weird new three stage foods - you have to look at these at the store to believe some of them (read the contents on BEEF DINNER!!) AND all the love that this kid could possibly handle happens too I think! Anyhow! Love to all! T, C & G! ! !

Happy Anniversary!!

The rings, custom made, Mokume Gane - an ancient Japanese method of melding gold together in patterns, this one called FLAME... Takes thousands of strokes of the hammer to craft into one "billet" and thus our rings were born, cut from the same cloth as it were - separate but together, individual yet the same...

The VERY handsome groom...

The GIDDY bride!!

With our faithful ringbearer - Mr. Mauser Dog!!

We've been together for nearly six years, married for one today... May many many more follow us through our lifetime. Our lives are so blessed!!!

Grayson at SIX MONTHS!!!

Just baby pictures this time through, but they are soooo grrrreat that I couldn't help myself! Took these pix at 6 months and reaffirmed just what a serious little man we have on our hands!! Grayson at this point is over 28 inches tall, weighs around 16 pounds and is pretty average on the head size from what I can remember without looking at my notes... Anyhow! Without further adieu - here he is!! Grayson Ryan Kleinknight ~ 06/29/2006

Hi, and welcome to my living room. Pardon me but could I offer you a monkey or???

So, no monkeys for today? Oh, I see - you're on a monkey free diet?

I gotta say, these monkeys keep me in shape!!

WAIT!?!?! Don't you touch MY monkeys!!!

And for my next monkey trick!!!

This curvy position just looked impossible for him to be holding but he did for like five minutes, he has like a baby 6-pack that Mama and Papa alike are envious of!! Definitely out little Monkey Boy, very very active, totally limber and so much happiness in a bundle! ENJOY!!

Kleinknights at Grant's Grove!!

This is one of our favorite places to go when we have time to spare, about an hour and a half out of Fresno up in the mountains, there is Kings Canyon National Park, Sequoia National Park and a chunk of Sequoia National Forest inbetween... Its simply awesome. Home to the biggest trees on earth, google the General Grant Tree or Sherman Tree, but our favorite is the Boole Tree. About a 2+ mile hike in and out to a giant sequoiadendron giganteum that is beyond belief... These trees are HUGE, not just tall but in circumference too something on the order of about 35 feet at the base... We went up the hill and treated Uncle "Rickett" AKA Eric Kleinknight (Curt's youngest brother) to lunch for his 18th birthday. Mauser went to, somehow eluding pictures...

Here we are at the "Fallen Monarch" tree, once home to the Gamblin Family. I guess it was so large that at one point in history it was converted into a freakin' saloon and -get this- hotel. When I worked in the park, it was merely home to about a hundred or so bats... Unfortunately a tree had fallen at the other side so it was closed off to cruising through this day!!

Grayson decided today was a day he was going to give it to us in angry speak... It was HILARIOUS!! I was mostly catching his looks in the camera that kept being passed back and forth, ergo the laughter and only half my head in the picture... I have many more pics of this look and am wondering if I can bind them all together to do like a flip book with the PC. I think it would be hilarious... Reminded me of a really angry squirrel!!

Uncle Eric, Tristan and Baby Grayson in one of the old "preserved" homesteads... Isn't much to the building, one room, a fireplace and a metric ton of graffiti unfortunately...

Inside one of the fallen trees off the beaten path up at the General Grant tree. We also have some cool pictures where its just the inside of the tree and the scenery at the other end. Very nice!! We actually took quite a few pictures, well, wherever we go we seem to, almost a hundred or so, too bad I cannot post them all! Its so hard to decide which ones to put up too!!

This is on the outside of the tree that is above this pic! We climbed up a pretty steep hill to get there! Go Mama Kleinknight, burn that baby fat!! You can get a pretty good idea of how big this tree must have been. The giant sequoia used to do quite well before they were deforested... They are nearly immune to effects of some fires, bugs, etc. Most of the big ones that is, and then they die off via "windfall" falling over due to a combination of maybe soil, fungus, who knows... The giant trees are amazing and worth a look at if anyone comes out this way!!

Love to all and gotta go! Have two tests to take today!! Just got grades on my other two summer classes, keeping up with the A's!!! Going to post a few of Grayson's 6-month old pictures we took at home pretty soon, maybe even tomorrow... Meanwhile, we have all been laid up with the "plague" a nasty cold that killed my voice today, guess I will have to take a pause and rest right?? Baby has handled it the best of the three of us! And poor Curtis has had to have a root canal on top of everything else!! Our weekend was misery!! So, here's looking forward to even better days to come soon!!! Love - Tristan, Curtis and Baby Grayson!

Father's Day!! A little belated...

Well we are eventually getting caught up here... These are pictures from when we went camping with Grandma Gale, Radtke Crew, Kleinknight Family and Cousin Tori from KY!! Anyhow, here is a smattering of some of the trip! Meanwhile, going to try to find time to look through our pictures when we took a trip to Morro Bay and Monterey with Tori before I started my second session of summer school! It was a blast and there is a lot of stuff to go through for that, gotta find the best of the best! And we have some great pictures of Grayson at six months, looking like quite the little old man! Anyhow - hope this finds everyone well! As for us, we are really really good! Have a wedding anniversery coming up on August 5th, baby is almost 7 months, school is trudging along and the family is well! Keep us posted and we will try to do the same! Love, Tristan!!

Daddy and baby kickin it outside of the rig that Grandma Gale, Mama Tris and Baby Gray slept in relative comfort... A tiny bit cold, but on the whole, really awesome to crash out it!
The three G's!! Grandma Gale, Garrett and Grayson!!

Its exhausting and hard work being a cute kid camping!!

Sister Megan with her flashy and hot sox!! And Taryn diving through! Didn't get a lot of pix of the Radtke girls this trip, my camera battery died shortly into the trip and its one of those fancy ones that requires a real power source, STINKERS!! Need to remember to charge before every photo opportunities darn it!! Next time for sure!!
Nothing comes between me and my morning Diet Dr. Pepper... Not lack of make-up, shower or frizzy slept on braids!! WOW, morning girl I am not!! I look T I R E D ! ! !
The evening festivities with campfire close-by, Papa Radtke and everyone had been sharing knock knock jokes and whatnot throughout the night while make SMORES!!!

A quiet peaceful moment with Cousin Tori, getting used to the high elevation near Lake Tahoe after coming from near sea level in KY!! Tori came into Cali and stayed with us for almost a month and helped care for Grayson while I took my summer course in Philosophy during the mornings EVERY freakin' day!! I sure couldn't have done it without her help!! What a blessing!!

Well, that's it for now! Love to all! Tristan, Curtis, Baby Grayson and a crew of pets!!

The first *REAL* food!

So here is the big day!! The doc advised us that we could start Grayson on his first "real" foods at roughly 5 and 1/2 to 6 months, so here we are about mid-June starting him on what is now his favorite dish - SWEET POTATOES!!! Yum Yum!! Heh... you can tell how ready we were with the dixie cup instead of a kiddie cup or plate - EEK! And I think we rummaged up that spoon out of Grandma Calabrese's "extras" drawer! Thanx Grandma C!!! More on what is up with the Kleinknight Family will follow these pix at the end!! Hooray!! Love to all!! T, C & G!!!

I think he was pretty stunned... Yes ladies and gentlemen - we have achieved that deer in the headlights look - oh my!! What is my mommy doing?!?!

Not really sure if these looks are all in apprehension or?? It sure is funny seeing his face from one moment to the next though!! Curtis and I were nearly in tears trying to keep from laughing! Baby Gray has such an expressive face, although sometimes it can be hard to figure out just what for sure he is expressing!!! I think at the end however he was purty OK!!

And there you have it!! A BIG BIG HUZZAH!!!

What a proud mama and a stunned little man!!

As for us, let's see! I mananged to whip out three units of multicultural classes in three weeks in the evenings in May and daddy got some quality time with Grayson! Hooray! Then I moved on to philosophy and nutrition right afterwards and am finishing them up as I type!! Managed to keep my A's still, and landed a nursing scholarship which may let me cut back my hours at work, that is if I can find a good position to move into or working something out with my boss - keep your fingers crossed for us everyone!! Gotta figure out what to do for August through December because the nursing classes are going to be pretty heavy! Meanwhile, we managed to work in a family vacation to Morro Bay and Montery and we all really grooved on getting the time to see the coast, and show it off to my cousin Tori from Kentucky who came out to help watch baby while I am gettin' slammed in class! HOORAY!! Hopefully we can get some of those pics posted soon. At least we are TOO behind, these being about a month and 1/2 old I think!! Time sure flies and we hope its all been as great out there for our family and friends as it has been for us! Oh, we also had an awesome camping trip for Father's Day with Grandma Gale, Tori and the Radtke bunch too! I think we have pix of that too in the camera, which sure holds a lot! So, maybe in a week or so (once my philo class is over!) I can get a few more out and share what is up!! Love to all of you, wherever you are and in whatever you are up to! Tris, Curt and Gray!!