Josh and I are having a heck of a time agreeing on what to name Baby Boy. I thought for sure we had decided..then Josh changed his mind. Sigh. For now I will continue to call him baby. My requirements are that it be a nicknameable name. For someone who could never have a nickname (because what is short for Brandi....Bra?) I want my kids to have options :) I also want something that is cute when he is little, but will also still be fit for an adult name. I think Josh wants something that will sound good over a loudspeaker when he is being brought onto the field in his future NFL career, as well as a name that does not rhyme with typical teasing phrases (insert your own elementary school drama here.)
So if any of you have any suggestions...we have been compiling a list for weeks now! Hopefully baby doesn't come before we have decided!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Snow day!!!
We had 4-5 inches of snow overnight. Luckily Kenna and I got to stay home and play. Josh had to go work today for Murray 5, the contracting company he works with. So, I had to convince Kenna to go down for a nap, then I promised her that we would go out to play in the snow. Colin jumped in his little john deer snow plow and did our driveway, so the piles were all ready for when she woke up.
We had a little trouble getting to sleep. About 20 minutes after I put her down for a nap, this happened:
Luckily she took her nap so we got to go outside!
--getting all bundled up to go out and play--
--the look on her face when she saw the snow plow--
--we don't mess around in Iowa :) --
--the best part about playing in the snow (and the only way to get a toddler to come inside) is hot chocolate and gold fish crackers!--
We had a little trouble getting to sleep. About 20 minutes after I put her down for a nap, this happened:
Luckily she took her nap so we got to go outside!
--getting all bundled up to go out and play--
--the look on her face when she saw the snow plow--
--we don't mess around in Iowa :) --
--the best part about playing in the snow (and the only way to get a toddler to come inside) is hot chocolate and gold fish crackers!--April and Nate's Wedding
Ah, traveling at Christmas is so fun. I got to Des Moines airport an hour early for my flight just to see that it had been delayed...4 hours. So I scammed the nice guy at the counter for free meal vouchers once I got to Minneapolis. The worst part is that the delay was because the crew had too much air time and needed to have a break between flights....sigh.
Oh well, I was supposed to get in around 8pm san diego time, got in around 2am the next day, which is 4am my time....I was beat! Got to April's and crashed till the next morning.
Then Shawn and I went to buy ingredients for crepes, because that is April's favorite breakfast. I got her a crepe pan for one of her gifts, so thought I would make her breakfast the next morning, pre wedding :)
We used the GPS to try and find a grocery store that had fresh strawberries and couldn't find them anywhere! How is that possible? I can ALWAYS find fresh strawberries in Iowa! Oh well, we settled for frozen and that was fine. Then we went back to April's and the boys went one direction the girls another. We went to April's aunt's million dollar mansion with an amazing view. The house was perfect for a wedding. Vendors were dropping off flowers and tables and heaters (was chilly!) We were scurring about decorating arches and planting flowers for centerpieces. April ran through her list of what needed done the next day (day of the wedding) so that I had some assemblance of what she wanted. Her wedding coordinator was a bit of an airhead, so I ended up yelling at and coordinating a lot of the people the day of. Craziness!
After we spent most of the morning prepping, we had a small rehearsal so the 3 flower girls, junior bridesmaid, and all of us knew what to do. The little girls were surprisingly cooperative, and tried to be very helpful! I know that April's mom was supposed to be by this time to start arranging the flowers but she had delay after delay because of the crazy storms in the northwest. So, luckily April found someone who would come and do all the arrangements that evening.
We went to a really fun pizza place for a kind of rehearsal dinner afterward and got to hang out with Nate's family. We had a good time, and by then I was STARVING, since I hadn't eaten breakfast! We goofed around, ate groom's cake and I got to watch everyone drink good pub beer :(
Then they handed out gifts to all those who were in the wedding. The little girls got fun things to play with and we got jewelry that April's mom had made for us for the next day. It was really pretty!
Then it was back to April's aunt's house where we spent a long evening making preparations for the next day.
--my main task was to paint this aisle runner for them, turned out great, thanks to me doing the right handed stuff, and April doing the left :)--
--all the ladies doing makeup and hair--
--flower girls--
--practicing throwing petals in the hall--
--me taking a picture of april getting ready, junior bridesmaid on the left--
--back of april's dress, she looked beautiful!--
--april and julie--
--april and me, remember.....7 months pregnant here....be nice!--
Oh well, I was supposed to get in around 8pm san diego time, got in around 2am the next day, which is 4am my time....I was beat! Got to April's and crashed till the next morning.
Then Shawn and I went to buy ingredients for crepes, because that is April's favorite breakfast. I got her a crepe pan for one of her gifts, so thought I would make her breakfast the next morning, pre wedding :)
We used the GPS to try and find a grocery store that had fresh strawberries and couldn't find them anywhere! How is that possible? I can ALWAYS find fresh strawberries in Iowa! Oh well, we settled for frozen and that was fine. Then we went back to April's and the boys went one direction the girls another. We went to April's aunt's million dollar mansion with an amazing view. The house was perfect for a wedding. Vendors were dropping off flowers and tables and heaters (was chilly!) We were scurring about decorating arches and planting flowers for centerpieces. April ran through her list of what needed done the next day (day of the wedding) so that I had some assemblance of what she wanted. Her wedding coordinator was a bit of an airhead, so I ended up yelling at and coordinating a lot of the people the day of. Craziness!
After we spent most of the morning prepping, we had a small rehearsal so the 3 flower girls, junior bridesmaid, and all of us knew what to do. The little girls were surprisingly cooperative, and tried to be very helpful! I know that April's mom was supposed to be by this time to start arranging the flowers but she had delay after delay because of the crazy storms in the northwest. So, luckily April found someone who would come and do all the arrangements that evening.
We went to a really fun pizza place for a kind of rehearsal dinner afterward and got to hang out with Nate's family. We had a good time, and by then I was STARVING, since I hadn't eaten breakfast! We goofed around, ate groom's cake and I got to watch everyone drink good pub beer :(
Then they handed out gifts to all those who were in the wedding. The little girls got fun things to play with and we got jewelry that April's mom had made for us for the next day. It was really pretty!
Then it was back to April's aunt's house where we spent a long evening making preparations for the next day.
--my main task was to paint this aisle runner for them, turned out great, thanks to me doing the right handed stuff, and April doing the left :)--By about 11pm I was beat...that is 1am my time, and I go to bed at 10 most nights! I could tell that I was about to pass out. We headed back to April's and crashed.
Then the next morning was wedding day! I got up and made crepes for Julie and April, which I think turned out well :) Then it was off to get our hair done. At this point April was worried because she hadn't heard from her makeup lady...so we were frantically calling places like Merle Norman and Clinique to see if SOMEONE could do her makeup! Turns out Merle Norman would do it if we all bought something small. So we headed there afterwards. I think they did a great job on everyone's makeup!
--April getting her makeup done--
Then the next morning was wedding day! I got up and made crepes for Julie and April, which I think turned out well :) Then it was off to get our hair done. At this point April was worried because she hadn't heard from her makeup lady...so we were frantically calling places like Merle Norman and Clinique to see if SOMEONE could do her makeup! Turns out Merle Norman would do it if we all bought something small. So we headed there afterwards. I think they did a great job on everyone's makeup!
--April getting her makeup done--Makeup took a lot longer than we had hoped. So April's mom and Julie headed up to the house to finish final preparations and April and I raced up after. We only had about 30 minutes to make sure everything was in order. I ran around trying to make sure setup was what she wanted, and attempted to throw on my dress and keep april from stressing out. We were arranging last minute video tapers, trying to get vendors to know what to do, and trying not to slug the wedding coordinator.
--Julie getting April's dress ready--
--Julie getting April's dress ready--
--all the ladies doing makeup and hair--
--flower girls--
--practicing throwing petals in the hall--
--me taking a picture of april getting ready, junior bridesmaid on the left--
--back of april's dress, she looked beautiful!--
--april and julie--
--april and me, remember.....7 months pregnant here....be nice!--I thought it was really funny that the only direction we were given from April was to get black dresses with pink ribbon. We lucked out that our dresses looked VERY similar and we had the exact same color pink! April is not that much taller than me, I just waited to put on my shoes until the last possible second. My feet, face and hands were still swollen from the plane!
--the venue was beautiful, here is the pool that looks as if it is fading into the horizon--
--bustling her dress prior to announcing the new couple, glad she knew how to do that!--
--as the sun set, it got a little chilly, but the decorations were really pretty!--
--another example of the crazy coordinator, she is wearing socks and burkenstocks..what is wrong with you!--
--the cake was so pretty, and yummy. I missed the cake cutting because we were decorating their car :) --
--first dance--
--garter throw--
--these are for chels, makeup (after a long night it was pretty much shot)
--hair--
--the venue was beautiful, here is the pool that looks as if it is fading into the horizon--
--bustling her dress prior to announcing the new couple, glad she knew how to do that!--
--as the sun set, it got a little chilly, but the decorations were really pretty!--
--another example of the crazy coordinator, she is wearing socks and burkenstocks..what is wrong with you!--
--the cake was so pretty, and yummy. I missed the cake cutting because we were decorating their car :) --
--first dance--
--garter throw--
--these are for chels, makeup (after a long night it was pretty much shot)
--hair--I tried to stay late and clean up the aftermath so that her aunt and uncle could go to bed in their room! We did as much as we could, but I was absolutely exhausted. April and Nate looked so amazing, and the look on his face as she came down the aisle made everything worth it! I was so happy I got to be a part of it all, even if it was a crazy whirwind of activity! Congrats you two!
Christmas #6 - just us
On Christmas Kenna woke up and knew exactly what was going on. "Did santa come?" was the first thing she said when she got up. I told her that we had to go downstairs and see what he brought her. We got daddy up and headed downstairs to see a tent, sleeping bag, drawing pad, tinkerbell chair, and a curious george doll in her stocking (her most favorite TV show!) She was so excited to have a tent and ran back and forth playing with everything. We had breakfast and stalled a bit because Gramma and Grampa Rue wanted to try and watch her open presents via the webcam. Well, little did I know that the webcam was not working on all three of our laptops, so josh had to monkey with that. By the time he got it working it was perfect timing for west coast to get up :)
So she opened the kitchen stuff and remote control car that Grampa Rue got her, and the clothes, baby and chapstick Gramma Rue got her. Then she opened the doctor kit Aunti chelsey got her. She definitely wanted to play with everything right then asking us to "open it pwease!" It was fun that they got to see her do that!
--playing with santa's toys--
--pretending to sleep with curious george--
--opening presents--
--she got two "rockin guitars" this year and she thinks they are pretty cool! Thanks aunti April and Gona and Baca!--
--the two guitars are very different, here is one of her playing Aunti April's--
--ah the aftermath--
As we get older Josh and I have become impossible to buy for. But we did good this year I think. Santa got him a blueray player, man was he surprised! I bought him a commercial grade weed eater for our back forrest :) I had to hide it in the baby's closet because there was no way I was going to attempt to wrap that! He did good too, getting me a Wii fit (post baby) and a set of ramikens which I didn't even ask for! I was so proud of him :) I think he secretly wants me to open a fun cake shop because I also got a build a bear cake pan...which will be really fun to decorate with kids, so excited about that :) We are so fortunate to be able to get all these nice things for each other!
After this Christmas was over I began packing and getting ready for my trip to San Diego for April's wedding!
So she opened the kitchen stuff and remote control car that Grampa Rue got her, and the clothes, baby and chapstick Gramma Rue got her. Then she opened the doctor kit Aunti chelsey got her. She definitely wanted to play with everything right then asking us to "open it pwease!" It was fun that they got to see her do that!
--playing with santa's toys--
--pretending to sleep with curious george--
--opening presents--
--she got two "rockin guitars" this year and she thinks they are pretty cool! Thanks aunti April and Gona and Baca!--
--the two guitars are very different, here is one of her playing Aunti April's--
--ah the aftermath--After this Christmas was over I began packing and getting ready for my trip to San Diego for April's wedding!
Christmas #5
On Christmas Eve we packed up all the presents and headed to Gona and Baca's. The kids went early in the day and made a gingerbread house and got to hang out with their grandparents because all of us had to work! As usual everyone was spoiled rotten. It seemed like Christmas snuck up on us really quickly.
We had spaghetti dinner with different sauces and a really yummy salad that Emmi brought. After we gorged ourselves then we opened presents (with a break for dessert.) This time of year is fun to be pregnant because you have an excuse to eat more :)
--the gingerbread house that the kids built with gona--
--she learned how to twirl spaghetti on her fork...was sooooo proud!--
--grandkids and gona--
--pre present opening--
We had spaghetti dinner with different sauces and a really yummy salad that Emmi brought. After we gorged ourselves then we opened presents (with a break for dessert.) This time of year is fun to be pregnant because you have an excuse to eat more :)
--the gingerbread house that the kids built with gona--
--she learned how to twirl spaghetti on her fork...was sooooo proud!--
--grandkids and gona--
--pre present opening--We had such a nice Christmas. We had to get home at a decent hour because I still had to pack and get ready to leave for San Diego the next day!
Christmas #4
We sort of started a tradition a few years ago and went to the Gryte's house on Monday. Wes and Sarah come over for the evening as well. Chris and Cyndi were there from New York and Nicca was there from Chicago. The girls had cooked up a feast to include make your own pizzas. Kenna thought that was quite fun! Gona and Baca came as well, and I think Coleen had more fun playing ping pong with Kenna than hanging out with the adults upstairs!
--here we are making our own pizzas, Kenna LOVED this!--
--everyone sitting down to eat--
Great job guys, thanks for inviting us!
--here we are making our own pizzas, Kenna LOVED this!--
--everyone sitting down to eat--Great job guys, thanks for inviting us!
Christmas #3
We had a fun night with the Andersen's. It was hard to find time to see them with both of our schedules. They hosted the entire Andersen family for an all day event over the weekend so we snuck over on Sunday night. We had pizza and leftover cheesecake and played a really cool gift giving board game. Then the girls got to open their gifts. Kenna got Wall-E which is fun, because none of us had seen it! And she got Chloe kitchen stuff to go with her new kitchen (wrapped in blue behind her) and a sweatshirt. The girls are so fun! You can definitely tell that Kenna is the ring leader, most of the mischief is Kenna's idea I fear!
--helping Chloe open presents--
--opening her present--
--helping Chloe open presents--
--opening her present--We really tried to emphasize that giving is really fun this year...not sure if she got it, but we had fun nonetheless!
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Christmas #2
We spent Christmas number 2 at Mace's. Sunday we all made breakfast foods and had a big buffet, then presents. We did our typical round robin where we all bring silly gifts and choose numbers. Big hits this year were Kathy's crazy hat and the return of the little plastic potty :)
--good looking family--
--one side of the table--
--and the other--
--gona's crazy hat--
--kenna at home before we left by the xmas tree--
--good looking family--
--one side of the table--
--and the other--
--gona's crazy hat--
--kenna at home before we left by the xmas tree--Christmas #1
The first Christmas this year was with the Gentry's. Nolan came over and brought Kenna a present, and Kenna had one for him too. We had a big turkey dinner and the kids had a blast opening gifts!
--McKenna helping Nolan open his blocks--
--Kenna opening her cool mixer. She makes us cakes everyday (see movie)--
--Kenna helping Nolan open his ball (in case you can't tell what it was)--
--she really enjoyed giving it to him. I am glad that she was so sweet and understood that giving is fun too!--
--the two kids--
--McKenna helping Nolan open his blocks--
--Kenna opening her cool mixer. She makes us cakes everyday (see movie)--
--Kenna helping Nolan open his ball (in case you can't tell what it was)--
--she really enjoyed giving it to him. I am glad that she was so sweet and understood that giving is fun too!--
--the two kids--Jingle Bells
Here is another fun one of Kenna's rendition of Jingle Bells...she never really got farther than oh what fun it is to ride...but still fun :)
First of many Christmas's
Here is Kenna and Nolan opening their presents. We had them over for a pre-Christmas dinner the weekend before Christmas. The kids had fun opening presents and Kenna loved giving Nolan his. Very cute!
Updates
I have MANY events and pictures that I have not had time to update on here...but soon to come! I only have 2 more weeks of Full time before I drop back down to 3 days a week...woohoo! I will continue as the district human resource manager, just in a jobshare capacity and am very excited. I am not sure how some of these full time working moms do it!
Had my 29 week check up yesterday and all is well. I freaked out for about 2 minutes as they had a hard time finding the heartbeat...little did I know the device checking for it had a dead battery....WHY would they do that to a person! All is perfectly in check, measuring normal and I like their scale much better than mine because it says I have only gained 25 pounds at this point, so I'll take that over mine which said around 30! My goal is to not exceed 40, just like with Kenna, so we'll see!
Kenna gets cuter and more inquisitive everyday. She asked me the other day why cows need 4 legs...how funny! She still does not understand that she can get out of her bed without calling us. I usually start hearing her around 7 every morning "mommy, I ready to get up!" Or sometimes earlier in the morning "Mommy, I have to go pee-pee!" Luckily those early morning trips to the bathroom usually still result in her going back to bed after. She has been doing very well during overnights in keeping herself dry!
Some of her favorite christmas gifts were: tent from santa; kitchen stuff from grampa rue; digital camera from mike and bridgot; rockin guitars from april and gona and baca; curious george doll and jammies from mommy, daddy and santa; art stuff from gona and baca; playdoh from gavin; travel kit from auntie em and mark; dolly from gramma rue and chapstick from gramma rue. I know chapstick sounds funny, but she had never had any until my mom came to visit. She thinks it is so cool that she can put it on whenever she wants. She will usually say "I need some chackstick, my lips are frozen." So cute!
Had my 29 week check up yesterday and all is well. I freaked out for about 2 minutes as they had a hard time finding the heartbeat...little did I know the device checking for it had a dead battery....WHY would they do that to a person! All is perfectly in check, measuring normal and I like their scale much better than mine because it says I have only gained 25 pounds at this point, so I'll take that over mine which said around 30! My goal is to not exceed 40, just like with Kenna, so we'll see!
Kenna gets cuter and more inquisitive everyday. She asked me the other day why cows need 4 legs...how funny! She still does not understand that she can get out of her bed without calling us. I usually start hearing her around 7 every morning "mommy, I ready to get up!" Or sometimes earlier in the morning "Mommy, I have to go pee-pee!" Luckily those early morning trips to the bathroom usually still result in her going back to bed after. She has been doing very well during overnights in keeping herself dry!
Some of her favorite christmas gifts were: tent from santa; kitchen stuff from grampa rue; digital camera from mike and bridgot; rockin guitars from april and gona and baca; curious george doll and jammies from mommy, daddy and santa; art stuff from gona and baca; playdoh from gavin; travel kit from auntie em and mark; dolly from gramma rue and chapstick from gramma rue. I know chapstick sounds funny, but she had never had any until my mom came to visit. She thinks it is so cool that she can put it on whenever she wants. She will usually say "I need some chackstick, my lips are frozen." So cute!
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