Happy Birthday Kenley!

Once again, blogger is making blogging difficult. 

Happy Birthday to our sweet Kenley. This year has flown by and we cannot wait to watch you continue to grow. 

Head on over and watch her birthday video that I made.  

a night full of washing windows, cleaning, anxiety and little sleep.

Last year on May 19th, I got a phone call from one of the OB's at the hospital. They were concerned a bit about the onset of pre-eclampsia and decided to schedule an induction for the next morning.  I remember being super shocked and excited and also very freaked out at all the same time.  After wanting her evicted from my stomach for weeks it was finally going to happen.  Panic set in.

My mom decided she had to clean the windows on our sliding glass doors.  We had a sugar foot scrub on our back patio and enjoyed a delicious dinner.  Andrew was getting ready to board his red-eye flight back from San Diego.

It is so weird to go back and read the post from when she was a week old.

I cannot believe how fast this time has gone by and yet I feel like I can remember so much about the last couple days before she arrived.  I have a special video I made for her birthday, on Friday so until that happens let's enjoy some of the pictures from Kenley's party we had at her Grandparents house in Fairfax this past weekend.  Thanks for everyone that made it, we loved seeing you all.  It meant a lot to have family and friends there to celebrate even though she won't remember it.  Andrew and I will always remember it though.

Kenley had a great time running around the house during her party...

Thank you Martha Stewart for your easy decorations!

Grammy Hawk made a whole bunch of decorations for the party, including these letters and those cute little birds too.

My fabulous college roomie, Eliz got to meet Mr. Braydon which was really great.

Later tonight, I am going to post a video I made 

for Kenley -- come back and check it out!

Let's play catch up for a minute...

Since Andrew has been gone the past few weeks, I have had trouble finding time to update the blog.  Most nights I tell myself that I am going to but after making Kenley dinner, bath time/bed time, cleaning up the toys/mess, dishes, washing the diapers, laundry, working out and finishing a project for her 1st birthday there is little time for much else.

Here is a quick recap of the past few weeks....

My mom and Erika came to visit us the first weekend Andrew was gone. We had a great time shopping, taking Kenley to the petting zoo and just enjoying each others company. Mom helped me pick out flowers for our backyard, I am not a great landscaper -- I can plant them and all but I have issues picking out a nice selection.

We took Kenley to Hunt Club Farms and had a nice morning enjoying the ponies, chickens, lambies, peacocks, llamas... Kenley liked the tractor more than anything.

Mom found a cute beach chair for Kenley, she seemed to enjoy it! 

This past weekend, I took Kenley to Fun Forest playground which is at the Chesapeake City Park.  I have been to the City Park so many times to take Gibbs to the dog park but I had no idea this playground was tucked in the back...  After hearing about how someone had burned part of this playground down (jerks!!) I wanted to see where it was in Chesapeake, I was shocked when I found out it was the same park I used to go to every weekend with the dog.  

I got a couple cute pictures while we there, it was so early that no one else was there.  I mean who goes to a playground at 9am on the weekends.  People with babies, that's who. 

She wanted to check out this mulchy stuff but wasn't prepared for the change in the ground.

For those Northern Virginian's, the playground reminds me of the old Navy Elementary playground but on steroids.

She had had enough, she was ready to leave. 

Her new favorite toys? Oh no, not something I spent hard earned money on.  Cardboard boxes.  Any kind. 

Coming up this week, Kenley's going to celebrate her birthday with some family and friends at my parents house.  I am excited for her to eat some cake (and not die.... ok that was mean, sorry) and to hang out with her baby friends in NoVa.

A few weeks worth of pictures...

I know I have mentioned it before... but Blogger is KILLING ME!! It has been so finicky. I have tried to post a few times the past couple weeks but I get so frustrated that I give up. 

Let's start about 3 weeks ago... Gibbie's great adventure came to an end (he traveled from VaBeach to Fairfax to Pennsylvania and all the way back again) when my parents brought him home.  It was nice to have him back. 

Grammy and Kenley played outside, enjoying the cool spring day.  This was right before the weather turned, now it's at least mid 60's every day.  Yay!

We dyed Kenley's first Easter eggs, she helped by reading the instructions to us.

She tasted the final product and gave us thumbs up... Ok not really, she hasn't had eggs yet.

She sure was cute though playing with her eggs and new egg cup her Grammy got her. That afternoon, the house was quiet again. Everyone had gone home, Gibbs was back and we just hung around and enjoyed each other's company.

Kenley loooooves to try to get Andrews attention when he is outside grilling.  She smacks the glass over and over, yelling Da! Aaa!!  I think I have like 20 pictures of her like this.  The only difference between them is what she/Andrew is wearing.

Andrew had to work the night shift over Easter weekend, so Easter morning was Kenley, Gibbs and myself just hanging out - playing with Kenley's plastic eggs and her new stacking toy. It was really quiet and didn't feel much like Easter... We have yet to find a church to join so the whole day felt off.

Kenley, Andrew and Gibbs enjoying the warm spring day... on their way to the swing set.

The rest are pictures from yesterday. We played in the backyard a bit, trying to soak up the last hours of Andrew being around.  He left for Nova Scotia this morning and will return in a month or so.

I am leaving this post short of fun stories and other news because once again, Blogger is getting on my nerves and I am on the verge of just deleting the whole post!!! I really hope they get this worked out...

In Remembrance.

The day before we left for Texas, my Grandmother passed away.  She had not been well but the decline was rather quick.  The last time I had seen her was in October and the quiet, tired lady who I visited is not the Grammy I will remember. I am grateful that I was able to visit her then but my memories will consist of this amazingly strong woman who loved to bake, had a knack for sewing and crafts, enjoyed the yearly visit to "grammy camp," went to church and enjoyed participating in the choir, loved being with her family.

I have many many memories and as my Mom and her siblings spend the next few weeks going through her estate, I find myself remembering some great family holidays spent at her house.  Lauren and I would always have a good laugh at the ham candle, if only I knew where to find one now we would all be getting one for Christmas; the time Mom tried 3 times to make gravy for Thanksgiving dinner but it just kept turning into this weird mess of gelatinous lumpy brown stuff -- from that year on, we always brought jarred gravy, just in case;  I loved the corn roast we had one summer, orange soda in glass bottles, corn on the cob, the gigantic roasting pit, lots of family;  when Andrew and I got married, her house quickly was nicknamed "Andrew-land," it was like his Disneyland.  Guns galore,  open land for shooting squirrels, lots of birdwatching, plenty of fishing spots... I could never find the enjoyment in these things but my happiness came from knowing there would be good home cooking and always homemade cookies.

I also feel regret. I regret complaining so much about how there were only 4 stations on the TV and no internet or cell phone service up on the top of the mountain where she lived.  When I think that the house will never be the same or I may not visit it again, I regret not soaking it up more.

It was awful to miss her funeral and not be there to gather in remembrance of her with the rest of the Menne family.  Andrew and I had a commitment to fulfill in Texas. During this trip there were times I was filled with a tremendous amount of guilt.  As my family was mourning the loss of my Gram, I was participating in celebratory events marking the coming together of two lives.  It was extremely difficult, I was so happy to see my sister-in-law marry the man she has loved for 7 years but I was sad and upset to think about what my family was going through. 

I almost wish that Kenley had come into our lives a year or two earlier and that we could have brought her up to see my Gram more, when she was well.   

This picture is from our visit in October.  I am not sure if she remembered after we left that Kenley had been there but during our visit it was clear she loved Kenley. 

Blogger is killing me this week.

The Blogger site (for those who are unfamiliar, is where I write my posts) has been very mean to me this week. I had all sorts of trouble when creating the previous post, adding pictures and typing.  It's not like I am new at this either.  I have had this video ready to post all week but my upload video feature was missing.  Wtf!  The video is kinda long, I left it that way in case someone just felt like watching Kenley do nothing.  Listen closely, I swear after I say "Hellooo" to her she responds.   If you want to hear her say "heddooo" then just watch the first 30 seconds...  or you can watch the whole thing and be amazed like I am that she is such a big kid now.

Here comes the Bride!

** I apologize in advance for the weird formatting and spacing. Blogger has changed it's functionality and is acting weird with the images/spacing/fonts/etc. I hope to fix it later.**

Last week, we flew out to Texas to be part of Kathy and Jordan's big day.  Kenley got to meet a lot of family and she got to spend some quality time with her Porter Grandparents and Uncle Scott and Aunt Kathy. 

Our flight out of Norfolk departed super early on Wednesday morning, 6:20am so since we had been up for about two hours already Kenley easily went back to sleep during take-off.  She was so good on the flight, she napped for about an hour and 45 minutes and then played the rest of the time.  Before we knew it, we were landing.  

We got settled at Andrew's parents house and got to play with all the new baby gear they had purchased for Kenley's visit.  New carseat, high chair, baby monitor, pack n play...  It was fun, like having a newborn all over again and getting to use all of the gadgets for the first time.

Kenley made a friend when Jordan's brother and wife arrived with their 13 month old, Mariah. They had a good time playing together.

 Kenley was a bit hesitant with all the tall guys in the house. She loooooved Uncle Scott though, maybe he reminded her of Andrew? Who knows.  Scott was awesome, he played with Kenley and was very hands-on... I joked with Andrew that Scott was Kenley's 2nd dad.

 We enjoyed the first couple days of nice warm weather, spring was definitely on the horizon.

Kenley loved all the music in the Porter house, there was a little ensemble of brass (played by her Grandpa and Uncle Dave). Her big booty Judy got down with the brass. Anytime there was music, Kenley broke out her usual side to side dance moves.   She loves to dance!  [cue the "that's not my name" dancing.]

Kathy and Kenley, getting ready for the day's festivities!! 

Here is the church that Kathy and Jordan got married in, it is beautiful -- big and majestic. 

Getting ready to walk down the aisle...

 The boys looking sharp -- and Kenley looking annoyed.

 Kathy looked amazing in her dress -- you can feel her excitement in this picture.  We were all ready at this point, just finishing touches and then she was off down the aisle ready to become Mrs. Jordan Long.

We spent some time at the Porter's lake house in Bridgeport, TX.  We had such a good time relaxing after the wedding festivities.  Good food, great company, great weather.  Some of the girls even got some time on the lake with Richard who graciously showed us around the lake -- there was plenty of laughing, Richard was chasing down a bird in the boat as he frantically tried to out-flap us and we almost lost some shirts in the process.

 The guys spent Monday on a guided fishing trip around Lake Bridgeport so us girls decided to go into the town of Decatur.  We browsed some antique shops for a bit -- found a few lovely gems (see the pictures from the Bringing Home Baby book I found).

The courthouse in Decatur is made of pink granite. It was really different than the old fashioned courthouse style of Virginia Beach.

 I laughed so hard while thumbing through this old new Mom/Parenting book that was in one of the shops.

 You can really just feel the 1954 copyright date screaming at you. 

We had a great time in Texas and  the time went by so fast. Jordan and Kathy had a beautiful wedding and I hope they enjoyed their time on their honeymoon cruise. 

Cheers to the start of a happy marriage!

**If anyone reading this has any other pictures from this trip, I would love to post them! I don't have everyone accounted for in my pictures, I would like to have more of the family.  :) **