Kenna with the ducks

We went to the duck pond the other day and while the boys went to find the waterfall the girls and I stayed back to feed the ducks.  But the ducks didn't want food, they must have been full already so Kenna just started eating their food for them.  All the old old bread we brought for the ducks was consumed by Kenna until I refused to give her anymore.  But look at a few of the cute shots I snapped of her.  There are times she can be photogenic, just not when I normally want her to be!  Oh but I love her and I just love those cute curls.

 

 

 

This was her dancing around for the ducks.  She always kicks that little left leg out when she dances and it's so stinkin' cute!

Who stole the camera from the counter?

Any guesses who stole the camera from it's spot on the counter? Oh well, he did pretty good snapping away and sometimes after I find him with it he convinces me to snap a few of him. He is a pretty good looking kid so I guess it's worth it. And isn't that the reason we went cheep with the camera we got, so that if he does break it again we aren't out quite so much money. Great pictures Seth!

Seth loves doing these hand stand flip things.

See Kenna's many personalities even between two pictures taken back to back

My little helpers

Railey and Kenna love helping me in the kitchen! Any time I am going to be mixing, stirring, cooking or baking they have to be right by me. They especially love the mixer. Whenever I am making cookies or bread I make a decent size batch which can cause my mixer to want to move all over the counter so I have grown accustomed to just placing my hand on the top to hold it in place. Well anytime the girls are in helping me they have to sit on either side of the mixer and they automatically put their hand up on top. I asked why they did this and they told me it was because I did it. I really don't mind but sometimes they scare me when they aren't paying attention and let their hand go down a bit. We haven't had any issues yet but it really makes me wonder what other bad habits are they getting from me. I know I've picked things up from my parents and do them just because that's how they did them even if there is no rhyme or reason to it but that's just the way we do it. I'm sure placing their hands on the mixer will only be one of MANY things they will pick up bad or good. But I wouldn't trade it for anything. I love being in the kitchen with them (most of the time).

Happy Birthday Kenna!

It's Kenna's birthday today! She is now 2. I can hardly believe it. In so many ways I feel like she is so much older. I was looking to throw together a collage of pictures from when she was a baby just had to laugh at all the pictures. She has so many different Kenna faces. Most of them are somber, where she will refuse to smile for the camera but every now and again I get the cute Kenna smile that we as a family know. But then as you see below there are definitely some where she isn't too happy (I tried not to put to many in). But Kenna is Kenna and we love her.

I love how her hair is coming in curly, although it is coming in really really slow. I still love it. I have always thought that she looked so much like Seth. Everyone has always thought that but the other day David told me she looked like my mom. I just laughed and said really thinking he was crazy (although there is one picture of me at this age that we really look alike), but the other day I came across a picture of Mom at about the same age and had to smile. I immediately went and got Kenna and told her to look (she loves pointing out her pictures and saying "Enna" whenever she sees them. Well that's exactly what she did, even she thought it was a picture of herself.

She has the darkest, biggest, brightest eyes that can either shine or glare at you. She's just like her dad in that her face is very expressive. She is not afraid to let you know how she feels about something. She is a little chatter box here at home but quiet as a mouse in nursery (notice I didn't say sacrament mtg.). She knows all of her colors and can even count to 10 if you get her on a good day. She loves to sing twinkle, twinkle and calls everyone a doo, doo head. We keep telling her to use nice words like cute head and pretty, or handsome, or funny head but the other day she came back with a stupid head and a weinny head. Oh when will this pass? She is starting to thin out some but it still solid and just so darn cute. I have a picture of her in a leotard dancing and doing somersaults all while singing Twinkle. It's so stinkin cute. She loves her brothers and Railey and gives them hugs and kisses but not too generously only when she really feels the love. Oh we love having her in our family.

Steve called earlier and asked if I was glad that we had her. Of course I said. How about you. He quietly, yet a jokingly said well I almost killed her once and luckily that didn't happen. Oh we are so grateful that didn't happen. We love this girl to pieces and those cheeks, there's never ever been anything on earth so nice to nibble and smooch on for such a long time (the rest of my kids had lost their cheeks by now).

We celebrated Kenna's birthday yesturday since Steve was supposed to work today. Last night we skyped Mom and Dad so they could see her open her present from them. It was fun that they could be a part of it.

She got clothes from them and princess stuff from us (shoes, tiara and necklaces)

As I said earlier she know her colors. We kept asking her what kind of cake she wanted like a butterfly or a flower and all she would say was a brown cake. So that's what she got, plus some princess tiara cupcakes.

She keeps putting the crown on upside down. I think it doesn't hurt her head as bad. Either way it's cute!

Happy 2nd Birthday Kenna. We love you!

Blessing Dresses

I was going to make a blessing dress for new baby Reece. Erin was coming over to decide how she wanted me to make the dress (out of her wedding dress--I know freaky huh, I still can't believe she trusted me that much) any way I pulled out Railey and Kennas dresses to show her. The girls were sure they would fit into them, so we tried them on and guess what they still fit and were too long on both of them. Raileys could have buttoned in the back but we also may have popped a button off so we just didn't go there. I guess I made them a little big. But the sure had fun twirling around in their dresses. It was fun to see how excited they were. I have the boys outfit hanging on the wall but I still haven't finished the girls shadow boxes so theirs sit in the closet. Pulling them out is a really big deal. But look how cute they were.

And no I don't have a picture of Reece's dress I forgot to take one. I was more worried about getting it out of my house before something happened to it. Maybe I can get one on Sunday at the blessing. But it did turn out quite cute and simple. I did love the fabric!

Miracles

When I first started this blog, I wanted it to be a place that I could put our family's experiences as well as photos so the kids could go back and remember their growing up years. I figured they would look at it in the future but I never realized how much they would go and read it even now. I find them a couple times a month in on the computer reading and laughing at the pictures and the stories. I'm so grateful I decided to do this whole blog thing even if I'm not as consistent as I once hoped I would be. But this isn't just a place for funny stories and cute pictures. I know I don't share too many spiritual experiences but today I must because I am extremely grateful and indebted to our Heavenly Father for the miracles he has performed in our lives in the last 24 hours.

Yesterday was like any other frustrating day. It actually wasn't too bad until I had gone to scouts and the kids were awful. I know 9 year olds have lots and energy and like to be accepted by their peers and all that and I really do give them room to be boys but they were on one yesterday and we finally had to do some threatening. So I was a little frustrated with that when I came home and vented to the neighbor but then came in and got dinner ready while Steve and the boys were at soccer practice. We all sat down to dinner and Railey was eating a chip when I put meat on her chips and she started to throw a fit. Well that brought on choking because there was a chip that got lodged down in her throat. I watched as she was gagging and then started turning blue before Steve was finally able to help her dislodge the chip. I did send up a little prayer of gratitude that she was ok and breathing again, but continued to get frustrated by her stubbornness of not wanting her taco salad they way it should be. Lets just say I was looking forward to her bedtime in less than a 1/2 hour.

Dinner got done and cleaned up when Steve had to run and do a sprinkler repair. As he was walking out the door one of my scouts knocked on the door. So Steve walked out followed by the girls and Seth was already out there. I let my scout and his mom in and shut the door so we wouldn't be disturbed. He had come to apologize and while he was in the middle of it I hear Steve yelling at Seth to get out of the way as he started pounding on the door. I open the door for him to come barging in all frustrated holding Kenna in his arms and her crying uncontrollably.

Steve forced his way to the couch only to say, "I just ran over Kenna." What? I was in disbelief. I think he was too. He repeated himself a little louder, "I just ran over Kenna." "With your bike?" I asked knowing the answer. "No, with my truck."

We both just sat there, not knowing what to do. Our neighbor could sense the anxiety in the room and said she could watch the kids if we needed to go to the hospital and then she quietly slipped out of the door with her boy. Kenna reached up and wanted me but Steve didn't want to let go. He kept pressing on her leg where there was a big black mark, we are thinking from the tires, but not sure. He pushed, stretched, moved, pinched everything we could think of but there was no response from her. She wasn't crying anymore. In fact her cry from the beginning wasn't a hurt cry it was a scared, mad cry. We all know how mother's know their kids cries. Once Kenna came to me she didn't cry anymore so we continued to poke and pry focusing all of our attention on her legs, but honestly we couldn't see anything. We didn't know what to do, there honestly were no signs of injury, except the black tire mark across her shin. Should we take her in and get her x-rayed all over just to be sure? We didn't know. We did put her down and tried having her walk to us and right at first she fell straight to the ground when she put pressure on the leg we thought might be hurt, but then she got up and walked over to me.

By this time, Steve and I just look at each other in total shock and the tears started streaming (at least from me). We couldn't believe what had just happened. You always hear of the stories on the news of how the 20 month old died after being run over by a car backing up. We both knew that a miracle had just taken place in our lives. See there were no kids outside when Steve left (they followed behind him). So though he did check his truck it was all clear. It wasn't until he was backing up that he felt the truck go over something and he knew. He hoped it wasn't so but he knew. Kenna, who's a little Daddys' girl was going to get Dad. Steve found her completely under the truck. Her whole body, he knows for sure he ran over something and yet he didn't feel the truck bump anything. We don't know she got all the way under the truck! We don't know how she came out alive let alone with no broken bones and only a scrape on her elbow that we found this morning after giving her a bath.

Steve left after making sure we were all fine, to go do his repair. He pulled out and got a couple blocks away before the tears came flowing down his cheeks uncontrollably. We had just experienced our own huge miracle.

Throughout the night, or at least until she fell asleep we kept a close eye on Kenna. She wouldn't sit still was constantly running around and didn't seem to be hurt at all. She did keep saying over and over again, "Daddy bye byes, leg, toes." "Daddy bye byes, leg, toes." As if she was trying to say "Daddy was going bye byes and ran over my leg and toes." She would reach down each time and grab at her leg and then her ankle. We didn't know if it hurt or not but it didn't appear to. Even this morning she said the same thing but there is literally nothing wrong with her. How, she was completely under the truck?

(no I didn't think to take a picture, this was one I had from a few weeks ago when she was sick)

After it all happened Seth came in the house and was hovering around knowing what had happened and Steve got after him, wanting to put blame somewhere but knowing it couldn't be. But he asked why he didn't grab Kenna and keep her away from the truck. Seth was too worried about two lizards he had just buried. But suddenly he felt responsible. We quickly, both Steve and I told him it wasn't his fault, but the lip was still quivering a titch. Once he knew she was ok I told him to go and get in the bath so we could get to bed. When I went to check on him he wasn't in the bath. He was sitting in the office at the computer and I got after him to go get in. I was sitting on the couch when he came out. I knew not to get mad this time for some reason as he reached his arm out and handed me a picture he had just drawn.

"It's for Kenna, see she's in the rain but the rain can't hit her mom, she's protected and it can't get her. And Kennas' thoughts are in the clouds." he told me. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Seth had so beautifully just described in his own way what had just happened. He knew Kenna had been protected and so did I. I loved that he used art to describe his feelings. Steve later told me that he doesn't know how or what he did but that somehow his dad was involved in protecting our little girl. Thanks to whatever angles protected her, whether it was one or many. Thanks for letting us keep our little girl, even if it's just for one more day. I will say this she has been pretty spoiled today with lots of hugs and kisses, as have all our kids. If only I can always remember how precious life is and not to take it for granted.

She Don't Know She's Beautiful

I threw together a dress for Railey today during Kenna's nap. Railey likes to sit there and "help" me the whole time especially when she knows the dress is for her. She of course had to try it on like 5 times before the dress was done, but now that it's done she won't take it off. I have to get it off of her so that it will still be clean for Sunday. Anyway Railey judges a dress by its twirl ability --"if it don't twirl she don't wear it!" The dress can be ugly but full in the skirt and its beautiful to her cause it twirls. I've made her some way cute things that she won't wear now because they aren't good to dance in. Silly girl! So after making and finishing the dress I was over cleaning up my mess when I looked over to see Railey and Kenna dancing to the song "She don't know she's beautiful" It was so cute. Though both girls know they are beautiful, they are even more so when they are happily dancing! But if you listen carefully you will also hear Railey singing the words. This is a song she has always fallen asleep to even from the time she was a baby, she loves it and loves to sing "Beautiful" loud and clear. Also you can't help but notice what a little ham Kenna is. Most people don't get to see this cute side of her because she is so serious scowly in front of everyone else but this is what we see all the time.

Kenna's 1st Birthday

Oh where oh where has the past year gone! I honestly can't believe that we had Kenna a year ago. It seriously just seems like I was going to the hospital yesterday. She has grown up so fast. Kenna is our little sober sides but it's been fun to see, even in the past few weeks, how she is developing her little personality and doing funny little things. The other night she was eating soup and every time I would put the spoon up to her mouth she would blow bubbles in the soup. I accidentally laughed the first time, but that only got her and the rest of the family belly laughing at her. It got to the point that she couldn't even blow bubbles, because even when I would start lifting the spoon to her mouth she was laughing so hard. She has the most beautiful smile and laugh. It truly is music in our home.

Kenna has been climbing the stairs for a while now but just in the past two days she has started going down them by herself. I still haven't moved the gate but will as soon as she learns how to turn around ALL the way.

Kenna still isn't interested in food really. She's mainly a veggie girl. Loves broccoli, but her absolute favorite food is asparagus. She doesn't care for fruits but is a true girl in that she loves chocolate and ice cream. If she even sees an ice cream container she crawls as fast as she can towards it.

She's still about 25 lbs. she has been since about 5 months. But she is starting to slim out and even was down to 24 the other day. She loves her sippy cup and has since 9 months, we are now starting to put milk in it but I'm not sure I want to ween her yet, nursing keeps me slimmer (yeah I'm selfish like that).

Oh how we love our Kenna girl. Happy Birthday Princess!

Here's Kenna right after she was born
Here she is now. We took her sledding for her birthday. Well let me rephrase that. We took the kids and then let her have a turn before we left, that's why she isn't appropriately dressed for it. But to our credit it was 55 degrees that day.

While Steve took the boys skiing, Railey and I made Kenna a birthday cake. Word to the wise, never use a Red Velvet cake for a 1st birthday! (or any for that matter until the kids are past 10!)

She didn't quite understand the whole candle thing, but thought it was fascinating.

She is such a dainty eater. Everything is with two fingers. So unlike my other children who had cake all over within seconds of it being placed in front of them

She did this dainty eating for a while (about 5 min worth of pictures) that was until I sat down to eat my cake then I looked over and

She decided that red cake could be lots of fun!

Oh we laughed hard at this little one. It was the soup incident all over again!

Happy Birthday Iris McKenna!!!

I'll eat that!

Kenna's been sick the past week with a fever, runny nose, cough--the works. I hate seeing my kids sick! That is the worst thing for me as their mother. Especially knowing there's really nothing I can do but wait it out! Well with her being sick she hasn't eaten anything, she will only nurse. But we have discovered something that she will eat. Steve brought home some suckers the other day. She loved it! In fact when we tried to take the stick away she screamed for a long time. When Railey went in her room with a sucker and Kenna woke up to see her there she screamed wanting that sucker. Well knowing how much she loved those we tried a candy cane. Those are right up there with suckers! So she won't eat any food but she will have suckers and candy canes. We caught a few good pictures.

Also of note today Kenna took her first step and eventually 5 all together. What! She won't even walk along furniture but she will stand up in the middle of the floor and now is taking a few steps? Who gave her permission to grow up? It definitely wasn't me!!!!!

Now you have the proof that Kenna will smile but only on her terms and it helps to have a treat in her hand!