Kennedy's first beach trip!

Kennedy had a blast on her first beach trip! She loved the sand, the wind, the water, everything. Here is a photo dump from our trip:

 

We can't wait to take her back next year!

So What Wednesday!!!

I am linking up again with Shannon at Life After I Dew for another So What Wednesday!

*I ate chocolate peanut butter ice cream for dinner Monday night. In my defense, we were at the beach and the oyster bar that had been highly reccomended to us was blaring really loud music. Not so good for an 8 month old. So, we decided to go to the always family friendly IHOP. The power was out due to a storm. Then, we tried a seafood buffet and they had a SMOKING section. Seriously??? I didn't know that was allowed anymore. The whole restaurant smelled like smoke. So, Nick ate a Dairy Queen hamburger and I ate ice cream.

*I started crying when it started raining right as we headed to the beach Monday night to take family beach pictures. The rain has ruined so many occasions this summer and I am just sick of it.

*My sorority sister Holly will love this one. When Kennedy is fussy I sing her Phi Mu cheers. So what it's not a typical lullabye or soothing song. It always calms her down! She loves to be sung to and she loves the clapping parts. I am an advisor for my collegiate chapter and I can't wait to take her to Bid Day in the fall. I think she's going to love hearing 40 plus girls singing and clapping the same songs. I am even getting a legacy outfit made for her. :)

*I almost threw the remote at the tv during last weeks episode of Pretty Wicked Moms when Nicole N. was whining about being sick! Who looks like that when they are sick? AAAAND, who applies makeup when they are talking about how sick they are? I haven't watched this week's episode because we just got home from vacation but I can't wait to see the big blowout between Miranda and the "mean girls."

 

What are you saying "so what" to this week? Go link up with Shannon and tell us!

5 on Friday!

Today I am linking up with Natasha at Hello! Happiness for the 5 on Friday link up. Here are the 5 things I am excited about this week:

1. Skinny Cow Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice cream Bars: These things are amazing! I gained 37 pounds when I was pregnant with Kennedy. I still have around 15-20 pounds to lose. For me, the working out is not the hard part. I love to work out but I also love to eat. I am not a big fan of low calorie sweets that taste low calorie. Skinny Cow products are always awesome and these are no exception. They don't taste "healthy" at all.

2. I got a pedicure this week and painted my toes this color:

I think it's perfect for summer, what do you think???

 

3. We are taking Kennedy to the beach next week and I am soooo excited!

 

4. I love Target! I got 2 dresses, 2 tops and a skirt for 78 dollars this week.

 

5. And last but most certainly not least, Kennedy will be 8 months old on Sunday!!! Seriously, where has the time gone?!?!?! It seemed like my pregnancy went by soooooo slow but since she got here, time has flown by!

Playing on the laptop with daddy like a big girl.

Reading books with cousin Lexie

 

I don't even want to think about the fact that she will be 1 in just a little over 4 months!

 

What are you excited about this week? Go link up with Natasha and tell us! :) Have a great weekend!





I am linking up again with Shannon at "Life After I Dew!"

Here's what I am saying "so what" to this week:

 

*I got a little choked up at Zak's song he wrote for Desiree on the "Bachelorette: Men Tell All." I so hope he will be the next Bachelor. That was so sweet! Lots of rumors going around that Desiree picks Brooks. Ewww. I don't care for him or Drew. I am just not into feminine guys.

 

*I have been checking the Powerschool portal constantly to see if the office  has uploaded our class rolls. I want to see who's going to be joining me in room 310 this year!

 

*On the same note, I have done ABSOLUTELY nothing in my classroom this summer and have not even opened my Common Core Standards. I'd rather be at home with Kennedy! Teachers go back August 12th! Aaaah soooo soon!

*Someone told me my blog name was a little "over the top." I like it!  I am not trying to say that we are anything like the Kardashians geez. My husband wears camo when he's not even hunting and I live in flip flops and soffee shorts. I thought it just sounded cute and plus it's more about keeping up to date with what's going on in our lives not a "keeping up with the Jones" thing. Good grief.

 

*I am already dreaming up ideas for Kennedy's 1st birthday in November. It's going to be a Princess Baby theme. Kennedy absolutely loves the Princess Baby books by Karen Katz. Thinking we will have to change the baby on the cake to have dark brown hair. ;)

Kennedy's 1st Zoo Trip!

Kennedy had a blast on her first trip to the zoo! She loved looking at all the animals and was so brave! She got to pet a giraffe and a goat, not to mention she was very up close to a turkey and a gorilla! She was not even phased. We had a blast and I can't wait to take her next summer when she's a toddler. Nick thought she was too young to go, but at the end of the day he said "you were right, she loved it!" Score! Not too often that my husband admits I am right! Here are some photos from our trip:

This is Mike the gorilla. One of the zookeepers was telling us that he and another gorilla had to be seperated because Mike basically attacked him and injured him. Yikes! Mike and Kennedy got along great though!

The kangaroo exhibit is fairly new at our zoo. I think it's been there about 2 years now. I am not a fan. The kangaroos are very lethargic and not fun to watch. The exhibit that used to be here was a seal exhibit which was awesome. I grew up in Columbia and I have a lot of fond memories watching the seals at the zoo as a child. It was always my favorite exhibit, especially at feeding time. There was also a polar bear exhibit that they got rid of too. :(

Kennedy was not afraid to pet the giraffe at all!

She loved the tunnel where she could look up and see all the fish!

Mommy is not a fan of birds so I was not thrilled about the turkey. Daddy likes to hunt turkeys so he was a little more excited.

 

We got home and Kennedy chilled out the rest of the day in her diaper and her hairbow. :) It was a hot day but atleast it was sunny. We have had so much rain it feels like we haven't really had a summer break so it was awesome to get some sunshine!

"So What Wednesday"

 

 

I am new to the blog world so I thought it would be fun to join in with Shannon at "Life After I Dew." I started this blog just to be able to write about my life and all the memories with my husband and our sweet baby girl Kennedy. :)

 

 So this week I am saying "so what" if:

 

*I only have 1 follower so far!

 

*I am a third grade teacher and I use technology all the time in the classroom with my smartboard but for some reason figuring out a blog was extremely hard for me!

 

*I like to go back and read my livejournal that I kept in college. Another reason for starting this blog!

 

*I feel like my daughter is naked without a hairbow!

 

*I am 29 years old and addicted to reality tv! Pretty Wicked Moms is my new fav!

 

*Still on the reality tv note, I am the only girl in America it seems who thought Zak on the Bachelorette was super hot! Sure he had big eyes, but his smile was super sexy!

 

 

 

 



 

 

7 months= Many Milestones!

 

Kennedy has been up to A LOT this month:

 

*She is officially sitting up on her own with no support.

*She is cutting her 1st tooth!

*She is starting to crawl except she is going backwards!

*She took her first plane ride to visit Nana and Spike and all of Mommy's high school friends in Portland, Oregon. She did WONDERFUL on all of the flights. We flew from Columbia to Houston and then Houston to Portland. She drank bottles at take off, played with Sophie the Giraffe, ate puffs, read books with Mommy and slept!

*Aaaand the big one: She is finally sleeping through the night! It only took 2 nights of "crying it out." I had said I would never do that but I am glad we did. It was really hard but it was worth it. She goes down around 8:00 and sleeps until usually around 6:30.

On Thursday, we are completing another big milestone, first trip to the zoo! Nick thinks she is too young but I think she is going to love it. She loves animals, loves to be in her stroller and she loves to be outside. We are taking our 9 year old niece Lexie with us as well. Nick's sister Tina is a single mom and Lexie doesn't get to do a lot of things so we were happy to take her. She is great with Kennedy! Kennedy loves her so much. I think we will have a blast and I can't wait to post pics!





 

 

Latest cuteness!

 

 

Kennedy's Birth Story

My doctor had told me he would let me go 1 week past my due date if Kennedy didn't come on her own. My due date was November 25th. However, my mom and stepdad were flying in from Oregon on Tuesday the 27th. They could only stay for 2 weeks and I thought it was pointless for me to just be sitting around pregnant while they were here. I needed help with the baby! So I agreed to come in Tuesday night so I could be started on that medicine that gets you to dialate, can't remember the name. I wasn't dialated at all! I am a third grade teacher and I had already planned to start my maternity leave after Thanksgiving weekend. I am really glad I did that. It was nice to have 2 days to myself before Kennedy got here. Monday I met my best friend Megan at the mall and we had lunch and walked the mall for hours trying to induce my own labor, hahahaha. But guess what? It worked, kinda. That night I started having contractions! They hurt, but here's the thing, they were like 10-15 minutes apart, nowhere near close enough to go to the hospital! Finally around midnight, I fell asleep and when I woke up the next morning they were gone! Nick (my husband) called to check on me and he thought maybe they were just Braxton Hicks but my co-worker Cindy who has 3 kids said that false labor is very common. That morning I caught up on some DVR shows and my dad drove in from Columbia and brought me lunch from Subway. We visited and then  he left about 1:00 and drove to my aunt and uncle's house where he was going to stay while I had Kennedy. Nick came home early from work about 15 minutes after my dad left. We relaxed for awhile then went to an early dinner at Cracker Barrel at 4:30.
We arrived the hospital at 5:45 (they told us to be there at 6:00) The waiting room was PACKED and they were 3 other girls waiting to be induced. Yikes! Two of the girls got called back after about an hour. The other girl that was left with me had like atleast 6 or 7 people with her which I thought was really odd because she wasn't dialated either. Nick and I nickamed her "the girl with the entourage." Also we were told that we could eat right up until we got in our hospital room and let me tell ya, this girl was determined to get her meals in. We have a Chick Fil-a in our hospital and homegirl had a chicken sandwich, chicken nuggets, two things of fries and a milkshake. LOL. I do admit when it got to be about 8:30 and they STILL hadn't called us back, I got into the goody bag my mother in law had packed for Nick and started eating a little candy, ooops. The Reeses Christmas Trees are a major weakness of mine. FINALLY at 10:30, (yes we waited close to 5 hours) they called us back.
I was dialated one cm, woohoo, after having nothing for weeks this was great. Nick asked if I still had to take the medicine to be dialated and she said yes.I also told the nurse that I had been having contractions the night before. She looked at me like I was stupid. Did not care for this nurse. They started my IV, hooked me up to heart monoitor, gave me the meds and around midnight I drifted off to sleep.

 

Well fast forward to about 2:30 am. I wake up and the heart monitor machine is completely flat lined. I start panicking and pushing the nurse call button. Well turns out because I had turned to my side while sleeping, the belt had gotten lopsided and wasn't picking up Kennedy's heart rate. Once again, the nurse was super rude and acted like it was a huge deal to have to adjust the heart monitor so that I could hear my baby's heart rate while I slept on my side...geez. She also asked if there was anything else I needed because "there were other people in active labor." Not nice. Fell back asleep until about 4 am and woke up again with contractions. I knew they were real because I could see them on the monitor. They hurt but not super bad. I didn't want to press the nurse call button yet so I just layed there. About 45 minutes later, the nurse comes back in and says, "you are having contractions so we are going to start you on pitocin." My mom and stepdad arrived to the hospital about 6 am and the contractions were really starting to hurt. My doctor came in and checked me and I was 3 cm dialated. My mom gave me a foot rub and then around 7 am, I got a new nurse, woohoo! Her name was Renee and she was wonderful! I told her I didn't really have a high pain tolerance so she encouraged me to go ahead and get the epidural. About an hr later I had my epidural. At our hospital, husbands have to leave the room which I did not like. I know a lot of people say the epidural wasn't bad, but mine was. For some reason the doctor could not get it placed right, so he had to stick me 3 different times. Meanwhile I started getting really hot and dizzy for some reason. It was very uncomfortable and painful and honestly one of the worst parts of the labor. After that was taken care of, I started feeling really nauseous from the pitocin, so Renee ordered me some phenegren. Greatest thing ever because guess what, it made me sleep!!! I napped on and off all day. This made the time go by really fast. Pediodically, my doctor would come in and check me. Around 3:00, he came in and I still had not progressed past 3 cm. He prepared for the fact that if I did not start making progress I may have to have c-section. They upped my pitocin and I went back to sleep. He came back at 5:00 and I had progressed to 7 cm! Then, things started happening very quickly. At 6:45, I was 10 cm and ready to push. Nick called all of our family members and my best friend Megan and they all gathed at the hospital. My mom and Nick stayed with me for the birth.

 

Right as I was starting to push my new nurse came in. I was supposed to have the same nurse I had the night before but I had told Renee that she was not so nice so I had a new nurse named Ashley who was very sweet. There wasn't much to tell about the labor, I pushed for about 50 minutes and Kennedy was born at 7:39 pm. My doctor did have to do an episodtomy (sp?) which was not fun afterwards. Stitches down there, no fun! Kennedy weighed 6 lb 6 oz and was 20 inches long, tall and skinny! Seeing her for the first time was the best feeling ever and holding her was even better. I was so happy. I can't even find the words to describe it, I was so emotional. At one time I thought I would never have this feeling.(I will have to post our struggle to get pregnant at another time) I was on cloud 9! She was so wide eyed and alert and she would turn her head whenever Nick or I spoke and look right at us. I honestly think that's because we read and sang to her so much when I was pregnant.

 

I nursed her and she latched right on. I was very lucky, no nursing worries for her! I didn't even have to have help from the lactation consultant. They whisked her away to the nursery to have her first bath, first shot etc...I was feeling great at this time, filled with joy that my baby girl was here and no pain. My sister in law Rachael, brother in law Jon and best friend Megan all came in to see me while I was recovering and I was chatting away. My stepdad went to get me sushi which I had requested for my first meal. THEN, the epidural wore off. OUCH! The pain down there was awful. Nick went ahead and shooed everyone off. I was so glad they had come but I just wanted to rest and enjoy my ice pack down there lol. Over the next two days, Kennedy had a ton of vistitors, friends, family, co-workers, even one of my students and her mother came by. We went home on Friday, November 30th.

Kennedy with Daddy at 7 months

The day we came home from the hospital