Christmas recap

To get in the Christmas spirit, we went to see Zoo Lights, the Christmas Utah House, put up the tree and decorations (which Kennedy loved), and did our usual last minute shopping. No trip to see Santa this year - Kennedy recognizes him and will tell you that he says, "Ho, Ho, Ho!", but she still doesn't get the concept that Santa brings presents. We had several family parties and it was fun to see the extended family again. Andrew and Meg came to town, so we enjoyed a girl's day at the beauty spa on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning Kennedy woke up around 6:30 (as usual) and we opened a few gifts. We bought her a train set and a digger, which both immediately had to set up and played with. At grammy and grampy's (prounced drammy and pampy by Kennedy) she was welcomed by a rocking zebra waiting under the tree. We also made stops at Mimi's and the Nelsons' to celebrate and eat! Kennedy's wonderful presents include lots of new books, a blanket (and one for baby sister, too!), a piggy bank with her name on it, a toy box/bead thing like they have at the doctor's office, coloring books and crayons, a doll, a rocking horse, a set of musical instruments, and a zoo pass renewal. Thanks so much to everyone!!! When we left the Nelsons' it was snowing so hard - it was a white Christmas after all. It was a wonderful day and even though Kennedy took a good nap, we all crashed when we got home.

Slideshow

Misc. photos from the last 20 months - this is for all to enjoy, but especially for Kennedy when she comes to visit mama and grammy at work and asks to see "pictures of Kennedy" (which is nearly every day!)

What does Kennedy like to do? Part 1

A friend from work let us borrow an easel, and that has become a new favorite activity. Kennedy loves to draw and color in her new coloring book. She also likes to tell us "mama draw" or "daddy do it" and she'll often let us know what we should draw, which color crayon to use, or where on the page to put something. 

Just about every day she has to watch her "farm movie" (a Baby Einstein dvd) followed by "zoo train" (a Signing Time dvd). The regular routine is to watch them after lunch at grampy's house, but sometimes once isn't enough, and she has to watch them again at home. She'll climb up on the couch with a blankie and some juice, and amazingly the movies manage to hold her attention pretty well. It is so cute to hear her singing the songs and doing the signs for so many different animals. She's especially good at signing bat, gorilla, lion, tiger, zebra, and kangaroo. Maybe not the most practical sign language to learn, but this girl loves animals and we do visit the zoo almost every week!  

Kennedy loves to talk on the phone - sometimes just pretend conversations and other times she actually manages to dial someone, but she always has something interesting to say. Recently we helped her call her cousin Huck and she did a pretty good job of wishing him a happy 2nd birthday. She also called aunt Kari and uncle Rainier just to say hi and tell them what she's been up to. When there isn't anyone on the other end, you'll usually hear her loudly exclaim "uh-huh!" and "oh yes!" and then end the call with "talk to you later!"

The Little Gym

Kennedy loves going to The Little Gym. She's been taking classes there since she was 9-months-old. It's amazing to see all the new skills she's learned. Today she did a forward roll all by herself and walked across the low beam without assistance - she still likes to "hold my hand" when she's on the high beam. Kennedy also loves to swing on the bars, climb on everything, run around on her own and explore, and occasionally she will participate in the group activity, especially if it's parachute day. She is very independent! Today we focused on letting the kids do things on their own - not a problem for Kennedy. She's fearless and we are definitely not "helicopter parents" and grampy doesn't hover either. Her teacher, Michelle, is great and it's fun to see the other cute kids in the class. Most weeks Kennedy gets to go with grampy, but occasionally mama comes too.

Thanksgiving recap

The day started out with a great trip to Kennedy's favorite place, the zoo, to see the animals get a special feast. The elephants shared a 1,000 pound pumpkin, the apes got pies and the tiger had his own meat stuffed pumpkin (which he basically ignored). We think this is the start of a new Thanksgiving tradition for our family. We had dinner at the Weiler's and everything was delicious, as usual. We cooked the turkey and green beans in dutch ovens, and of course we also brought along the famous cranberry-maple sauce. It's so hard to believe that Kennedy took her first steps on Thanksgiving one year ago - at 8 1/2-months! This year she was running all over the grounds of Temple Square when we went to see the lights with the Nelsons on Friday night. Saturday we were treated to a great Filipino meal cooked by Kari and Rainier. We had a wonderful holiday celebrating the many things that we are thankful for!

The inaugural post

Here's our attempt at creating a blog to keep family and friends up to date. To manage expectations right from the start: 1) don't expect regular or frequent posts - we hope to share exciting moments and funny stories from our lives, and we will do our best to keep things somewhat current. 2) don't expect responses to tag posts. 3) do expect to see lots of pictures of Kennedy and baby number two!

So that leads us to our biggest news...Kennedy is going to have a baby sister in April! Here's a picture from our ultrasound two weeks ago. Everything is looking good, and we can't wait to meet this little girl. We'll be lucky (and exhausted) if she's anything like her amazing big sister!