one. year. old.

My baby is ONE!!!!!

Happy Birthday to my sweet girl!  God has been so good to us, blessing us with you and choosing us to love you, shepherd you, and teach you.  Sometimes when I watch you sleep, my heart could just explode.  We adore you.  You have given us a glimpse of how God loves us and cares for us as his children.  Seeing how much you love your daddy and how much he loves you is one of my favorite things ever.  Happy Birthday to our little Nutty!

trick or treat!

Everyone knows that Doug and I love Halloween.  And in our pre-Kennedy days, we always said that we would continue to go to Vegas once we had kids.  ha. ha ha.  How life changes :)

Halloween morning began with story time at the library.  We dressed up all the kids in their costumes, and the librarian read special Halloween books.

Yes.  Sometimes I wear fake nerd glasses.  And not just on Halloween.

Just the madness of story time with this bunch.

My favorite picture from Halloween.  Kennedy tipped over backward due to her cumbersome costume just as the picture was snapped.

That night we went trick or treating with Ben and Holly in their neighborhood.  It was so. much. fun.  Their almost three year old daughter was super excited about it and dragged the seven adults that accompanied the kids from house to house as fast as she could.  Kennedy loved it too.  She loved seeing all of the kids, the pumpkins, and the decorations.  A few things that were awesome:

• One of the houses had "treats" for the grownups.  Wine and beer in red solo cups.  Don't mind if I do.
• Kennedy got A LOT of candy.  We totally had a bag for her and accepted candy on her behalf.  We got multiple full sized candy bars.  They live in a good neighborhood.
• Ben made a delicious stew and served it in a carved out pumpkin.  Once we got home from trick or treating, we put Kennedy to bed again at their house (second time that week) and were able to hang out for awhile.

Fancy wagon

Daddy reused Uncle Jimmy's Mr. Potato head costume.

Love these three.

Rachey was a snowman.  

Mary Beth was a jellyfish.

Seriously, nothing beats Halloween with kiddos.  What were we thinking?  Yes, Vegas is really, really fun.  But Halloween 2012 (baby's first Halloween) was one for the books.

halloween weekend

Our weekend was:

• A slumber party (until 10pm) at Ben and Holly's house while daddy was in San Diego and mommy was at a baby shower.  I put Kennedy down for the night in their pack and play at around 6:30, and she slept until I came to back to get her!  I was then able to transfer her to the car and back to bed in her crib.  Winning.
• Napping through a birthday party.  The first of many, I'm sure.
• A super fun Halloween party with some little friends.

A skunk, a Trekkie, a goldfish, a dinosaur, and a cow girl.

Funny story: Kennedy is really into pretending like everything is a phone right now.  She picks things up, holds them to her ear and says "hello?".  Well, Kennedy was playing in a pot of dirt at the party (I was trying to stop her).  She picked up a big handful of dirt, flung it at her ear and said "hello?".  Dirt EVERYWHERE.  On her face, in her ear, down her shirt, it was sad.  But funny.  Cause and effect.  Still learning.

• Getting to meet up with Sarah, Matt, and Savannah for a picnic!  We miss them SO much!

 Friends who happen to get pregnant (all on our first try) and have babies within a week of each other!?!?  Only explained by God choosing to bless us together and knit us closer together through this.  Love them!

The only time my 6'3" husband ever looks like a shorty.  They are a tall bunch.

• Celebrating Conor's first birthday!  He did a number on his cake.  Mommy, daddy, and big sissy were proud.

pumpkin patch

My dream of dreams was to go to the pumpkin patch in Avila Beach, but we decided it was a bit ambitious to drive all the way up to SLO for a pumpkin patch experience that Kennedy could probably care less about.  We stayed local and went to a pretty cheesy little pumpkin patch in the parking lot of our local mall.

Now, calling this place a pumpkin "patch" is perhaps an elaboration.  The pumpkins are pre-picked and are waiting in neat little piles around the hay covered tent for selection.  All that being said, we had a great time!  Kennedy got to see animals, eat hay, and saw lots of pumpkins. Since then, whenever she sees a pumpkin, she points to it like she knows it's something special.  We make many stops on our morning walk to admire the neighbor's pumpkins, and she always spots them in the grocery store.

Baby's first pumpkin patch SUCCESS!  We had a great photo op and didn't feel the least bit guilty when we only stayed for twenty minutes.  If we would have driven more than ten minutes down the road, I would have been determined to stay longer.  "You WILL look at more pumpkins and you WILL like it."

eleven months old

Kennedy Jane is ELEVEN MONTHS OLD!!!

We have had so much fun this month with our little lady.  She understands so much of what we are saying now, and loves going new places and seeing new things.


At eleven months you:

• Crawl everywhere, pull up on things, and cruise furniture.  No steps yet, but you have stood by yourself for a second or two.

• You say two words: "Dada" and "doggie."  Your language skills have exploded!  You babble as if you are actually saying something, and you point to things and name them in your baby language.

•  Are sleeping much better at night.  Like, sometimes THROUGH THE NIGHT.  You may have dropped your second nap though? Maybe?  We're a bit confused at the moment.
• Know where your toes are.  We ask, "Kennedy, where are your toes?" You point to them.  Cutest thing ever.
• Give high fives, clap, wave, and blow kisses.

You love:

• Stuffed animals.  Especially your giraffe and your dinosaur.  Your face lights up when you see them.
• Balloons.  Like. So much.  When we walk around the grocery store, you point to each and every one that you see.  Never noticed how many balloons there are at the grocery store.
• Daddy is seriously the love of your life.  

• Dogs and cats.  A common outing is to go to Petsmart and watch the dogs playing in the doggie day care.  Free entertainment, right?

You don't love:

• Taking naps.  Too much fun to be had during the day.
• Wearing bows, headbands, or hats.  Sad days for mommy.

• Food.  Seriously, after a cold you had earlier this month, you're back to not eating anything and nursing eight times a day...

Highlights of the Month:

• Fun outings that we actually took our camera on!  We fed the ducks.

• All your little friends are turning one!  Here Kennedy is dressed up for a birthday party.  Little miss Sassy-pants.

• We started going to story time with some friends on Tuesdays.  You could care less about the story but love hanging out with your friends.  One week we somehow got all of you to sit still for at least two whole minutes while we listened to stories.

• A week in Santa Cruz.  Always so fun to see so many people we love.
• Your first babysitter while you were awake.  Special thanks to Mor Mor and Gramps for buying Doug and I tickets to The Book of Mormon, driving us back to LA, AND babysitting a very awake baby from 5:30pm to 11:30pm.  They deserve medals.  She will not going to sleep for anyone but me :(
• A trip to the pumpkin patch with the Desparte family!  We saw sheep and goats, took advantage of the photo op, and left without a pumpkin due to a hideously long line...

I seriously can't believe that Kennedy will be ONE next time I do one of these posts.  Can I keep doing these until she's 18?  Or longer?  "Kennedy Jane is 309 months old!"

friday favorites

I'm not usually a big graphic tee fan, but this one from Old Navy stole my heart.

work it kennedy

Now that Kennedy is a crawling maniac, her wardrobe has become somewhat limited.  Dresses catch on her knees and most jeans are too stiff.  A few days ago she was wearing a pair of jean shorts that were too big for her.  I was trying to figure out why she was sort of dragging one leg behind her.  Oops.

Kennedy is wearing:
Tee: Target
Pants: Hand-me-down Target
Shoes: Vintage Nikes (my baby shoes)
Bow: Wal-Mart