Fun In the House

Oh the things we do for fun around our house!

Odds and Ends

love this guy

This is what happens when you allow your 2 year old to go into the closet and pick out his clothes for the day. (Partly my fault for leaving Halloween costumes on the bottom rack). Yes, he actually left the house like this and happy about it. Notice that 2 1/2 year olds don't fit too comfy into 9 month old clothing.

heard from the back seat, "reading with lion hands is HARD Momma".

His daddy's response, "Thats because Lions weren't made to read Josh."

There is nothing greater than reading shirtless with a friend!

Josh and Drew at our college reunion. An unlikely friendship between parents has led to new friendships...may the tradition of 42 never end!

Best buddy Owen and Josh riding in the helicopter at Splash Pad USA

Dash enjoyed some splashing of his own

My little way of honoring the faithful rat dog Maggie. She looks older every day but never stops playing and is starting to give Josh a run for his money.

Uncle Bud Gets MARRIED!

This was the big weekend that officially made Lindsay Lombard...Aunt Lindsay Kennedy! It was a great weekend and all my boys looked incredibly handsome in their tuxes. Josh was enamored with his "fancy" shoes and wouldn't take them off all week. He was so sad when we had to give them back on Sunday we went out and bought him his own pair. Now he can tap dance anytime (he is even wearing them as I type this, sitting in his underwear playing cars with fancy shoes on!) He and Owen did a super job walking down the isle as ring bearers. Grammo came in from Albuquerque to watch the boys while Kevin and I did our parts in the wedding. We couldn't have done it without her - thanks mom! It was quite a celebration and we are so thankful the Lord provided such a wonderful lady to join our family. We love you Uncle Bud and Aunt Lindsay!

Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy

Josh and his beautiful dance partner...that was until Owen cut in and stole her away! That's okay, Josh just danced solo next to the happy toddlers the rest of the night.

Jeans last picture with only 2 daughters

Grammo and her date Dash

My favorite picture!

What a perfect day for the Kennedy family!

8 Months

Little man Dash is 8 months old. It's funny because he is still such a baby to me. We continue to wait on his first tooth and he is still gloriously immobile. I think about the fact that Josh was almost walking at this age and it astounds me. Josh started doing everything so fast, so I'm glad that little Dash is taking his sweet time. That being said he has now officially hit the point where his frustration is showing. He gets frustrated when he knows he wants something but he obviously can't verbalize it and because he isn't crawling he can't always reach it either. He definitely prefers Josh's toys and big brother does a pretty good job sharing and keeping the small choking toys out of his reach. It is amazing to see Josh take on the role of big brother. Now to instill the trait of graciously taking care of Dash and not bossing him around...lots of prayer and modeling for this one! Josh is learning to let Dash do things for himself and cheer him on from the sideline, although his first response is usually "do it for him, Momma". I've always thought Dash was the happiest kid ever but I'm starting to notice a trend in his mood. His demeanor is almost always correlated to his brothers presence. Fuss bucket when brother is absent and tremendously happy when he is around. No one can make him laugh like Josh. He loves it when they wrestle (I just cringe every time I see Josh "wessle him" but Dash giggles and giggles), he loves it when Josh runs into his room to get him in the morning, he loves when big brother pushes him in the bouncy chair and he loves their time together in the back seat making silly faces while we drive. Their relationship is the most beautiful thing right now.

As usual Josh steals the show when I get out the camera for monthly pictures. Dash has a yucky cold in these pictures so he wasn't his normal perky self. The last one was taken while Josh entertained him for me to coax a smile!

Looks Good but How Does it Taste?

We did it! Our first batch of Strawberry Jelly is complete. It wasn't as hard as I expected and it didn't really take that long either. Now that it is sitting pretty on my counter in 12 quilted mason jars I'm almost afraid to open the perfectly sealed lid to taste it.

Step one: get strawberries ready for mashing

Step 2: implore the help of a very qualified 2 year old

Step 3: add way too much sugar and boil the mess out of those things

Step 4: lots of pouring and sealing

Step 5: lick the bowl and spoons and anything else Mom will give him with the red sticky stuff on it

Ah the life!

We went strawberry picking today with our dear friends Tammy and Jake. We are growing strawberrys in our garden but not nearly enough to make jam, so off to the big fields we went. What a difference a year makes! Last year at this time we went blueberry picking and Josh picked all the wrong berries, ate more than half of what we picked, and while he had fun, he was no help at all! This year he was the best berry picking buddy! He chose the biggest, ripest berries and filled his bucket to the brim! The weather was perfect, the company was great, and hopefully we'll have some yummy jam to show for our efforts!

Yummy Food, Cool Hat

We had Firehouse Subs for the first time last week and along with a very yummy sandwich, Josh got a cool hat. In his words, "now have fire hat for my fire boots". Well the other morning Josh begged to go outside and play. It was raining, so I suggested another time. He assured me it was okay because he had his hat and boots and rain wouldn't hurt him. How could I refuse such good reasoning?