Kennedy Klan

Alot has happened in the past year....

2010-07-22T00:23:00.002-04:00

I rarely get to sit and listen to a quiet house, I take that back, I can only hear it when I wake up before 99% of you to get ready for work. But that doesn't count because I don't actually get to sit and listen to it. One thing I miss most is the time to reflect upon everything and get realigned...instead of blazing forward full speed ahead, only to turn around and see all that Ive run over. Ahh, quiet house Ive missed you.

Its been a year since my last blog, which is funny because the title of my last one was exclaiming about 2 months LOL. But its not like I haven't had good reason to be busy, alot of life changes that have taken priority of every minute of my day, even those minutes that could be spent on me.

One life altering experience is finding out your 3 year old niece has brain cancer. I can still recall how eerie it was being the only Kennedy in church while everyone else was at the hospital. Watching the story unfold as my sister in law updates via blogs and pictures was tough, and being pregnant and not being able to be there was worse. Ive always been the type to "go" when someone needed me, no questions asked. It was so hard to "stay" when everything in me wanted to go. It was a blessing to just see the outpouring of love for this little girl on facebook and how our church family banded together so intimately to pray them through was a direct demonstration of what we are called to do. How thankful I am for my church!

In November we received an answer to our prayer whether or not to homeschool our oldest son Daniel. Its amazing to see him grow beyond where he was at in public school but it is challenging. Having him here after Brooklyn arrived was a blessing, the way he jumped in to cater to Isaac was heartwarming.

The arrival of Brooklyn was such the opposite of Isaac's (except I went into labor with both of them on a Friday night). I hope Payton will remember playing Monopoly with me while in labor, as I was not sure if they were "real" contractions because they were nothing like what you see on tv. I can still see the expression on his face when he saw me breathing through the tough contractions like "what are you doing?" He was very helpful at getting my piece around the far side of the board I couldn't reach.

It all happened so fast, Brooklyn beat both of Daniels parents (who only live 15 minutes away) and the anestesiologist to the room. I don't remember the pain, but I'll never forget how I felt when they said I was at 9cm already. I was not ready for natural childbirth, nor did I freshen up on it beforehand. I had it all planned out, but she had a different one.

1 in 100 babies get something called "pneumothorax", which is basically air outside the lung. One of her alveoli collapsed and cause air in the pleural space, so she got to spend the next several days in the NICU. It was weird coming home with no baby, and sitting down at the table with no belly. Thankfully she came home two days later with her big brother Daniel escorting her out.

In March the decision was made to begin homeschooling Payton as well. One of the greatest moments happened when he got into a disagreement with one of the neighbor kids about something he learned in his homeschool text. He got so mad at how he was treated and came home about to cry! Then he calmed himself down, grabbed his book, and backed up his words with the text he learned it from. He came home so proud, and I sat there thankful that he's "getting it".

All the Allsmillers came down in June for a week of fun, its so hard to be apart from my sister at this phase of our lives. Thankfully Apple created just the thing to help us watch our kids grow up instead of see it through pictures, now only if I can get my upgrade already that would be great!

Oh, I cannot leave out how much our marriage has matured and strengthened over the past year. Although we are both far from perfect, we are settling into prioritizing our lives the way the Lord commands us to, and we are seeing the harvest already.

So now that you are up to speed, Im going to finish listening to nothing and go snuggle next to my husband, thankful for every single minute Ive missed blogging about.....

Two months???

2009-06-05T21:32:00.014-04:00

Has it already been two months? I cannot believe it, so much has happened in that time and no time to share it unless you witness it for yourself.

Payton played soccer for the first time but had to miss quite a few games due to pneumonia

Daniel played flag football too and his team is in the playoffs and was in his first major role in his school play,

in May had 2 foot of rain fall from the sky in a few day period, putting part of the city under water. Thankfully we live on a hill up from the river but the end of the street was a pool!

found out new baby will be here in November and we will find out what it is June 19th.

Daniel graduated the Fire Academy, and both his state EMT and Fire Exams. Now he is applying for a job everywhere a fire house exists.

Isaac is turning into such a toddler boy that it blows my mind he's 18 months old; laughing, clapping himself on, playing peek a boo by hiding around corners or even behind things you can completely see through, climbing onto chairs and stools, and learning so much more even quicker (like how to clean up toys and even laundry :). We leave in two days to go to Louisville for a week, which should be more fun now he is mobile. At the same time Im dreading the plane ride, yes, because he is mobile.

I cannot imagine what life is like with 4 kids but it shouldn't be bad with the 2 older boys to help. They have done so much in helping with Isaac, whether its feeding him, reading to him, playing with him, helping in the car while Im driving, or just loving on him. With the birth of another one, I pray this solidifies our family even further.

SPRING BREAK IS HERE!!!

2009-04-04T14:45:00.005-04:00

Its been a busy time with my husband finishing school (and passing his finals), Payton starting soccer, getting rid of sickness and getting some more (morning sickness that is :) Isaac is getting so big and I had alot of fun with him last night just hanging out playing.

You can't tell it in the video, but everytime I push the lego on wheels, he pinches his fingers together over and over again while tightening almost every muscle in his body in excitement. It was so cute.

Tis the Birthday Season

2009-02-12T15:34:00.013-05:00

Here in our house 3/5 of the birthdays fall within 3 weeks of one another, which is only 3 weeks after Christmas! Its been pretty busy planning parties, presents, making icecream cakes, and not forgetting to invite people to the party (yes its true :) (thanks to Kurt and Margaret who made it with only an hours notice).

Little Daniel turned 10 on January 14th, and i don't have many pictures yet because they are on my mother in laws camera since we could not find our battery charger and both the battery packs were dead. I do have pictures of the Ice cream cupcake cones he took to school though, the kids were stumped how I got the cake in the cone :) If you want to try it, look on the sides of Keeblers ice cream cone box. The tricky thing was figuring out how to get them to school and not tip over. It took quite some time but i turned a Bealls box into a means of transportting 24 cup cake cones to school with no spills!!!

I turned 30 on February 1st, yes Super Bowl Sunday. Used to always be the week before when I was growing up, now it lands on my birthday week. We had to have the party for Payton that day because this was our weekend to have him and his Dad was in school all day on the 31st. We also celebrated Paytons birthday buddy, his Uncle Erik, who turned 34 on Paytons birthday. Linda brought over some decorations she had and all the kids got to decorate their own cookies.

Paytons birthday was Thursday February 5th, and believe it or not both he and his teacher FORGOT to eat the cupcakes before the bell rang that day :) so they enjoyed them that Friday instead. Nothing beats celebrating your birthday 2 day in a row, ya know?

The really cool thing is the monthly skating fundraiser for their school was that night, so they announced his birthday over the loudspeaker. It was a fun night...even though I fell when going to fast skating backwards, im okay :) This was Alex's last skate night since he moved away last week to central Florida.

Its been a fun but busy month!!!

Chillin'

2009-01-12T17:32:00.006-05:00

Took these videos of Isaac playing Saturday night. He is getting pretty good at getting around, its starting to setting in that my little baby is not so little anymore. Pretty soon he is going to be wanting to go outside and chase his brothers around.

Gotta love the footie pajamas...

The Most Wonderful Time of the year.

2008-12-27T13:23:00.017-05:00

Post Christmas relief has to be one of the best times, where the excitement and anticipation of gift giving has passed and the realization of having to put away all of the decorations has not yet fully set in. We have a musical Santa where the calendar is on the 26th, and he is in his recliner with his feet in front of the heater, and is singing "Its the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!" I know how he feels :)

Even though this video is not the clearest, you can obviously see its Daniel and Isaac. Isaac's new thing is shaking his head NO. Im not ready to accept that he understands what NO means and that he understands that he is capable of saying NO. Where did my little baby go? The good thing is that he usually only shakes his head no with his brother :) Thank you God for that!

Daniels mom, Linda, has been eyeing the outfit I was SO CLOSE to getting Isaac on Black Friday. I could not justify paying that much money for an outfit he would wear only once, but she finally caught it on sale where it would be worth it. Thankfully there was only 1 12 month size left, the rest was 3-6 months in size. You can see it at the end of the video clip. It has Santa in the middle and his 8 reindeer (mius Rudolph) around him.

Our family was treated to a free meal at Longhorn Steakhouse for Christmas, and when I say free, i mean FREE. We had the freedom to choose WHATEVER we wanted on the menu, from appetizers to main course to dessert. Renee Johnson was our waitress and was so patient with helping the boys (and us) narrow down our choices, THANK YOU RENEE!! She made it so special with fresh flowers on the table and nice napkins. She made sure that we got all that we wanted (also who I will blame should my pants not fit :) and took home all we couldn't finish to enjoy again when we had room. It has been great not having to cook as much this week.

The best part for me was FINALLY getting a nice family picture of us all. I have been waiting a long time to get one where there were no bunny ears, long tongues, cross eyes, and attitudes from not getting to do those things in the picture.

Okay, Isaac is awake now so I gotta run. Hope you had a nice Christmas!! Don't get too sick that 2009 is only 4 DAYS AWAY!! Ugh, life really is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer you get to the end, the quicker it goes!!

Twas the week of Christmas...

2008-12-21T10:56:00.010-05:00

Wow, another quiet Sunday morning, 2 in a row!! Thank you Lord for the gift of silence :) It has been a fun week, making cookies, crafts, and celebrating 12 days of Christmas with Daniel and Payton. They are really enjoying looking in their stockings everyday. Can't you tell? Who knew that turtles and chipmunks could bring about such excitement!!

Of course, school has been all about parties, movies, and yummy treats this week. Payton had a blast sporting his new Batman jammies to school. I guess its turned into a tradition being the 3rd year in a row that they have gotten pj's this time of year. Thankfully the work van broke down and my husband was unable to work, so he was free to join us at school. Daniel, being in 4th grade, has outgrown the pj celebration :( Some days it feels as if they will never grow up then there are moments like these where you realize how fast its went by.

On that same day, Daniel had his 4th grade breakfast under the new pavilion at school, and boy was it good! I was almost 45 minutes late, with Christmas at UPS it was a miracle I made it at all! The breakfast hit the spot when I finally made it through the line. Thankfully they had issues with the power surging from all the griddles and ended up getting a late start, so I was right on time and was able to eat with the guys!!

It has been amazing how year after year, God has lovingly provided us with blessing after blessing to celebrate his entrance into humanity.

Through the school, the boys were invited yesterday to the Elks Lodge for their annual Chrismas party where they had pony rides, ate food, got balloons animals, and sat on Santa's lap before getting a present. We stood in line so long for the balloons and face painting that the ponies were leaving as we walked outside. Both boys received gifts they were excited about along with, along with candy, and small radio headsets! They got their faces painted and were showing off their balloon swords in this picture. It was a fun time.

Above it all, I want these boys to look back on their childhood and know they were loved abundantly as a vital member of this family. My husband and I cannot begin to understand what it is like to live in 2 homes and how that affects children in divorce situations. I never want them to look back and feel as if that caused them to miss out on a thing. I want them to look back and realize they had the love and acceptance from a complete family, regardless of the blood in our veins. I want them to look at their children when they are grown and decide what special things they will make with them because of the memories they have of their family.

And who can resist the cute baby outfits?!?!

Isaac is now brave enough to walk away from me towards whatever his eye is on. He is getting acclimated to his playpen and loves playing the ABC's on his new birthday present, over, and over, and over again! Someone coined his walk the "Isaac Shuffle!"

Who needs Santa's lap when you get a jolly warm heart with Isaac Claus?

Sunday afternoon

2008-12-14T16:41:00.008-05:00

The quiet of today is eerie, the boys are at their Moms, Isaac is sleeping, and my husband is in bed not feeling too well. To actually have free time is a rarity, and now that I have it I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!!! I need a little chaos to remind me of what I would do "if i only had the time".

My little guy just turned one last week, and just got his 6th tooth! I looked at him last night as we sat in the recliner next to our lit up Christmas tree thinking, "he isn't a baby anymore". How many mothers have uttered those words quicker than they would have liked.

Here are my guys putting up the tree this year.

They did a really good job putting up the outside decorations this year too. Thankfully Payton was not injured when he accidently stepped through our skylight!

Daniel and Payton say this is Isaac's first Christmas, even thought its his second, because he "can see stuff" this year :)

Daniel found out last night that he passed both of his final exams for Firefighter 1!! Now he gets a break before taking FIrefighter 2 in January. Its going to be nice to have him around these next few weeks as it has been a challenge being outnumbered 3:1.

We are so proud of him and of the sacrifice he is making for our family. Being a full time husband and Dad, working full time hours, and going to school has been tough.

They boys really had fun putting on all of my husbands gear. My husband had fun going into the test building that was on fire too.

He is going to make a great firefighter because the more stressful and chaotic the situation, the clearer he thinks. That is one thing I have always loved about him because I fall apart when stress rises.