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.

Happy Helper

Kennedy has been very helpful as of late.  And when I say helpful I mean curious.  And when I say curious I mean in the way.  But very cute nonetheless.  Since she is walking now, we have decided to give her a little bit more freedom to roam the house, and this means baby proofing the cabinets.  So while Brett was making the bathroom safe, Kennedy wanted to help.

We have also let her wander around in the kitchen a lot more.  This means a lot more watching on my part during the day, but this kind of stuff goes in phases.  I had to watch a lot more when she started crawling, and then again when she was walking pretty well, and now again.  But this time it's my fault because I'm letting her in the kitchen.  She has to learn sometime, right?  She gets into the cat food (although she's getting better about that) and sometimes she gets into the pots and pans.  But yesterday, she got into the dishwasher.

She was desperately trying to climb all the way in.  Fortunately I stopped her before she hurt herself.  She also loves to come into the kitchen and throw her balls since they roll so well on the tile.  She's getting so much more independent and so big!

I Feel Pretty

Yesterday I was laying on the floor with Kennedy and she spied my headband.  The first thing she wanted to do was rip it off of my head, which I let her do.  But then, being the bow hating girl that she is, she surprised me by putting it in her own hair and walking around with a huge smile on her face.  Her first attempt was hilarious.

Her second attempt was much neater, and she looked like she had a little crown on her head.  I promise I did not even touch this.  She was walking around like a little princess.  I'm definitely going to have to go and buy her some headbands of her own!