Little Helper

Kendra takes after her daddy in lots of ways.  She's still got those awfully sweaty feet (seriously, it's the weirdest thing).  She's got an insatiable thirst for attention and affection (I know that most children her age do, but it's also something she gets from him).  And she's totally into the DIY projects.  She pretty much can't be convinced that she is anything but a huge help around this place.  It might just fall apart without her, really.

So when it was time to weather-proof her bedroom window, she just hopped right in.

"Here, Daddy.  I'll help."

I don't know how we would manage without her...  :)

Our pretty, happy Little Helper!

Remember when I said I was caught up on blogging?

I totally LIED.  But on accident, promise.

So waa-aaaaaaaaaaay back in September the playgroups in both wards here headed out to a fruit farm not far outside town.  It was pretty fun times.  Especially since my awesome sister-in-law and her youngest came, too!

Though Stephie might not have been so "into" having a Kodak moment.

Why didn't I take off my sunglasses for his picture?

I look like a giant bug.

There were all kinds of fun things to see and do at the little farm, but Kendra's favorite thing about the whole place?  Gravel.  I'm not kidding, she had a ball just sitting down and tossing rocks in her lap while all the other children were playing on all the fun equipment and stuff.  But I don't really blame her.  I'd rather sit and look at rocks than try to fight my way through a pulsing throng of people significantly larger than me, too (there were a lot of kids there, and she was the youngest, smallest one walking).

 The look of satisfaction.

Unfortunately when a bigger kid saw her doing it, he started chucking them as hard and far as he could, thus sending his mother into a mild, eye-twitching panic.  Oops.  But by then most of the families had scattered and wandered home, leaving the play stuff almost barren so that littler ones could enjoy it.

Stephie totally had Kendra's back.

 

And my personal favorite shot from the trip:

"Hey, Mom.  'Sup."

And eventually all the other kids either went home or lost interest in the tractor.

"Don't bug me, I'm driving here."

JOY RIDE!!

Debbie and I decided to go back inside to browse at the store and there was a little play area there, too.  It had a sandbox filled with corn instead of sand so we took turns watching the kids so that we could look around a little easier.  The kids had some fun with it.

And unfortunately, Kendra was having so much fun I couldn't convince her to take a break and smile for the camera--never underestimate the power of corn.  :)

We had ourselves some Big Fun, made all the more awesome by getting to share it with our family!  Have we mentioned how much we loooooove living in the same town as these guys?  Seriously.  In fact, we highly recommend that everyone move here, too!

Just kidding.

Except not really.

Kendra's BEST Shirt

Kendra likes it because the sparklies are fun to touch.

We LOVE it because it means exactly what it looks like it means.

Baby #2 is due in June.  :)

Around the house...

Well, with winter we've been hanging out around the house lately.

A lot.

While we ain't in Chicago anymore, it still gets pretty cold in Pennsylvania.

Kendra and I have been wearing long underwear for weeks now.

But we still manage to have some fun...

"I so pretty!"

Too true, my Love.

Then one morning I walked into the living room and found this:

I'll be straight up, I have no idea how she ended up behind this gate...

Kids keep you on your toes, I guess...

Later that same morning I was working on something at the computer and turned around and saw this:

Just sittin' back, watching the lights on the tree.

In a doll stroller.

She looked pretty comfy to me.

And of course, when she realized I was taking pictures, I got one of these:

LOVE.  IT.

Then one evening as I was doing laundry and bustling about from room to room, I noticed that she was following me with a laundry basket of her own in tow.

But she wasn't putting laundry in it.

"Can I help you with something?"

Though a few seconds later this happened:

No children were harmed in the photographing of the this blog.

Promise.

(See the long underwear?  I wasn't kidding.  We both look fat, but we're OH-SO comfy!)

Yep, she's my buddy.

We have all kinds of fun together.

Headbands!

Kendra has recently figured out where I stash all of her headbands and bows.  While she still doesn't wear them for an extended period of time, she sure does love to play with them.  All of them.  At.  The same.  Time.  It's hilarious!

O, Christmas tree

We decided to get our first full-sized tree this year.

It's only the very cheapest and thinnest $20 model, but it's still fun.

And as this is only our 3rd Christmas as a family, we've only got a few ornaments, anyway.

(And these days, we have at least one "Whacha doin, Mom?" shot in every set of pictures we take...)

But the few we do have are all on the top half of the tree.

Y'know, out of the reach of little hands.

We also are only using shatter-proof ornaments next year.

Merry Christmas!

"Hey, ya wanna s'more?"

"Some more what?"

"No, no, you want a s'more?"

"I haven't had anything yet, so how can I have some more of nothing?"

"You're killing me, Smalls!

These are s'mores stuff.

Okay, pay attention.

First, you take the graham.

[Though before that, you do have to get a fire going.]

You stick the chocolate on the graham.

[But sometimes you have to call in an expert to get a fire to last.]

[Success!]

Then, you roast the 'mallow.

 [CHECK and CHECK!]

When the 'mallow's flaming, you stick it on the chocolate.

Then...you cover it with the other end.

[With some assistance, if needed.]

Then, you stuff."

[And you don't bother taking pictures of that because...Oh.  My.  YUM.]

S'mores instructions courtesy of The Sandlot.

And, we're finally caught up with blogging.  Shew.

Practical Solutions

Kendra really hates it when we're riding in the car and the bright glaring sun shines in her face and she can't escape it.  Actually, come to think of it, I really hate that too.  Don't we all?  So I found her a pair of sunglasses that are actually designed to block sun and not just make my favorite toddler look like she should be on the cover of Baby Vogue or something.

And as you can tell, she's a pretty satisfied customer.

Mommy WIN.

Does this hat make my face look fat?

What's nice about being a one-year-old is that nothing makes you look fat.

Only adorable.

Even when your parents don't realize that you're posed right next to the training bras when they take the picture...

A few pics for funsies

Sights like this just melt my heart...

Can you tell who's having more fun there?  Me neither.

Wanna see my cute laundry helper?

These baskets sure are Kendra-sized, aren't they?  :)

And, when we drove to our apartment for the first time, we noticed a recumbent bike store on the main drag of town.  One sunny afternoon we stopped in to check it out.

We weren't the only ones who wanted to try one.

Seriously.  She screamed until I took this picture.

We have us some fun around here, yes siree!

A picture-worthy event

From the day we found out (and much to my surprise, I might add) that Kendra was a girl, I went on a mad hunt for headbands and BIG flowers and bows to clip in them so that everyone who saw her would know without a shadow of a doubt that she was, in fact, a girl.

And I was quite successful in my quest--our archives are filled with pictures of just that (this is my favorite seller, if you've been on such a quest, you know how frustrating and holy-cow-expensive it can be).  To a point.  Because when Kendra hit 10 months, she started pulling those headbands off and then she'd pop those flowers right off the clips.

Stinker.

I fought it for a few weeks, but quickly gave up.  She just wasn't going to wear all these cute little headbands and her hair wasn't thick or long enough to sport them alone.

Now that her hair finally is  long enough, though, she still won't keep them in.  That's why there are never any pictures of Kendra wearing hair clips even though I have a whole bag of flowers, clips and bows in every color of the rainbow and more.  As soon as I pop it in, she pulls it out.  Then she gets a little crestfallen when she tries to replace it herself and it just ends up in her lap.

That's why this picture is so awesome.  She finally kept one in!  For like a whole half an hour!!

She's cute of her own accord, of course, but I love that little bow!

 Our sweet little girl...

And the obligatory Kendra-Classic shot...

Whether or not we keep it, there is at least one of these Open Mouth Smiles (and usually many) when we upload our pictures.

In every.  Single.  Set.

And we think they're awesome.

Our camera takes sweet, sweet close-ups...

And for once, I can actually post them without shame because there's no barf/food/snot all crusted up on her face!

Playing around

Kendra and I have a little game we play. I'll look at her and "run" out of the room and wait for her to find me. When she does, there's always lots of loves and tickles and giggles involved. Then after a few moments, she takes off for me to find her.

So, I give her a few seconds and then I take off and I always find this:

Or this:

Or this:

And we go on like that for quite a while...sometimes over 10 minutes (which is a lot of times back and forth through our little apartment, lemme tell ya).

But it's just so much darn fun.

I mean, you just have no idea how hard it is to stop when you see this:

And then you hear the musical little laugh that goes with it?

It's addictive.

While we were taking these pictures when we played we got this one, and it's totally my favorite!

And I understand if you're confused why I think that. I mean, this picture is out of focus, and it doesn't even have her whole face in it. But the reason I love it is because I'll always remember this moment. She's out of focus because she was running to come find me and I was having so much fun with her that I didn't get the camera up at the right second. It's only part of her because she raced toward me with her arms outstretched and wrapped them around my knees when she got to me, hugging me.

And that's when I knew it was time to stop taking pictures and start really playing with her. I'm pleased to report that while it was fun playing and taking pictures, it was an absolute ball to put the camera down and give her a great big love.

I love this Mommy stuff.

Savvy shopper

A while back, we decided to stop by the local Goodwill and I just had to peruse the racks while I was there...

Someone may have been paying close attention to what I was doing.

That's our girl.

Extended family FUN

It's so rad to live in the same town as family.  Seriously.  It's soooo nice to get to go do fun things whenever we think of them.

A loooong time ago (a couple of weeks after we moved to town), we went hiking.  Our friendly little town is right in the thick of Appalachia, and the mountains that go with it (though it's sort of using the term "mountain" rather loosely...even I think so and I'm from Kansas for cryin' out loud).  In fact, the first thing we noticed when we drove into town was the largest mountain around staring up at us, Mount Nittany.  And it turns out that the trailhead is incredibly accessible, so we headed there on beautiful Saturday afternoon.

It was pretty fun stuff--and it was awfully pretty too.

Here's the view from the top:

Our own Happy Valley!

Yes, I know that the real Happy Valley is in Utah, but that's what they call it here, so I go with it.

Kendra handled the trip pretty well...until we tried to switch her off to Grant to give me a break.  He was only too willing but when we did she screamed and screamed and looked at me like, "YOU TRAITOR!" and was completely fine as soon as we put her back on my back.  Go figure.

At least she smiled for the camera.

So much fun!

Especially with a whole extra troop of Farnsworths to share it with!