We Love Summer!

Oh how we love summer! Living in the city (ok the suburbs) gives us so many options! There is ALWAYS something fun to do. Jeff always claims I know about EVERY kid friendly activity in the KC area! I do work hard at searching out fun events for us to do! Not only does Kennedy have a blast, I love watching her have a blast!

Well, today we went to KidFest, hosted by Johnson County Parks and Rec. We went for the first time last year and she and I had a blast! I knew she would enjoy it even more this year. And she did! Antioch Park is a very fun and pretty park to begin with, so you add in the carnival type atmosphere and it is perfection!

She did the following supah fun things:

• play on those inflatable air bouncies


• do a cookie walk (won 2 cookies)


• get a tattoo (she chose a giraffe)


• get her face painted (a pink heart on one cheek and a pink K on the other)


• get her hair painted (orange polka dots),


• build a wooden land sail (with daddy's help)


• pet and hold exotic birds


• geocach - our first time!!!!


• have a picnic


• play at the rockin' playground (one of the coolest in KC)

And this photo below is from LAST YEAR at Kid Fest! Same shot a year apart!!!!

Last night we visited Chick-Fil-A. There were having a Princess Night!!!! The radio station KLove was sponsoring it. There were dancing and singing kiddos doing Disney showtunes, a Prom Queen handing out princess stickers, Prince Charming trying the glass slipper on all the little girls, and Cinderella who signed autographs and took photos with the gals. Oh it was tooo cute!! So Kennedy picked out which princess outfit she wanted to wear. She chose Snow White of course! And, yes, I matched the wrong skirt with it! I know, I know, Snow White has a GOLD skirt! Oops!! Kennedy didn't realize it! She also picked out her own shoes, wand and tiara! She had a great time!

And that is only the half of what we have done so far this weekend! We definitely love summer around here! Hope you all are enjoying your weekends and summer where you are!

I want you to be my husband!!!

Tonight I was reading Kennedy a Bible story, the story of Noah and the great flood. We have read it before but this time something new caught her attention. We were talking about Noah's wife and his son's wives. Kennedy asked who her wife was. So I tried to explain to her about men and women getting married and that we call them husband and wife, yada yada. So she asked who her husband was. I told her she wouldn't have one until she grew to be much, much older. Then she could pick any man she wanted to be her husband. She was quiet for a moment and said to me, "I want YOU to be my husband!" And she gave me a huge hug!

I recently returned from a wonderful trip to New York City with my mother, and our cousins Deb and Kay. They served as our own personal tour guides because they had been there numerous times before! We saw sooo many sites - I can't explain how fun it was! I haven't gone through the 600 photos I took yet. (Yes, I really took 600+ photos! Thank goodness for digital!!!) But here are a few!

This is THOTH. He performs near Bethesda Fountain in Central Park. If you aren't familiar with THOTH, you need to check him out!!! Quite an interesting fellow!

His webpage: http://www.skthoth.com/news/

And see him preform here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ke93vH1eEw

Here is mom and Kay at the Today show! Yes, we got to be on TV!!! The camera just panned us, we didn't get interviewed but that was ok with us!!!

Here is Mom and I....true tourists visiting the Statue of Liberty!!!!

And just a fun shot of Kay and I (with Deb in front) on one of our MANY subway rides!!!

I also just wanted to share with you all the gift I made Jeff for Father's Day. I tried my hand at digital scrapping and created an album. I used an amazing kit from Liz Tamanaha over at Paislee Press. You can see the album on Shutterfly here:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/project/3BZsWLFsxcV/landing

I would love to know your thoughts on it!

Have a wonderful week everyone!

My Little Shoebox

I am so tickled to announce that I have been asked to join my very first design team for a manufacturer! My Little Shoebox has asked me to join 6 other very talented ladies! Head on over to their brand new blog for a chance to win some My Little Shoebox goodies!!!!
http://mylittleshoebox.blogspot.com/

And check out their website to see their amazing products!!!!
http://www.mylittleshoebox.com/

Here are the announcement!

Sunday, June 15, 2008
Announcement: My Little Shoebox Design Team Members
I am pleased to announce the new faces for our Design Team. Joining myself, Suzy West and Erin Yamabe are:
Danielle Holsapple
Emily Jones
Gretchen McElveen
Norma Kennedy
Tanisha Long
Welcome ladies! I am very excited to have them joining us. You can expect to see a lot of awesome project from them every month.Congratulations and Welcome to My Little Shoebox!
Helen

SCRAPPY STUFF!!!!!

But first..........

Look at what Jeff brought home for me last night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He picked them out himself and everything! What a sweet guy!!!! THANKS BABE!

And finally, I started 2 of these layouts a month ago and finally finished them! But the first one is a lift of Leslie Ashe - it was a challenge at CMK. And let me tell you , it was a challenge! Leslie is so darn talented! I didn't do her page justice!

This one was just for fun....loved this photos of Kennedy from last summer!


And I finally started scrapping our Disney trip! I love this layout!

That is all for now! Have a great week y'all!

Puddles & Strawberries are Slippery

Did you know that? Well, that is what Kennedy informed me tonight while eating strawberries. Out of the blue she said "Mommy, sometimes puddles and strawberries are slippery" except puddles sounds like paddles when she says it!

So, I have been awful about updating...I feel like we are constantly on the run! We had another wedding in Iowa. We stopped at one set of grandparents first though. And you can see they had a fabulous water fight!

Next it was to the other set of Iowa grandparents!! My step sister Abbie married her new hubby Luke at the end of May. She was a gorgeous bride!! And Kennedy fell asleep again! But we did have fun dancing!!! She was tickled that Papa Doug danced with her! And there was a stage for the wedding party - Kennedy thought it was the best play place!

Well, summer is here - the weather is HOT AND MUGGY!!! We hit the pools this week for the first time! And I got out the sprinkler and slip-n-slide!!!! I hadn't thought about how tricky it could be to teach a 3yr old to run, jump and slide on a slip-n-slide! But Kennedy caught on fairly quickly!

Daddy took her fishing today for her first time! We have been to the parks, to the fancy Gardner Pool with friends, to Elijah's birthday party, purchased a new stove/oven, planted flowers, grass and vegetables, rode our Barbie car all around, gone jogging in the jogger and many other fun summer things!!!!

I haven't scrapped in a few weeks so don't ask for updates!!! :) I hope to post more photos soon!!!

Flower Girl!

I must start this post by wishing my cousin, Sydney and her new husband, Brandon, all the happiness in the world! They truly seem like the dream couple - they way they interacted all day just gave me goosebumps! Love you both! Hope you enjoying your honeymoon!!!

So, you KNOW I took lots of photos! I just edited a few quickly tonight - to pacify the family! LOL!

Kennedy got to walk down the aisle with her cousin, Joe! Aren't they the sweetest things?!?! This shot was just before they walked down the aisle. Do they look nervous?!

As soon as Kennedy got to her seat after doing her thing, she hopped on Papa Randy's lap. And this was her not 5 minutes into the ceremony!

And then about 10 minutes into the ceremony this was her!!!

And this was after the ceremony!!!!!

This was just a lucky shot of Kennedy with the GORGEOUS bride, my cousin Sydney!!!

And Kennedy wasn't cooperating so much while I tried to catch the 2 of them!!!! This is as good as it got!
You will have to wait until a later post to see the reception shots!!!

Syd and Brandon had THE coolest video at their reception! The best I have ever seen! They even had the ceremony on it already!!! You can view it here at the website below. Click on Videos.
Look for Sydney and Brandon but don't click their name, click Read More.
Enjoy!

http://www.weddingdayrewind.com/



In scrappy news, I got a Halloween card picked up for the October issue of CARDS!!!!

Have a great day everyone!

Busy Week!!!!

You would think that me being off work would give me TONS more time to post to my blog....but it sure hasn't felt that way!!!!

I still need to upload the rest of our photos from Myrtle Beach! But here are two more. We went to a cool private zoo. You could feed essentially ANY animal but the lions and tigers! So of course Kennedy, the animal lover, wanted to feed them all! This was the second day of our trip and it was a tad cool...hence the spring jacket she has on. But the weather was perfect for walking around viewing animals! You can see she is feeding a deer through the fence on the first shot, and a zebra on the second shot! She is a brave girl!

Well, Jeff and I headed to Branson for a few days to get some R&R just the two of us! It was nice to just be able to chill by the pool, wander through some shops and watch a movie! We needed that time!

Kennedy's last dance class was this week! It was a riot to be able to watch her finally! Normally the parents wait outside of the classroom and take turns peeking through the little window in the door!!! Kennedy has such fun while she is there, but part of the time she is really in her own little world! She would try to catch glimpses of herself in the mirror (we parents were blocking the mirror!). Her favorite move is to put her hands on her hips and shake her hips!! She often did that while she was supposed to be tapping!!!

Little Ballerina!!!!

Trying to spy herself in the mirror!!!!

Doing a train!! She is right behind her lead teacher, Miss Jaime!

Free Dance!!!!

Ok, I have TONS of photos to share over the next weeks! And I know I will catch more this weekend as Kenna will be a flower girl in my cousin Sydney's wedding!!!

AND, I have been to two crops in the last 3 weeks so I will have layouts to share!!!

Hope you all are doing well!!!! Enjoy the Spring weather and the weekend!

Happy Mother's Day

4 generations - 2005

Grandma, me, Mom, Kennedy

Just a quick post.

I want to give a shout out to all my mothers, grandmas and my sister in law!!! I love you all from the bottom of my heart and I wish you the happiest of Mother's Days!!!!

4 generations 2007

me, Kennedy, Mom, Grandma


My momma Jodie!

My momma Jodie again!!!!!


My momma Shelly and sister Kate!

My momma Shelly again!


Most of all, thank you to my 2 beautiful children. It is because of you both that I am a mom. I LOVE YOU KENNEDY AND SAM.









Happy Mother's Day to all my mother friends, too! :)