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....