Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Watch Me Grow - Kennedy - 7 Mon

Sorry I'm so far behind in posting pictures. Between moving and visiting friends I'm so far behind in everything!!! I did want to at least get Kennedy's 7 month Duck picture up here. I will get pics from our visit to Tennessee and our last week in DC up here as soon as I can!
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7 Mon - June 2009
6 Mon - May 2009
1 Week - November 2009
I know I usually post these pics seperately but it's all I can do to get one post up today. lol :) I think it was Reagan's 11 month pictures where I really started having trouble because she was all over the bed. Well Kennedy is all over the place at 7 mon!!! So all over the place, in fact, I couldn't even snap that many pictures of her being all over the place for fear of her falling off the bed. lol ;)
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I'm so funny!!!
And pretty precious too!
Kennedy is one busy little girl! She is crawling all over the place. She also discovered she can pull up on things all on her own. Since the weekend she has even been letting go and attempting to stand all on her own!!! She only makes it for a few seconds but I can't believe she's even trying it already. Yesterday she even let go of the coffee table and grabbed for the couch. They're pretty close together but she successfully manuevered between the two objects and remained standing. She is one on the go baby!
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As for eating Kennedy has decided she is not at all interested in baby food... She likes any real people food we'll give her but she doesn't want anything to do with baby cereal or pureed food. At her 6 month checkup the doctor said that was fine except that at about 6 months babies iron levels start to drop and the primary way they get their iron is through baby cereal. As such we're supposed to be careful about making sure Kennedy is eating as many Cheerios as she wants to help boost her iron levels. She also loves to drink out of a cup or use a sippy. No bottles for this baby she's pretty determined she's a big girl already!
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Back to her checkup - she's doing great. She's in the 90th percentile for height and in the 75th percentile for weight at 7lbs 14ozs. Her head circumferance was in the 50th percentile so she's all over the place (that seems to be the theme of this post). She doesn't look disproportionate to me but maybe that's because I see her everyday. The doctor also said that sometimes the measuring can be a bit off from person to person so as long as she doesn't veer wildly out of the norm and mostly stays in the same growth progression for each of the measurements individually their fine with it.
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Kennedy is still super smiley and loves attention from everyone. It literally takes nothing to get her smiling. She is such a sweet sweet baby! We love you Missy K! :)

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Louisville Zoo

Last Sunday, we spent a great day with Grammy, Kelly and Anna at the Louisville. It is a great zoo and we'll definitely be going back!
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The highlight of our day was Reagan having the opportunity to feed the largest male giraffe, Walker. Unfortunately I don't have a good picture of it to share. I'm hoping to get one electronically soon but until then here is a picture of Kennedy and Grammy with one of the giraffes. They were pretty cool!
Reagan had a great view of the animals a good portion of the day from Grammy's shoulders
Reagan and Grammy checking out the rhinos
Reagan and Anna both loved the elephant calf
Kelly and Anna

Kennedy riding an elephantAnna hugging the elephant
Reagan and "Big" Anna by the zebras
We had the opportunity to see baby Naked Mole-Rats while we were at the zoo. Woo hoo! That's true excitement for you let me tell you... Do you detect a bit of sarcasm in my writing? Well, to a two year old I guess they're a bit more exciting because Reagan took a look at them and said "For goodness sakes, I need one of those!"

Coming through the bamboo forest on the way to see the gorillas
Checking out the size of an adult gorilla
Anna and Reagan looking at a gorilla
Anna and Reagan helping Grammy donate money to save the gorillas
One of Reagan's favorite animals has always been the giraffe. There was no doubt that after getting to feed a giraffe that it was what she loved the most that day. Reagan found two giraffes (a "mommy" and a "baby") she could NOT live without in the gift shop and Grammy insisted on purchasing for her.
Thank you, Grammy, for taking us to the zoo! We had a wonderful visit! :)

Kentucky Fun

Grammy, Charlie, Kelly and Anna came to spend some time with us in Kentucky this past week. Here are some pictures of the girls having fun from our visit.
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I can't remember exactly how it started but here's how it ended - with Grammy and all 4 little girls playing the piano together. :)

Grammy brought suckers which Reagan refers to as "twirly whirlies" for the girls to enjoy


Grammy wanted to give Reagan a play kitchen back at Christmas but we simply didn't have enough room in the townhouse. She said as soon as we had a new home she would get it for Reagan. This past weekend she delivered on her promise and went and purchased a dream kitchen for Reagan. Here are Charlie, Kelly and Tim working on putting it together.The girls had a great time exploring the food even before the kitchen was put together
Thank you Grammy and Pa for such a cool and fun playset!

Fun in the Sun (and Water)

Grammy brought an outside animal water play set along to Kentucky for the girls to play with last weekend. As you can see from the pictures below it is a super cool set and the girls (especially Reagan) absolutely loved it!
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Kelly and Grammy (with a bit of "help" from Anna and Reagan) setting everything up
Kennedy's first pool/water experienceReagan's favorite shoes right now are her Crocs from Aunt Nancy and Beth
Anna trying out the giraffe sprinkler
Two cute girls in the frog (Reagan is pretty insistent this is not an alligator) pool
Reagan loves to play in the elephant fountain
Grammy and Kennedy having fun :)

Kelly and Anna
Reagan and Anna being silly and trying to climb the deck
Gotta love that smile!
We gave the girls popsicles and Kennedy was very happy when Grammy offered her one as well. She took her job of eating it extremely seriously!
Later in the week Heidi spent the day with us and the girls played outside again for a while. What cuties!!!

Kennedy enjoyed her swing on the deck while the two year olds played in the water. We think she's pretty cute too! :)

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Watch Me Grow - Kennedy - 6 Months

I've decided to switch it up a bit this month and put the pictures first and words second - I like the pictures much better! :) The quality of the pictures isn't great - I don't know what I'm doing wrong with Dad's camera. It's definitely time for me to have a new camera!!! Anyhoo... hope you enjoy Kennedy's patented Grandpa lips smile. :) I have truly smiley pictures of her but this or her tongue out of her mouth are truly Kennedy at the moment so I thought it was more appropriate even if it is a bit silly. lol :)
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6 Mon - May 2009
5 Mon - April 2009
1 Week - November 2008
Kennedy continues to be an absolute delight. She smiles so easily and is so sweet everyone around us smiles where ever we go. On our most recent trips with Grammy and Pa, Pa commented a number of times on how many people Kennedy made smile.
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When Reagan turned 6 months old the big news was she was finally rolling. Kennedy's big news is she's crawling! Yes, Kennedy is significantly more physically advanced than Reagan was or ever had an interest in being! :)
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One funny thing Kennedy is doing right now is she loves to be held upside down. There are times when she actively works at getting herself into that position when you are holding her. At first we didn't realize what she was trying to do. She would/will just arch that little back and start getting frustrated if you don't tip her upside down. Then it occurred to one of us that she wanted to be upside down. She just smiles and giggles. What a little nut!
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Kennedy can sit up when she is interested. :) If you go back and look at Reagan's 6 month duck pictures, it appears she is sitting up much better. I think the biggest difference is Kennedy has no interest in sitting up. If you sit her up, she pretty quickly gets herself onto her tummy (now hands and knees) and is off to the next best thing.
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Having said that, I think we have another little book worm on our hands and I couldn't be more delighted! Kennedy does very well at sitting and reading with Reagan and me. This is one of my favorite things to do with the girls so I'm so glad Kennedy has let us continue this. I also enjoy reading to her if Reagan happens to go down for nap or bedtime first. Along those same lines Kennedy has a pretty good attention span. As long as she's not tired, hungry, etc. she can pretty much entertain herself for a decent stretch. About the longest she's gone was at Uncle David and Aunt Jolene's house where we were intermittenly paying attention to her one afternoon - Aunt Jolene and Dad figured she mostly entertained herself on the floor for the better part of an hour while we were busy visiting.
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This week we have started introducing some veggies. The first was sweet potatoes which she loved and we've also started green beans which she appeared to approve of as well. We've also introduced oatmeal and bananas to our morning routine as well as increasing her cereal/veggie meals from once to twice per day since she seems to be enjoying her food (I guess that's actually three times total). She loves to drink out of cups and tries to hold them herself but basically refuses to take a bottle. I hope she doesn't give Daddy and Grandma Pat too hard a time while I'm scrapbooking with friends this weekend in Gatlinburg...
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Kennedy is a wonderful sleeper. She goes to bed between 8:00-9:00 and wakes up between 7:00-8:00 the next morning. She might briefly wake up once or twice during the night but even if she does all you have to do is put her pacifier back in her mouth, turn on her seahorse and sometimes cover her back up and she goes right back to sleep. Sometimes she wakes up for a feeding in the early morning hours but this is more the exception than the rule. She has also continued to accomodate me by taking an afternoon nap the same time Reagan does as well as a morning and somtimes evening catnap. I can't imagine a better little sleeper!
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Kennedy is such a precious happy baby and such a joy to have a round. We definitely think she is a keeper!!!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Family Pictures

Our First LaBar family picture including Kennedy.
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Can you believe we managed a LaBar picture this good with the kids??? I was amazed and so happy! Of course we literally took nearly 200 pictures (thanks to Andrew's awesome remote and burst capability) to get this picture. lol :) Thanks for all the help Aunt Arla, Brittany and Lynn!
We also managed this Lueker Family picture which I really liked. Thank you to Grammy and Pa for their help in accomplishing this one! :)
We've spent the last couple of weeks on the road. Shocker, right? :) Unfortunately my camera bit the dust and I forgot to get the cables for the camera Dad is currently letting me borrow. I may try to get to Walgreens in the next day or two and try and get some pictures loaded to a CD but that may be unrealistic... I'll at least try and get the Duck pictures for Kennedy's 6 month birthday. In case I don't get the pictures posted anytime soon (or at all) we had a great time visiting Uncle David, Aunt Jolene, Uncle George and Grandma in Michigan. We also enjoyed one evening with Darin, Elise, Brendan and Alaina. We also had a great visit to Tennessee and especially enjoyed celebrating Melissa Ensor's wedding (it was beautiful and lots of fun!) and Haley Sliger's graduation. I didn't actually get to attend her graduation ceremony (I'm so sorry I missed that!!!) but the Sliger's invited me to a luncheon their church did for the graduating seniors which was so nice. We also enjoyed spending time with the Stiriz's, Kelly's and of course Grammy and Pa!!! Sorry again for being so slow in our posts lately and let me apologize in advance for what I'm sure will be a gap in time before our next post!

Lance's Graduation

We spent Memorial Day weekend in Wisconsin celebrating my youngest cousin Lance's highschool graduation. Congratulations Lance! Aunt Arla and Uncle Scott had an incredible party for him Saturday afternoon that we throughly enjoyed too! Thanks for giving us a great reason to visit and can't wait to spend a little more time with you guys on our next trip!
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The Graduate
Grandma Carlson and Lance
Mom, Lance and Dad
Aunt Arla, Lance, Uncle Scott and Brittany
A less serious family picture :)

Good luck in Oklahoma and nursing school and don't let that big sis run all over you!!! :)