family traditions...

last year when we were in ohio we talked about doing a gingerbread house every year with kennedy. of course last year she was too young, but this year was a whole new story. ;-)

nana and the girls trying to put the chimney back on.

the finished product!

here is to many more years of house making!

Turkey day!

we had our annual photo shoot on thanksgiving. this year we all wore white shirts with denim. i have decided this is a great tradition, seeing as though any other time of year, family pictures don't seem too important.

buck and robbie

marci, rebekah and robbie

thomas, me and kennedy

this picture was one of the best ones of just us. kennedy was not exactly cooperative so we had to settle.

thomas' mom came and stayed with us for thanksgiving. this was her first time meeting my family and i think it all went down without a hitch.

robbie and bekah

mom and dad with lily bean and sport

buck and earlene with mitchell, gavin, kalei, kenzie and chase

me with robbie and buck. i had already changed out of the HOT white shirt I was in. ;-(

and alas, the family photo. ;-)

a little bit of this and a little bit of that

in what started as an attempt at getting 2 year pictures, i have come to conclusion that i need to accept the fact that i am never going to "always get a good shot". Uncooperative is not even the word when it comes to trying to get kennedy to stand still for five seconds, let alone smile. as a result, i am going with the excuse that even though she may not be smiling (mother) it is still a good picture. ;-)

things around the house are about the same. next week is my last week of classes for this quarter so to say i am looking forward to the break would be an understatement. i added a specialization to my master's degree; forensic counseling. it was really a no-brainer... two extra classes and i add a specialization... needless to say, i signed the forms pretty quickly! ;-)

and alas, a smile-- even if she was not looking at the camera.  ;-)

trying to get a good picture for christmas...

Happy Birthday Kennedy!

we celebrated and partied it up on kennedy's birthday. we had a slew of family and friends come to town to help us get down. somehow, i managed to not get a very good shot of K on her big day. i am blaming the stress of leaving for minnesota! ;-)

this is ethan rockin' away and a great shot of ada and megan

this is megan and kennedy dancing and playing with the bubbles. i think of all the miscellaneous

stuff i bought, the bubble machine was by-far the best!

kennedy and megan sharing some yummy bacon early in the morning. these two were like peas and carrots!

aunt marci and uncle robbie giving k lots of sugar...

this shot turned out really good. megan is turning two on the 15th of this month and i am going

 to blow this up and give it to ada.

wordless wednesday...

all from scratch...

thomas decided he would make a pinata for kennedy's birthday. i will be the first to admit that I really didn't help all that much. to be totally honest, i put about 15 minutes into it, and made sure to capture it on camera!

when he first mentioned making a pinata, i wasn't sure how it would turn out. i googled "pinata and paper mache" and instantly had 20+ websites telling me how to do it.

see, here is where I helped for a few minutes and then made sure to document it so when thomas said i didn't help, i could prove him wrong! ;-)

i think the finishing touches took the longest to complete. it took three layers of paper mache and then two additional days to dry. it held $40 bucks worth of candy-- which reminded me that every year candy will be super cheap b/c of halloween. lucky for us!

the birthday girl got the first whack at it... then we let the kids hit it in order of their age. it worked out really well b/c the oldest boy, Daniel, got the last whack and then the candy came falling down. it is something that we will do for all of kennedy's birthdays in the future. ;-)

This was taken about a month and a half ago when Kennedy had a little cold. As you can see from this picture, we kept her rubbed down in baby vicks. ;-)

ballerinas and dirt...

isn't this a great picture? she looks so sweet and clean and pretty...

and here she is sitting all nice and quiet...

and here she is happy as a pig in you know what... because she was outside rolling in the dirt!!! poor outfit!

workin' the broom...

thomas taught Kennedy how to work a broom recently. While he was putting the gloves on the her hands, he told her she had to do a good job so that she would make her uncle dean proud. ;-)

an early bloomer...

kennedy has always been independent. i am beginning to wonder, however, if this newfound independence is about to smack us in the bum say, ummm, around the age of two. which, just in case you don't already know, happens in less than a month. so here we are trying to figure out which "challenges" to address and which ones to let go. momma always said you have to choose your battles carefully because you can't win everyone... here is an example from this morning...

Me- kennedy, you want some juice?

K- juice? surah! (sure)

Me- picking cup out of fridge and handing it to her

K-no! my juice! oh no.

Me- you don't want juice?

K- (whine, whine, cry.... me juice...)

Me- do you want a box of juice or your cup?

K- boc juice momma.... whine.

Me- ok, Kennedy, here is your box of juice.

K- nooooo..... whine and cry some more

Me- do you want to get it yourself

K- SURAH!

five minutes later she was sitting in her chair at the kitchen table drinking her morning juice while i made her cereal. we had a similar situation at lunch b/c she HAD to put the straw in the "boc juice" herself. lord help us...

Labor Day 2009

we all loaded up and went down to lehigh to stay with buck and his family for the labor day weekend. we grilled out, had a dance off, and went to the beach. this was kennedy's first trip to the beach and she had a blast!

earlene and mom sitting ocean side watching everyone swim

checking out the waves with thomas

swimming with most of the cousins

awww. giving each other kisses -- how sweet

we went to visit sam and donnie while we were in lehigh. kennedy found this captain jack sparrow wig that donnie wore last year for halloween and she could not be separated from it. i had to chase her around the house for 20 minutes to get a picture!

heyah mama...

heyah dada, i do it, i got it, all gone, all done, and liiiiyiii (Lily)are a few of kennedy's new words. she will also repeat just about anything you tell her to as long as it isn't longer than 3 words. she can now take her shoes on and off all by herself, and thinks that anytime we walk out the back door that we are all going to "swin" in the "puuul". i never thought i would be able to speak toddler, but have found myself catching on rather quickly! it is pretty funny to listen to her talk because she talks like a miniature thomas -- accent and all. ;-) dooah (door) - suuah (sure) - for some strange reason anything she says that has an "r" in it sounds just like someone from new england... i guess she is holding dear to her "chowdahead" roots! ;-)

moose nuts...

we had a wonderful trip to new hampshire. while we were there colleen took us up to her camp in the white mountains... talk about beautiful country! we swam in little squam lake and thoroughly enjoyed each others company.

thomas, kennedy and christina

meeting and getting to know grammy and grampy

having a tea party with uncle tim

snuggling with uncle dean at the camp

swimming in the FREEZING water of squam lake

thomas, kennedy and auntie colleen at the science trail in holderness, nh.

a resting black bear-- all of the animals on the nature walk are injured and are not capable of living in the wild on their own.

did you know a mountain lion can leap 30 feet with a deer in it's mouth!

when we were leaving the skunks, there was this HORRIBLE smell and thomas thought it was a great opportunity for a photo...



riding the slide



the kangamangus highway (which i am sure i spelled wrong!)

car shot out of the sunroof -- yeah, i'm that good! ;-)

ahhhh, back to my roots -- Woodstock!

beautiful little squam lake in holderness, nh

thomas and anthony

kennedy was like, "hmmm. now what do i do with it?"