4th of July and events of note

What a busy month this has been! Matt has been working through Greek 1 and Greek 2 over the past 6 weeks and to culminate his head exploding, we got go see some fireworks. Lindsey has been preparing for a craft show being held in Downtown Raleigh on the 11th. Kenna has learned to squawk and is infatuated with Pontouf. Pontouf is still unsure of this little girl though. Also, Lindsey's Dad and Jana have made several trips in the past few weeks, both together and separately, to bring the remains of the Dean estate to Raleigh as they prepare to embark on their new missions endeavor! It was amazing that they could be found underneath all of the boxes and we appreciated them making special trips up here to meet Emerson (our new niece) and to bring some of Lindsey and Jason's childhood toys and memories. We tried a group shot while we all were together.
This past Saturday was the 4th of July and after an invitation for a cookout from the Creeches, we were off to some fun and fireworks in Wendell. The Creech family practically adopted Matt in middle school and have claimed Lindsey and Kenna as part of their clan as well. It's always fun to spend time with godly friends and blow up fireworks (regardless of whether or not the day falls on a national holiday). I didn't end up with that many photographs of the food (hamburgers, hot dogs, chocolate chip cookies made by Emma, baked beans, salsa and chips, pasta salad, etc.) or unfortunately the people, but here's a few!
Happy (Belated) 4th of July!!!

Seven Months Old!

Apparently, somebody told our tiny little baby girl that it was ok for her to start growing up because suddenly she is seven months old! Kenna is hitting some fun milestones now that I want to remember for her baby book. It is truly amazing how many major developments babies make in each of their first twelve months.

• She is still a big talker and will babble all day... happily playing in her crib in the morning, squealing while she eats, telling little "stories," and especially when she's trying to keep herself awake at night!
  
• Just when I was starting to worry that she should be able to sit up by now, she randomly started the other night! We were sitting with her on the couch, and realized she wasn't leaning on the cushions, but sitting up on her own! She definitely is still pretty wobbly and needs a little help (no sitting on hard surfaces yet!) but we are so excited for her.

Watching movies with Daddy- this when we first noticed it. She is always fascinated by the lights and colors of the tv.

I can do it on my own!

Still a little wobbly though. She thinks it's funny!

• Every once in awhile she will really giggle hard. Usually it is at night when she should be going to bed! This girl is a night owl like her parents and gets in a little laughing fit when we're changing her diaper for bed.
• She's starting to eat tiny bites of things like bananas, soft fruit, bread, and other soft foods like mashed potatoes. She also has figured out that we will give her little sips from the straw in our drinks, and LOVES sweet tea (of course!).
  
• A big way she seems to feel like she's communicating is by patting us with her little hands. She does this all the time. When we're feeding her, when we're just hanging out, anytime she seems to want our attention or just to say I love you.
• I had a great "mom" moment last Sunday. She had a hard time getting a nap in the nursery at church (service is right at morning nap time), and the poor ladies had to come get me because she was screaming. When Kenna saw me come in the room, she reached out for me and stopped crying the minute I took her. It makes you feel so good to know you can comfort your sweet little one! (And once I was holding her, it was the first time I had ever seen her really pout. She sat and pouted like she was mad I had left her there in the first place. Looked exactly like her Daddy.)

Our big girl!

Happy Father's Day!

We had a great weekend this past weekend celebrating Matt's first Father's Day! We were able to spend some time at the pool and some time with each of our families. On Saturday we took Kenna to our neighborhood pool for the first time. We figured with how much she loves to kick and splash in the tub she would really love it, but we ended up getting there right around nap time so she was a little tired. The weather was perfect, warm but not immediate-sunburn-sunny, and we had a great time seeing our little water baby swim around!

Daddy and Kenna. She gets this intense little look on her face when she is kicking.

"Swimming" under Daddy's careful supervision!

Mommy and Kenna

Happy family!

Papa and Mimi went with us since they stayed with us at our house for the weekend. They were a big help getting Kenna fed and dressed Saturday morning so that we got to sleep in!

Getting dried off and warmed up!

I had a hard time thinking of what to do for Matt for Father's Day. I wanted to do something special since he had been so indulgent to me on Mother's Day. As it turned out, the best thing I could think to do was to make him breakfast in bed... and I mean "real" breakfast (sausage and eggs) not just cereal! (This is special coming from me since I am very much not a morning person, and got up early to cook it for him before Sunday school and church. He knows this is a sacrifice for me !) I decorated the plate with a few fresh strawberries and served it to him on a tray... I wanted to take a picture of it, but I was too concerned that I wouldn't get it all back upstairs before his alarm went off! We went to church together and enjoyed a great lunch with Matt's family. Later that evening, we snuggled up on the couch and watched some movies together just the three of us which is one of Matt's favorite things to do. (He's only not smiling because he's so serious about his movie-watching!)

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Time With Cousins!

On June 7th, 2009 our new sweet baby neice was born! Welcome to the world, Emerson Grace! Her proud Momma, Daddy, and big brother are all so happy that she's here!

I am so impressed with Alisa's birth story. Determined to experience every minute of this little one's arrival, especially since it was her second one and she had a better idea of what to expect, she had Emerson completely without any intervention or pain medication! What an accomplishment!
Baby Emm made her arrival just after midnight on the 7th! (Which made her Aunt happy, since Uncle Matt's birthday is on March 7th, and that will help me remember the right date!) She came home to a warm welcome from her big brother Evan... it's hard to believe that my own big brother now has TWO kiddos! We went to visit at the hospital, and I had to sneak Kenna up to see her... I couldn't stand to sit in the waiting room waiting for Matt to come back down! It will be so fun for Kenna to have another girl cousin, and just six months apart in age.

Kenna meeting her new cousin:

The four red-heads of the family!

This weekend, we got the opportunity to go to Matt's parents' beach house overnight with his whole family! It was a short trip, but a really fun time with all three cousins and two grand-dogs together! Nana B and Grandaddy stayed in to enjoy the kids so that we could have more time on the beach.

Kenna, 6 months, and Beckley, 8 months

Beckley is a busy boy on the move! Growing SO fast!

Ansley and Kenna... sweet girls!

Nana's girl is about to turn 5 this summer! That's hard for me to believe, especially since she was born just a few months before we got married... that means we're coming up on our 5th anniversary! Amazing!Granddaddy loves his silly girls!

Beckley enjoying a chocolate popsicle with his Mommy and Daddy... perfect beach food!
Even the grand-dogs, Bailey and Pontouf, had a great time! They know where to sit for a good chance of food scraps coming their way (it was some hotdog bun in this picture)!

The Broglis' house is RIGHT across the street from the beach. The weather was absolutely gorgeous until a late afternoon thunderstorm, and the ocean was chilly but nice and not too cold to swim! We took Kenna out on the beach to put her toes in the sand. She wasn't a huge fan of the water, but it was a little on the cold side for her. Maybe later in the summer when it is like bath water she will enjoy it more.

Ready for the beach!

Mini-Reunions

Since we've been back in the Wake Forest/Raleigh area, we've been able to reconnect with lots of old friends that we haven't been able to see regularly in the past. I love that even though time has passed and we've all become busier as our lives (and spare time!) fill up with marriages, jobs, pregnancies, moves, and babies, we still get together and see how much and how little has changed, and how much we still like each other!

In April we were able to go to Cary for the wedding of a sweet friend of mine, Liz, whom I've known since my middle school youth group days. It was so incredible to see each of these ladies, our core group of childhood friends, all grown up! We are each in different stages of work and marriage and having children, but these girls are all still the incredible people and wonderful friends I've known since I was about 10 years old:
I thought about digging out a picture to show how long we really have known each other, but for the sake of sparing us (mostly myself!) embarrassment of those awkward early years, I'll resist- just take it from me that we've seen each other grow from fashionably-challenged kids to lovely women!

Last week, we had dinner with two of my best friends from high school and their husbands (technically 3 of my friends from high school, since one of the husbands was good friends with us before they ever got married!) and had a blast together! We grilled out some amazing rosemary artichoke-stuffed chicken, and just caught up for hours. We laughed so hard around the dinner table telling embarrassing stories about each other! Hard to believe that we are all suddenly old enough to be having babies...

Also last week, a good friend of Matt's from middle school was in town and stopped by with his family to hang out with us for a little while. Our daughters are two days apart in age, and it has been so cool to be able share parenting strategies and advice and to see our two little girls playing together! It's always so fun to see Kenna be able to interact with another baby so close in age. Even though Asheton and Tracey live in South Carolina, hopefully these girls will still get the chance to be friends!

At first it was like they didn't even realize there was another baby nearby:
Then they were sharing toys, rolling over each other, and trying out a little poking/pinching that we had to mediate a bit:
...but they had a great time together! (and Kenna told me she is jealous of Bailey's totally rockin' hair).
Daddies and daughters.

This is what happens when...

you are a baby and you fall asleep in the middle of rolling over.

It's a rough life, but somebody's gotta do it. Zzzzzzz....

6 Months!

This weekend Kenna turned 6 months old, and man alive is the time flying! We are enjoying this happy little sweetheart so much as we watch each new stage and development happen. I feel so blessed to know that I get to be her Mommy through each and every one!

Newborn Kenna, hot off the presses:
2 Weeks Old:
One Month Old:
2 Months Old:
3 Months Old:
4 Months Old:
5 Months Old:
And here is what our big girl is up to as she starts her 6th month- I think this little talker just loves to experiment with the sound of her own voice. What a squirt!
(video to come, I can't get it to upload!)

She can also often be found hanging out with cousins and eating pizza with NanaB and Granddaddy!

Starting to "Scootch"

Kenna has started this little "scootching" stage, where she is not quite strong enough to push up on her arms to start trying to crawl, but she loves to roll around and scootch back and forth. When we put her to bed in the middle of her crib, she plays around to keep herself awake and this is usually what we find:
Just when we think she's out for the night (or for a nap) we hear her toys rattling or find her teddy bear flung across the crib. Also, she hates to have covers on her and will kick them off eventually no matter what we do. It makes me feel like such a mom to come in when she's finally asleep and put the covers back over her little legs. We always laugh at how she sleeps so spread out... such a silly baby!

Mother's Day weekend

We had a very busy, but very good Mother's Day this year. Matt has really started to take to the Dean tradition of celebrating a day all week long! Saturday, he sent me out minus Kenna for a relaxing afternoon of getting a pedicure and some coffee, and wandering Target all by myself. It was great! I read magazines, browsed the clothes, and wandered the makeup aisle like I was in high school again! I even came home with a new pair of sandals and some nail polish.

I woke up Sunday morning to pink roses and freshly baked cinnamon buns! I told Matt he has set the bar really high for next year (and for me planning his first Father's Day in June!) First on the agenda was having Kenna dedicated at Bayleaf's morning service, and were so glad to have both families there with us. Even Dad happened to be in town at the right time, and was able to bring my grandmother!

Bayleaf really does a great service, complete with photo collages of each child while they are up front. Luckily, Leanne thought to take a picture of it for us, since I didn't even think to turn around and look while we were up there! I had sent in some of my absolute favorite pictures of Kenna:
It was especially nice to have Pastor Marty dedicate her, since he has been such an encouragement and good influence for our family. He is a great pastor who truly practices in his own life what he preaches from the pulpit, which is wonderful and rare these days! Kenna very obediently sat and listened as he prayed over her. I think she was enthralled by all the lights she could see from up on the stage.
After church, the whole group headed to Matt's parents house for a huge meal, in the Brogli tradition. I guess that is what you get when you combine two such wonderful cooks! Even though the weather didn't work out for eating outside, we brought the food from the grill inside and it was incredible. Kenna got to spend time with all three of her cousins!

Kenna and Beckley are only 2 months apart in age- it's already so fun to see them grow up together! (I have a way cuter picture of them reaching out to each other, but it was uploading sideways no matter what I did!)
I think Ansley is happy to have another girl in the family, and Kenna loves her big girl cousin!
Soon Evan will have a baby sister and Kenna will have another cousin close in age!

After lunch, we went home for just a few minutes and then headed back out to Chapel Hill to see Jason graduate! We were so excited to be there to see him graduate with his MBA. Kenna sat in Papa's lap the whole time, and other than a good set of hiccups, didn't make a peep the whole time! Evan was hilarious, clapping excitedly for all the award recipients and graduates. I think the clapping was his favorite part!
It has been two long years for their family of Jason working and being in school, and I know they must be relieved to be done. What an accomplishment! Congratulations, Jason! (Thanks, Alisa, I stole these from your blog!)
Even though it was late, after graduation we took the opportunity to go out to dinner with Dad while he was in town. After a dinner at Chili's and taking Momma Dean home, we didn't get home until almost 1 am! Good thing Kenna is pretty good about sleeping in her carseat- we were exhausted, but what a great day!

Consignment Loot

Now that we have a little one to clothe and feed, I've been trying to be better about searching out good deals and bargains, and have discovered the wonderful world of consignment sales! For awhile, the only big one I knew about was Kids Exchange, which anyone who has gone to it before knows it is huge and terrifying and will eat up an entire day (usually in the checkout line alone!). So when I found out about Kidaround kidsale right here in Wake Forest, I got really excited about it! It turned out to be even better than I thought, with lots of great stuff to choose from but none of the scary moms with trashcans bungee-corded to their strollers running everyone over. I went looking just for some 9oz sized Avent bottles, and instead of the panic, I was able to enjoy browsing and got this great load of stuff for just $36!
Two Gymboree onesie outfits ($1 each) and a beautiful Strasburg smocked dress for $5, a wooded tree toy with little orbiting bees and butterflies for $3, two brand new unopened cans of formula ($4 each) and four travel-sized formula packets, all in their original packaging... a pair of Janie and Jack white eyelet shoes ($4) that won't fit Kenna for awhile, but I just loved them! A bright pink washable, resuable swim diaper ($3) that will hopefully save money on those Huggies swim diapers at the pool and beach all summer, four Little Critter books about colors, ABCs, etc. for $2, and three 9oz Avent bottles for $5.

Consigning is also a great way to "recycle" clothes that are out of season or that don't fit anymore, especially in these early days where it seems like they only wear their clothes once or twice before they don't fit anymore! It's so exciting to find things that cost a tiny percentage of what they would be brand-new just because they have a little use. I can't wait for the next sale!

Moves and Milestones

1- the Move

Here's a little back story: For nearly a year, God has been working on our hearts, showing us the importance of reaching people groups and nations with the great hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Through friends, family members, some fantastic sermons, and life experiences, we've seen the great need for all Christians to go out and live exactly what Christ commanded us to do- sharing the gospel with those who don't have access to it, and making it palatable for those who are confused by it.

In January, we applied with the International Mission Board to become international missionaries and we successfully passed the first two rounds of applications. Having spoken with our application adviser, it was recommended to us that we acquire more training, specifically a Master of Divinity degree and more college-level courses for Lindsey. While others have acknowledged our passion for missions, we want to be obedient to whatever God's will would be for our lives. Like most believers, we are committed to the gospel and want to see it spread throughout the world with urgency. However, we also want to do things in a way that glorifies God and does the most long-term good. We spent many months praying about God's leading and we felt that the best step for us was to come back to Wake Forest and turn Matt's M.A. in Christian Ethics into a Master of Divinity in Christian Apologetics with the goal being to use that degree to spread the gospel both far and wide.

Near the middle of July of last year, a pregnant Lindsey, myself and Pontouf, our faithful pup, headed off on an adventure to Randleman, NC to serve as the Minister to Youth and Families at Forest Park Baptist Church. We loved the people of Forest Park and worked hard to form bonds and relationships. We had many trials while there (as nearly all ministry does) the least of which were staff relationships and the greatest being a death threat. I learned a great deal while serving under the pastor there and I will continue to pray for the church and all of the people in it. There is still a great work to be done there in Randleman. In early April I turned in my notice, and today we reside in Wake Forest again. While we are still sorting through all of the details, boxes, memories, and disappointment, we are excited to be back among loved ones, excited about renewed fellowship with the SEBTS library, and excited to be finding new ways to serve and minister locally.

We do not know the exact route God will take us on or what amount of our experiences He will use in further ministry, but we are thankful to be used, wanting to be willing and bent to His will, and ready to be used in whatever way we can to see others take hold of the same hope we cling so tightly to.

2- the Milestones

Our baby girl is growing up much more quickly than we thought possible! She reached her 5 month 'birthday' on April 23rd, and with it, there have been lots of milestones and firsts!
Holding her own bottle:
She is rolling over by herself for the first time, talking to and playing with toys (favorite toys being her swing and the "little man" on her car seat toy)... and starting to eat some solids! I started her on baby yogurt right before the move and now she's had bananas and we're about to start trying rice cereal. She loves the yogurt and bananas so far.

What a big, big girl!

A little something that made me smile today!

We are super busy around here, and have much to update about soon, but for now I had to share a little family secret... we look alike. Check out my sweet nephew and how much he looks like Kenna! I think they have a very strong family resemblance.

Evan at 2 years old:
and Kenna when she was 3 months:
I think it's even more apparent when you compare them both as babies:
Evan:
and Kenna:
I can't wait to see these two sweet kiddos growing up together! Pretty soon Kenna will have a baby girl cousin (Evan's little sister) around to play dolls and makeup and all those fun girly things with!

Weekend Youth Retreat '09

For a long time, Matt felt called to full-time ministry. Now, here we are:

Cabin at Camp Caraway for the weekend: $1100

Large bag of marshmallows at Wal-mart: $1.96

A room full of youth watching Lindsey beat Matt at ChubbyBunny by stuffing 9 marshmallows in her mouth at once:

priceless.


There are few times in life where a picture is truly worth a thousand words... a great game of ChubbyBunny is definitely one of them. Deep in the woods of Camp Caraway, when rain had derailed most of our afternoon and evening plans, Matt came up with some awesome games to play including but not limited to ChubbyBunny (where you take turns shoving giant marshmallows in your mouth until someone either throws up or can't say "chubby bunny" anymore), a marathon Twister tournament, and a pillowfight of epic proportions.
Sean, I'm sorry we didn't know how much you hated marshmallows!
We love these crazy kids!

Kitchen Sink Bath!

Remember when we promised that once we had a baby we wouldn't make the blog all about her? Well, we take it back! Little miss K has been having quickie baths in the kitchen sink recently... it's just easier sometimes because I don't have to pull out a bunch of bath stuff, and it puts her at waist level so I don't have to spend the whole time bent over, which kills my back. It was such a pretty day this morning while I was bathing her, I made Matt get the "big camera" and take some pictures of this cutie patootie! I love that she finally likes the water, and I can't wait to start teaching her how to swim this summer! Here are some of my favorites, and you can see all of them on our flickr page.

LOVE these feets!

The Best Part

Sometimes the days feel like they don't belong to you anymore, because it's so much harder to get anything done. It can be frustrating sometimes to have your sleep interrupted multiple times in the night... to have food regurgitated onto you... to try to keep little feet from kicking right into their own poop while changing a diaper. But despite all those things, which always seem to happen when I'd rather be sleeping and it would seem that this little one can function on almost no sleep at all, I want to always remember that I woke up every morning to this:
and this, with her little polka-dotted wonderfulness:
It's hard to stay frustrated with someone who is always happy to see you! Especially when this is the soundtrack:


That, by far, is the best part of motherhood yet! (And her Daddy would have to agree that it's pretty cool too!)