The Kennedy's Korner

Christmas pics

2011-01-02T12:22:00.003-06:00

The many faces of Emersyn!

2010-10-24T16:06:00.005-05:00

Watching Game 6, Rangers won the pennant!!
Falling asleep in mommies arms

Laughing at mom, such a happy girl

Spending time with Aunt Annie!

We are so in love with this face!!!

Shopping in Longview

Love this hat.

This is her 2 month photo.

Being a big girl and watching TV with daddy

She looks frightened!

Her first 5k with mom, she is a great running partner

Dreaming

Doesn't she look excited!!

Naptime

So content

Dreaming again

Something about a yawn is so cute

After bath time, she loves baths!

Taking a little time to pose for the camera

She has my lips!! I knew she had to have something like me.

Our little monkey girl

The day we brought her home

I start back to work in a week, it's so hard to believe she will be 11 weeks tomorrow. I will miss spending my days with her and will pray that my first week back won't be full of tears!

Happy 1 month Birthday to our precious Emersyn!

2010-09-09T12:42:00.002-05:00

I can't believe she is a month old today, each day she grows so much! Thanks to her Aunt Annie for this adorable onesie!

Happy Birthday Emersyn Rose!

Our girl is 3 weeks old!!!

2010-09-01T15:59:00.002-05:00

On Monday our precious girl turned 3 weeks old, it's crazy to think how quickly she grows. We were instructed to start tummy time with her on her 2 week appointment. I haven't done it as much as I should but this weekend Jeremy and I had her on her tummy mat and she flipped over. Yes, she flipped from her stomach to her back, in fact when I was taking the pictures below she scooted herself in the chair. In addition, she pushes herself up and has done a few push ups. She is surprising me everyday. She is Jeremy's child so I am not sure why I am too surprised by any of it. See I have read all the books and know what she should be doing and when, Jeremy hasn't read a single book and he is not as expecting of different changes. I think it's better not to know because Jeremy is not surprised by the new changes he thinks it's only natural, where I think she is doing things so soon. Regardless it's so fun to see her change and see what will happen next.

I love these little arms!

Here she is with my Mom and Grandma!

Enjoying her play mat!

The Days seem so much shorter...

2010-08-24T13:11:00.010-05:00

I can't believe our little baby is 2 weeks old. She had her 2 week appointment yesterday and she is gaining weight and growing like a weed. I am astonished by this little Jeremy look-a-like! Yesterday the doctor said that she would start going through a stage of being a little more clingy and upset so not to worry, well like clock work our child decided that yesterday it would start. She didn't want me to put her down, isn't that just too bad!! I will say that I enjoyed holding this precious baby and cuddling up to her. It made putting up groceries and pretty much anything else not possible, but it was worth a day of kissing her precious face!

On Saturday, we had her newborn pictures taken by Dana Perkins of Tin Star Photography. Let's just say that the preview you can view on her blog is abosolutely amazing. She did a great job and our baby girl was full of her faces! This girl has a million faces and I love watching them.

http://www.tinstarphoto.com/blog/

Also on Saturday her Grandad and Uncle Jerrod came by to visit before Jerrod went back to Kansas to finish his last year of baseball. We enjoyed our time with them, it was fun to watch my dad with her. Jerrod calls her "His girl", it's so sweet. I love that my family adores her and I am so blessed to have such a great family that is full of so much love. I really hate that Jeremy's parents are so far away, I am trying to keep this blog updated so they can see pictures of her. I know they miss her so much and love her to pieces!

Jeremy started back at school yesterday, he had his team meeting and today starts practices. Those boys are in for a treat, he is in rare form right now and I don't blame him. I look forward to seeing what the team will look like this year and how far they will go in the season.

Hope you enjoy the pictures below and the preview of her newborn pictures!!

This picture is for Gigi, she bought this fun tutu!!

Here she is with Grandad

Making one of her faces

With daddy

All wrapped up!

Emersyn Rose made her debut…

2010-08-17T09:34:00.010-05:00

She had this outfit on for a very short time, before she went potty on it while Aunt Annie was changing her.

Here she is at exactly one week.

One week pic

I just love these eyes and she looks just like Daddy!

With Aunt Annie and Uncle Lance!

Cousin Alexandria

Cousin Derek

Grandpa Elvis

Napping with Daddy and Oscar

Gettting her first "Mani" from Aunt Annie

Sleeping soundly in Gigi's arms

On her due date, August 9, 2010, weighing 7lbs 5oz and 20.5 inches long entering the world at 9:16 p.m. our precious girl changed our lives. After 21 hours in labor, a wonderful epidural, and the best husband a woman could ask for we ended up having a C-section. Apparently my hips aren't birthing hips as I stayed dialated at a 7 for 5 hours, and there is a chance in the future that this will happen again. I was completely terrified of having the C-section but with her sitting on my pelvis and her head swelling I knew we needed to go ahead and get her out of there. In the end, I would perfer a C-section any day of the week, recovery has been great and I have had little pain. We had a great support system at the hospital and I thank them all for staying with us the entire time through labor and then delivery. She had so many visitors and most of the time in the hospital was a blur as I was so exhausted from Monday.

Emersyn is a very laid back child, she is so much fun! She eats every 2 hours through the day and night at this point. She sleeps most of the time, but when she is awake she opens her beautiful eyes and just stares at everything around her. The dogs love her and keep a close eye on her. Oscar likes to sit with us why we feed and Sam sleeps in her room most of the night under her crib. I am so happy that everyone is adjusting so well, Oscar is having a bit of a hard time not being my number one right now. It's really rewarding to be a mom and knowing that this little girl depends on us to take care of her. Jeremy and I are taking in every second of being a parent to this precious little girl and are loving every moment of her!

Emersyn's Nursery

2010-06-07T19:39:00.007-05:00

Jeremy getting ready for Emersyn!

Oscar trying out Emersyn's car seat and stroller!

We have enjoyed putting her room together, thank you mom for making it possible, thank you Dad for coming over and helping us with all the electrical and window treatments, to Jeremy's mom and sister for their contributions and thank you to my husband he knew I was a little crazy about when I wanted it painted and he got it done so quickly!

We can't wait till our little precious girl arrives so we can enjoy the room with her now!

Really it’s May???

2010-05-17T15:43:00.002-05:00

I feel like every day is flying by, I can hardly keep up with what day it is or month. Let’s see, Jeremy ended his season a couple weeks ago 40-14 and 101 games won at Northwood as the Head Coach. This is huge for him, I am so proud of his integrity, his character, his strength, his morals and his ability to deal with 40 college guys and still be alive. It’s so much fun watching his games; I truly love being the wife of an amazing coach.

I am now at 28 weeks, right at 7 months and my 3^rd trimester has started. Every day is more fun with her, she is such an active baby, she woke me up on Saturday at 4:30 a.m. moving to find a new spot, it’s the most amazing and weird thing that I think I have ever experienced. This past weekend my dad and step mom came by and helped Jeremy and I finish up the last touches on her room. It’s such a beautiful place to be, Jeremy and I are so happy with it; I think she will love it! I would post pictures but will wait until after my shower this weekend. This week is full of fun days, my birthday is Thursday, our sweet niece will be “1” on Friday and my baby shower will be on Saturday. I can't wait to see all my friends and family this weekend at the shower, you have all been so supportive of Jeremy and I, we love you!

It's a Girl!!!

2010-03-12T09:25:00.002-06:00

I was so relieved to see her moving around in there, everyone has been asking if I can feel her and I can't. Next to finding out if we were having a boy or a girl was to feel this little pumpkin move. I will say she is already stubborn, the tech tried so hard to get a side profile picture of her, but she only wanted to face us the whole time. It's so amazing to see all of her movements, her spine, her eyes, her heart, her feet, and hands. To know that she is so healthy in there makes me feel like the most blessed person on the planet. Yesterday the room was filled with so much love and it's amazing to know that this little girl has so much support and love from so many people already. And... I was completely wrong, I have so much boy stuff to take back to the store, I was so convinced that we were having a boy. Instead we are having a girl that will be frilly until she fights me back on it. Being that she has two stubborn parents, I am sure that day will come! Well little Emersyn Rose Kennedy, we can't wait to hold you, love you unconditionally, and watch you become an amazing woman!

Adventures in March

2010-03-03T13:09:00.003-06:00

March is full of so many fun dates. Maddie our youngest girl will be 1 on March 2nd, she has grown so much. She continues to be rowdy and makes me question why we have the biggest do on the planet. However, she is the sweetest girl so it's hard not to love her or at least smile when she does cute stuff! Andrea and Lance closed on their house this week, it's such a blessing that they were able to sell it so quickly. I know they will miss it, we had so much fun moving them in and I will always remember the first week (thanks Lance). March 11th will hopefully be the day that Baby K show it's gender!! I can't wait, mainly because I am ready to start planning and of course I want to know if I have been calling it the right gender. I have put a hault to everything until we find out. I am pretty convinced that we are having a boy, but who knows! March 19th is mom's last surgery, this is cosmetic but is of course needed. I will be happy when she can put this all behind her, I think she will be happy about this too. She is only going to be out of work for a week, so I am hoping it won't be nearly as painful as her original surgery. She is so great! She has been working out like crazy in her spin class and she seems to have fun! March 25th is the date that Baby Powell will hopefully be joining us in this world. They are our friends in Kansas and we just love Cathy and Ryan so much and know that this little bundle of joy (a girl, I don't have permission to release her name) will be so precious. I can't wait to see her! My 5th month will be complete that week as well, so I am pretty excited, I am ready to feel some movement in there. To end such an eventful month is my dad's birthday, we have working out together lately. I love walking in the gym and seeing his face! I will update you with pictures throughout the month!

The Heartbeat

2010-02-11T10:40:00.001-06:00

It is really real!!! On Monday we went to the doctor, by we I mean Jeremy and I, and we heard our precious little babies heartbeat. I know we had a sonogram last time and we saw a picture of the baby, but hearing the heartbeat was truly amazing. I couldn’t stop smiling all day! So in just 4 weeks will know what our little baby is going to be, we have girl and boy stuff that was bought from our family and of course I keep buying boy stuff. I am truly convinced that we are having Carter this time. Maybe Emersyn will be next time around. It’s not that I care what we have, I am basing my assumption off of how I feel and of course the Chinese gender chart and the pencil test. A couple of weeks ago I was in Tyler to be my sisters first client. We went to this great place called Haute Tots and I walk to the back and there right before my eyes was the baby bag I have been eyeing online. Now why was this so great? Because I can’t buy it online anymore everyone had sold out of it or maybe it was discontinued, I don’t know. All I knew is that I needed that bag. So for having to endure 8 hours of teeth cleaning, I thought I needed to treat myself. And if I didn’t get it because it was discontinued I would have been very unhappy! So now I have a crib, changing table, mattress, baby bag, (bedding for Emersyn, mom was afraid I would have Emersyn and my bedding would be on back order till the end of time), diapers and some clothes. I can’t wait to see this baby!

Firsts

2010-01-11T17:46:00.002-06:00

The first of everything is so fun, so new and just amazing. Today was our first doctor’s appointment and we were really excited. I wasn’t too sure if we would have a sonogram today but hoped and prayed that we would be able to finally see our bundle of fun that is growing inside me. It’s quite weird and exciting when you find out you are pregnant and until we had our sonogram today did it feel all that real, but we did have it and it made it just as amazing as we thought could possibly feel. My mom accompanied us to this appointment to hopefully see this bundle of joy, her first grandbaby. My mom is so pumped, between her and my sister, I am not sure if this little Baby knows what to expect. With amazement and joy in my eyes I saw the most precious thing in my life, OUR BABY! We saw hands, eyes, legs, umbilical cord, belly and even the brain. We weren’t able to hear the heart beat but we were able to see it. The doc assured me that the baby’s heart rate was great at 160 beat a minute. It’s funny because as the doctor is telling you all of these tiny appendages are your babies arms and legs, you want to say…HELLO DOC, I am only now the expert of this and I know you have been doing this for 30 years, but I totally know what all those little things are, even though if you asked me a week ago I would have no idea what everything was. Every time my friend Ashlee would show me her sonogram pics, I would smile and say “How Adorable”, little did she know that I had no idea what we were even looking at, but she was excited and I wanted to share that moment with her. But when it’s yours, you just know and you get it.

This picture is kind of grainy but Rebecca (a girl I work with) and I thought it would show up better. I went ahead and labeled it for those of you who are saying “Sure I see it”, when you totally don’t know what your looking at!

Baby K

We truly can’t wait to welcome this baby on August 9th, or somewhere around there!

One great year after another…

2010-01-02T20:58:00.010-06:00

We had a lot of great moments this year, we were married and we found out we are having a baby. We also had some very bittersweet moments with my mom, and I am happy to say that she is doing wonderful. She is just as full of life as always and we are truly blessed to have a clean bill of health with her. My dad had 2 stints put in his valves this last month and he feels so much better. I am truly happy about both of my parents being in great health. All I know is this baby is already spoiled and is loved so much from all of his/her grandparents, aunts, uncles, great-grandparents and extended family.

On Wednesday before Christmas, my mom had this fabulous idea to make cookies. Not take the pre-made cookies cut them and put them in the oven. She wanted to make her own dough, icing and actually decorate these bad boys. If you saw the creation my mom, sister and I made for Halloween you would understand my hesitation. But we had fun and we were tired of it very quickly. Here is what we came up with…

IT SNOWED, apparently for the first time in 80 years on Christmas Eve, so exciting I loved every moment of it. We spent Christmas day with my family, visiting my mom first. We exchanged names so it went by very quickly, Baby K, received great gifts from Gigi and Elvis, Aunt Annie and Uncle Lance. Yes, Bob wants to be called Elvis. I think it’s hilarious and even if he changes his mind, I will be sure to teach Baby K, Elvis. We went to my aunts shortly after for lunch. We had so much fun with the Chinese Christmas exchange and Pictionary. We left and headed to my dad’s for our Christmas with Dad, Jodi, and Jerrod. We had a yummy dinner, enjoyed all of our presents and fun converstation. It’s so great to see my dad so happy and we really have a great time.

The next morning Jeremy, Sam, Maddie and I left for Kansas. Andrea took Oscar so he could stay with his buddy Mayer. We went out with friends on Saturday night, it’s great to see them since we see them maybe once or twice a year. Most of the rest of the week we went for walks, slept and spent time with family. I had so much Ellena time, I just loved every minute of it. She is having so much fun right now and is full of smiles, laughs and loving her Uncle Jeremy. Jeremy walked in the front door on Saturday and took Ellena as soon as he could, he is really excited about Baby K and we are so blessed to have this experience. The first trimester has taken a toll on my energy levels and when I say that I slept most of the week, I truly mean it. When I wasn’t asleep I was reading or eating.

Here is our sweet Ellena, she is so adorable!!

On New Year’s Eve we went over to the Powell’s, with 3 other couples. The guys spent most of there time playing downstairs in Ryan’s man basement and us girls sat upstairs around the kitchen island eating and talking about pregnancy. Ryan and Cathy are expecting their little girl in late March, Brooke has already has two great boys and Veronica brought their 3 year old and their 3 month old. I am so glad I was able to talk with them about how I was feeling, what they felt and the overall outcome.

The Two Pregs

I just love this guy!

Ryan and Cathy, soon to be Mom and Dad.

The Girls and one boy.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and A Happy New Year!!

Happy 2010

This family of 5 will now be a family of 6!!!

2009-12-22T19:44:00.002-06:00

Yep, it’s December and Yep, I am horrible about keeping up with this thing!! But I want to be so great at it and now I have more of a reason to. Well, we are PREGS!!! Yes, we are having a little baby, which will change our lives in so many ways. We are only 7 weeks along and are looking forward to every moment. Our first appointment will be January 5th and we will have our first sonogram. People are joking that we might be having two and that makes me nervous, since Ashlee just had two and it’s so very hard. I will try to keep this updated more often.

What else… we spent Thanksgiving in Texas this year with my family. It was great to be around my family this year; I missed them so much last year when I was in Kansas. I have always been so spoiled to not miss too much of my mom and dad on Holidays, now it’s different but in a good way. Jeremy’s family is so much fun and I love being in Kansas, I never really thought I would love that state but it is a very different world. The small town atmosphere is so great and is now what we have here at home. We will see them after Christmas this year.

We had the 4th annual ornament and cookie exchange at our house this year, how fun! The girls had so much fun; the baby had its first present from Great-Grandma (Ga). It’s so great that I get to experience this with my grandparents; I just love these two so much! We had dinner at Tomatoes here in town and then came back for treats and ornament exchange. Jeremy baby sat the dogs in the man room so they wouldn’t be in the way.

Where was my camera…?

2009-10-26T20:17:00.002-05:00

For what I saw today, I should have had it!! Today I went with Jeremy and his team to the Get Motivated seminar at the Fort Worth Convention Center. I piggybacked on their tickets because he was able to get unlimited tickets for $19.95 and instead of my association paying for me to go, I thought it was the best way to go. We were up bright and early this morning at 4:30 and headed out around 5:30. I am used to getting up at 5:00, but Jeremy was not ready for that wake-up call! The event didn’t start until 8:00 but we wanted to make sure we had good seats because you weren’t assigned a specific seat only a section. I was pretty impressed that for the most part all 39 guys showed up on time and
they all really enjoyed the event.

Now for my experience…

I would say that I was pretty excited to go to this, Jeremy had read the outline of the program to me, and I immediately wanted to go. I really like these types of events because they allow me to get to a different step in my own work. Sometimes when you have been at the same job, it’s hard for you to find new ideas to get motivated about. So I learned very relevant techniques that I hope I will be able to use later! The real excitement started after lunch, we walk back in and there is a guy rapping. The best part was the older man, probably in his late 70’s doing the Michael Jackson “Thriller” Dance. Oh my, it was the cutest thing I have seen in my life. I took a picture with my phone but he was moving so quickly that it was blurry. Then they introduced the next speaker…. George W. Bush, as in not Senior! I knew he would be there, but of course they don’t tell you when. The thing is I have never experienced the “President Aura” before, it took my breath away. I am not the type of person to be struck by famous people, to be quite honest, I could care less, but the PRESIDENT, are you KIDDING ME!!! He was the leader of the FREE WORLD, for the love and all I could do is hold back tears. Yes, tears, I have no idea why only maybe to explain that for a moment I felt sorrow for him. All of the issues he has faced and to hear him talk so greatly about his wife and being a father, made me just melt. I wanted to so badly to charge the stage and give him a hug, the kind of hug you give your father who has just told you that he had a bad day. Now for those of you who want to go all political on me, I am going to ask you to keep it to yourself. I want you think for a quick moment about him as a person, because hey, he is and understand that I think he is a great man! He said a lot of great things today that really changed my views, though they have been changed a lot lately. It made me want to be the difference. I know that a lot of times I hear people say that the economy is going down and all of this nonsense about politics or about your jobs or the people you work with, but I am going to challenge you as I am myself, to BE THE DIFFERENCE!

It doesn’t matter your political party, it’s what you do with your life. President George W. Bush

Babies and Fall

2009-10-19T20:36:00.007-05:00

No, I am not pregnant, but I do have an adorable niece that I haven’t been able to hold for almost 3 months now and I am craving me some Ellena!!! However Sara, sister-in-law, provides me with updates and fun messages by text to keep my needs met. Hopefully we will see them for Thanksgiving, but it looks like Christmas may be the soonest. I know that you all want to see pictures of this precious baby, so here she is…

Ellena, just a few days old, with her Uncle Jeremy. I don't think she is too much older than the picture above.

She is going to be handful, look at this precious look!!

Typically I would say she was laughing at me, but I think Grandma might have done something funny!

One of the best things about being with the person you love is that you typically get to do all of your firsts together. Jeremy and I bought our house and we just love it. As singles we have always gone from place to place with no where to call home, we both agreed we wanted a home. Well, October, equals time to decorate!!! My family has always been huge on decorating so I get this from them, ladies I thank you for the skill. So, when I told Jeremy I wanted to decorate the outside for fall and make it festive for trick-or-treaters, I am sure he wasn’t expecting what I had in mind. The list includes: Four bails of hay, a scarecrow, two sets of orange lights, 3 wire pumpkins, one festive pumpkin on a Sheppard’s hook, a welcome sign, two stand up jack-o-lantern wooden pumpkins, a sign, one set of white Christmas lights, leave garland, decorations added to our wreath, and a wide arrangement of pumpkins, gourds, and corn. So here is what it looks like…

HAPPY FALL!!

Canton, Haunted House, Coraline, and Fun!

2009-10-09T13:07:00.006-05:00

Last weekend Mom, Oscar, I went to visit Andrea, Lance and Meyer for the weekend. I had been looking forward to this weekend for a month, and this was going to be mom’s first trip since her surgery. I took off work on Friday and we drove down, we first stopped in Canton so we could rent a wagon for the dogs the next day. Then back on the rode to Annie’s house. We had planned the last few weeks to make something fun, as it normally turns into a mess! The point is to have as many laughs as possible and to see if we could really be cake designers. This is where the haunted house comes in; we planned to make this…

It ended up looking like this after the first application of icing.

Here is what it ended up looking like after holding it up with our hands, using every bit of frosting and with our fabulous decorating skills.

Andrea and Lance decided to surprise us with a dinner of fun, though it didn’t get served until 9:00, it was really good. They did a great job on presentation and they had a fun time putting it all together for us.

On Saturday we went to Canton and decided to take the dogs. BIG MISTAKE!! I am a dog snob, I know my cutest little boy is so precious and I know that my little nephew Mai Tai is also so precious. Here is what I heard: Oh weenies, he looks like leather, he could be punkin poos brother, can I pet them, oh look weenies. I am sure you get the point, while I want people to love my little baby boy, it was hard to do anything with these two little babes. We were worried about their little feet getting stepped on so we kept picking them up, my lovely likes to pretend like he is a killer dog when he sees other dogs, so needless to say it was a bit difficult and the wagon idea was not a hit and was returned within the first hour. I found great stuff for my first year of decorating for the fall in our yard; I can’t wait to put it all together. The weather was beautiful and we all enjoyed our time together. Later that night we watched the movie Coraline, all I have to say it was a bit dark for me.

Pictures of the cute little guys!

All in all we had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs!

I’m a bad mother…

2009-09-28T20:20:00.001-05:00

I have yet to say much about our dogs, except we have three and they keep our lives interesting… but hey so do our cars, our house and our jobs… so that makes me a bad mom, I shouldn’t let life get so hectic that I forget about the people and animals that make our lives so much more fun! Jeremy and I both brought a dog into our relationship. I brought Oscar, pumpkin face, buddin’s, sugar love kins, buski, weinen, whatever, the point is I LOVE this dog. He has been through a lot with me and I have to say I truly think he helped me make it through some of the roughest moments in my life. Dogs are funny like that, you leave them for 8 hours, 8 minutes or 8 seconds they act like they haven’t seen you in years. I just love walking in the door because he always knows how to make me smile. He is my sweet cuddle buddy and I just love him to pieces.

Jeremy brought in Sammie, she is a German Sheppard/ Lab mix, and is a brute! She loves to wrestle and fight, just like her dad. Fight Night at our house is a bit crazy because both Jeremy and Sam go at it like UFC fighters. I call her Sammie Sosa; she is such an amazing dog. She can shake with both hands, sit, roll over, lie down, and speak on command. She runs the house with these dogs and it’s quite funny to watch her lead, she is so much like Jeremy. If I am sitting on the floor she will come up to me and give me a hug, it’s really sweet. I love this dog as if she has been mine all my life. I think when I become pregs some day she will be quite the protector of me as she is has done since the day we met. Jeremy and I used to play fight and she would get so upset at him and bite him… GOOD Sammie Sosa!

Then we decided that two just wasn’t enough, okay so Jeremy truly was the decision maker on that one, but he really fell for this dog. She had these precious eyes and well she is a Great Dane. We found a family that wanted to get rid of her at the young age of 3 months; she was around 45 pounds at this point. Now we are at 6 months, a few days shy of 7 months and she weighs at least 100 pounds. R U KIDDING ME!!! This dog is huge, and I think she grows an inch a day. It’s hard because she is so big and you forget she is a puppy, but she is a tail chasing, TV watching puppy. Don’t think I have always loved her, I haven’t. I know that sounds horrible but she literally has made me breakdown more than I wished to and getting rid of her was my main goal for 2 months. However, she has finally grown on me and her name is Maddie or Madden. She is such a great dog, she listens, she’s smart and she just loves everything. Not to mention she is a big baby, Oscar has more bark and bite than she would ever have. She is an attention hog and people love to stare at her, and I love her!

Until we have babies, these sweet doggies will be it for us!

My Project

2009-09-23T20:11:00.004-05:00

Well, I finally did it, I finished a sewing project. This project was something I feared as well as wanted soooo bad! I haven’t sewed anything since my senior year in apparel class and even then I had doubts on my ability. It’s not that I don’t know how to sew; it’s that I can’t keep the darn thing straight. But a girl at work is having twins and I really wanted to make something special for her and since she is having two precious baby girls I thought about what I would want for my baby girls. Answer… Bows, tutu’s, sparkles and fluff!! Now if you knew this girl (name remains anonymous just in case she doesn’t want her name out there) she has always talked about having girls and how broke she would go if she had one. She has an adorable son who has more clothes than I have owned in 28 years and he is 3. I pray for her bank account because these little angels will be so spoiled. Regardless we are so excited for her and since her tummy is just growing and growing, I get to see these little girls kick… maybe they will play soccer, or even better be cheerleaders!!! Her road has been a long one but soon these little babies will bless us with their presence. Her baby shower for work is tomorrow and I wanted to make something she could dress them in when she gets their one year pics made, so this is what she is getting…

Here is the start of the project:

Here is the bow:

Here are the complete outfits:

Happy Birthday Jeremy!!!

2009-09-13T15:57:00.006-05:00

This weekend was Jeremy’s Big 3-0 birthday!!! I had struggled with what to do for him as he doesn’t like to make a big deal out of it, he doesn’t like the singing sensations at the restaurant, and all of our friends live out of state. So I had planned to take him to the Ranger’s game Saturday night, we were going with my step dad Bob and his friend Mark. They were supposed to be awesome seats… however it rained all weekend. We did find out that they ended up playing that night, but we didn’t want to chance it so we just stayed in our cool little town and went to the movies.

Jeremy had practice on Saturday morning, which freed me up to work on some home projects. I have been struggling because I don’t have a place where I can go and work on home work, check my emails and start my sewing projects. I felt homeless, moving from the kitchen table, to the living room, and the bedroom. So while I was reading one of my favorite magazines, Real Simple, I found this amazing idea to change one of your hall closets into an office. Now I know this sounds crazy and a little too small of a space and what happens if your closet doesn’t have a light. So I had an even better idea… I would raid Jeremy’s man room and make that closet my office. Yes, we have another spare bedroom but that will one day be a baby’s room, so I need to keep it as a guest room for now. Plus the man room closet wasn’t being used and I knew that this was my opportunity to make it mine. Jeremy being the great husband that he is, agreed to my plan and low and behold you have the new Heather work/craft office.

Mom’s Rock, School starts…

2009-09-09T15:09:00.000-05:00

Since my last update, mom has been through a bunch! She has gone back to the doctor twice and is headed in tomorrow as well. Her first appointment confirmed that she had cancer in the right breast and it hadn’t spread to the lymph nodes, but what we weren’t expecting is that there was another type of cancer in the left breast. The best thing for mom to do was to have the double mastectomy and we are happy that her choice was very clear to her and what she needed to do and hello what a huge blessing. The church has been bringing food over since August 21st, so they have been pretty spoiled with all the different flavors that come into the house. Family has filtered in throughout the weeks and she has enjoyed the time she has been able to spend with everyone. She is too much of a go getter and has learned that she isn’t able to be at full force just yet, I think she gets that now! Tomorrow she will get her other two drains out, so she is going to be extremely relieved to be rid of these.
It’s been pretty weird for me, because it’s hard to not be around her. When my sister was in town, I just let her take care of mom, but the whole weekend I wanted to be over there so bad. It’s almost like I need to be with her all the time, I can’t explain it. I sure do go over there daily for lunch, which I pack every morning. It gives me time away from the day at work and allows for some catch up and Martha Stewart watching… hey I am a wife now; I need to learn how to make some great dishes!
As if our lives are completely crazy enough I have started my Master’s program, I think this will be great for me as I will be able to study in a field that I love, Family Studies. I am also going to attempt to sew, so hopefully I will have something fabulous to show you all!! Jeremy also started back this week with over 40 guys on the team; he is in for a big year. We had such a great time last year with the team, they were awesome. This year will be fun to watch because the team is full of talent.

Stepping Stones

2009-08-20T14:43:00.001-05:00

She has weathered her storm, though she has a few more trials before her journey is complete. Mom was in an 8 ½ hour procedure, the minimum time is typically 5 hours, so you can imagine the strain on your body. The head Anthesiologist came by today and said they were worried about her and watched over her because she was under so long. The preliminary look at her lymph nodes show no sign that it’s cancerous. The medicine made her quite loopy the first night, which made Andrea and I laugh all night. Her first night was pretty rough, she was in a lot of pain and went through two full things of Morphin. She was woken up many times throughout the night and hardly had sleep. Andrea and I shared the twin pull out bed that comes out of the wall. We were actually pretty comfortable, but we were exhausted. Day two, was a bit better, she was still in pain but she had an amazing nurse who I think helped her move through it easily. She was walking around, getting up by herself, eating a small amount and learning to cope with her new chest. She finally had time to understand what the procedure meant for her and her future, and that was a shock for her. She has spent so much time preparing for her new look and trying to figure out what she was going to do, that she forgot to wonder how she might feel after her procedure. Day three, is a bit better, she has gotten up and showered, she is sleeping as I am typing and she is in her new PJ’s. Hopefully she will get to go home tomorrow.
I can’t explain the feelings other than saying that you are completely out of control of the situation, your anxious, and scared to death. You truly don’t know how she will do in surgery and if there will be any complications. You pray, and hope that she is just fine, but when time passes and you haven’t heard too much you do worry. We were surrounded by family and friends all day, this helped, but you aren’t able to feel. You feel ridiculous if you just start crying, so you hold it in. You find yourself just staring into space, hoping it will help you take all the awful thoughts out of your brain. People are talking but you can’t really hear or understand what they are saying because you are so lost in your thoughts that it doesn’t matter what they say, because you can’t really hear them. Lost, that’s what it is, your lost. The person you have seen your entire life be strong, work hard, love life, is about to go through one of the most emotional times of her life and all you can do is watch. You can’t step into her body and feel the pain for her, you can’t take it away, you can’t possibly imagine what she is feeling unless you have gone through it before, and you can’t make time move faster. All you can do is watch, love her, help take care of her, and pray that she will move through this with ease. So last night I finally allowed myself not to hold it all in and not to be so tough. I lost it, all those feeling that had building up inside me the last 4 months, came out. I felt so much better and my husband is fabulous that he just held on to me as I did my crying. Today I was able to come in here, with a non drained attitude and was ready to help, whereas, before I was so emotionally drained I felt as I was no help at all.

Tomorrow…

2009-08-17T14:57:00.002-05:00

is the day that I have been dreading and been waiting for since May. In April, my mom was confronted with a situation that as a woman you dread.. Breast Cancer. After a few tests and many trips to the doctor, she has been told by her doctor that it would be best to go ahead and have a double mastectomy, because this time next year we would be facing stage 1 cancer. So these pre-cancer cells are a much better alternative than what we could have had, but mom seems to be strong as ever. She will also receive reconstructive surgery at the same time, in which I believe has helped ease her into this whole situation. Regardless, this is less than month into my marriage and my husband has been such a relief to have around. It’s nice to know that there may be chaos that surrounds us, but we are safe with each other. I dread this because it’s my mom, it’s my friend and it’s hard to think she is vulnerable. I have been waiting for it, because I want her body to be done with this, so she can move on and so can we. Mom is a strong woman and I know she will weather this storm just fine. The doctor says she won’t be herself for 8-9 months, which will be very hard for her. She can hardly sit still, she is always doing something. I joke with her, that we aren’t happy people unless we are working full-time, going to school full-time, working a second job, volunteering or even raising children all at the same time. Mom is a busy bee and always has been it’s hard to slow her down. So watching her slow down and having to recover will be difficult, because I am not used to that. Regardless I know that she is in good hands and that she will be well taken care of her by her doctors with the help of the Lord’s Hands!

Hola!

2009-08-13T13:50:00.003-05:00

So… we made it back from Zihuatanejo, Mexico. We had such a great time and really enjoyed the new memories we made together. It’s so much more fun to travel through life together with the person you love!! Like most expected we didn’t stay in our tree house more than one night. Let me say it was miserably hot and that wild animals in the jungle at night are way too scary to enjoy. It might have been better in the high season when they see cooler temperatures at night. We did find a new place to call home and a great place to eat pizza; they were next door to each other. We went fishing and snorkeling on Tuesday, the best part about this was that we ate the fish we caught. I was scared of the open water situation with us snorkeling, I was assured that I would not be eaten by a shark, but I never let my guard down! On Wednesday afternoon, we went horseback riding on a beach that felt disserted. It was so pretty and peaceful. It surprised both of us that we would enjoy this the most, but it truly was a great and different experience. Thursday equaled big waves and great food and company! We went to a beach in Ixtapa to ride big waves, Jeremy wanted to boogie board and of course he wanted his new wife to join in. So those who know me know that this is asking a bit much, but hey I am a new woman, so I tried it. Well after I was killed by two huge waves, I threw in the towel and maybe had a little fit too. Jeremy didn’t want me to quit, but I threw my hands to my side, bent over slightly, and yelled “no”. SURPRISING?? Hardly not! So we both ended up throwing in the towel but I would like to blame the boogie board and not our lack of education on how to be boogie boarders! When we were back at our villa, the owner and his wife wanted to take us to a traditional Mexican dinner that they have in their town on Thursdays. Apparently this fabulous establishment is only open for this dinner on Thursdays. We had Mez Cal, great food, fun company, and a new experience for both of us. And Jeremy tried everything, I was so proud of him!! Friday we chilled, we had plenty of experiences throughout the week that we hardly ever just sat. We had a massage in the morning, sat on the beach and after lunch, we made our last trip to Market downtown. We did a little shopping and had one of our best meals. It was a great ending to our honeymoon, and we had a blast. zihuatanejo is very different, but in a good way. The locals are nice, and helpful.

Our Big Day!!

2009-08-13T13:47:00.006-05:00

We’re MARRIED!!! Our wedding was wonderful; it was just what we wanted. It was intimate and we spent the time with the people we love. It was so great to see everyone, and we thank each of you. Those who traveled great miles to see us, we really appreciate it! Today was the start of our new lives together and we are finally joined as a family. This is our journey and we are so pumped to be doing this together!