Crazy December!!!

Okay, so we've been a little busy and I have not been blogging very regularly. Since I last blogged we've moved!!! We are finally out of my parent's basement and into our new house. It is wonderful and so far we love living in Niverville. The move went quite smoothly as we had been recruiting movers (0ur friends) for a while. We ended up with a lot of wonderful friends who came out to help and even started unpacking for us. THANK YOU!!! We got busy right away unpacking everything and by Wednesday (we moved Saturday) we were almost completely finished. Of course we didn't sleep much but there were no more boxes around! Some fun started Dec 1st, the day we moved in. Kevin went in to the city that evening to do some running around and to return the moving truck. Kennedy and I were upstairs and I was trying to set up her room so she could get to bed at a decent time. Well, I left her alone for too long and she found all our vitamins and minerals which I had left on the floor in our bedroom. She managed to open up the iron pills and tried them out!! She came to me with red slobber everywhere and pieces of iron pills that she had been trying to spit out. I started the calm panic of trying to find a phone. We just moved in so we didn't have a working phone and I could find my cell phone! I finally found it, called 911 (something I had hoped I would never have to do) and they told me to go to the nearest hospital. So I pack her up and get her to St. Pierre Hospital where they do an xray. They found it inconclusive so they made arrangements to send her to Children's at HSC for 24 hour monitoring. Our first night in the new house and we wouldn't be sleeping there, ugh. So, we were transferred by ambulance to Children's. We got there and found out that we wouldn't have to spend the night (she still wasn't showing any signs of having taken too many pills) but we would have to wait for blood work to get back. They started an IV on Kennedy (she didn't even cry!) and we played. Kevin met us at the hospital by then so we all just played in the waiting room. The results of the blood work showed she only got about 1/2 a pill. I guess that first one she tried just didn't taste like the smarties she had been eating earlier in the day. All in all not a fun experience, but it could have been much worse.
And that was only December 1st!! After that nothing too exciting happened other than all the unpacking and settling in. We had been anticipating a difficult month with Kennedy because she didn't handle moving to my parents place well, but she's been doing great!!! No adjustment needed, she seems to know this is her house and has been her regular wonderful self since moving day. We are so grateful for this as she was quite high maintenance for quite a while after the last move. I suppose she recognizes all our furniture etc and realizes that living with Grandma and Grandpa wasn't "normal".
Kennedy has been changing by leaps and bounds since the last blog posted. She now has so many words and understands us so much better. It is amazing the developmental progress that happens in a month and a half. I don't think I can even remember all her words now, there are so many. A sampling are some of the following; "up" "down" "cookie" "eyes" "poopoo" "mine" and many more. She is definitely a toddler...everything is "no!" or "mine!". Another exciting thing is that she has started to tell me when she has to poop and I have tried putting her on the toilet a couple of times. Sometimes she doesn't tell me until after the fact and only once has she actually pooped on the toilet but it is a start! Wouldn't it be fabulous if she was toilet trained by 2??? I can only hope and dream and work at it...
So, that has been our life. We are officially ready for Christmas and are very excited for it to get here. We've had the decorations up since the Wednesday after we moved in and the Christmas shopping has been completed. Now all that is left is to finish wrapping. The only sad part about Christmas this year is this is my first Christmas ever to work. I'm on for 4 nights and I'm not looking forward to it but this is my profession and I need to deal with it.
a few pictures for you all to peruse....random pictures taken over the last month or so since we posted. Hopefully the next time I post we'll have pictures from our fabulous vacation in Mexico! Feliz Navidad everyone!!!! Now, of course since I've uploaded them they are up at the top of the blog and not down at the bottom where I wanted them. And it is too late at night for me to care enough to try and move them so they stay where they are. I need some blog education.

Breakfast with Daddy

Kennedy is very much a momma's girl and I am pretty sure anyone who knows her well can attest to this. I really, really love the moments when I catch her absolutely enamored with her Daddy. The other morning Kevin sat down with his cereal ahead of me (this usually happens because I try to have my shower while he's around to look after Kennedy) and Kennedy wanted to sit with him. The next thing you know they are sharing Cheerios! She loved them so much that I don't think Kevin got very much of his cereal. I KNOW that he was completely okay with this. I was really lucky to still be in the kitchen to snap a few shots; here are a couple. These pictures just melt my heart!

Fall Leaves

I love fall, and I love when kids play in the leaves! Kennedy, however, has not been too keen on it whenever we've taken her outside to play. She's always been interested in doing something else, like climbing whatever she can find. These pictures were a rare moment when she was actually playing with the leaves! I'm so glad I took the camera outside that day.

September catch up

Well, life has finally settled down and we are now fairly settled in at Mom and Dad's house. So it is time to get blogging again! September has been a pretty good month. Kennedy has adjusted to living at Grandma and Grandpa's and loves seeing her grandparents every day. She has been teething this month, again, and now has all four canines! She has almost a full set of teeth now, and will only need her 2 year molars to make it a complete set. Getting her to agree to let us brush them has been a bone of contention lately. We have tried several different toothbrushes and it seems that she enjoys our electric toothbrush the best! She laughs because it tickles and I'm happy because she lets me in her mouth for longer than a second.
This month has been a busy one for us as well. We've had something up pretty much every weekend. We had a 25th wedding celebration out in La Broquerie the first weekend and then the next night we were at Celebrations dinner theatre. This was the first night Kennedy ever had a paid babysitter, and it went really well! It was a bit nervewracking for us at first because she and her babysitter had never met before but it was fine! Kennedy got along great with Melissa and even went to bed without a fuss. What a fabulous daughter we have!
September was also the month that we FINALLY turned Kennedy's car seat around to forward facing! I've been wanting to do so forever but the firemen at the fire station's wouldn't let us because she's so small. Well, we caught them on a good day because they let us that day! She really likes it and I love that I can just turn around and there she is! A couple of the pictures posted are of Kennedy being silly in her chair, with sunglasses and chewing on her jacket.
One day Kennedy and I went out to visit our friends JoEllen and Abby in Oakville with another friend Lani and her little guy Ajax. One of the pictures is of the three of them in their chairs at lunch. It was a really good day even though it was raining and we had to stay inside. There are plans for more of those days in the future.
And finally, friends of ours from Medicine Hat, Tyler, Rachelle and Abbi were out this past weekend for a wedding and we were able to spend part of an afternoon catching up with them. Kennedy and Abbi had a good time getting to know one another, playing with whatever was available in a very UN-child-proofed house! Fun for them, some tense moments for us parents. But a good time anyway!
So, September was a busy month but a good month. Here's to hoping October will be just as fun!

the move

this post must be sans pictures because we are now living at mom and dad's house and we don't have our computer set up yet. just wanted to update everyone on our situation.
we officially moved out of 585 windsor ave on aug 23. a bit of a sad day but it's all for a good cause. i mean, how can a old stinky house compare to a brand new house?? it cannot. and so, while it is being built, we live with mom and dad. Kennedy is having a bit of a rough time with it. she's confused about why we are always at grandma and grandpa's and having a rough time with bedtime. she's also acting up a bit during the day. this will pass, i know, but it can be so hard to take and have patience while it is happening. if you are reading this and are of the praying pursuasion we would love your prayers.
that's about it. how boring without pictures!! hopefully next time there will be some. by for now~!

busy, busy, busy

Okay, I'm posting again! Wow, two nights in a row, I can hardly believe it. I don't really have a great subject but this one pretty much sums up our little monkey these days. Kennedy is sooo busy, she gets in to absolutely everything. Grandma Derksen had an idea to switch up the "no" every once in a while with "touche pas", which we thought was a good idea. It worked at first but soon "touche pas" became a fun game for Kennedy and she would laugh and go back to whatever it was she wasn't supposed to be doing. And now "no" has also become a laughing matter for her. I am afraid of the "terrible twos" if this is what one is already like!

Here are some pictures of her doing some good and some bad: climbing in and out of a box (a new favorite--good), playing with the phone and that open cupboard (good and bad) and jumping off the couch (good/bad). I shall explain. I am not a fan of her playing with the phone but I let her because it entertains her for quite some time. I'm always nearby though, making sure she's not pressing redial or calling Zimbabwe or something worse like 911. Open cupboard bad: we put all of our plastics and tupperware in one bottom cupboard so she could play with them, but that's not that cupboard. There isn't anything dangerous in there but it's not what I wanted!!! Again, "touche pas" and "no" is a game so I've started to give up on that cupboard being off limits. I would never get supper made otherwise. Jumping off the couch: good if we are around to watch her, bad if we aren't. So far she's not tall enough to get up on the couch herself but it won't be long and she'll just figure a way up; she's much too smart for her own good. Ahhh, it just keeps us on our toes and we love it!

spaghetti night!

We have had spaghetti more than once since Kennedy started eating big people food, but this night was by far the most fun she, and we, have had thus far. There was sauce EVERYWHERE! I just had to share some pictures; enjoy!

Kennedy's 1st Birthday Party!! June 16th, 2007

I have been informed by many, many people that I need to update our blog. This has occurred to me many times over the last month and a half since I updated and I have tried several times. The problem lies with my lack of knowledge when it comes to computers. I am laying all on the line here, admitting my complete idiocy with computers. This silly blogger program occasionally decides that I shouldn't be allowed to upload pictures, and what's a blog update without pictures?? It takes me a long time to remember what I'm supposed to do in order to fix the problem and thus it becomes a long time before there is an update. I also feel quite inferior when I look at other people's blogs because they are so well organized, with the pictures arranged so and the text laid out beautifully. Our blog is not so because I can't figure out how! I do not like the "edit Html" button because I don't know what to do. I try to rearrange the text/pictures but when I go to preview it usually looks worse than before. So, alas, I ignore the blog for awhile. It is much easier to ignore it than to do something about my stupidity. I feel like I should know much more than I do, but alas I remain clueless. And now that it has been so long since I have posted anything, this post will likely be a very long one!!!
Our first group of pictures are from Kennedy's first birthday party. Yes, she has turned one!!! Hard to believe for us but it's true. She really is no longer a baby. Her party was lot's of fun with as many close friends and family who could make it. She made a fine mess of her birthday cake which was exactly what mom and dad wanted. What's a first birthday without cake everywhere? And because of the chocolate gooey mess, we took her shirt off. And then we left it off for the rest of the party. There are many pictures of her with just her pants on and she will be mad at us when she's older, but for now it is simply hilarious!
The party was awesome, the presents were numerous and Kennedy had a blast. All in all, a good day. I can't resist posting a picture of the cake that I made. We originally had planned a monkey/jungle theme but didn't really know how to do that so it ended up just being a monkey cake. It was chocolate/banana flavored and delicious if I may say so myself.

Poolside fun!

Last weekend I decided it was time to bring out Kennedy's pool. It was FINALLY nice in Winnipeg and I was anxious for her to play outside. I got it set up early morning and filled it so it would warm up. Once she woke from her nap around 11:00 am I got her ready and out we went. Well, it was still much too cold and she really wanted very little to do with being IN the pool. This picture is of Kennedy the first minute she was in. That's as long as it lasted! The rest will be of her on the outside. She had fun, just not in the water like I'd hoped. The last picture is of Kennedy after trying to blow bubbles in the frigid water. She didn't like it too much but she kept doing it. Silly monkey.

Raining in Winnipeg

For the last couple of weeks it has been raining in Winnipeg so we have spent a lot of time indoors. I feel like I never get original shots of Kennedy when we're inside for so long so I haven't posted in a while. I don't want to bore my loyal blog readers with the same old pictures over and over again. Also, Kennedy really doesn't sit still long enough to have her picture taken. She is one busy girl. Her mother has a hard time keeping up and she's not even walking on her own yet! Wow do I have some fun in store for me.
So, in order we have Kennedy playing in her "house" (thanks Elie! I play with it every day!), sticking her tongue out for the camera, playing with a spoon and doing her usual tricks of knocking over the gate and trying to climb it. The fun never ends around our house, not with this monkey hanging around!

Never Cuter

How could I not share this picture? This is ultimately the cutest almost-one-year-old EVER.

our version of camping on may long

our family took a trip to Grand Forks, ND over may long weekend. it was sort of a celebration of me having been off of work for an entire year and returning to work in the near future. a final hoopla, you might say. Kennedy was not in a good mood most of the weekend so we really don't have much for pictures. that and we spent most of our time shopping, so who has time to take pictures!

here's Kennedy relaxing on our king size bed and a picture that a stranger took of us while at the mall.

Spring is here....

Just a couple of pictures of Kennedy hanging out with her dad on the front lawn. Haven't been taking many pictures lately, really need to get on that...oh, and sorry for the sideways pictures. if anyone knows how to rotate them here on blogger, please let me know. i'm computer dumb and need lots and lots help!

The joy of toilet paper!

Well, Kennedy has discovered toilet paper. I knew it wasn't going to be long since she loves to pull herself up to standing. I honestly don't mind her playing with it every once in a while; all it means is that the toilet paper roll doesn't look all that neat when you put it back. The problem we have here in our household is that she wants to eat it! What a silly kid. Anyway, here are a few pictures of Kennedy discovering toilet paper for the first time.

10 months already!!!

Well, Kennedy is officially 10 months old. Before you have your baby, everyone always tells you, "cherish every moment because they grow up too fast". You just don't understand the meaning of that until you have your own child. I cannot believe how fast this year has gone. Sure, I'm sad that I'll be going back to work soon but that's not all. My baby is no longer a baby! I've said to Kevin a few times lately that it is hard to think of her as a baby; she is so independent. She is completely mobile, will not let anyone feed her and drinks from a straw! All she wants to do these days is stand, so before long she'll be walking and then she really won't be a baby anymore. Some days I miss my baby; the tiny, dependent baby I came home from the hospital with; she needed me for everything! Of course, I love this stage of discovery too; she's so inquisitive and wants to see/do everything. Every day is better than the last. Plus, she has such a personality that she's a blast to be around! Anyway, it's just so hard to believe that they really do grow up too fast. Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks.