Sweetness

She is totally the most awesome person.  Ever.

Morning person and more makin' friends...

First, here is a completely unrelated picture, but she's so dang cute.

I  workout in the morning first thing after Grant leaves for work (we even have Facebook blocked from 8am to 5pm ensure I don't waste too much time on the site).  Kendra usually sleeps through the whole thing (because she's awesome) and sometimes she wakes up but is content to play in her crib (who is she talking to in there?) but sometimes she does start crying so I break down and go get her even though I'm not finished.

And boy, is she ready to party when she hits the floor and sees that step in the middle of dining room.

She's literally waiting for me to press play so that she can watch, too.

But it turns out, my step aerobics videos are challenging enough without doing them around a very active 17-month-old, so I try to distract her (before I break down again and bust out the Baby Einstein).  I make up her morning milk and set it at her favorite spot in the whole world:

The window sill.

We have already report a time or two that she does love looking out the window and at the wide world below.  So we got her a little step of her own and she spends literally a couple of hours a day total just standing there, looking out the window.

Ahhh, the simple life of a one-year-old.

In other news, recently we did a little babysitting swap-a-roo with another family in our ward to have go to the movies.  When we took our turn and had little Leena over, Kendra had SO.  Much.  Fun.

At one point they actually held out their arms to each other and hugged.  I am surprised I sit here today because that particular cuteness overload just made me melt.  Eeek!

Leena is such a cutie pie!  And check out this:

Look at that tongue!!  She is so sweet!  It was so fun having a baby around again, even if only for a couple of hours.  We better look into getting another one of them to keep...  :)

Water Baby

Kendra loves the water.  Which is a nice change because when she was a newborn and well into infancy, she screamed bloody murder every single time we bathed her.  I couldn't stand doing it to her more often than once a week.

Bank of America sponsors a really cool program called Museums on Us that gets anyone with a Bank of America debit or credit card and a photo I.D. free admission to a number of museums and attractions across the country.  So even though we got the library pass to the Shedd Aquarium last fall, we went back because that was general admission only and this Bank of America program was all access.  Naaice.

It was pretty fun to be with her all walking around and checking things out.  She had a ball!

One of the things we got to explore this time around was this fun exhibit in the basement where they set up a little hands sort of man-made (no live animals, though there was one that did have them) kiddie reef.

We pretty much had to drag her away kicking and screaming so that we could make the dolphin show.  Terrible parents!

Then last week some of our friends in the ward got together and walked up to the fountains in Millennium Park.

We took off our shoes and had a grand ole time.  Though eventually I just stripped her down to her diaper and let her run loose.  But by that time things were wet enough that I didn't risk bringing out the camera so you'll have to settle for these.

She couldn't get enough, and again, I had to carry her away kicking and screaming...but we were eventually able to stop crying and have fun with all our little friends who were there.

And it's totally the same story at the pool.  She'd stay there all day if I let her...unfortunately Female Swim at the park is only 45 minutes but the apartment complex we're moving to in PA has a pool open allllll day long!

We can't wait!

Laughs

Kendra is a pretty hilarious little girl.  We turned around and saw this last week when I was about to sort the dirty laundry to wash.

She did pretty well dressing herself, though, no?

And she's never too busy to take a moment to smile for the camera.

But eventually one does need to get back to business...

Nauvoo Reunion

We had an opportunity to visit Nauvoo, Illinois--a significant historical site for the church--on a family reunion with the Farnsworth clan.  I love those guys!  Since we were one of the two branches within driving distance of the destination, we had a little flexibility with getting there and leaving, which was awesome because we totally got there a day early to soak up all the fun! Woohoo!

Now, unfortunately, Kendra's love for electronics means that every time we pull out one of our small cameras, these days we often end up with a picture like this:

She very enthusiastically lunges for the device while the one not holding it is holding her back.  Awesome.

So we did the next best thing.  We asked our family for their pictures to supplement our own collection.

Our first day there while we were waiting for the troops to filter in we went to the (indoor and air-conditioned) family living center, where there are many stations set up to demonstrate how the early members of the church (or "saints") lived there in the 1840s.  We learned about making candles, bread, bricks, rope and other such handicrafts and necessities of pioneer life.

I liked seeing how they put rag rugs together...it was fascinating.

The next morning, the whole family (well almost the whole family, there might have been one or two who were up into the wee hours of the morning who didn't make it) piled into a covered wagon for a tour or the historical sites.  Grant's mom covered it pretty well here.  And afterward we had fun seeing things around town.  Kendra had tons of fun with her many, many older cousins.

Later that day, we had a pizza picnic.  Everybody and we do mean everybody loves pizza!

Could someone please tell me why I look like I weigh 250 pounds in this picture?

Funny thing while we were eating pizza, though.  While I was chatting with family, I was so pleased to be seeing in person so many little faces I see all the time on blogs and Facebook.  There was a very cute little girl I noticed and just thought, "Wow, how cool it is to see her!"  After a moment though, I realized that she wasn't a member of our family, but I recognized her just as surely as if she were.  I hastily searched my memory banks to place the child with her parents to figure out who she was.  Then it hit me, "Kueser!  The Kuesers are here!!"

As fate would have it, my junior high math teacher was having a family reunion of his own in Nauvoo that very same weekend.  The little girl was the daughter of his daughter who is just four days younger than me, so I was able to say "Hi" to the various family members there I knew (and in a family of 12 children, I knew a bunch of them!).  It was awesome.  Not just to see them, but to show them how well I turned out--to stand before them at a place of such significance was pretty awesome.

Unfortunately, I was a complete doofus and didn't take a picture.  What was I thinking??

Spontaneous reunions aside, the planned one went really well, too.  Grant caught up with us later and tried out some of the pioneer pastimes.

Hopefully he won't want to get a pair of these for us to have at home...

And at one point I couldn't find my family (I love the way that rolls off, "my" family...swoon) amongst all the Farnsworths...they were too entertained by the brass band.

This picture doesn't do justice to how cute it was to see Kendra sitting there by her Daddy enjoying the music.

And we took a quick family portrait in front of the beautiful temple at the top of the hill.

Unfortunately, we didn't get the steeple in there to finish the shot.  (So here is a picture of the whole thing to give those of you who have never heard of Nauvoo an idea--it's pretty gorgeous.)  Ahhh, the joys of self-portraits.

While I mentioned Kendra's older cousins, we also had a lot of fun gathering her with her younger cousins.  Of which there are two.  So far.  These three very adorable little girls charmed the pants off of their whole family, for sure!

They're totally going to be roomies at BYU, I can already tell.

Since we know from experience that it isn't safe to leave the stuff out, when we got to the hotel, we took immediate action to protect the toilet paper and took it off of the roll and left it on the tank.  When room service came through, they adjusted our "error" and we didn't notice it until someone else had made the discovery...

Yep.  That's the entire roll of toilet paper.  She's so awesome.

Good thing she's pretty cute, too...

You really can't get mad at that face.  Occasionally frustrated maybe, but not full-out mad.

We had SO much fun spending time and making memories with family!  We went to many demonstrations and historical homes and things and even made a trip to nearby Carthage also, but these are all the pictures we collected.  It was good times with great family.  We're so grateful to Grant's parents for making it possible!!

Busy, busy bees...

I mentioned in passing a few posts ago that my Dad came to visit.  While he was here, we snagged the pass to the Children's Museum on Navy Pier.  Unfortunately, the day we went the place was packed with day camps.  We'd go into a room and start playing and within a few minutes a huge group of campers would storm in so we'd find a new room and the process would just repeat itself.  Ugh.

But, we managed to have some fun, regardless.

The little girl had some fun excavating dinosaurs, among other activities...

...like playing with Grandpa.

Meanwhile, a while back we updated our tripod to accommodate all the new gear we've acquired this past year.  Grant was very excited to set it up and try it out.  Kendra was very excited to help him.

We're hoping that with time and practice, we might get a better family portrait for the Christmas card than we did last year.

Look!  She's actually looking at the camera!  AND!  Smiling!  At the same time!

And also...in case you had forgotten...

...or in case you needed another reminder...

...this one might have her Daddy wrapped around her little finger.

She just might.

Pretty in pearls

Though it has blissfully cooled off this week, Kendra spends most of her waking hours at home in nothing but a diaper.  But one morning as I was cleaning, I caught a sight that was too cute not to capture...

 Such a pretty little girl, with or without the pearls.  But then again, I am pretty biased.