The guests arrive

My mother loves to make gifts or buy special favorites for her kids.  This year she brought "Fall gifts" for Rach and I...only my mother would find Fall as an excuse to buy us special surprises.  She knows us too well, Leaves candles and our favorite HEB coffees.  mmmmmm Fall, you can show up anytime now that we have our survival kits.

Friday around 9:30 Blachel and Grammy and Pa arrived bearing presents that Kennedy couldn't open yet.  Kennedy was already excited to see the box of the water table and kept sneaking over to the presents to try and open them.  We wanted to wait until Barrett wasn't at work to open them.

Kennedy played and squealed and ran around the house with her new house guests and the bake-a-thon began.  I had previously made and frozen the sugar cookies, so we started with the icing for those cookies.  Then made Kennedy's white cake, then chocolate cupcakes, then icing again for the cupcakes. 

Check out all the Apple geeks

As soon as Britney found a picture a cupcake I was going to decorate she got super excited, and she never gets excited about anything, to decorate cupcakes.  Next thing I know they are pulling out their art kits and are forming masterpiece guitars.  

These guitars were done free handed

They also made milkshakes.  Side note:  my mom and had a few weekends ago had spent a long time cutting out music notes and circles to make records for the tops of the cupcakes.  They make these guitars in less time than I cut out my circles.  Of course having the right tools and artistic ability goes a long way.  We were cutting with plastic knives that kept tearing the fondant.

Uncle Blake got the honors of feeding little missy since the women were busy working in the kitchen.

Rachel and mom iced and sprinkled the sugar cookies while I worked on cakes and cupcakes galore.  It truly was hours in the kitchen with 3 people working at all times.  How could I have done that without all the help, plus someone watching my daughter?

A picture that there was no room for Rach to sit at the table and no time to sit and eat.

Documenting a daily occurrence of "icccccce"

Reading with Auntie Rach

Kennedy found another sucker to get her some ice.

The crew responsible for keeping K happy while momma was baking.

Pa and Grammy gave Kennedy a water table and she loves it.

Aunt Britney volunteered to write on Kennedy's cake for me as well.  Mom had cut out the music notes prior and Brit wrote on the cake and decorated the bottom for us.  It was so hot in my house with all going on that the buttercream icing kept melting off the cake.

Spacing out the presents.  This girl is good at opening presents now.

 After some presents Kennedy was walking around with tissue paper stuck to her feet, so cute!

Grammy made a customized ABC book for Kennedy with pictures in Kennedy's world such as F is for Fish and it is a picture of the fish in our fish tank.  Kennedy LOVES this book, especially the picture of her and U-uncle Blake in the water and the W page for "water baby" in the water.  She signs water and crawls up in my lap to look at those pictures at least 4 times a day.

Kennedys fan club.

My Uncle Tommy and Aunt Amy came in from Houston on Friday to join us for dinner and Kennedy opened the gifts from them and my Grandma and Grandpa.  We showed Kennedy the picture of Grandma and Grandpa before she opened the gift from them.  We look at their picture every day so she will recognize them.

Let the reading begin....this girl and her books.

My Uncle Tommy and Aunt Amy reading the ABC book to Kennedy.

That night we had a feast of Haloumi cheese, steaks, quail, twice baked potatoes, and salad.  Of course the steaks came off the grill right when Kennedy needed a bottle and to go to bed.....so momma ate a lukewarm steak.  But it was delicious and so nice to have family with us.  Britney stayed until after supper and then headed back to SA because she had to work on Saturday.  I didn't document the dinner table which makes me sad, but I was too preoccupied with eating I guess.  Such a fun and exhausting day.  

11 months

11 months please go slowly!

You are sequencing many different communication strings.  For instance, early this month you saw a banana on the counter and walked to your high chair said "up" labeled banana and then once you were in your high chair you signed "eat".  That is a long chain of communication and you continue to blow us away with your language skills.

Receptively: know head, belly button (love finding your belly button and lifting up people's shirts to find their belly buttons), love touching eyelashes, make dolphin sound, make owl sound, horse sound, chicken sound (you even make chicken sounds while eating chicken), horse sound, monkey sound, burp, lamb sound, hop for bunnies, cat sound.  You can follow instructions to place objects "in", "out", and "under" things.  You can identify the shape "star" when given a choice of 2 objects.  You anticipate book pages and will make sounds for the page that is next.

Expressively:  words: momma, dada, grandad, Pa, Gran (grrrrrr), Grammy (Ga), all done, eat, drink, juice, snack (imitation only), hot, outside, up, out, in, hat, shoes, shhh (quiet), clock, bubble, ice, brrr (cold), peas, glasses, eyes.  Plus, all your animal sounds.  I know I am missing lots but it is hard to keep tabs because you are learning so fast.  You click your tongue to label "sun" and "moon" because we sing a song "Mr. Sun" and I click my tongue in the song.

Signs: eat, wash, hat, thank-you, water, hair, brush, book, more

You have started functional play and will wash things with wipes and brush your hair with brushes.  You LOVE shoes and want to wear them around the house while carrying a pair in your hands.  I don't know why we buy you toys because you only want to carry around Annie's toys and you love to play with her.

You are walking more and more and gaining confidence.  You use your push toys like your dinosaur to  walk by yourself and recently walked from your toy chest to the coffee table and back by yourself.

Favorite things:  ducks, owls, water, outside, music, and books.  You will read books 3 or 4 times in a row.  You love to play in your crib right now with your toys and watch your mobile.

Recently you had your first experience with an ear infection and had your first antibiotics.  Poor baby, you were sneezing and coughing constantly.  At the Dr. we got your measurements and you weighed 20.6 (50th%) and were 31.75 inches long (off the charts).

You are so long that I get looks out in public as I mix your formula and feed you a bottle.  Everyone thinks you are at least 18 months as you always tower over older kids at the aquarium etc.  The other day a lady in the store asked if you were going to be 2 on your birthday!

Speaking of being 2, you have said 2, 2-word phrases recently which is expected of a 2 year old.  You have not even had your first birthday and you are putting 2 words together.  You have at least 41 words.  It is expected that a child of 12 months of age have 1-5 words and you have 41signs and words.  Stop developing so quickly, momma wants to enjoy you being little!  Your first 2-word phrase was "momma up" and then "momma bubble" because you wanted me to blow you a bubble with gum.  You better believe as soon as you said that phrase I got up and got some gum. ha ha

Seperation anxiety has reached an all time high.  You go through phases where you won't even let daddy do anything for you, you just scream and scream.  You are beginning to drop your morning naps but occasionally still want them.

Eating:  You are not eating as well right now, but you are also recovering from being sick.  You no longer want baby food and want to self-feed everything.  You are not a fan of zucchini.  I even baked zucchini with tomato sauce and mozzarella on it like a healthy pizza and you still did not like it.  New taste adventures:  melon, chicken and rice casserole, deer meat with potatoes and peas, tortillas, mac n cheese.  Favs: bananas, cheese, avocado, mac n cheese, and ICE.  We have bought a big bag of sonic ice to keep at home and you request it 3 times a day or more.  Every time we get in the car you say "ice" because you want to go to Sonic.

FaceTime is AMAZING.  We FaceTime once a week with lots of family members including my Gran and Grandad.  Because we have religiously face timed every week since probably June (when I stopped working) Kennedy knows who Gran and Grandad are.  Recently she was eating dinner and saw the Ipad on the table and starting saying "Grrrrrr" which means Gran.  She often requests FaceTime with Gran now.

Story behind Gran being "Grrrrr".  Gran was trying to get Kennedy to say her name and so she was over exaggerating the "Gr" sound and would say "Grrrrrraaaaan" and so Kennedy started imitating "Grrrr" so naturally that is Gran's name now.  You did it to yourself Gran! ha ha ha

Momma and Daddy are so excited and proud of all you have accomplished in your first year.  Daddy is excited about what is to come and momma is excited and sad to miss my infant!  I guess it is time for a brother or sister.....ha ha.

4th Annual Ports Mansfield trip

We changed our annual trip to Port Mansfield from Memorial Day to Labor Day in hopes of better fishing.  But instead we got rain (which we had been in a drought forever) and Craig's boat motor broke stranding Tammy and the guys in the rain until a boat came by to tow them in.  Nevertheless, we had a great time with good friends and sweet kiddos.

Here is Tammy and her sister-in-law Renee.

The girls fishing

First trip for Zachery and Kennedy.

Kennedy enjoyed walking everywhere and seeing the water.

Next years goal, get more pics of the Fines family and better friend pictures.

Kennedy loved baby Zachery and he was sweet enough to share his toys.

This was me sneaking in on Brylee and Brooklyn putting their baby dolls to sleep.

It is no secret that Kennedy doesn't sleep in a pack n' play well, so we brought her mattress and wedged it on the floor surrounded by pillows.  In the past this tactic was a lifesaver.  But, now with Ms. Mobile, that did not work so well as she was climbing up and over everything.  I had to rock her to sleep for her naps and it was slightly stressful.  Learn to sleep in a pack n' play girl!

The Fines room.  

We stayed at a new place this year, Harbor's End.  It was nicer than our old place, but of course the old place had a better view and it had an upstairs and downstairs which was nice once the kids went to sleep.  This year we all had hot water and nice bathrooms but we had to tip toe around the whole time for sleeping children.  And, go figure everyone had a different nap schedule. Kennedy would nap in the am, then right when she would get up it was time for the Wall girls to take a nap and you guessed it, when they got up K was ready for her nap.

The girls tore up some perch on the pier.

More pics of the grounds.

One afternoon Brooklyn cracked us up going through Barrett's fishing pics on his phone.  She would look at a pic and say, "Look B" as if he had never seen the picture before.  She also showed that she is indeed a girl when she looked at a picture with a large fish and she said, "look at his shoes."

At night we would go walk for deer.  The only deer Kennedy had seen was the one on Daddy's wall, so she was excited to see them.  One man let us come on his property and gave us some corn to feed the deer with.  he was so sweet to the girls.

Deer eating right out of their hands.

Brooklyn decided she was bored feeding the deer and started feeding her self some bread.

Brooklyn came out wearing her mom's shoes....

so then of course Brylee had to do it to to get a picture.

Proof that some fish were caught.

We spent most of our time in the pool.

My one fish on my stringer the morning I got to go out fishing.  I caught undersized trout and a skip jack so still had fun feeling the pull on the line.  Not a success as most fisherman who get to fish a lot, but for this momma that hadn't fished in 16 months, it was great.  I love being out on the calm water with nothing but Barrett, the sun coming up, and fish tails out of the water.

The girls took full advantage of the real baby stuff that came along on the trip.

How many helpers does he need to change the diaper?

Sweet friends.

We don't know where we will stay next year, but we can't wait!