Happy "Bee"ing me!

Over the river and through the woods...

to Pat and Donna's we go went. This past weekend we travelled south over the Mississippi river and through the woods of Festus, MO to visit my godparents. This was Kenley's first trip to their house and we all had a lovely time. We got there on Friday around 5 and got home Sunday around 6. It was a wonderful weekend and went by much too quickly.

While there Kenley enjoyed:

Playing on the floor and practicing sitting like a big girl

Watching Poo Bird and Otie (the birds)

Swimming in their swim/spa

Hanging out in the 4 seasons room and posing for pretty pictures

and learning to play the piano with Aunt Donna.

Kenley is becoming a very good traveler. I can't wait until we take her on her next big adventure to FL this fall. I'm sure we have a few more smaller trips planned here and there too, and we definitely need to travel back to Pat and Donna's for another fun filled visit.

Father's Day Weekend

We have been pretty busy this weekend. Friday, we decided to get Kenley's 6 month pictures taken. It was a little over a week early, but we are busy these next few Fridays. They went really well and she smiled so big for the camera. The picture lady did think she smiled bigger for Clay so he was responsible for standing behind the camera to make her smile and I was responsible for sitting just out of the camera's view and holding on to Kenley or making sure she didn't fall. For one set, she was sitting up on a table and I had to hold her by the sides of her fat rump to keep her from falling. I'm sure most of you have seen them on Facebook already or on our Shutterfly site, but for those who haven't (and for me just to show them off again), here are a few of our favorites.

Then on Saturday, we headed to Decatur to see my mom and dad's new trailer and celebrate Father's Day with them. We had a nice lunch at Carlos O'Kelley's, a short visit at the nursing home with my Grandma and Grandpa, and then some excellent Kreckles lemon ice cream for dessert. It was a wonderful day (at least until the car ride home when Kenley got very fussy and refused to sleep). Here is a picture of Kenley eyeing her Grandma's lemon cone. I was too busy enjoying mine to tease the baby. I can't wait for the day she can enjoy one herself. 

Today we celebrated Father's Day in a very low key manner.  We got up and had Clay open his cards and gift. Kenley made sure to sit like a big girl in the chair and help, however, she is learning to look at the camera, so every time I went to take a picture, she would stop helping and look up. Here she was helping read the card.

and then she helped open his gift from her.

again she caught the camera, so I decided just to take a posed picture of Kenley and Clay celebrating his first Father's Day.

The gift Kenley got Clay is a statuette for his desk. Here is a better picture of it.

I ran and got donuts for breakfast and we spent the rest of the day much like any other Sunday. We relaxed some and Kenley and I napped. Clay got to watch some baseball and play PlayStation. We did make a family trip to the grocery store as we were completely out of food and hadn't had time yet this weekend. Although we didn't do much, I hope Clay had a wonderful 1st Father's Day. He is an excellent father (and husband) and he deserves a big Thank YOU for all that he does for Kenley and me every day. We love you Clay!!

Now Kenley is in bed, Clay is playing PlayStation again and I'm wrapping up this post. Have a few things to do tonight around the house and then back to the grindstone tomorrow. I hope all you other dads that read this (prob like just 2 of you... my FIL and Bill) had a wonderful father's day too!

Shadows

Over a week

Wow! It's been more than a week since I posted. Very strange for me. I have found myself disappointed checking others' blogs and finding no updates so I hope that I haven't disappointed those of you that check my blog frequently. I'll try to give a complete update.

Last weekend my mom and dad came for a visit. My mom came earlier on Saturday morning so Clay and I could go look at an open house. We are looking to upgrade the Hotel Brockman next year and CEO Mr. Brockman would like to build so COO Mrs. Brockman and he went looking at spec homes. I'm warming up to the idea of building as long as all the numbers work out. We definitely need more space!! My dad came later in the day and we had some Monical's pizza for dinner and some nice time to visit.

Sunday was a very low key day and then it was time to dread going back to work on Monday. However, starting Sunday night we experienced some sleep issues with Ms. Kenley. We have no idea what was wrong but she just cried and cried and cried. Nothing worked to console her. Eventually I got her down around 11pm but she was up again around 4am and then about every 30 to 45 minutes. It made for a really long night. Monday and Tuesday night were also long but each night got a bit better and by Wednesday night we had our sleepy bug back. However it made for some LONG days at work when I felt so tired. (Probably another reason for the lack in blogging updates.)

This weekend was another low key weekend, which is good considering we now have something planned every weekend from now until August. Geez!

Now here are some other topic related updates...

Kenley seems to be enjoying herself at the sitter and even has a little boyfriend (much to her daddy's dismay). His name is Austin and he just turned 1. He likes to give her open mouth kisses on the head. It is simply adorable and I have to admit I encourage it when I pick her up daily. (Sorry hon!) There are just a few things that bother me about the sitter's. (I know there are always bound to be things when someone else is taking care of your child so much since no one does it EXACTLY like I do, so I know I shouldn't let them get to me, but they do.) The first thing is they always tell me I need to trim her fingernails. I do it as often as I think about it or as often as I'm able to get a 5 month old to stop squirming long enough for me to do it, but no matter how often I do it, they always say she is scratching herself or them. Well, just cut them then. I don't care. The other thing I am going to call the milk mystery. I will admit that I do not have a supply problem and we seem to have an overabundance of milk to take to the sitter and the rest is overtaking our freezer but it seems that they have even more. It always seems like I think they should have less left than they do if she eats as much as they say she does. The math never quite adds up in my head. Oh well, I guess I shouldn't fret. The last thing about the sitter is the fact that naps are still hit or miss. This one can actually be blamed on my inquisitive and watchful daughter. She doesn't like to nap if she thinks she is going to miss something. Given the action packed house at the sitter's she fights them tooth and nail to take naps which means I have a grumpy baby for the 2 hours/night that I get to spend with her before bed. NOT COOL! So please pray we get this napping thing figured out. For the most part she naps well for us at home and still sleeps at night so she should be able to do the same thing daily there. Keep your fingers crossed.

With the hot weather, we are wearing some of our newer clothes and Clay and I just find her as cute as can be. The other morning we put on this cute outfit which I think was in one of the many boxes we have received in the past from A. Val. As you can also see, she is learning to sit. However her biggest challenge is actually sitting still long enough to stay balanced. She likes to squirm too much.


Kenley is also trying new foods regularly. She isn't a huge fan of the veggies yet, but true to form for this household (and all little kids I've been told) she LOVES those fruits. We have had carrots, peas, prunes, pears, bananas, applesauce and green beans. We will be moving onto peaches next. We aren't a very neat eater and usually make a mess, but it's funny to see all the faces and she cleans up in the bath easy enough. We can tell when she really doesn't like something or she isn't hungry because everything that went in on the spoon comes out to the chin ;o) Much like this...

I took some other new pictures this week and will put them on Shutterfly, but also wanted to share some of our first family self portraits. For those that know me well, I am a big fan of the self portrait. Clay and I have taken many over the years and it works just right. My arm is just the right length. Today we were playing around and I made Clay get on the floor so we could take some self portraits of us as a family. Little bit more difficult with a squirmy bug but still cute, so I changed the picture above and also wanted to share this one...

She doesn't look too excited about it all, but she will definitely know she is loved. I'll try to keep the updates coming more regularly in the weeks to come. We have some fun weekends planned so I'm sure this summer will just FLY BY. As always, stay tuned ;o)

Swimming fun

As promised here are some more pictures and videos of Kenley swimming with her cousin Sophia this past weekend. Both girls loved the water. Kenley did great for the first time in something other than the bath tub. I wasn't sure on how to "hold" her but we are going to sign up for AquaTots through parks & rec for late July and that will help me know more about it all and give her more time in the water.

Family Picture (minus the sweet potatoes)

So I noticed the family picture at the top features Kenley wearing some sweet potatoes. She had just eaten (and loved them) before the picture. Clay thought he had wiped her mouth completely but the low light of the reception must have tricked his eyes. So here is another version of the picture without the potatoes.

Full of firsts, fun, and photos!

This past weekend was full of many "firsts" for our sweet Kenley and a lot of FUN for all ;o)

The weekend started on Friday. I ended up taking the day off since the babysitter took the day off. Kenley and I had a nice morning and then had plans to go over to Tori's for lunch with her, the girls, and baby Hudson. We hadn't seen that bunch since I came back to work and our visit was long over due. We picked up some La Gondola torpedoes and cookies and headed to their neck of the woods. We enjoyed some playtime on the floor with the girls. They must have brought down every single toy Hudson had upstairs to show Baby Kenley.
We also had two photogs (sp?) on the loose as both Avery and Lyla loved taking pictures. I had lots of pictures of feet, double chins, or heads cut off, but I also had some good shots documenting the fun we had. 

Then Saturday we embarked on our very first ROAD TRIP. How exciting! I must admit I was a bit of a nervous wreck wondering if I remembered to pack everything and stressed about how she would do in the car for so long. We were off to Omaha, NE to a wedding. It was going to be a big weekend!
Here is a picture as we headed out Saturday morning...

We were on the road by 745am which I think is pretty impressive. We were aiming for 8am so did great to get out of the house on time. Kenley was just simply AWESOME in the car. She would look around, play, or talk with us. Then she would nap and eat. After that it was simply a cycle to repeat it all again.

We arrived in Omaha around 330ish and got checked into the hotel. Shortly thereafter it was time for Kenley to meet cousin Sophia and Uncle Scott for the first time ;o) Yea!! Uncle Scott was dropping her off so that he and Aunt Val could go to the rehearsal dinner. Aunt Val was already at rehearsal so we had to wait longer to meet her. However, Sophia and Kenley were like two peas in a pod (This pea reference is for Aunt Val and Grandpa Brockman!). They checked each other out and Sophia chatted with Kenley. Kenley just took it all in at first.

 Eventually, the girls played a little round of footsie.

 Saturday night was the first night trying to sleep in the pack-n-play and we didn't know how it would go, but again our little rock star did great. No problems going to bed or staying asleep in the new bed for the night. Way to go Kenley!!

Sunday brought more firsts. We got to meet Aunt Val. She came over while Kenley was cuddling in bed with Clay to wake up. Then after breakfast (where Grandpa was on double duty at one point), we went swimming for the first time.
Here is Grandpa and his girls...

Here we are getting ready to dive in at the pool...

Video of us swimming to come soon ;o)

And here we are all tuckered out after the swim with Aunt Val, Uncle Scott, and Sophia...

We then took a nap and prepared for our first trip to a wedding. We chose a very cute dress and had a super cute hair accessory thanks to a gift from Aunt Val. I chewed on my rings and drooled quite a bit but mommy still thought I looked cute ;o)

We did great at the wedding but about 7pm at the reception, we were ready to call it a night. I ended up taking her back up to the room (one great reason to stay at the hotel where the reception is being held). Clay brought me up some dinner and Kenley watched a little baseball while we ate. Oh and she chewed on the dress (since she didn't have enough slober on it yet!)

Shortly thereafter, Miss Kenley was successfully in bed for the night. Monday was another day in the car,  but again she did great and repeated the play, eat, sleep routine beautifully. She is definitely a good little traveler!!

I must add that I'm quite happy with my packing job. The only thing(s) I wished I would have packed and didn't were the baby monitor (so I could have been in the room next door) and some extra bibs (even though I took like 6). I did learn a few things about traveling with a kid too. They require A LOT of stuff and if you are nursing, the bathroom also becomes the kitchen for washing all of your pump stuff. Plus there really isn't anywhere good to throw out dirty diapers (luckily we only had pee ones). 

All in all a very successful and FUN weekend. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. I think this is the most I have ever added to a post. Now off to go work on the video ;o)