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What's up

Kenley is such a good eater. She started stealing food from the bigger kids on vacation and she did pretty good, so she pretty much eats big food now. It's messy but cute.



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9 Months {Kenley}

At 9 months, Kenley is...

19 lbs 6.4 oz
27.75 in
Eating anything we let her eat. She chews really well. And drinks less bottles.
Sleeping great during naps (1-3 hours) and all night. We can walk out if she's crying and she stops in less than 5 minutes.
Sporting another tooth (top left) to go with her bottom 2 from last month.
Climbing on everything. And never wanting to sit still, as you can tell in the picture.
A super fast crawler when she wants something.
A mommy's girl.
Shy every now and then when people come up to her.
Loving her voice.
Still the happiest baby ever. She is always smiling or laughing.

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Family Vacation 2012 {Surfside Beach, TX}

We took our first real Family Vacation this year and it was so much fun. I can't wait for the next one! Aunt Sarah and Uncle Garrett got to come with us and the Mikulas Family (Mackenzie, Jonathan, Taylor (7), Avery (1), and Aidan (3). There were 7 kids and 4 adults but it went better than I could have expected. The kids had tons of fun together. Everyone got along. And the house was a perfect size. Wyatt called the beach house "our new house." It had 2 bedrooms, a nice sized living room, and a kitchen with an island, plus a big loft area upstairs with bunk beds, a day bed, and a queen bed. We were super close to the beach. All we had to do was walk downstairs (run for our lives away from the killer mosquitoes that had come in from all the rain the week prior) and walk down to the beach (and once we got to the beach the mosquitoes were gone). We stayed for a week.

The day after we got home I made a shutterfly scrapbook because I didn't want to leave anything out, there were so many pictures, and I didn't have time to do a fancy scrapbook with the program I have on my computer. With that said, I wanted to post pictures here for our family and friends to see what we did, but the pictures are out of order and I selected a few just to make it easier.

On or drive to the beach all the kids did awesome! Wyatt played on the ipad and watched movies and Kenley slept, ate, and hung out. Garrett and Sarah played on their phones. Chris drove and I slept and played on facebook, of course. We stopped at Bucees to eat and take in the Bucees experience because we had never been and I always hear about it.

As soon as we got to the beach we unpacked and got our suits on and headed out to the beach. We didn't waste any time getting to the water. After playing we went to IHOP and then made a WalMart stop to get all the cold food we needed.

The rest of the week was spent swimming, boogie boarding, trying to wake board, building sand castles and holes, catching anything we could find to catch, saving other peoples' lives by getting jellyfish out of the water ;), watching fireworks, cooking meals (it takes a lot of time to cook and feed that many people!), trying to get kids to "rest", fishing, crabbing, playing games (we had serious Phase 10 games going on after the kids were in bed; this family doesn't mess around when it comes to playing games), perfecting our assembly line of getting babies and preschoolers back from the beach and showered, praying there weren't any ER trips needed because Wyatt and Aidan would not stop play wrestling and every kids insisted on jumping from the top bunk, and laughing lots and lots.

We went to Galveston, which was about 40 minutes away one evening. We had dinner at The Spot, which was really good and had AMAZING desserts (it was vacation!). Then rode the ferry twice to see dolphins swimming in the ocean. Then went to the Rainforest Cafe's River Adventure Ride, which was a ride for all ages and you sit in a round boat and go along a little river and look at the rainforest theme with fake animals and lots of noises. Wyatt hung on tight to me and about the time we got to the gorillas he had had enough. Poor guy. Kenley wasn't phased at all.

Another day we went to the Sea Center aquarium and hatchery and it was the neatest place. We got a tour and saw how they conserve, hatch, and release fish. EVERYONE was so interested in this place and our free little field trip turned out to be so worth it.

Okay, that's my quick summary because I know what everyone is looking for are the pictures. Here they are...

Crabbing

Ice cream and games

At the hatchery

Our master grillers

Best Buds

I have water babies. They LOVE it!

Mackenzie and I worked on our sand masterpieces and then all the kids decided to have meltdowns. 

Smores!

Looking for something to catch. We found baby fish in the shallow water, crabs, and a hermit crab.

Building with Daddy

Lounging on the beach

Mommy and Daddy

Dinner (if you look closely Uncle Garrett is probably sneaking his food onto Wyatt's plate so he can go straight to dessert) ;)

On the ferry (the pic I chose for the scrapbook was better, but it's too late to change this one, but not a single one has everyone looking)

To the beach

I stood in the doorway and took pictures all around to show the house.

Thank you Mikulas' for such a great idea for a family vacation. I'm ready for the next one right now.

Grammy's Waffles

Do you remember food that your grandparents made that no one else could ever make as good? My Nana had so many but one of the silliest ones was her Italian dressing. No, not with a ton of special ingredients. Just the Hidden Valley or whatever kind it is that comes with the bottle and you add water and vinegar and stuff! She told me so many times how she did it. A little different than the recipe. Like a little less vinegar and a little more oil or something like that.... Well, I could make it right in front of her with her telling me and it would NEVER be the same. Ever.

Well, that's how Grammy's waffles are. EVERYONE loves them. They are just Bisquick, but no one can make them the same. Why? Who knows. But it's true. Today Kenley did not want her puffs or her milk. She wanted waffles, too. Grammy gave her one and we had full intentions of taking it away after she chewed a little. But....

She was so excited...

She took a bite...

And kept going...

Until there was one last piece...

And that was it! She ate it! I let my baby eat a waffle.

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The Stick Bug {San Antonio Trip}

This was one of the funniest things on our trip. At one of the gas stations I looked down and saw this HUGE bug and since it was not a spider (because I'm scared to death of spiders) I picked him up from the back to go show the boys. Everyone was really interested even though a little unsure of this huge thing (and so was I but I knew that Wyatt would love it for sure). Well, he jumped out of my hands and straight onto Uncle Garrett's shirt. I went to grab it really quick but couldn't and you have never seen a boy scream and dance around the parking lot with his whole back arched as far as possible to keep it away from his face as this. It was hilarious. Everyone within 1 mile of us was looking to see what in the world was going on. Poor Garrett got teased the entire trip, especially from his sister. Wyatt has been talking about the "stick bug" for days and pretending that his plastic lizards are stick bugs.  And Garrett made sure that we sent the picture to everyone because he now thinks it's cool. But let me tell you... he. did. not.

Every muscle in Garrett's neck, back, and face were as tight as they could be. And that big guy was hard to pull of with his clingy bug feet. Eew.



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San Antonio {part 1}

Last Sunday through Wednesday we went to San Antonio. Sarah, Garrett, Wendie (S and G's nanny), my kiddos, and my mom all went.  It was a very busy trip and we packed as much into our stay as we could. We stayed at the La Cantera Resort and it was so nice. Our first night we got in around 8:30 because traffic was awful, but that didn't stop us from getting our swimsuits on as soon as we got in and heading to the pool. We ate dinner around 10:30 out at the pool and made it all work. The best part was no one else was swimming so we had the big slide to ourselves. The next day at breakfast I heard "Mrs. Jeans!" I turned around and it was one of my freshman girls who is now a Junior. I was so surprised to run into someone and very glad that she wanted to say "Hello" and not run and hide from me. ;) After breakfast we spent the day at the Alamo and on the riverwalk. We took a boat tour down the river and it was neat to hear all the history and Wyatt was so excited to be on a boat. After a very HOT and long day we went back to the hotel and me, my mom, Wyatt, and Uncle Garrett all took the shuttle to Six Flags for a few more hours of fun. Aunt Sarah, Wendie, and Kenley hung out at the hotel. Garrett and I rode the big rollercoaster while my mom and Wyatt did the little rides and found popcorn. Wyatt LOVES rides. He is always nervous at first and looks unsure during, but talks about it non-stop afterwards. Then there were fireworks and a video that was projected against the rocks. Wyatt LOVES fireworks but we were really close to these and they were the loudest ones I've ever heard and the grand finale about did him in. He grabbed onto me and had the saddest face and soon after were the tears. So pitiful and sad. But the very next day he said they don't scare him and he wanted to see more so I guess he was fine.

Here we all are crammed in my car. It's my "new" Jeep Commander and I love it. I traded in my Jeep Grand Cherokee (I honestly don't think I ever want anything other than Jeep. This is my 3rd Jeep.) for this one to have the 3rd row. It was tight but we all fit. And ALL the kids did a great job traveling. I tease my mom that she is worse than the kids.

And I was the driver. I never drive on trips. I seriously think the last trip I drove was one of my drives home from Lubbock. Chris likes to drive and I like to sleep.

Ready for bed the first night. We had 2 double beds, a pull-out sofa, and a roll-away. Oh and a playpen for Sister. It worked out great. We didn't do much sleeping anyways.

Posing at the Alamo. I'm not sure that the kids really took it all in, but they can all say they were there. When Sarah and Garrett learned about the Alamo they were so excited so Wendie planned the trip for that reason. Garrett was so disappointed that "it's been ruined" by being turned into a museum. I never know what's going on in a kid's mind, but part of my thinks he wanted to walk up and see the battle taking place. ;)

On the boat

We ate at Mi Tiera's and the Mariachi guys sang "La Bamba" for us. The big kids were so embarrassed. Kenley loved it and Wyatt just stared. 

About to ride The Rattler. Garrett was THE BEST rollercoaster buddy. Every chance we got to leave the group to go ride "real rides" we were off.

The dragon outside the log ride. Look at Wyatt's face. He was so proud that he rode a rollercoaster.

Fireworks and a video. The video was a slideshow about Texas. We sure are proud to be Texans. I always wonder if everyone loves their state this much. I'm sure they do.

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San Antonio {part 2}

Our next full day we spent at Fiesta Texas all day. It was HOT, but so much fun. Afterwards we went to IHOP and then got to bed really late to wake up really early to head home.

Wyatt on a ride.



I could totally do without the games, but my mom and all the kids love them so they played. Here is Wyatt filling the cup BY HIMSELF. Guess who won?! He got a batman cape.



And what are the chances of winning the game where you throw a ring onto a coke bottle? Twice? Garrett sure did!!! Look at these things and remember the first picture on part 1 with the crammed car. Hmmmm....

But Garrett sure was excited!

The only game I played was basketball in order to win Wyatt 2 Texas Tech basketballs. :)

Batman.



We "ate" in the food court and the food was awful so we spent a lot of money of food that went in the trash but guess who came out for a little show? All the Looney Tunes characters and it was a perfect little break from the heat. And it was all to 80's music!

Of course, Wyatt got to ride the train. We all rode once then everyone wanted to keep riding so Garrett and I took off to go ride "real rides."

Sarah and one of her game prizes. 

Sarah was smart because the rule was that if you won them - you carried them.

Wendie

Kenley was such a good sport the ENTIRE trip. She is the happiest, go-with-the-flow baby ever and just hung out everywhere we went. Aunt Sarah won this Baby Bugs for her and she played and played with it. Such a sweet Aunt. 

When we got home Daddy came home from work to help us unload. He's such a sweet guy! I sure did appreciate it, too. Here's the car. Can you spot the banana? The banana was not going to fit in the roof bag. At 5:30 am I was tired of trying to fit it and was all for telling Garrett to say goodbye to the banana, but Wendie saved the banana and had the guys helping us tie it to the roof. I said I wouldn't laugh about it until we got home safely and we did so I laughed.

We needed space and didn't want to pay a fortune for a roof carrier (those hard things) and Chris found this thing at roofbag.com. It worked great and was pretty easy to use. And way cheaper.

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