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! ;-)