A little slower than usual

This week sure has been a long one, which is why I'm a little behind. Kennedy was quite the little grouch this week. Looks like she is getting in about 4-6 teeth all at once. She has been waking up completely miserable every morning, then spends the entire day crying & hanging on me and has been waking up at around 2am screaming at the top of her lungs until around 6am when she finally falls back to sleep! Makes for two very tired grandparents and one very exhausted mommy! I made sure not to let Kendal miss out on our fun either, even though he is 7,000 miles away I wanted to make sure he could have the full experience of being the parent of a teething 14 month old (Just Kidding)~ but we did have to turn on the web cam at about 4:30 in the morning 2x so he could sing to her (which actually calmed her down for about an hour, lol)
Kendal has been gone for a month now. He is doing well, but is pretty lonely. So if anyone gets a minute during their day, he would love an email or letter. He works long hours and then comes home, eats dinner, and goes to sleep and then Repeat! So a quick note of encouragement would really help! Kennedy is starting another round of swimming lessons tomorrow morning. I can't wait to get her back in the pool! She loves it so much and we will be enrolling her in Gymboree within the next month! Trying to stay as busy as possible to pass along the days!
We went to the Rain Forest at the Cleveland Zoo last weekend. It has been raining on and off all week so we decided to do something in doors. Kennedy loved watching all of the animals, especially the Orangutans & Sea Turtles. The Orangutan came right up to the glass to see her :) Or so she thought! lol After the Rain Forest it had stopped raining so we took a trip over to Memphis Kiddie Park. Kiddie Park is a tiny family run amusement park for kids and has been there for years and years. My mom has pictures of my siblings and I there 20 years ago and she had her 5th birthday party there~ haha! Anyways, Kennedy loves carousels so we stopped by for her to have a quick ride (quick meaning 3 times, lol) and a little train ride too! She had a blast and we will definitley be going back next summer when she will be old enough to ride all of the rides!!!
Well, not much more to report, Hope you are all having a great weekend~ love you all!

Last week was "Uncle Bubby's" birthday~ she made sure to help him eat his cake!

Here comes trouble

Talking to Daddy in the middle of the night

Reading stories w/ Grammy late @ night

She loves playing outside and since its been raining everyday we haven't been taking our daily walks or swinging on her jungle gym. I've been catching her staring out the front door almost everyday!

Watching the rain

Lizards and snakes OH MY!

She loved him!

"wave to Mommy"

2 weeks down, 50 to go!

Another week has passed us by. Kendal is a little more settled in Korea this week. He's not too fond of his 12 hour work days and walking from his apartment to work everyday but for the most part he is adjusting well. As for Kennedy & I we are having a great time with Grammy & Papa. This past weekend we went to the local fair. Kennedy is learning a new animal sound almost everyday and she was a riot at the fair. Especially when we walked past the ducks, she started yelling "quack,quack,quack,quack" it was so cute!
Now that we live so far away from all of our buddies down south we are having to learn to find more things around the house to keep us occupied. Back home we are used to going to "Mommy's group" 2-3 days a week and going out with friends every weekend. We are surrounded by people all of the time. Now, we pretty much sit in the house and just play with one another. I was having a really tough time with this since Kendal has been gone but have now learned to love long walks and jogs with Kennedy, we read for hours on end and love to swing in the backyard. Its all worth it, because I now feel like Kennedy & I are spending much more quality one-on-one time together:) We are still talking to Kendal about 2x a day. Kennedy just lights up when she see's him. They sing songs and she shows off all of the new things she has learned. She is getting a bit more daring when it comes to walking. She earned her first bruise this week, right on her cheek~ she crashed into mom's piano bench (OUCH) Tonight is my brother's birthday. We are going out to dinner & having cake and ice cream. Kennedy will be so excited when he comes over this evening. She now has a new best buddy. She calls for him all day long "bub,bub" (I've called my brother "bubby" for as long as I can remember, so we refer to him as Uncle Bubby~ which is where bub,bub comes from) Whenever, Cody & Elizabeth come over, Kennedy is in her glory. She just loves them to pieces, mostly because Cody plays non-stop with her and Elizabeth always has ice cream.lol! Happy 27th Birthday Bubby! We love you!
Hope everyone is having a great week! Love & miss you all!

Kisses from Papa at the fair

Baby Pigs

Not sure about the Alpaca's

Blowing Kisses

Her Favorite part of the entire night

ICE CREAM!!!!

She loved the Carousel, She cried when the ride was over :(

Playing Outside with her buddies

Watering Grams flowers

Reading a good night story with Papa

She's a Grammy's girl!

One week down 51 more to go

As of tomorrow morning Kendal has been gone for one week. It still feels like he is at work, on one of his short trips, but I'm sure it will hit me next week or so. We are on a 13 hour time difference but it has worked out pretty well. I talk to him twice a day, everyday, on the web cam. Its so nice to actually be able to see him and Kennedy squeals so loud every time she sees him. We talk around 8:30 am our time and he usually texts me in the middle of the night a few times which is his afternoon and then I talk to him around 5pm our time every day before he goes into work. We've worked out a pretty good routine. Right now he is staying in a hotel off base until a dorm room opens up on base or he finds an apartment off base. He looked at a few apartments off base but he said they were absolutely disgusting and even he couldn't live somewhere like that. So we'll see what the next few weeks have to offer. This week we tried our best to stay busy and keep our minds occupied. Two days before Kendal left Kennedy took her first steps. She is a wild woman with her walker now and her favorite thing to do is chase the dog around and slam into him~ she cracks up laughing at herself everytime, As for walking unassisted she chickens out after about 6-7 steps. We're getting there though. She spends most of her day playing with her kitchen. She pretend feeds anyone who will let her. She loves sitting in her rocking chair reading books and watching her shows. She says "rock rock rock" as she sits and rocks the chair back and forth! so cute! We went to a minor league baseball game with my parents, sister and her boyfriend, which was a nice family outing. Kennedy loves being outside & hotdogs are her favorite food so she was in heaven! lol I, along with both of my parents have joined a gym~ we are going to do our best to get healthy this fall! Other than that, its business as usual, minus one...
Love you Hubs, hope you are having a great 29th BIRTHDAY!

Cookin up something good!

Laughing at Raliegh right after she about broke his back

Looking for birdies, or what she calls "Tweet, Tweets"

Wathing sesame street

Reading her books


At the game

She has been acting like she is teething for about 2 weeks now and still no new teeth
I'm pretty sure she just has us fooled so she can have a Popsicle everyday=)

Talking with Kendal one night~ we gave her a keyboard and she "emails" daddy

Dooms Day

Well, the dreadful day has come, and I can honestly say it is one of the worst feelings I have ever felt. I have a sinking feeling in my stomach, my heart is aching, and I would give just about anything for one more kiss. We took Kendal to the airport this morning around 8am. I asked my parents to come with us, mostly to drive because I wasn't sure how upset I was going to be and also I needed a shoulder to lean on after he had gone. When we got to the airport we were informed that his flight to Chicago was 1 hour behind and his flight to Tokyo was 4 hours delayed. He won't be arriving to Korea until well after midnight, then he has an 1.5 hour bus ride to the AF Base in Seoul and then he has to get driven off base to the hotel he will be staying at until they find housing for him. At 7:30am he must report to duty in full uniform for in-processing. Oh and did I mention the 13 hour time difference. I feel so terrible for him, I can only imagine how exhausted he will be. He should be calling me sometime in the middle of the night tonight to let me know he has made it safely. The next year is going to be difficult but knowing I will get to hold him in my arms for a short visit in Feb. is keeping in a positive mindset. Kendal wanted me to be sure to tell everyone he loves you all, will miss you terribly, can't wait to get back to Charleston and pickup where we left off.
In preparing for his remote we have stayed BUSY, BUSY, BUSY trying to create as many memories as possible. This past week just Kendal & I took a quick two day trip alone and it was just about the greatest two days ever (we missed Kennedy so much, we were having a hard time focusing on ourselves, lol) On our first day, we traveled to Sandusky, Ohio and went to Cedar Point Amusement Park. Cedar Point houses some of the largest & fastest roller coasters in the World!! Along with plenty of easy going rides as well for the ones of us with weaker stomachs. As a kid I remember going to "the point" and having such a great time. I would beg my dad to ride roller costers 2 and three times over again. This was my first trip since I have been about 15 and quickly found out WE'RE OLD. Every ride was making me queezy, or light headed, Kendal's face would turn pure white after he would get off a ride. We still managed to find tons of other fun stuff and really enjoyed just spending the day together!

Kendal driving the Antique Cars or in his words
(driving Miss Lazy) lol

On a Steam Boat ride =)

Needed a breather so we hopped on the carosel

My Favortie Ride ever (The Magnum XL) was celebrating its 20th Anniversary the week we were there, I forgot how crazy of a coaster it is. Kendal just had to buy this picture when he saw it on the screen and I was so mad at him. I can not believe how ridiculous we both look.

Once we were finished at the park we checked into our hotel and then headed out on the town to find some dinner. One of the nicest things about Sandusky is that it sits on a bay. Lake Erie is absolutely beautiful and I just had to share the view from our table at dinner that night =)

After a wonderful evening we headed back to the hotel for a full nights rest (no teething one year old waking up three times a night and ending up in between us in bed, haha) We slept in the next morning and then drove about a half hour to a port where we caught a ferry to take us over to one of the Islands, Put-In-Bay it is called. There are cars allowed on the island but the best way to get around is to rent a golf cart and cruise up and down all of the streets and go on a little adventure all yourself. Kendal was the driver and we had THE GREATEST DAY EVER just discovering all kinds of things without any worry in the world! It was so peaceful and so much to see.

Heading over on the Ferry

Got our golf cart! I wanted to drive but Kendal told me to "MOVE OVER MOMMA"

Peace Monument

LOVE LOVE LOVE HIM!

Yes, leave it to me to find The Chocolate Museum! We almost drove right past it and when I screamed pull in pull in, Kendal almost tipped the Golf Cart, Just to get me there!!!!

And yes, I found a Chocolate Cafe as well, they served Chocolate Soda! mmm! Chocolate makes everything taste good!

OOmpa-Loompa

W/ my girls on the assemblely line

You can't leave the Chocolate Museum w/out Ice cream! They even put buckeyes at the bottom of your cone as a suprise!!! (If you don't know what buckeyes are, just as my father-in-law~ best treat in the state of Ohio)

After the chocolate museum we toured a Crystal Cave

and Fort A Maze'N and it was amazing! lol We decided to catch one of the last ferry's and head home for the day~ We missed Kennedy so much in those two days I can't imagine how Kendal must be feeling leaving for so long...ThankGod for web cams!

We decided to celebrate Kendal's birthday a little early this year since he won't be around next week. He requested Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green bean caserole as his birthday dinner Mom made a 4lb meatloaf and everyone loved it

He wanted Raspberry swirl cake too! My mom called around to 4 different bakery's and no one had ever heard of a raspberry swirl cake before, they could make a bunch of other raspberry type cakes but not swirl. So I asked him, where have you ever had this kind of cake before and his answer was, I haven't I just saw it on that cake boss show and thought it sounded good. LOL!
Mom improvised and made a delicous cake, I made the cupcakes just in case as a back up!

Kenndy loved celebrating daddy's birthday too!

On our last day together Kendal wanted to spend as much time as possible with Kennedy. He took her for a walk, went to the park and even let her stay up late! It was the hardest thing to watch as a wife and mommy and the tears were impossible to hold back, still are, as I write this now.

Leaving for the Airport this morning

Saying goodbye =(

Kendal, I miss you so much already, I love you with all of my heart and can't wait for these next 12 months to just fly by. You are my bestfriend, my entire world~ I am honored to call you my husband and am so proud of what you do for all of us! We love you Daddy~ Be safe & come home soon! =)

OUR HERO!