Happy 1st Birthday Kennedy and Happy Thanksgiving!

I am officially a mother to a toddler! That sounds so crazy! Kennedy's 1st birthday is today, Thanksgiving! I have a lot to be thankful for: a wonderful husband, a job I love, amazing friends, very supportive parents, an awesome extended family, a church where I feel God's presence and has helped me grow in my walk with God but most of all I am thankful for my daughter, Kennedy Hannah Kaune! She has brought so much joy to our lives. She has a bubbly happy personality that everyone loves and brings a smile to everyone's faces. We love her sooo much. I can't believe it's been a year! You can read Kennedy's birth story here.

 

 

Here are some pictures from the first year and a few from before she was born:

 



 

Happy 1st Birthday Baby Girl!!!

 

So What Wednesday

Linking up with Shannon for another "So What Wednesday!"

 

This week I am saying "so what if..."

 

 

*"Mrs. Kaune???" I ran into 3 different parents when I was off Monday and Tuesday. I took personal days to spend time with my mom who was visiting from Oregon. One parent even said to me "the kids had school today right?" "No lady, your kid is sitting at the school all alone."

 

*My mother in law got Kennedy a birthday shirt to wear on her real birthday which is Thanksgiving but she is going to wear her smocked Thanksgiving dress instead. In my defense, the shirt is a little small AND the dress was expensive. Wearing it once to church isn't going to cut it.

 

*I always get chills when Abby says "today is NOT your day" on Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition. Imagine how I felt when she said to McKaylee, "today IS your day!"

 

*I let my mom clean while she was here. Hey...she offered!

 

*We are hosting Thanksgiving at our house for the first time tomorrow and I am nervous....



Kennedy's 1st Birthday Party!

I really wish I had taken more pictures at Kennedy's 1st birthday party but I was so busy talking to everyone and watching Kennedy have a total blast that I forgot!  She had such a great time! I didn't get pictures of a lot of the guests but in attendance were: Grandma and Paw-Paw, Nana, Aunt Tina and Lexie, Uncle Bubba, Aunt Augusta, Aunt Gretchen and Marley, Uncle Jon, Aunt Rachael and Tristan, Becky and Ella, Ashley and Kevin, Jessica, Adam, Grayson and Payton, and Megan. Here are some pictures:

Kennedy and my co-worker Becky's daughter Ella. Becky babysits Kennedy sometimes and she always brings Ella with her. Kennedy LOVES Ella.

 These pictures warm my heart. This is Kennedy and her cousin Marley. They are about 18 months apart. They had so much fun playing together. Marley's older sister Tabatha was sick so she couldn't come but we were so excited Aunt Gretchen and Marley still made the hour trip to be there to celebrate!

 This is Kennedy before we gave her the smash cake!

 She took a few bites of cake but she didn't really get into like I have seen other babies do.This was only the 2nd time she had ever had cake. She had a few bites at my friend Jackie's baby shower in October. I don't really think she knew what to do with a whole cake!

 Playing with cousins Marley and Lexie.

 She loved opening her presents!

 This was the only posed picture I really got of any of the guests. :( This is me with my sister Augusta and my brother Bubba.  I am also super sad we didn't get a family picture but Nick's dad said he got a great shot of the three of us while Kennedy was eating her cake.

 This picture was taken today. She wore her birthday shirt to daycare and her teachers gave her this adorable birthday certificate.

Ooops and can't forget the cake! YUM! I didn't get a picture of the food table but we had quesadilla rollups, ham and pickle rollups, chili dip, bacon cheddar ranch dip and a fruit tray. I made all the food except my sister in law Rachael bought the quesadilla rollups. We barely had any food leftover so it must have been good. :) 

 

My sister in law Gretchen was on my blog and texted me saying that this was my 1 year blogging anniversary. I did make my first post 1 year ago but then never posted again until July! Oops. A year ago today, my bestie Megan and I were walking the mall trying to induce my labor. Two days later, our beautiful princess Kennedy Hannah was born.  I can't believe she is almost 1! Can we slow the time down?!?!  My co-worker Tiffany's daughter Kallie is about to go to college next year  so she says "just wait!" Hahaha. Anyway, thanks to everyone for reading and following!  

 

Sneak peak from our pictures!

Sunday afternoon, my friend Valerie took Kennedy's 1 year pictures and some family pictures for us. We were super nervous on the way to meet her because Kennedy refused to nap for us unless you count a 15 minute nap on the way home from church. She had been super whiny and we could tell her teeth were bothering her. However, as soon as we got there she turned into her usual happy bouncy self. It helped that Valerie brought her 6 year old niece Kadence with her. Kennedy loves other kids. Kadence sat behind Valerie and made silly faces and blew bubbles. Valerie sent me a few of her favorites last night and they turned out sooo good. I can't wait to see the rest! In the the tutu pictures Kennedy is wearing my late grandmother's pearls. Makes my heart smile. :)

 

5 on Friday!

I missed this linkup last week. Too much going on! I sure am glad to be back this week! :) Here's what's going on in my world:

 1. We had these for dinner last night. I forgot to take a picture before we ate them so I stole this from online. They are called barbeque baskets and they are soooo easy to make! All you need is a roll of biscuits, hamburger meat, barbeque sauce and cheese. Cook your meat and coat it with barbeque sauce. Take a muffin tin and press the biscuit dough into it to make little baskets. Fill with meat and sprinkle cheese on top then pop in the oven for 20 minutes. Super yummy! I served with green beans.

 2. Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition finale is on Wednesday! Who are you cheering for? I am Team McKaylee! I think Kalani is a great dancer but it's been pretty clear to me that she doesn't care as much about the scholorship.

3. My assistant principal nominated me to head up the "Morale Boosters Committee" at school. Teachers have a lot on their plates with the new common core standards and morale has really been down lately. Our committee came up with a few things that we could do to boost morale at school and decided to name ourselves the SLUTS (Southern Ladies Up to Something.) One of the things we decided to do was decorate a Barbie very similar to the one above and put it in a box with a label that said "You have been tramp stamped. Pass me on to someone that you think has been doing a great job. Love, The SLUTS." We put the box in someone's mailbox in the sign in room. We thought it was hilarious and so did the first few people who received our Barbie. Everyone was going crazy trying to find out who the SLUTS were. Hahahaha. Unfortunately about the 4th person to get it didn't think it was so funny and went to our principal and said she was offended so we had to throw Barbie away. What do you think? Would you have been offended? Let me clarify that the Barbie was nowhere near students! Did we go too far? 

 4. My mom is coming to visit from Oregon next week for Kennedy's 1st birthday party. I am sooooo excited to see her. We haven't seen her since July when we went out to Portland. The picture above was taken when she and my stepdad came out to stay with us for two weeks when Kennedy was born. I can't believe this was almost a year ago and that Kennedy was ever that tiny! Time flies!

5. This sweet little girl will be 1 year old in less than 2 weeks. I can't believe it. She's also moving up to the toddler room at daycare in a few weeks. It goes by soooo fast. She is such a blessing and has filled our lives with so much joy.