At Least Someone's Having Fun!

We're all having fun, but Kennedy seems to be really living it up.  She's having adventures and getting into all kinds of mischief since we left for Hawaii.  We don't have any beach pictures yet, but she absolutely loves it...at least up until the time that her teeth start chattering and her lips turn blue.  She did have her first run-in with headphones on the airplane.  She watched a Baby Einstein.

And ever since she's been here she has had the urge to clean up.  Shoes, toys, blankets, socks, trash, and pretty much anything else you can think of ends up in her crib.  Every time we need to put her to sleep we have to clean it out.

She also decided that every single one of her clips needed to be in her hair at one time, and daddy obliged.  Of course, daddy didn't do this neatly, in a straight line, or in any kind of design, so it turned out like this.

She has also been relaxing more than anyone else.  After the pool this morning, we wrapped her up in a towel and mom carried her back to the hotel room while she was sipping a smoothie the whole way.

We certainly have one spoiled little girl, but she's awfully cute.

How can you say no to that sweet face?  She's having a blast here, and so are we.  I'll be sure to post some pictures of the hotel and the beach soon!

Another Wedding

My brother Blake and his girlfriend Lisa got married this morning.  I don't have any pictures because I wasn't there and didn't even know about it until just now!  Apparently though, their son Wyatt was mad so he ate an Oreo in Lisa's arms the whole time.  Typical baby. :)  We will give them our congratulations when we see them for Hawaii tomorrow!

Hawaii, Here We Come!

We are leaving for Hawaii on Saturday!  We will be staying on Kauai and going to the beach a lot.  Hopefully, Kennedy will be a little bit happier at the beach than she was back in March, because if not, we will be spending a lot more time at the pool.  We will get to see my aunt, uncle and cousins who live in Beijing, my cousin Daniel who I haven't seen since my wedding, and my mom is getting married, so we have lots of things to look forward too.  We will be gone for 2 weeks, but I am bringing my computer and plan to blog while we're there!  I also wanted to mention that Noelle won the Williams-Sonoma Main Dishes cookbook too!  When we get back from Hawaii I have one more to give away, so somebody had better give Noelle some competition!

Semper Paratus

I'm sorry for the double post today - if you would like to enter to win a cookbook, see post below.  I just wanted to follow up on what I said a few posts ago about moving on with our lives.  3 weeks from today Brett will be sworn in to the US Coast Guard.  Yep.  That's our big news.  After applying for the nursing program at UVU and not being accepted by a very small margin, we felt that we needed to find another way to get medical training.  After much praying, thinking, and researching, we have truly felt that this is the path that we need to take.  A couple of weeks ago Brett took the entrance exam for the military (ASVAB) and got a really high score, so he qualifies for any job he wants in the Coast Guard.  He is going to be doing health jobs for them.  He took his physical today and everything, including the pins in his ankle, were okayed.

This does mean that, probably in late September, Brett will be off to boot camp for 8 weeks.  Of course, Kennedy and I are not allowed to be at boot camp (in fact, I don't think he can even use the phone for the first 4 weeks), so we will be going down to Texas for that time.  This means that we will be leaving Utah, and pretty quickly.  We don't know exactly where we'll be right after boot camp, but we will know after he's been there for 6 weeks.  So we have some serious adventures ahead of us!  We are really excited about this new path and the adventures that it will bring.

I Can Still Barely Move

Dear Kennedy,

I'm so sorry that all of us adults have apparently horrible depth perception and your little finger got caught in the door.  I'm glad it didn't hurt too much, and I promise to be more wary next time you look like you won't make it to the door in time.

Sad Mommy

Dear July 19,

You are the most birthday-ridden date that I know.  4 people that I know have that birthday, which is truly crazy.

Baffled Girl

Dear Maple Canyon,

Thank you for being a cool place for me to go rock climbing outside for the first time.  You were not scary, except for that last route that was a bit higher than I'm used to going and pretty sheer on the top.  All in all, although my muscles have been painful and dead since I left, you were very fun.

Still an Amateur Rock Climber

Dear Blog Readers,

I am giving away another cookbook!  This time it is a copy of Main Dishes from Williams-Sonoma's New Healthy Kitchen line.  A very creative way to make your dinners healthy with lots of great recipes!  Once again, the winner will be randomly selected from the comments on this post.  So comment and hopefully you'll win!  Winner will be chosen at 9 am (mountain time) Wednesday!  Good luck!

Budding Chef

A Good Life and a Winner

I had quite a few good moments yesterday that made me remember how good my life is.  I stood in a clean kitchen eating Phish Food ice cream and listening to "Under Pressure" while Kennedy was asleep.  I watched Kennedy read a book to herself while in her room.  Brett came home and gave me a back rub for no good reason.  I have a great life full of simple pleasures and great people.  And no, I haven't forgotten about my contest.  Congratulations to Noelle who won How to Cook Everything!  For those of you who missed out on the contest, or even if you didn't, watch early next week for another cookbook giveaway!

Cookbook Giveaway!

That's right!  I'm giving away a cookbook!  I was so excited to win a cookbook that I thought I would give one away as well.  I have several to give away, and first up is Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.  All you have to do to enter the contest is comment on this post.  I will pick a random winner on Friday at noon, and that lucky person will get this book!  Don't worry if you live far away from me, I am more than happy to ship it to you.  Good luck!

Hawaii and Free Stuff - How Much Better Does It Get?

love winning free stuff!  I just won a cookie cookbook from one of my favorite cooking sites, bakingandbooks.com

hate that I never win the KitchenAids or other large and expensive items from the Pioneer Woman

love that we get to go to Hawaii in 2 weeks

hate that we have to have almost an entire day of flying with a 15 month old to get there

love that we finally are taking some initiative and moving on with our lives

hate that I can't really talk about it for another week (don't worry, I'll post about it)

love that I get to go see Harry Potter on Wednesday!

hate that we will have to get there super early to get in line

love that Kennedy's last molar finally seems to be coming in

hate that she has a fever and some severe crankiness because of it

love eating

hate that in order to lose weight I have to control the eating

love that I get to go to Education Week this year

hate that they don't allow children under 14 into the classes

Cousins at the Cabin

I know I'm a little bit late on this one, but here's what we did over the 4th of July weekend.  Brett's parents are building a cabin up Spanish Fork Canyon, so we camped there on Friday night in order to help build on Saturday.  On Friday night we had a big birthday dinner for Brett's sister Jamie who turned 18 on the 5th.  We played games and had a huge number of people there to celebrate.  On Saturday morning we got to work on the cabin.

All of the main floor windows were installed and some other minor adjustments were made, but the boys did a good job!  We got to see some family that doesn't live in Utah, including Kennedy's cousin Nick.

Nick is 2 months older than Kennedy, but lives in California, so they don't get to play much.  They sat down together on this wood pile though, so everyone had to whip out their cameras.

Of course, Kennedy had to put on her cheesy smile as soon as she saw the cameras.  She can't help herself.  That night we headed to Santaquin for the annual block party and fireworks.  It was windy and cold and started pouring before we really got going, but Kennedy loved the fireworks she did see.  She clapped every time she saw one.

Yes, her mouth is blue from treats.  I couldn't tell because it was so dark.  All in all we had a great time with family, had some great food (including Snickers Salad!) and were exhausted when we got home.

Word Count

Kennedy's vocabulary is growing alarmingly fast.  I can hardly keep up with her.  Here is a list of her newest (and some not so new) and cutest words.

Ready: this usually sounds more like "ree!"  She says it whenever we are going out somewhere or when she is getting out of the car.  She is ready to go!

Shoes: or "shis".  She knows we're getting ready to go outside when she sees her shoes.  She knows what they're for and she gets really excited for me to put them on now.

Book: she has a hard time ending the word on a hard letter I think, so it sounds more like "booky" or "bookuh".  She loves to say this one though.  We went to the library yesterday and she just about lost her voice because she saw so many books.

Jesus: since Kennedy doesn't sit still at church very well, lately we have just been wandering halls for a while.  I took her around and was pointing out Jesus in the pictures.  After a few she caught on and started saying it for herself.  Now, when she sees pictures at home she points and says "Jees-s!"

Hi: she has only recently picked up on hi.  But it's really cute, because now she starts all of her pretend phone conversations that way.

Hogwarts and Horcruxes

I just finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince again yesterday.  I love that book.  It is my favorite in the series, closely followed by Goblet of Fire.  I am so excited for the movie to come out in a couple of weeks that I can hardly stand it.  It's going to be amazing!  The previews that show my favorite part of the book look awesome and very well done.  We are old fuddy-duddies who have a baby, so we won't be going to the midnight showing, but I will be buying tickets for the night of the 15th so we can go enjoy Harry Potter!  Thank you for indulging me.  And on a Harry Potter note, on Monday night I had a dream in which Voldemort and some Death Eaters did Thriller.  That's right.