Rewinding to V-Day, Kids Gym, and a Ponytail!!

I never posted any V-Day pics and these are just toooo sweet not to share! Lately after bathtime Hayes has enjoyed running around w/no clothes on. So fun for her and she gets such a kick out of it. It is really the cutest thing to see her run around the corner smiling and naked b/c she laughs and thinks it is really funny too. This was on Valentines night-she got some bubbles and animal crackers (which Mommy has eaten all of) Oh, I could just eat that girl up!!





We went to Kids Gym last week for free playtime-such a fun little place for little ones. It was our first time and it was so crowded. There were little ones of all ages running WILD-balls, trampoline, ball pit, slide, etc. Hayes had a blast and only got knocked down about 50 times. I thought Nathan was going to knock a few wild boys down for bumping into her-haha! Such a sweet and protective daddy! She was fine though and hopped right back up every time-only cried once when someone grabbed a ball from her.





Hayes was in line for the trampoline and was really checking that thing out-she decided she wanted to jump but then didn't really know what to do. She'll figure it out soon enough!






Crawling through the tunnel-she was not scared at all and thought it was so fun to go back and forth. We've made a few tunnels at home since and it's one of her daily favorites now!


Lastly on Saturday I was playing w/her hair and thought it would be funny to try to pull it back-check out that ponytail! The girl has got some hair! It seems to be getting thicker and longer everyday. It's always curly at night after her bath and we love it like that, but then most of the curls are all gone when she wakes up in the morning. Tomorrow she will be 13 MONTHS OLD! CRAZY!

Can't wait for spring!!

We had a beautiful Sunday, such nice spring like weather! We tried to stay outside as much as possible and enjoy the warmer temperatures. I hope it will last but I think it was just a spring tease!



This is Hayes after church w/her new little best friends, pig 1 and pig 2. Aunt Alyssa gave her a 3 little pigs playset for Christmas and she LOVES those pigs and the big bad wolf. She carries them all over our house. It came with a story and 3 little soft numbered houses that go w/the numbered pigs. Also they squeak and she loves that! Such a fun gift!



After lunch we went to the park to play and enjoy the day. This girl looovvves to swing, but not her momma. It really made me sick to my stomach-isn't that sad? I get so nauseated EVERY time I get on a swing! And have been like this for a few years!





I can't believe it's already the last week of February-this year is already flying by. But I do love the spring months and can't wait for the warmer weather so we can be outside more! Have a happy week!

Mercedes Marathon

He did it! Nathan finished the Mercedes Marathon yesterday and did such a great job! I am sooooo proud of him!! Hayes and I bundled up and went downtown to wait for him at the finish line yesterday morning, along with our good friends Jason and Emily. We had a general idea of what time he might finish but it was so hectic and really hard to see the runners up close and I was so afraid we had missed him already. So we waited and watched for him, and then finally we saw him!! I was SO happy to see that man coming around the corner! This first picture is of his legs b/c I was so excited to see him and cut his head off! At least I got his legs in action though!



Then his smiling face!!





Hayes was not quite as excited as the rest of us about her daddy running 26 miles. Probably the freezing cold weather and the layers of clothes, blankets and 2 hats on her-sorry Hayes!!



Our good friends, Jason and Emily, thanks for being there and being so supportive! We love y'all!!





Great family picture-everyone looking 3 different directions-haha oh well! Congrats to our super athletic daddy. Hope Hayesie Daisy takes after him!!

Baby to Toddler

This is very random but I was looking back through my pictures on my computer (don't you do this all the time too? It's one of my favorite things) looking at February pics from last year. How crazy how quickly babies change!! It seems like just a flash ago when she was this size! She loved this purple paci and I still keep this one on her changing table to keep her happy and distracted while I change her. It seems like she should still be this little, laying in her swing and napping in her boppy pillow.



And now this, 1 year later, February 2010! Sitting up so big, eating bananas for her afternoon snack and looking at the TV!



My baby has definitely morphed into a toddler. I feel like we are in a whole new stage every day, which lately is keeping her out of the trashcans, toilet tissue (her favorite) and the pantry, and now trying to get her re-interested in eating! She has decided recently that she doesn't want to be a big eater anymore (not at all like her momma and daddy.) I'm praying she doesn't become a picky eater! I just keep giving her a variety of foods to prevent this and hope that will help. She is a constant learning process for me!!

Bits and Pieces

This will just be a short blog post-no direction just lots of little things. We are enjoying a slower paced week this week and I love it. It is freezing cold outside and we are home for the day. Hayes is napping and I have already put my pajamas back on!! We braved the cold rain and went to a wonderful moms bible study this morning. It was on strengthening your marriage and was great and refreshing, and the 2 ladies who led it are always so good to listen to. They teach a 14 week newlywed class at our church on Sundays along with their husbands, and are full of wisdom and good words. I highly recommend the class if you are getting married/newly married or are looking for a place to get plugged in to! (Email me if you want some info.) Then we went to lunch with our good friend Lindsey D. at Zoe's and Hayes had a great time staring at everyone. She is getting to be quite a handful and I'm afraid our days of eating out are getting short. She can be a total monkey, so funny, loves to look at strangers, and will squint her eyes and smile her biggest cheese smile and wave at them. She had her eye on an older man in the restaurant sitting behind us and kept waving at him while we ate.

I had to share this picture that our Aunt Lindsey took at Hayes' bday party. She got this rocking horse from Nana and Papa and she loves it. She likes to pat him on the back and will get on him for a few seconds and then wants to get down. She really likes having him in our living room!



Change of subject...Hayes has not yet really noticed the TV and I've been wondering when little ones start doing that. She would never pay any attention to baby einstein or miss pattycake when I've turned one on. Well this past weekend I pulled out a dvd my sister gave us, an old cedarmont kids dvd and she likes it! This one we have is really old (I'm sure they've updated now) but she still loved it. She actually looked at it and paid attention for a few minutes, long enough for me to unload the dishwasher while she ate her snack. We have 2 of the cd's and they're so sweet and now 2 of the dvd's. And now we love the Cedarmont Kids!!



If you live in the B'ham area then you know the Mercedes Marathon is coming up this weekend! I don't think I've mentioned on this blog before that Nathan is the runner in our family. It's a vital part of his day every day (besides going to work and then spending some time with us of course) but he loves it and is passionate about getting his run in every day, even if it's in the early morning hours. He is planning to run the full marathon on Sunday. I'm so proud of him and I know he'll do great. He has been working hard with his training and getting up super early on weekdays and Saturday mornings (like 4 am!) to run before Hayes and I even think about getting up for the day just so he'll be here with us in the mornings. He's a devoted man to say the least! Say a prayer for him on Sunday if you think about it! I'm sure he would appreciate it!!

Back to Normal

I'm back! We've had an eventful few days here in the Kennedy household. Let me preface this long story by saying that we live in an old house, around 60 years old, much like 95% of Birmingham homes. We LOVE our home and would not trade it for anything, but unfortunately older homes do come with the occasional sacrifice!

On Thursday morning after Hayes went down for her nap I was ready to jump in the shower and get ready for our day. I turned on the shower and waited for the water to heat up, and waited and waited. Freezing cold, so I turned off the shower and thought I would wait 5 minutes. So I came back and tried again and waited forever and finally decided something was wrong. I called Nathan and he said, well my shower was not very hot this morning so something might be wrong with the hot water. Hmmm...I had a sleeping baby and was on a race against the clock as usual to get myself ready in an unpredictable amount of time b/c I never know when my time is up with her nap. We had lunch plans with our preschool minister so I decided that the no shower/ponytail thing was just not a good option. So I jumped in as fast as I could and showered and washed about half of my hair before I was a frozen block of ice. I couldn't even get to the conditioner part b/c it was TOO excruciatingly cold to stay in there 1 more second. I jumped out and called Nathan immediately to let him know there is NO HOT WATER to be found anywhere in our hot water heater! Seriously this was some frigid, insanely cold ice water, the kind that is too painful to wash your hands much less take a whole shower in! Ahhh! So little did I know this was only the beginning of no hot water in our house for almost 5 days!!

We have a wonderful friend and neighbor who lives down the street who is always so receptive to help out whenever we have a house problem. He is awesome! He always knows exactly how to help and does so without any hesitation. So between him, his good friend (an electrician) and a plumber we had people in and out all weekend. In the meantime we were like a traveling family of gypsies taking showers at friend's houses! Many, many thanks to the Fill's and the Byrom's for letting us use your awesome HOT showers!!

Back to the people in and out of our house...every time one of the 3 came by to see what was going on, I would think Lord please let them be excited when they come out of the attic and tell us they know what the problem is. Well it seemed like many trips to the attic and back and no one had any answers whether this was plumbing or electrical and whether this would be a $100 problem or $10,000 problem, so we continued to wait (w/no shower by the way.) And by Saturday I kept thinking about how annoying and inconvenient this problem was (esp. with a baby that likes a bath), but how extremely small compared to what other people live like on a daily basis. I mean all the people in Haiti who are sleeping on the ground, with no food, looking for family members, no diapers or milk for their babies, no clothes, no medicines, just WAITING for someone to help them. And here I am, begging for hot water to come through our faucet just to make us all a little more comfortable in our clean house that is full of food, heat, blankets, clean beds, tv, computer, etc.. Seriously how SPOILED is that that we get SO used to our everyday comfortable living and one little thing throws it off and we think we just can't make it until we get everything back to how we think it is supposed to be. On Saturday I got a copy of the 31 days of praying for your marriage and how funny that the topic for Saturday was CONTENTMENT. God, teach me to be content whatever the circumstances. Phillippians 4:11. How appropriate that I needed to read and believe that very verse on that very day and how easy to forget that truth on daily/hourly basis. So it was like okay Lord you know our needs and we know that you will take care of this issue whenever you choose to work it out. We will be fine while we wait.

So Monday came and off we went to start our day at work/school and then when we came home around 1:30 I was so scared to try the water but I had a feeling it would work. So I turned on the kitchen sink and waited and it was cold. Boo. But I kept waiting and all of a sudden it turned warm, warm, then hot!! I was jumping up and down and acting like a crazy person and I know Hayes thought I was nuts. I have never been so excited in my life to feel hot water. And I will NEVER again in my life take clean hot water for granted!!

Such a long story and if you're still reading you are a real trooper, it's mainly for me to record so the next time I am feeling ungrateful I can be reminded of this. I will end w/a picture of Miss Hayes the active 1 year old. We've given her new adjectives that describe her, sweet and spicy! She fits both words to a T. She's hovering around the 18 lb mark so she's not quite ready to face forward in her big seat in the car. So in the meantime we're using it for an inside seat and toy and she loves it!