Kennedy's First Christmas

For the first time in three years...It felt like Christmas!!!!
I have been without my family on Christmas morning for way too long
and it felt so good to be home with everyone and I was really
excited for them to share in Kennedy's first Christmas as well!
Just as I remembered as a kid, mom went over board with the
presents and food, we spent the day playing games and telling
stories of Christmas' past! Thanks for everything Grammy and Papa....
We love you so much and are counting down the days until February!

Mom's obnoxious 10ft tree

Opening her first gift! She was so excited!

Loves her new choo-choo train!

What a BIG box!!

Such an excited little girl!

Playing with Grammy and her new toys

Playing with Papa and her train
Keeping warm with Aunt Carli

Eating Breakfast with Uncle Cody

She loved tearing threw that paper! So Daddy threw her in a pile of it!

Kendal teaching Ma how to use her new Wii! Very entertaining morning!

Merry Christmas!

Hanging at the airport trying to get home!

Home For The Holidays!

Well, after two broken planes, a four hour delay and an hour
long drive we are FINALLY at Grammy & Papa's house!
I haven't had too much time to upload all of our pictures but I'm sure
I'll be in full blown blogging overload by the time we get home.
Here are a few from the first three days~

She has almost mastered patty cake. She can clap her hands and
pat her thighs but she's having trouble with the rolling part!
She laughs so hard while Grammy and her sing it about 50 times a day!

Grammy's bathtub is pretty fun~

Papa and Kennedy all bundled up, heading out into the freezing cold snow!

Her first Santa picture...and much to our surprise she did great!

playing catch up!

This past weekend was spent running around, wrapping last minute gifts
and trying to get ready to fly up to Cleveland. Among all of my stress
surrounding the weekend, Kendal decided to use the gift card he won
on a radio contest and go rent a Harley Davidson for the entire day on
Saturday and drive it all the way to Myrtle Beach and Back!
Needless to say I was a nervous wreck and had to spend the day
keeping extremely busy. But he made it home in one peace...
not before he swung by the house to show off his cool new ride!

Sunday Morning we celebrated our own little Christmas at the house.
We decided it would be better to open our gifts at home, rather than
lug them up to Ohio w/ us and then back down again! I thought for
sure Kennedy would care less about opening her presents but she
LOVED tearing through that paper! While Kendal was opening one
of his gifts she sat next to him screaming and reaching for his present
until he let her help him! I just can't wait for Christmas morning now!

Should have known, out of all of those toys she got, all she wanted
was to play on Daddy's present. We got Kendal a new creeper for when
he is working on his car and he put her on it and rolled her all over the floor.
She spent probably 15 minutes playing on it, and of course when he
took her off she started whining. I can't believe the personality on this kid already!
We are definitely going to be in trouble during those toddler years!

Hanging at home!

We spent our day at a local craft show and then came home and played
around for the rest of the evening. I had to take a few pictures though
because when we left the house today it never dawned on me, that we
were all dressed in red! People were probably thinking,
what a cheesy family... Oh well!!

Santa and his elves!

Happy Family

Ignore the bib papa, I just wanted to show everyone how well she
is sitting up on her own now!

Playing with her new toy that came in the mail from Uncle Jared!

Holiday Festival of Lights

Friday night we got all bundled up and headed out to
the Annual Holiday Festival of Lights! The lights are so beautiful and you
spend the entire time wondering..."How'd they do that?"
This is our third year going to the lights, but it was extra fun having
Kennedy with us. We planned on parking the car and taking the
train ride through the park, but it was too cold and wet out,
so we decided to just drive through and get out a couple of
times to get an up close view. Kennedy was laughing and babbling the
entire time! We let her sit on my lap while we were driving so
she could see the lights a little better...and wouldn't you know,
now she screams everytime we put her in her car seat in the back!!!
Wish I could have gotten some pictures of the lights but they all
came out really blurry! Anyways, hope everyone enjoys the shots I did get!

6 Months with "Chard-panzee"

I can't believe how fast these past 6 months have flown by.
The grandma's and I are already planning her first birthday:-(
I don't even want to think about her being that old!
When I was trying to take her picture this afternoon she was
being such a ham so I included a couple extras!

We're Back!!!

Last Sunday night we headed up to Charlotte, NC and then out to
Iowa to spend Thanksgiving week with Grandma and Grandpa Tripp!
We stayed pretty busy and got the chance to show Kennedy off
to most of the family! We took so many pictures while we were away
and our days were so full it would take forever to break our week
down so I am going to post a bunch for everyone to see and kind
of fill you all in that way! We wanted to say thanks for everything
to Grandma and Grandpa, we had so much fun & can't wait to get
back soon! Miss you already!!

One of my favorite parts of visiting Iowa is the view from Mom & Dad's
front door! It is so beautiful! (The first day we got into town)

The end of the week! (Even Prettier)

Just about every morning, Kennedy made sure to meet Grandpa
in the Kitchen for breakfast! She would always give him great big
smiles before sending him off to work!

Lots of playtime with Grandma this week! And plenty of sleeping too!
Grandma seemed to have the magic touch. Bouncing her knee
put her to sleep almost every time!

Hanging with Uncle Jared!

Her best buddy ever! She is so lucky to have such an awesome big cousin!
Gaige is there to calm her down when she is crying, play games with
her, and run all over grandma's house to find things for Aunt Carrie!
They are so sweet together!

Thanksgiving day was a day full of new people!
She was so happy to meet everyone...

Great Grandma Coates!

Great G-ma and G-pa Tripp :-)


Great Grandpa Dixon!


Kennedy's 2nd cousin Ashley! They spent lots of time
playing and giggling together!
Playing with Grandma
Grandma has such a big bathtub so daddy had to get in with her!
She thought that was the greatest thing ever!




Getting ready for bed after a busy day!


Hanging out with Daddy next to the nice warm fire!


Kennedy and this swing didn't get along very well. One day she went
"skydiving" right over the top of it and was swing upside down when
Kendal and I found her. The next time we put her in it she was hanging like this!
We couldn't help but laugh!





Seeing snow for the first time!

WE HAD A GREAT TRIP!! NOW MOMMY HAS TO
GET READY TO GET BACK ON AN AIRPLANE IN
JUST 18 DAYS! AHHHHHHH!