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!