Tuesday, May 26, 2009

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!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

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!

Monday, May 18, 2009

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!

Monday, May 4, 2009

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!