blog dump

This post will be really random, but I'm feeling so guilty for having not blogged in so long!  Here are five things in no particular order about our lives right now:

1. Kennedy is hilarious.  She's been speaking in full sentences for about two months now.  Genius?  We think so.  But man, the stuff she says.  It's priceless.  Oh.  She also most likely has lyme disease.  She was bitten by a tick at my dear friend Jen's wedding in Petaluma.  The tick was analyzed, and long story short- she developed an unexplained fever and is on a 3 week course of antibiotics.  Who gets lyme disease??

Erm.  Sorry you're making a horrible face Doug.  But seriously, how cute is she crossing her leg like daddy? 

How jelly are you of Kennedy's bathing suit right now?

2. Speaking of kids.  This next one.  Baby Alice/Violet/Annabelle/Polly/MaryAnne.  Or not.  We can't decide on a name for the life of us.  I'll be 32 weeks pregnant tomorrow, and I'm feeling great!  Since this is our last biological kid, I'm going to try to go naturally as long as I can.  And I'm using "try" very loosely.  I've taken no class, know nothing about how to breathe or birth balls, but I at least want to feel a few labor pains this time.  Dumb?  Probably.

At Jen's wedding.  And check out the outfit coordination.  Totally unplanned*.

*lie.

3. The house.  It's coming together!  All of the floors are in, it's painted (minus the kitchen cabinets), and we have all but one light fixture installed.  This weekend we will be unpacking massive amounts of boxes.  I'm hoping to finish that up this weekend so that we can spend the next few weeks doing the rest of the projects that need to be completed (bathroom fan, adding shelving to the pantry, installing a back door, to name a few).  At this point, I don't care if the house looks cute or done; I just want everything to be clean, organized, and safe before baby sissy gets here.

Kitchen island needs new countertop, we're ordering new cabinet hardware, and the cabinets will be white.  Oh, and hopefully we will have a dishwasher some day.  That.  That would be awesome.

The current state of our living room.  

4. We still have a roommate in the form of Uncle Owen, Doug's 20 year old brother.  While I'm not going to lie, it's been challenging to have another person to clean up after, cook for, etc, he has also been such a blessing to us.  Kennedy ADORES him.  Doug would not have survived the 7 weeks that Kennedy and I spent in Santa Cruz without his company.  He's an all around awesome 20 year old.  It's been a refining experience having to give up control of certain things, and the Lord has been so faithful throughout it.  He is always good.  He has reminded me in so many details of this move how good he is.

5. Oh, this summer.  Despite the fact that we missed Doug desperately, we feel so incredibly lucky to have spent the summer in Santa Cruz.  My mom and Cliff are THE BEST.  Words aren't enough to describe how well they took care of Kennedy and me while we were there.  In addition to getting to be with them, we also got to spend time with so many people that we don't get to see often enough.  My favorite friends from high school and their babies, my dad and stepmom, my extended family including cousin Addy who was visiting from Utah, my brother and sister, my stepbrother and his adorable family, dear friends from college to who drove down for the day to see us.  Oh man, did we have a good time.  Kennedy got so much love and attention this summer, and I feel so fortunate that we were able to spend that time up there.

And that concludes my brain dump.  See you in a few months.  Hopefully before, but no promises.  Our life is cray right now.  Seriously.  Having a baby, buying a house, having a 20 year old live with you.  What the heck were we thinking??

eighteen months old

Kennedy is eighteen months old, and man, is she keeping us on our toes!

Cinco De Mayo rocking her dress that Mor Mor and Gramps got her in Mexico.

At eighteen months you:

• Run, climb, dance, and are oh so silly.

• Speak in some sentences.  One of Kennedy's favorite things to do is identify who things belong to.  "Dis is Owen's." "Dis is Dada's." "Dis is Mimi's."
• Looooove your pacifier.  Kennedy will walk over to the dresser where we keep it and say, "No baba, no baba?"  Or sometimes just look at it and say, "Hiiiii!" and wave at it.
• Sleep through the night.  Every night.  Bliss.
• Know the hand motions to most nursery rhymes.
• Throw major temper tantrums.  We were at the doctor today, and she told us that Kennedy is very "advanced" in this area after witnessing a tantrum. *yay*
• Are the sweetest, cutest, most delightful little girl.  You love giving hugs and kisses, and we can't get enough of you!

You love:

• Elmo and the gang.  It's one of the first things you ask for when you wake up in the morning after "Mo mo" (oatmeal).

• Uncle Owen.  Or as you call him, "Wohwoh."  Or as Mimi calls him, "Uncle Bobo."
• Swinging on the swings at the park.  It's an obsession.  We're talking an hour long swing and tantrum when we have to get out because another kid is waiting.

• Water play!  The splash pad near our house recently opened up for the summer, and we are enjoying it to the fullest!

• Babies!  I wonder if you will like babies this much when your little sister comes along?  I hope so!

You hate:

• Not getting your way.  See: tantrums.
• Still having a verrrry hard time with veggies.

Highlights of the Months:

• Traveling up to Santa Cruz for a baby shower for Cliff's daughter, Mollie's baby girl.
• Auntie Mimi came to visit us!  Kennedy looooves Auntie Mimi and followed her around saying, "Mimi, Mimi?".
• Finding out that Kennedy is going to have a baby SISTER!!!
• Lots of storytimes and play with friends!

• Celebrating Mother's Day with our sweet family.  

We love you Miss K!

tubes

Kennedy's ear tubes surgery was a huge success!  They have been in place for over a month now, and she has been doing fabulously.  The surgery was easy-peasy.  Seriously, it took about 5 minutes.

Here's a few pictures from the day.

The 5:30am wakeup didn't seem to phase our munchkin.

Waiting patiently with daddy to be admitted.

The hospital gown was a teeeeny bit big on her.

Kennedy gets a dose of the good stuff.  Kennedy almost immediately becomes a space cadet.

And laughs like a stoner every time someone smiles at her.

 A male nurse took her away to the operating room, and she didn't even care.  She went straight to him and was taken away.  Doug and I went downstairs to grab a sandwich, and by the time I finished the sandwich, she was done!  Three hips for modern medicine!

And here's Kennedy in her new floral skinnies that daddy bought for her.  I wish they came in my size...

a new pad?

This isn't facebook announced or anything yet, but Doug and I are currently in escrow on a house!  I wanted to put up some pictures so that our family and friends could see what it looks like.  They are definitely "before" pictures :)

Backyard Jungle

View of the house from the backyard

Detached Garage

Side Yard

Back Door

Kitchen.  Love the mirror above the backsplash :)

Facing the breakfast area from in the kitchen (laundry on the right).

Breakfast nook.  Hard to tell but that's an island covered with stuff on the left.

Bedroom #1

Bedroom #2.  love the wood paneling

Fancy built in desk in bedroom #2.

Bathroom

There's also a bedroom #3 that was too jammed full of stuff to take pictures of.  Hopefully we will have some "after" pictures to share in a few months!

big sister

If you haven't already heard the news.

Kennedy is going to be a big sister!  I am twelve weeks pregnant, due on October 25th.  We are absolutely thrilled!  

sixteen months old

And just like that, we missed our first monthly blog post :(  Fifteen months, you were a good one, but we'll have to combine you with the sixteen months post.  We have a lot of good excuses for the lack of blogging, but I'll get there in a minute.

At sixteen months you:

• Have over thirty words in your vocabulary.  I've stopped keeping track because you have so many, but some of my favorites are "eyebrows" ("bye-bros"), "puppy" ("buh-buh"), and "balloon" ("brooooon").  It's so amazing that you learn new words every day!

• Know all of the baby signs that I taught you.  I have to say, the whole baby signs thing wasn't very helpful for us.  If you're with your kid all day, you know what they want.  But then again, it is pretty cute.  And makes you think that your kid is a genius.  Which she is...obviously...
• Run!  You were officially moved up to the "off and running" room at church!
• Are weaned!  Phew.  It was time.  A few factors contributed to me finally having the energy to go through with it including biting, terrible sleep habits, and our neighbors moving out which allowed her to cry a bit at night without disturbing anyone.  Anyway, we're on day six of no milk and doing pretty dang well!

You love:

• Belly buttons.  You love being shirtless and playing with our own and try to lift up our shirts to see ours.  This can be embarrassing when we're out in public...
• Saying "no."  You walk over to things that you know you're not supposed to touch and say "no, no, no" while shaking your finger at them.
• Food!  Finally!  We're talking three big meals a day with snacks in between.  Some of your favorite foods are oatmeal, eggs, strawberries, blueberries, mango, and chickpeas.  Oh...and of course cheerios and honey bunnies :)
• Baby dolls.  We have got to buy you one.  As soon as you see one, you say "bebe, bebe" and are desperate to hold it.

You hate:

• We're having a lot of trouble getting you to drink milk.  I know that you don't need it, but I'm a little stressed out about making sure you get enough calcium, fat, and vitamin D through other sources.  We're doing lots of yogurt and cheese, but milk would be nice.  We've tried chocolate milk, almond milk, breast milk in a cup, heating up the milk, bottles, nothing works!  Suggestions appreciated :)

Highlights of the Month(s):

• A trip to Santa Cruz!  Always a joy to visit family and friends.  Unfortunately, Kennedy came down with a nasty bug as soon as we got there, so we weren't able to visit any of our friends with kids :(

• Celebrating St. Patricks Day with the Hulse clan.  Kennedy loved corned beef.  Cabbage?  Not so much.

Wearing the green dress that Nana Vanda hand knit for her.

• Uncle Jimmy came to see us for his spring break!  MorMor and Gramps drove down and stayed with us while he was here.

• A baby shower celebrating my dear friend, Abby's baby Graham!  We can't wait to meet him.

Pictures taken from Abby's husband, Ryan.

• Our friends Peter and Whitney welcomed Natalie Kay in to the world.  We are so excited for them to start this new chapter of their life!
• Lots of play dates, story times, and music classes.  We're living the good life for sure.

Bunnies at the park with Nico!

Shout out to Grandpa Carl for my Stride Rites.  Now that K is a walker, I see what all the fuss is about.

First ball pit!

• My friend, Suzanne, organized an Easter Egg hunt!  Kennedy had a great time finding eggs...er...stealing eggs out of other kids baskets and eating the goldfish inside...

Isn't Kennedy's Easter dress to die for?  Thanks MorMor and Gramps!

• Uncle Owen moved in with us!  It's temporary, but we are enjoying his company, and Kennedy is loving having her uncle around all the time.
• Another bit of exciting news we need to share is that Kennedy is getting tubes in her ears on Tuesday!  We are a little anxious about the procedure, but thrilled that she will not be in pain anymore.  We discovered that Kennedy has minor hearing loss due to the fluid behind her ear drum that never dries up after ear infections, so we are excited to have that taken care of.  We're hoping that once she can hear better she'll be less noisy but I doubt it :)

Another day, another doctor's office.